Internal displacement/forced migration of Rohingyas

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Title: UN Mission Head Says Risk of Genocide Recurring in Myanmar
Sub-title: The head of a U.N. fact-finding mission on Myanmar says that "there is a serious risk of genocide recurring" against the country's Rohingya Muslim minority.
Description: "The head of a U.N. fact-finding mission on Myanmar warned Tuesday that "there is a serious risk of genocide recurring" against the estimated 600,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim minority still living in the country. Marzuki Darusman told the General Assembly's human rights committee that "if anything, the situation of the Rohingya in Rakhine state has worsened," citing continued discrimination, segregation, restricted movement, insecurity and a lack of access to land, jobs, education and health care. The government of Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority nation, has refused to recognize Rohingya as citizens or even as one of its ethnic groups, rendering the vast majority stateless. Myanmar's military began a harsh counterinsurgency campaign against the Rohingya in August 2017 in response to an insurgent attack. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape what has been called an ethnic cleansing campaign involving mass rapes, killings and burning of their homes. The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, which Darusman heads, said in its final report last month that Myanmar should be held responsible in international legal forums for alleged genocide against the Rohingya..."
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Source/publisher: Associated Press (USA) via US News (USA)
Date of publication: 2019-10-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-23
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Title: Abe calls on Suu Kyi to ensure Rohingya can return to Myanmar
Description: "Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday to create an environment in her country that will allow Rohingya Muslim refugees to return from Bangladesh. "With regard to the alleged human rights violations in Rakhine State, it is indispensable that the Myanmar government and military take appropriate measures promptly," Abe was quoted by the Japanese Foreign Ministry as telling Suu Kyi in their meeting in Tokyo. Rohingya refugees fled to Bangladesh to escape a military crackdown in Myanmar and their repatriation remains a challenge. Since 2017, some 742,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh in search of safety, according to the United Nations. The Rohingya are considered stateless people in Myanmar where they have for decades faced discrimination and persecution. Suu Kyi expressed her intention to address the Rakhine issue "correctly" and take necessary steps, the ministry said. Abe pledged Japan's support. Abe kicked off a series of back-to-back meetings with foreign leaders visiting Japan to attend Emperor Naruhito's enthronement ceremony on Tuesday. Suu Kyi is among the dignitaries from over 180 countries expected to take part in the imperial event..."
Source/publisher: "Japan Today" (Japan)
Date of publication: 2019-10-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-22
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Title: Myanmar: The Assimilation Wars
Description: "Despite two years of effort fewer than a thousand of the million ethnic Rohingya Burmese pushed into neighboring Bangladesh have returned. This has caused a diplomatic problem but otherwise is ignored by most Burmese. No compromise seems possible and with a powerful ally like China (and its UN vet0 and economic clout) to block major UN action Burma can afford to just let the situation simmer and concentrate on the other ethnic problems it must cope with. All this is the result of how the modern state of Burma was created after World War II. That process was messy and it was in part become no one had done it before. This was all about the relentless spread of nationalism over the last few centuries. This eventually became a European effort to ensure that everyone belonged to some kind of nation. Before that large portions of the world were inhabited by humans but there was no local government or ownership. By the 20 th century that was no longer acceptable, at least to the European nations that had taken, or simply assumed control over the many remaining blank spaces where there was no government that owned or controlled an area. Bringing education, modern medicine and the industrial revolution to these areas proved to be more expensive than anticipated. Then there were a lot of locals who become more aware of nationhood and demanded it for themselves. So between the late 1940s and 1960s most of the colonial areas were turned into sovereign states..."
Source/publisher: "StrategyPage"
Date of publication: 2019-10-21
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-21
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Title: Rohingya crisis: Bangladesh exhorts Germany to put pressure on Myanmar
Description: "In his maiden bilateral meeting with his German equivalent, Momen outlined the four points proposed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the 74th United Nations General Assembly last month. He also urged the European nation and the international community to take 'effective steps' to ensure that Myanmar facilitates the safe, secure, dignified and sustainable repatriation of the Rohingya refugees. He also sought Germany’s support in ensuring accountability for the atrocities committed against Myanmar's Muslim minority group. During the meeting, Momen also highlighted the success story of Bangladesh as a 'development miracle' of the world and called on German businesses to invest in Bangladesh and take advantage of the country’s demographic dividend and lucrative promotion packages for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The whole gamut of bilateral relations between the countries were discussed in the meeting, the foreign ministry said..."
Source/publisher: "bdnews24.com" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2019-10-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-21
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Title: Indonesia and the Rohingya Crisis
Description: "Indonesia has performed a delicate balancing act with respect to Myanmar and the Rohingya refugee crisis. Led by the Foreign Ministry, the government of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has tried to demonstrate concern for the Rohingya without alienating a fellow member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It has tried to pre-empt domestic calls for harsher measures against Myanmar by embracing some Islamist groups within a moderate government-sanctioned humanitarian coalition. It has tried to engage Myanmar on other issues, including counter-terrorism, to ensure that channels to the government were kept open even as relations with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi deteriorated in late 2017. By mid-2018, Indonesia’s Rohingya policy was focused primarily on getting aid to the camps around Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh. But its newly secured position on the United Nations Security Council opened the possibility that it could work for a resolution of Rohingya refugee crisis and conflict in Rakhine State more generally. If it is to have any chance of success, however, all ministries and government agencies will have to take the same line. Indonesia’s relations with Myanmar are driven by its commitment to (ASEAN); its belief – especially during the government of Thein Sein – that its own democratic transition offered models for Myanmar; its desire to be a peace broker; its efforts to ensure access for humanitarian aid; and its need to respond to domestic pressure to defend fellow Muslims under attack. The Jokowi government’s response to the 2017 violence against ethnic Rohingya and resulting refugee outflow began with highly visible diplomacy on the part of Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi. As it became clear that Myanmar (and Aung San Suu Kyi in particular) did not welcome an activist Indonesian role, the Foreign Ministry focused on the provision of humanitarian assistance in partnership with a civil society coalition. The partnership, led by Indonesia’s two largest Muslim organisations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, serves two main purposes. It keeps the government engaged on the Rohingya issue when it has little leverage to affect Myanmar’s policies in Rakhine state, and it provides an outlet for Indonesian NGOs to put their anger at the violence against fellow Muslims to constructive use. It also appears to be a reasonably effective response to Islamist critics of President Jokowi, who at the height of the crisis in September 2017 were calling on his administration to do more..."
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Source/publisher: "Institute For Policy Analysis Of Conflict" via "Academia.edu" (USA)
Date of publication: 2018-06-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-20
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Title: Life in Everyday Death: The Rohingyas in Bangladesh and Myanmar
Description: "A 12-year-old boy in ragged clothing shoulders a child, his younger sister of 3 years, as they walk mile after mile, escaping their home, because their father was shot dead on the spot and their mother was raped in front of them and killed thereafter. They are fleeing with many others who have similar experiences. Some of them lost their parents, or brothers and sisters while others saw their entire families burn alive. Two pregnant women walk for miles with inexplicable hardship, but try their best to keep their babies inside alive. The group finally enters Bangladesh after walking one day and seven hours, crossing lands and hills, and riding by boat. Like this group, more than half a million Rohingyas have fled persecution in Myanmar to Bangladesh since the military crackdown started on August 25, 2017. Following an alleged attack on 30 police camps and one military base by the radical Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), Myanmar security forces indiscriminately fired on Rohingya civilians, burnt their houses down, raped girls and women, and killed hundreds of Rohingyas mercilessly. The intensity of atrocity was so extreme that the global community, including the United Nations, the European Union, human rights groups like International Organization of Migration (IOM), Amnesty International, and the Human Rights Watch, came forward to stand beside Rohingyas and condemn Myanmar for its deadly violence, severe brutality, and crimes against humanity. The United Nations Human Rights Council termed it as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” and major international media outlets like the New York Times, ABC News, and CNN have called it genocide..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "BERKLEY CENTER for Religion, Peace & World Affairs" (USA) via "Academia.edu" (USA)
Date of publication: 2017-10-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-20
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Title: Safeguarding Rohingya Population
Description: "Torment on Rohingya minority has been once again flared up on Friday, allegedly, scores of men purportedly from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), assaulted on Myanmar security forces, killing at least a dozen of personnel. Since 1982 after the denial of Rohingya citizenship in Myanmar (former Burma) several violent attempts have been fabricated to evacuate Rohingya minority from Rakhine state withal Myanmar. Recurrence of tension in Rakhine-state of Myanmar is harrowing world community's sentiment as well. Rohingya people are an ethnic Muslim group primarily located in Rakhine state (formerly Arakan-state). Rohingya Muslims usually follow sufi trends, one of the noteworthy versions of Islam. They are estimated 1-1.5 million in number out of 50 million population of Myanmar. But irony of fate that they are treated like aliens in their own fatherland while Myanmar military junta have turned down their citizenship via new citizenship law of 1982. As human being they hardly get rights to live profoundly. To get citizenship they must provide evidence that they are living in Myanmar hereditarily since 1823. For getting married and having work they must need permission from the government by showing symbolic white cards. Very often they face torture by the security forces and local Buddhists i.e brutal beating, gang rape, abduction, molestation, arson, mass killings and so on. Even women and children do not get rid of the turmoil. After being harassed on diverse military campaigns and communal violence they seek to get shelter vastly on Bangladesh and rest on Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia..."
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Source/publisher: "Academia.edu" (USA)
Date of publication: 2017-08-31
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-20
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Title: Tracing the Exclusion of the Rohingya in Myanmar: Research Notes
Description: "Myanmar is a non-secular Buddhist majority country. The majority of Myanmar peoples are Buddhist, including both ethnic Burmans and non-Burman ethnic minorities. Buddhists make up 89.8 percent of the population, Christians 6.3 percent and Muslims 2.3 percent. In the contemporary climate of Myanmar, Many Buddhists see Islam as a threat to Buddhism; they use Bangladesh, Indonesia and Afghanistan as examples of Islam’s takeover of previously Buddhist majority locations. Myanmar was born out of the ashes of the murder of its integrationist freedom 5ghter leader General Aung San, the father of Aung San Suu Kyi. He was assassinated on July 19, 1947, a few months before the independence of Burma on January 4, 1948. His legacy of seeking integration and the violence associated with his murder still alludes Myanmar today. These research notes witll set forth the history of Muslims in Mynamar as in attempt to understand the contemporary exclusion of the Rohingya from the modern nationstate of Mynamar and to argue for the continued failure of Myanmar to become a multicultural society of ethnoreligious equality and plurality..."
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Source/publisher: "Mahidol University" (Thailand) via "Academia.edu" (USA)
Date of publication: 2017-09-07
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-20
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Title: Myanmar: Who are the Rohingya?
Description: "Shortly after Myanmar's independence from the British in 1948, the Union Citizenship Act was passed, defining which ethnicities could gain citizenship. According to a 2015 report by the International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School, the Rohingya were not included. The act, however, did allow those whose families had lived in Myanmar for at least two generations to apply for identity cards. Rohingya were initially given such identification or even citizenship under the generational provision. During this time, several Rohingya also served in parliament. After the 1962 military coup in Myanmar, things changed dramatically for the Rohingya. All citizens were required to obtain national registration cards. The Rohingya, however, were only given foreign identity cards, which limited the jobs and educational opportunities they could pursue and obtain. In 1982, a new citizenship law was passed, which effectively rendered the Rohingya stateless. Under the law, Rohingya were again not recognised as one of the country's 135 ethnic groups. The law established three levels of citizenship. In order to obtain the most basic level (naturalised citizenship), there must be proof that the person's family lived in Myanmar prior to 1948, as well as fluency in one of the national languages. Many Rohingya lack such paperwork because it was either unavailable or denied to them..."
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Source/publisher: "Academia.edu" (USA)
Date of publication: 2017-09-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-19
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Title: Myanmar's Crimes Against Humanity
Sub-title: State Policy to annihilate Rohingya
Description: "Apartheid, an Afrikaans word meaning “apartness,” describes an ideology of racial segregation that had been practiced in South Africa from the time of the Cape Colony’s founding by the Dutch East India Company in 1652. Keeping two different traffic lights in the black and white in the same road may damage both. Similarly, implementing the 1982 citizenship law for Muslims excluding Buddhists will never bring democracy and peace in Myanmar. This legal analysis considers persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar constitute genocide, as defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Genocide Convention, 1 which was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948 and entered into force in 1951, declares that genocide is a crime under international law. I will present legal point of view and historical point of view to see the clear picture of crime against humanity against Rohingya in Myanmar. Though Rohingya enjoyed citizenship right as well as indigenous ethnic right until 1965, during the dictatorship era, General Ne Win planned to annihilate Rohingya through State policy. Ne Win, changed name of Rohingya first, then, started the institutionalized persecution. Military junta, since 1988, systematically committed genocidal process against Rohingya. The 153-page report, “‘All You Can Do is Pray’: Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Burma’s Arakan State,” describes the role of the Burmese government and local authorities in the forcible displacement of more than 125,000 Rohingya and other Muslims and the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Burmese officials, community leaders, and Buddhist monks organized and encouraged ethnic Arakanese backed by state security forces to conduct coordinated attacks on Muslim neighborhoods and villages in October 2012 to terrorize and forcibly relocate the population. The tens of thousands of displaced have been denied access to humanitarian aid and being unable to return home..."
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Source/publisher: "Academia.edu" (USA)
Date of publication: 2016-12-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-19
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Title: Myanmar’s Rohingya: Human Rights Abuses and Systemic Violence
Description: "Large scale violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state directed at the Rohingya Muslim minority group can be traced to March 1997 where allegations of the rape of a Buddhist woman by a Muslim man led to Buddhist monks instigating violence which led to the burning of entire Muslim neighborhoods in Mandalay. This coincided with the Mahamuni Buddha incident where Muslims were accused of stealing a large ruby from the sacred Buddhist site of pilgrimage (Schober 2007, 58). Alleged rapes of Buddhist women by Muslim men have led to major violence in June 2012 which left hundreds dead in Sittwe Rakhine state as well as 2013 and 2014 in other areas of Myanmar (BBC 2014). Increasing tension between ethnic groups and frequent outbreaks of violence led the military junta to create ‘safe’ villages for Rohingya Muslims. In effect this forced ethnic enclaving on the part of the government led to camps where Rohingya were sealed off from other communities and could not engage in economic, social or other activities outside of their patrolled villages. The latest round conflict erupted in late 2016 and continues at present with massive destruction of over 400 Muslim villages in Rakhine state being burned due to military operations against this minority group (Human Rights Watch 2017) and tens of thousands being displaced (Barry 2017). At present UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee is being denied access to Muslim villages in Rakhine state during her investigatory visit and is instead reportedly being allowed access to government vetted and approved individuals (Al-Jazeera 2017). The paper seeks to analyze the context of violence against the Rohingya from Galtung’s perspective of structural and cultural violence. In particular the author will detail the internal and external plight of the Rohingya and identify mechanisms which have failed to protect these people and finally provide some insight into drivers of this conflict and some possible pathways to peace..."
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Source/publisher: Journal of Urban Culture Research via "Academia.edu" (USA)
Date of publication: 2017-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-19
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Title: Rohingya: A Crime Against Humanity
Description: "Persecuted and oppressed in Myanmar, Rohingyas flee across the border into Bangladesh. Starving and stateless, they live in squalid makeshift camps. The recent ethnic clashes between Rohingya Muslims and the Rakhine Buddhists in the Rakhine (Arakan) province of Myanmar have attracted global attention. It is as if a veil had been lifted to reveal a hideous blemish. The terrible ethnic and religious violence recently happened in June 2012, in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine, pitted Buddhists against the mostly Muslim Rohingyas minority. The latest—when an ugly incident of rape and murder of a Buddhist woman allegedly by three Rohingyas—turned into a disaster for the Rohingya Muslims community in Myanmar. According to United Nations (UN) reports, there are more than 800,000 Rohingyas residing in Myanmar, mostly in the province of Rakhine, and many hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in other countries. Thus, Rohingyas are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. The ruling Junta stripped Rohingyas of all the rights of a citizen through a law called “Citizenship Law” in 1982, thus making Rohingyas the only stateless community of the world. However, the ruling Junta in Myanmar did not want to know nor let others know that the Rohingyas have a long history, a language, a heritage, a culture and a tradition of their own that they had built up in the Rakhine, through their long history of existence there. Moreover, through their “criminal propaganda”, the Buddhist majorities have been feeding so much misinformation against the Rohingya. According to Siddiqui (1999), the level of disinformation has reached such an alarming level that if some of the people were to talk with a Rakhine Buddhist, they would say that the Rohingyas are refugees in Rakhine and they do not belong to Myanmar, but that they belong to Bangladesh. However, such allegations are unfounded. Some scholars distinguished that in fact the forefathers of Rohingyas had entered into Rakhine from time immemorial (Karim, 2000)..."
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Source/publisher: "Academia.edu" (USA)
Date of publication: 2015-03-23
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-19
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Title: The Slow-Burning Genocide Of Myanmar's Rohingya
Description: "“What can we do, Brother, they (the Rohingya) are too many? We can’t kill them all.” Ex-Brigadier General, formerly stationed in Arakan or Rakhine State, and Ambassador to Brunei, Fall, 2012.1 “How can it be ethnic cleansing? They are not an ethnic group.” Mr. Win Myaing, the official spokesperson of the Rakhine State Government, May 15, 2013.2 “We do not have the term ‘Rohingya.’” Myanmar President Thein Sein, Chatham House, London, July 17, 2013.3 “There are elements of genocide in Rakhine with respect to Rohingya . . . . The possibility of a genocide needs to be discussed. I myself do not use the term genocide for strategic reasons.” Tomás Ojéa Quintana, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, London Conference on Decades of State-Sponsored Destruction of Myanmar’s Rohingya, April 28, 2014.4 Over the past thirty-five years, the State in Myanmar has intentionally formulated, pursued, and executed national and state-level plans aimed at destroying the Rohingya people in Western Myanmar. 5 This destruction has been state-sponsored, legalized, and initiated by a frontal assault on the identity, culture, social foundation, and history of the Rohingya who are a people with a distinct ethnic culture..."
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Source/publisher: Compilation © 2014 Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal Association via "Academia.edu" (USA)
Date of publication: 2014-05-31
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-19
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Title: World Bank under fire for Rakhine development plan in Myanmar
Topic: World Bank, Myanmar, Asia, Rohingya
Sub-title: Rights groups are concerned that the development initiative could exacerbate divisions in the conflict-torn state.
Topic: World Bank, Myanmar, Asia, Rohingya
Description: "Aid groups and human rights advocates have warned the World Bank that a $100m development project it is planning for Myanmar's conflict-riven Rakhine State could worsen tensions in the area. Last Friday, the World Bank published the first details of a proposal to fund cash-for-work programmes and support small businesses in one of Myanmar's poorest regions, with a plan to funnel these funds through the Myanmar government. "It is difficult to imagine how meaningful recovery and development are possible in Rakhine without addressing the underlying human rights issues that currently impact every aspect of life for communities," more than a dozen Myanmar-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said in a letter to the World Bank's Myanmar office..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2019-05-17
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-18
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Title: Health access denied in northern Rakhine
Sub-title: Massive shortfalls in government services, blocks on NGOs and travel restrictions for residents continue to starve communities in northern Rakhine State of access to healthcare and flout the recommendations of the Kofi Annan commission.
Description: "In March this year, a young woman carrying twins went into labour in a village nine kilometres from the government hospital in the town of Maungdaw in northern Rakhine State. After two days in labour under the care of an untrained traditional midwife, her condition had sharply deteriorated and her family took her to the hospital, a 40-minute drive away. It was too late to save the twins, who were delivered dead, but the mother survived and was able to return home after a few days in hospital. The mother’s ordeal is just one example of the suffering and unnecessary death caused by inadequate healthcare in northern Rakhine. After the crisis of 2017, the situation become critical, but it has worsened further in northern as well as central Rakhine since fighting escalated this year between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army. I have worked in public healthcare in northern Rakhine since 2017 and have seen the deterioration firsthand. Much more needs to be done, especially in primary healthcare, reproductive health services, immunisation and emergency support, for those in need. United Nations figures show that more than 720,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh during the military “clearance operation” that followed attacks by the militant Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on security posts in northern Rakhine in August 2017. About one-third of the Rohingya population, or about 300,000 people, remained in northern Rakhine after the exodus, and along with other residents they have since been waiting for a significant improvement in access to healthcare..."
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Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2019-10-17
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-17
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Title: Fresh list of 50,000 Rohingyas handed to Myanmar: Foreign minister
Topic: Myanmar Rohingya crisis, Rohingya repatriation
Sub-title: Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen today said a new list of around 50,000 Rohingyas has been handed over to Myanmar to expedite Rohingya repatriation efforts.
Topic: Myanmar Rohingya crisis, Rohingya repatriation
Description: "The minister disclosed this talking to a small group of reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On July 29, Bangladesh handed over a list of 25,000 Rohingyas to Myanmar for verification before their repatriation to their place of origin in Rakhine State. Bangladesh has so far handed over names of around 55,000 Rohingyas to the Myanmar authorities. Turning to Abrar murder he said diplomats' comments over Abrar murder is "unnecessary " as the government has taken strong action immediately. "I think this should be stopped," said the minister noting US government's failure to arrest anybody after the recent US shooting that claimed 4 lives. "I think they (diplomats) go beyond norms." "It shouldn't be headache of someone else, " he said commenting on installation of coastal surveillance system. Bangladesh on Sunday expressed dissatisfaction regarding the UN statement on the murder of Buet student Abrar Fahad which the government sees as an internal matter of Bangladesh. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called UN Resident Coordinator here Mia Seppo at the office Director General (UN Wing) Nahida Sobhan and also explained the government position and the "prompt actions" taken so far and being taken since the killing, said a diplomatic source..."
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2019-10-15
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-16
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Title: Rohingya Refugees Who Returned to Myanmar on Their Own Say They Still Face Hardship
Description: "Some of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled a brutal military-led crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017 and sought refuge in neighboring Bangladesh say they have not been able to go back to their original villages after returning to Rakhine of their own volition. Thousands of members of the Muslim minority group were killed during the violence, and more than 740,000 others escaped across the border, where they now live in sprawling displacement camps in southeastern Bangladesh. About 6,000 of the refugees took up shelter in a so-called “no-man’s land” near a border crossing point along Bangladesh’s frontier with Myanmar. They, along with others in camps in Bangladesh proper, have demanded that the Myanmar government grant them citizenship, ensure their safety, and rebuild their destroyed houses before they agree to return home. But about 300 refugees who returned to Rakhine state of their own volition say they still face unfavorable conditions that persecute them and prevent them from being able to live in their original villages, which were burned down during the crackdown..."
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia (RFA)" (USA)
Date of publication: 2019-10-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-12
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Title: International community failed to influence Myanmar on the Rohingya crisis
Sub-title: UN Resident Coordinator (UNRC) in Dhaka Mia Seppo said: 'UN alone cannot be blamed; there is a collective failure to influence Myanmar.'
Description: "The United Nation (UN) on Wednesday recognized the international community’s failure to influence Myanmar in taking back the Rohingyas and find a sustainable solution to the Rohingya crisis. UN Resident Coordinator (UNRC) in Dhaka Mia Seppo said: “UN alone cannot be blamed; there is a collective failure to influence Myanmar.” She was speaking at a press meet DCAB Talk organized by Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAP) at Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) auditorium in the Dhaka. Mia Seppo spoke about how the UN has an unwavering commitment to resolve this crisis, bringing together member states to the table to talk about the crisis and has made progress in accountability on human rights violations by Myanmar. “It is really important to keep in mind that any solution provided for the Rohingya crisis has to be sustainable. “Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas and most of them entered Bangladesh on August 25, 2017 amid military crackdown on Muslims there,” she added..."
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Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2019-10-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-10
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Title: Myanmar facing several challenges including Rakhine issue in democratic transition
Description: "Myanmar is facing several challenges in its delicate and sensitive democratic transition with Rakhine issue being one of the most complex ones, said Union Minister Dr. Win Myat Aye of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement. The remarks came from the statement of Dr. Win Myat Aye submitted to the high-level meeting on statelessness, general discussions from each UN member nation held at United Nations Assembly Hall in Geneva, Switzerland on October 8. “Myanmar is facing several challenges in its delicate democratic transition. The issue in Rakhine is one of the most complex challenges. As we address the delicate and sensitive issue deeply rooted since colonial time, we cannot see and address any issue in isolation. We need to look at the issues from the multidimensional perspective. We must listen to the voices of all communities,” said Dr. Win Myat Aye. “As a result of ARSA terrorist attacks in 2016 and 2017, many people were displaced. Myanmar is ready to receive those displaced persons who had resided in Myanmar. The displaced persons now in Cox’s Bazar, who had been residents in Rakhine, have different legal status. We cannot classify all of them as stateless. Some have identity cards issued by the Myanmar government. Those who qualify for citizenship under the existing Law will be issued citizenship cards. Those who do not have any identity card will be issued NVCs immediately. They will proceed with the process to apply for citizenship, at the same time,” added Dr. Win Myat Aye..."
Source/publisher: "Eleven Media Group" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2019-10-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-10
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Title: Rohingya refugees hesitant to return to Myanmar
Description: "Bangladesh is warning that it is no longer able to bear the economic burden of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in the country. They may be safe there but their status remains unresolved. Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker has the story from Kutupalong camp in southeast Bangladesh..."
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Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2019-08-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-10
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Title: Seoul Conference on Rohingya Genocide [Day 1] Wrap-up by Dr. Zarni
Description: "International Conference on Protection of Rohingya Survivors and Accountability for Genocide "Rape as a Weapon of Wars and Genocides, Past and Present in the Region"..."
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Source/publisher: "Free Rohingya Coalition"
Date of publication: 2019-10-06
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-09
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Title: Bangladesh plans to relocate Rohingyas to 'refugee island'
Description: "More than a million Rohingya refugees live in sprawling camps in Bangladesh. But, with the host community turning against the refugees and concerns about security, the government wants to relocate them. Last week, a renewed bid to return several thousand of them to Myanmar failed as not a single refugee agreed to sign up. Now the government is planning to relocate 100.000 of them to the remote island of Bhasan Char, possibly against their will. DW gained exclusive access to the island..."
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Source/publisher: "DW News" (Germany)
Date of publication: 2019-09-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-08
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Title: Myanmar is not safe for Rohingyas to return: Lee
Topic: UN United Nations Rohingya Bangladesh Myanmar Bangladesh in foreign media
Topic: UN United Nations Rohingya Bangladesh Myanmar Bangladesh in foreign media
Description: "The UN's independent investigator on Myanmar says it's not safe for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled to Bangladesh to return because Myanmar has failed to dismantle its "system of persecution" of Rohingyas. Yanghee Lee said in a report to the General Assembly circulated Friday that living conditions for the remaining Rohingyas in northern Rakihine state "remain dreadful", reports Associated Press. The Rohingya can't leave their villages and earn a living, she said, making them dependent on humanitarian aid whose access "has been so heavily diminished that their basic means for survival has been affected." "While this situation persists, it is not safe or sustainable for refugees to return," said the UN special rapporteur appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, adds AP. Lee also expressed concern that a household-counting exercise in Rohingya villages "is an effort to erase the Rohingya from administrative records and make their return less possible." She said the government's requirement that any refugee who returns must be issued "a national verification card" is not a solution to citizenship for the Rohingya, the news agency also adds..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Prothom Alo" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2019-10-07
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: UN investigator: Myanmar is not safe for Rohingyas to return
Description: "The U.N.’s independent investigator on Myanmar says it’s not safe for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled to Bangladesh to return because Myanmar has failed to dismantle its “system of persecution” of Rohingyas. Yanghee Lee said in a report to the General Assembly circulated Friday that living conditions for the remaining Rohingya in northern Rakihine state “remain dreadful.” The Rohingya can’t leave their villages and earn a living, she said, making them dependent on humanitarian aid whose access “has been so heavily diminished that their basic means for survival has been affected.” “While this situation persists, it is not safe or sustainable for refugees to return,” said the U.N. special rapporteur appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council. Lee also expressed concern that a household-counting exercise in Rohingya villages “is an effort to erase the Rohingya from administrative records and make their return less possible.” She said the government’s requirement that any refugee who returns must be issued “a national verification card” is not a solution to citizenship for the Rohingya..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Washington Post" (USA)
Date of publication: 2019-10-05
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar Rejects Rohingya Refugee Visit to Rakhine State to Inspect Conditions For Repatriation
Description: "Myanmar has rejected an offer by China to facilitate a visit by a group of Rohingya refugees to its Rakhine state to investigate the situation there ahead of a possible repatriation from temporary camps across the border in Bangladesh, a senior Myanmar foreign ministry official confirmed Thursday. Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told reporters on Wednesday that Myanmar’s government had dismissed the proposal, originally floated by Li Jiming, the new Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh, during talks with Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar last month and formally discussed during a meeting last week between Myanmar, Chinese and Bangladeshi delegates on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. On Thursday, Aung Ko, the director general of the political affairs department for Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told RFA’s Myanmar Service his government had never agreed to the offer and is waiting for Bangladesh to “allow” the refugees to return to the border, whereupon they will be accepted following individual assessments..."
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia (RFA)" (USA)
Date of publication: 2019-10-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Rohingya refugees continue to risk lives to seek safety: UNHCR
Sub-title: Rate of fatalities rises among refugees and asylum seekers who embark on sea journeys in Southeast Asia, report says.
Description: "Refugees from Southeast Asia, many of whom are members of Myanmar's Rohingya minority, continue to risk their lives to reach safety, according to a new report by the United Nations, which also highlights a much higher rate of deaths over the last year. The report released on Tuesday by the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) said one person in every 69 refugees and asylum seekers who embarked on a sea journey last year in the region died or went missing at sea. That is up from the one in every 81 ratio between 2013 to 2015, at the height of Southeast Asia's refugee and migrant boat crisis in the Andaman Sea. "As long as the root causes of displacement are unresolved, refugees will continue to feel compelled to undertake dangerous journeys in search of safety for themselves and their families," UNHCR Director for Asian and the Pacific Indrika Ratwatte, said in a statement..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2019-10-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: The Rohingya problem: Is there an ASEAN solution in sight?
Topic: Asean, Myanmar, Repatriation, Rohingya
Sub-title: ASEAN’s commitment to decision-making by consensus and non-interference in the internal affairs of member states severely restricts its ability to play an effective and pro-active role in the Rohingya crisis.
Topic: Asean, Myanmar, Repatriation, Rohingya
Description: "On 22 August 2019, Myanmar’s authorities launched a third repatriation attempt to facilitate the return of displaced Rohingya Muslims. The government dispatched buses to Cox’s Bazaar tasked with bringing back some 3,000 Rohingya refugees to their place of abode in Rakhine State. Not a single refugee boarded the transportation provided. Unlike the first two repatriation attempts, this third attempt was of heightened significance. A team from ASEAN was at the Myanmar reception centres to witness the repatriation exercise. For Myanmar, the presence of ASEAN officials was an opportunity to validate its preparations for the repatriation exercise and to affirm that Myanmar was serious in facilitating the return of the displaced Rohingya. In this sense, the presence of ASEAN officials had good public relations value for Myanmar. Reactions to the failed repatriation attempt have been varied. The Myanmar authorities expressed surprise at the refugees’ refusal to return to Rakhine. They blamed the presence of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for this failure, asserting that the group was active in Cox’s Bazaar, deterring Rohingya from returning home. The Myanmar government accused the Bangladeshi authorities of not doing enough to counter its activities and facilitating the return of the Rohingya Muslims..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "ASEAN Today"
Date of publication: 2019-09-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Bangladesh urged to speedily repatriate those expressing wish to return, ICC doesn’t have jurisdiction over Myanmar: Union Minister Kyaw Tint Swe
Description: "Union Minister Kyaw Tint Swe of State Counsellor Office called on Bangladesh to faithfully implement the bilateral agreement, which is the only feasible way to resolve the issue of the displaced persons and allow the speedy repatriation of those who have long expressed their desire to return, responding that ICC doesn’t have jurisdiction over Myanmar. The remarks came from Union Minister Kyaw Tint Swe’s statement to the high-level General Debate on the fifth day of the74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly held on 28 September 2019 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. “We call on Bangladesh to faithfully implement the bilateral agreement, which is the only feasible way to resolve the issue of the displaced persons. We also call on Bangladesh to allow the speedy repatriation of those who have long expressed their desire to return, including some 400 people of Hindu faith. Grand standing, introducing new elements, putting forward new conditionalities will be a futile exercise,” said Union Minister Kyaw Tint Swe. “Our democratic transition is still young and as yet incomplete. As we struggle to step out from poverty’s shadow, while striving for inclusive development and peace, we must overcome a range of challenges, from imperfect Constitution to continued conflicts. The situation in Rakhine State, an issue that has deep and historical roots, counts amongst these challenges,” said Union Minister Kyaw Tint Swe..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Eleven Media Group" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2019-10-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar wants controlled Rohingya return
Description: "Wary of international interference, Myanmar insisted Saturday it wants Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled to neighboring Bangladesh repatriated to their former homes so they can live in a “more conducive environment” than the one they left. But it said such a relocation must take place under controlled conditions. Kyaw Tint Swe, Myanmar’s minister for the office of the state counselor, said in his nation’s address at the U.N. General Assembly that Myanmar is working with Bangladesh and the United Nations to find “long-term and practical solutions” to bring home some of the more than 740,000 Rohingya in the country’s Rakhine state, which borders Bangladesh. “We fully share the concern of the international community over the violence that affects communities in Rakhine,” Kyaw Tint Swe said. “Our priority now is to expedite repatriation and to create a more conducive environment for verified returnees.” He also warned of “destructive movements in the camps aimed at preventing repatriation.” Myanmar’s military began a harsh counterinsurgency campaign against Rohingya Muslims in August 2017 in response to an insurgent attack. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled what has been called an ethnic cleansing campaign involving mass rapes, killings and burning of their homes. Many of them are residing in camps in and around Cox’s Bazar, a Bangladeshi town near the border with Rakhine..."
Source/publisher: "The Japan News" (Japan)
Date of publication: 2019-09-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Over 20 displaced persons return to Myanmar from Bangladesh
Description: "Some 27 displaced persons have returned to Myanmar from Bangladesh, arriving at a reception camp in Maungtaw, Rakhine state, according to the immigration authorities Monday. The displaced people, who returned on their own wishes, made up of 14 families including some children. They were received at the Nga Khu Ya reception center last week. The Myanmar authorities managed their repatriation process, providing them with humanitarian assistance and issuing to them national verification cards after scrutiny in accordance with the immigration and security rules. A total of 3,450 verified displaced persons had been expected to be repatriated to Myanmar on Aug. 22, but the repatriation attempt failed, before Monday's announcement of the repatriation of the 27 displaced persons. Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in August 2018 for early repatriation of displaced persons from Myanmar's western state who fled to Bangladesh..."
Source/publisher: "Xinhua" (China)
Date of publication: 2019-09-30
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: 'Destructive movements' in Rohingya camps preventing repatriation, alleges Myanmar minister at UN
Sub-title: A senior official of Myanmar alleged at the United Nations on Saturday that "destructive movements in the camps (in Bangladesh) aimed at preventing repatriation and exploiting the plight of dispersed person (Rohingyas)."
Description: "However, Union Minister for the Office of the country's State Counsellor, Kyaw Tint Swe, did not specifically point out or clarify what did he mean by the term "destructive movement". Kyaw Tint Swe said in his speech on the fifth day of debate in the UN General Assembly in New York, US, "We call on Bangladesh to faithfully implement the bilateral agreement which is the only feasible way to resolve the issue of displaced person." "We also call on Bangladesh to allow the speedy repatriation of those who have long expressed their desire to return including some 400 people of Hindu fate," he said in his speech. "… introducing new elements, putting forward new conditionality will be a futile exercise," he said adding that exertions of discriminatory scrutinisation and political pressure with malicious intent will not contribute to our efforts in resolving the problem. Myanmar is prioritizing the repatriation of scores of people who fled violence in northern Rakhine state for Bangladesh, he said. Smooth and successful repatriation require genuine repatriation and committed efforts as well as strict adherence to signed agreements, he said at the UN assembly..."
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2019-09-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: OIC to Myanmar: Keep your commitments over Rohingya repatriation
Description: " It also urged Myanmar to shoulder its responsibility in providing indiscriminate protection to all citizens Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary General Dr Yousef A Al Othaimeen has urged Myanmar to honor its commitments as to its pledged full cooperation with Bangladesh regarding the repatriation of the Rohingyas to their place of origin in Rakhine State. He called upon the international community to keep up its support to Bangladesh over Rohingya issue as Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas. The OIC secretary general also urged Myanmar to shoulder its responsibility in providing indiscriminate protection to all citizens as well as full observance of all international human rights agreements, according to OIC headquarters on Thursday. Secretary General Othaimeen and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attended a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York and discussed the Rohingya issue. Othaimeen paid tribute to the efforts made by the Prime Minister Hasina and the people of Bangladesh in their generous hospitality to over one million Rohingyas, offering them shelter and care, in addition to Bangladesh’s firm commitment to the cause of the Rohingya. The OIC secretary general has commended Saudi Arabia’s efforts for the Rohingyas and advocated support for Bangladesh..."
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2019-09-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Rohingya Refugees Risk Going Back to Another Genocide in Myanmar
Description: "Myanmar’s government is pushing for the more than 1 million Rohingya refugees currently in Bangladesh to start returning to the country, in an effort to project an image of peace and reconciliation to the outside world. Yet as grim as the situation is for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, where they live in what is now the world’s largest refugee settlement, their prospects back in Myanmar are even worse. It is little surprise, then, that few if any Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar, have taken up the offer. This is Myanmar’s second attempt at facilitating the repatriation of Rohingya, after an earlier effort failed last November. Bangladesh’s government, which supports repatriation, has been making life harder for Rohingya refugees in the country. In early September, it shut off mobile internet access in refugee camps, a move condemned by human rights groups because it could make it more difficult to deliver humanitarian services. The Bangladeshi government desperately wants to close the overcrowded camps, fearing major disease outbreaks, but only if Rohingya refugees leave the country and do not integrate into Bangladeshi society. It fears the refugees’ impacts on the job market and social stability..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "World Politics Review (WPR)"
Date of publication: 2019-09-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Three nations to jointly evaluate Rohingya repatriation progress
Description: "An informal trilateral meeting involving officials from Myanmar, Bangladesh, and China has led to the formation of a “tripartite joint working mechanism” to evaluate the situation on the ground for Rohingya repatriation, according to Dr AK Abdul Momen, the Bangladesh Foreign Minister. Myanmar agreed with the Chinese proposal after some initial objections and together with Bangladesh and China will evaluate progress jointly on the ground, the Bangladesh Foreign Minister told the media after the three nations’ joint meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 23, 2019. The first meeting of the tripartite working body is likely to be held in October, the minister said. Despite Myanmar taking all the necessary steps to take back their nationals, Bangladesh said Myanmar has been unable to build confidence among the Rohingyas yet. “They’ll return, only when they feel that they have safety, security and free mobility after their return,” said the minister. “The good news is that Myanmar has agreed to take their nationals back as soon as possible,” the minister added. Two attempts at Rohingya repatriation have failed as the Rohingyas are unwilling to go back to their place of origin amid lack the required conditions in Rakhine State for their return..."
Source/publisher: "Kaladan Press" (Bangladesh) via BNI Multimedia Group (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2019-09-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: World must take steps to compel Myanmar for Rohingya return: PM
Sub-title: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the world must take all measures to compel Myanmar to create conditions enabling the Rohingyas’ safe, dignified and voluntary repatriation to their ancestral homes.
Description: "“Rohingya crisis is a formidable challenge for Bangladesh … we want a peaceful and immediate resolution of the crisis. Myanmar has created the crisis and the solution lies in Myanmar,” she said. The prime minister made the comments while participating in an interactive dialogue — “A conversation with Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina” — at the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) here on Wednesday afternoon local time. The premier also placed a four-point proposal to fight terrorism and violent extremism terming the twin social menaces as a significant challenge to Bangladesh’s economic progress and humanity. She said,”I would like to propose the following steps in order to fight against terrorism and violent extremism:” Firstly – the source of supply of arms to the terrorists must be stopped; secondly – the flow of financing to the terrorists and their outfits must be stopped; thirdly – the divisions within societies must be removed and fourthly – the principle of peaceful settlement of international disputes through dialogue for a win-win situation must be pursued. Sheikh Hasina said the government of Myanmar, through a planned atrocity, cleansed Rohingya minority from Northern Rakhine State. “The Rohingyas fled violence and atrocities and we opened our border to shelter them on humanitarian ground,” she said..."
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2019-09-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Bangladesh, China, Myanmar to jointly evaluate progress over Rohingya repatriation
Sub-title: Bangladesh, China and Myanmar have agreed to form a "tripartite joint working mechanism" to evaluate the situation on the ground for Rohingya repatriation.
Description: "Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen came up with the development after a joint meeting with his Chinese and Myanmar counterparts on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday. "On the ground, Bangladesh, China and Myanmar will evaluate the progress jointly," Dr Momen told reporters after the meeting adding that Myanmar agreed with the Chinese proposal though Myanmar had some objections initially at the meeting. The first meeting of the tripartite working body is likely to be held in October. Though Myanmar claimed that they have taken all the necessary steps to take back their nationals, Bangladesh said Myanmar could not build confidence among the Rohingyas yet. "They'll return, only when they'll feel that they've a safety, security and free mobility after their return." Dr Momen said the good news is that Myanmar has agreed to take their nationals back as soon as possible. Two attempts of Rohingya repatriation have failed as the Rohingyas are unwilling to go back to their place of origin amid lack of required conditions in Rakhine State for their return. Bangladesh is now hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas and most of them entered Cox's Bazar since August 25, 2017. Welcoming Chinese involvement in repatriation process, British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson has recently said Chinese involvement has a "great deal of potential" to help bring the Rohingya crisis to an end noting that involvement of wide range of countries can resolve the crisis..."
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2019-09-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Bangladesh, Myanmar, China Call for ‘Working Group’ on Rohingya Issue
Description: "Representatives from Myanmar, Bangladesh and China called this week for enhanced cooperation in repatriating Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh back to their homes in Myanmar, saying political will is needed to move the issue forward, media reports said. Meeting informally on Monday on the sidelines of U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, Bangladesh foreign minister A.K. Abdul Momen, and Myanmar Minister of the State Counselor’s Office Kyaw Tint Swe also called for the creation of a trilateral working group “mechanism” to oversee repatriation efforts. Strong political will and improvements in the economic conditions of Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state to promote regional stability are needed for real progress to be made, said parties to the meeting, which was presided over by China’s foreign minister, with Christine Schraner Burgener – the U.N. Secretary-General’s special envoy on Myanmar – also attending. Speaking later to Radio Free Asia, a sister entity of BenarNews, Hou Do Suan – Myanmar’s permanent representative to the U.N. – downplayed China’s proposed new role in the working group, saying a bilateral group already exists in promoting joint efforts by Myanmar and Bangladesh, and that only “sincere will” is needed to bring the Rohingya refugees back. “I want to clarify that the forming of this working group is not a [new] mechanism,” Hou Do Suan said, adding, “We already have a joint working group. “China is just helping us in facilitating the implementation of the agreements we already have,” he said. “Speaking frankly, if we can implement the bilateral agreement for repatriating these people with the real intention to get it done, we will succeed,” he said..."
Source/publisher: "BenarNews"
Date of publication: 2019-09-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Dr M slams UN, Myanmar govt over Rohingya crisis
Description: "The United Nations and Myanmar government came under fire on Tuesday for their inaction in resolving the Rohingya crisis which has displaced more than a million people in the country. The UN’s silence on the crisis is deafening, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said, adding that the 75-year-old organisation has not fulfilled its purpose of preventing such man-made atrocities. “Without Security Council's action, others must do their part to resolve the crisis and bring the perpetrators to justice,” he said at a high-level side event “Rohingya Crisis - A Way Forward” at the United Nations headquarters on Tuesday. Also present was Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed. Myanmar’s military has been accused of murdering thousands of Rohingya in western Rakhine state since 2017, which has resulted in the mass exodus of these Muslim minorities to neighbouring countries, and led to the world’s largest refugee camp at Cox Bazar in Bangladesh. Dr Mahathir said what happened in the Rakhine State is genocide. “What took place were mass killings, systematic rape and other gross violations of human rights,” he said. He commended the Organisation of Islamic Conference's (OIC) effort to bring the matter to the International Court of Justice, and hopes that other countries would support OIC to ensure the perpetrators do not get away with the heinous crimes they have committed..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "New Straits Times" (Malaysia)
Date of publication: 2019-09-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Genocide of Rohingya Muslims A Classical Model of Ethnic Cleansing
Topic: Rohingya Muslims, Rakhine State, Genocide, Humanitarian Crisis, Citizenship.
Topic: Rohingya Muslims, Rakhine State, Genocide, Humanitarian Crisis, Citizenship.
Description: "Considerable historical evidence affirms that the Rohingya Muslims are indigenous inhabitants and rightful citizens of Myanmar, who have been living in Rakhine State not for decades, but for centuries. The Myanmar government has been systematically eradicating the Rohingya people due to their Islamic religious identity. This analysis finds that the ongoing persecution on Rohingya Muslims is a manifestation of a classical model of ethnic cleansing. The disasters experienced in Rakhine State present a complete evidence of systematic, widespread and prolific human rights violations, including heinous crimes against humanity. This article presents an academic perspective on repeated incidents, based on authentic proofs to international community of ethnic cleansing committed by the Myanmar army. This research has been carried out through various types of sources, such as recent and previously published books, articles, local and international newspapers, TV channels, magazines, documentaries, human rights organizations’ reports, and eye-witness accounts of the victims. Finally, it provides suggestions to resolve the rising problems, which may bring a permanent solution to the long-lasting humanitarian crisis in Rakhine State..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Academia.edu" (USA) via "AL-SHAJARAH" (Malaysia)
Date of publication: 2018-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 876.04 KB
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Title: Rohingya: The History of a Muslim Identity in Myanmar
Topic: Arakan, Rakhine state, ethnonationalism, Rohingya, Burma, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, state oppression, refugees
Topic: Arakan, Rakhine state, ethnonationalism, Rohingya, Burma, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, state oppression, refugees
Description: "The name Rohingya denotes an ethnoreligious identity of Muslims in North Rakhine State, Myanmar (formerly Burma). The term became part of public discourse in the late 1950s and spread widely following reports on human rights violations against Muslims in North Rakhine State during the 1990s, and again after 2012. Claims for regional Muslim autonomy emerged during World War II and led to the rise of a Rohingya ethnonationalist movement that drew on the local Muslim imaginaire, as well as regional history and archaeology. To explore the historical roots of distinctive identity claims and highlight Buddhist-Muslim tensions, one must reach back to the role of Muslims in the precolonial Buddhist kingdom of Arakan and their demographic growth during the colonial period. Civic exclusion and state harassment under Burma’s authoritarian regimes (1962–2011) put a premature end to political hopes of ethnic recognition, and yet hastened a process of shared identity formation, both in the country and among the diaspora. Since the 1970s, refugees and migrants turned to Bangladesh, the Middle East, and Southeast Asian countries, forming a transnational body of Rohingya communities that reinvented their lives in various political and cultural contexts. A succession of Rohingya nationalist organizations—some of whom were armed—had negligible impact but kept the political struggle alive along the border with Bangladesh. Although Rohingya nationalists failed to gain recognition among ethnic and religious groups in Burma, they have attracted increasing international acknowledgment. For postdictatorial Myanmar (after 2011), the unresolved Rohingya issue became a huge international liability in 2017, when hundreds of thousands fled to Bangladesh following military operations widely interpreted as ethnic cleansing. In December 2017, the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights acknowledged that elements of genocide may be occurring..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Academia.edu" (USA) via Oxford Research Encyclopedia (UK)
Date of publication: 2018-05-00
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 303.74 KB
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Title: Rohingya: The Identity Crisis
Topic: citizenship, colonialism, crisis, identity, Myanmar, Rohingya.
Topic: citizenship, colonialism, crisis, identity, Myanmar, Rohingya.
Description: "The people who call themselves Rohingya are the Muslims of Mayu Frontier area, present-day Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships of Arakan (Rakhine) State, an isolated province in the western part of Myanmar across Naaf River as boundary from Bangladesh (Chan, 2005). For the past three decades, the Rohingya have been seeking to restore their unrecognised ethnic identity, for any ethnic group has the right to identify itself or decide what name it should be called. Rohingya identity crisis began when they were divested from their cultural, national and ethnic identity in 1982, while Cheesman (2017) argues that 1982 citizenship law did not affect the Rohingya though he mentioned in the abstract that ‘people who reside in Myanmar but are collectively denied citizenship – like anyone identifying or identified as Rohingya – pursue claims to be taingyintha so as to rejoin the community.’ Recently, almost all news channels and agencies, social and human right activists, journalists etc. have addressed and tackled the Rohingya crisis. Much of the focus was on the ongoing violence and systematic ethnic cleansing committed by some fanatic Buddhists and military forces. Thus, this 21st century most outrageous tragedy has nearly prevailed all social media, depicting the worst discrimination and bloodiest atrocities ever..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Academia.edu" (USA)
Date of publication: 2018-05-31
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 188.62 KB
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Title: European Parliament adopts resolution urging UNSC to impose full arms embargo against Myanmar
Sub-title: UNSC urged to refer Myanmar to International Criminal Court
Description: "The European Parliament passed a resolution yesterday, urging the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Myanmar. They also urged the UNSC to adopt targeted sanctions against those natural, and legal individuals who appear to be responsible for serious human rights violations. In a resolution titled “Myanmar, notably the situation of the Rohingya,” the members of European Parliament (MEP) reiterated their strong condemnation of all past and present human rights violations which, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity, perpetrated by the armed forces of Myanmar against the country’s minority Rohingya population. They expressed grave concern about the ongoing and long-lasting conflict, and once again urged the Myanmar government, and its security forces to immediately stop the violations. The resolution also commended the efforts undertaken by the government, and people of Bangladesh to provide refuge, and security to Rohingya refugees. It also urges the Bangladeshi side to fully respect the principle of non-refoulement, and not force Rohingya refugees back into Myanmar, where their lives could be in danger. The MEPs welcomed the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor to open a preliminary investigation into crimes under the court’s jurisdiction, committed against the Rohingya population since 2016..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2019-09-20
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: UN expert implores Myanmar’s Suu Kyi: “open your eyes, listen, feel with your heart
Description: "A UN human rights expert has implored Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to ‘feel with her heart before it is too late’, saying that even if refugees wished to return they have little to go back to. Yanghee Lee, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, told the Human Rights Council the situation in Myanmar was of extreme concern, and was not what she and others had hoped to see nearly four years after the election of the National League for Democracy. “I would like to ask the State Counsellor if the Myanmar that exists today is what she had truly aspired to bring about throughout the decades of her relentless fight for a free and democratic Myanmar? I implore you Madame State Counsellor to open your eyes, listen, feel with your heart, and please use your moral authority, before it is too late.” Despite international condemnation, Lee said Myanmar had done nothing to dismantle the system of violence and persecution against Rohingya, and that the Rohingya who remain in Rakhine live in the same dire circumstances that they did prior to the events of August 2017. “They are denied citizenship and recognition, face regular violence (including in the context of the ongoing conflict between the Arakan Army and the Tatmadaw), are unable to move freely and have little access to food, healthcare, education, livelihoods and services,” she said. “Myanmar claims to have done what is necessary for the repatriation to be successful, and continues to blame Bangladesh for any delay,” she said. “However, information I have leads me to believe that the contrary is true.” Lee noted that satellite imagery showed the development of 34 camps, but said their precise purpose was unclear. She said they may be intended to detain the remaining Rohingya population and those who decide to return..."
Source/publisher: "Reliefweb" via UNHCR (Switzerland)
Date of publication: 2019-09-18
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Rohingya repatriation: Bangladesh likely to sit with China, Myanmar
Topic: Rohingya repatriation, Ethnic Rohingya refugees
Sub-title: Bangladesh is likely to sit across the table with representatives of China and Myanmar in New York this month to resolve the much-talked-about Rohingya repatriation issue.
Topic: Rohingya repatriation, Ethnic Rohingya refugees
Description: "The trilateral meeting will be held on the sideline of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly to be held in New York by this month, Lt Col (Retd) Muhammad Faruq Khan, president of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs said today. The parliamentary committee today held a meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Complex with Faruq Khan in the chair and discussed the latest development about the repatriation process of Rohingyas to Myanmar. During the meeting, the foreign ministry informed that representatives of the three countries will hold talks during the general assembly of the United Nations, he said. The parliamentary committee also expressed disappointment over the diplomatic efforts which have been so far to repatriate the Rohingya to their homeland in the Rakhine State of Myanmar, he said. There is lacking in the ongoing efforts and the committee asked the ministry to take stronger and more effective move to ensure the repatriation of the Rohingyas, Farook Khan said..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star" ( Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2019-09-17
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Some 65,000 displaced in Myanmar's Rakhine, Chin states since January: UN expert
Topic: Rakhine, Chin State, Arakan Army,Tatmadaw, IDPs, United Nations, Yanghee Leetorture
Topic: Rakhine, Chin State, Arakan Army,Tatmadaw, IDPs, United Nations, Yanghee Leetorture
Description: "Tens of thousands of people have been displaced across Myanmar's Rakhine and Chin states this year, as the military battles the Arakan Army, a UN rights expert said Monday. "Up to 65,000 people have been displaced by the conflict across northern Rakhine and southern Chin States since January," said Ms Yanghee Lee, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights situation in Myanmar. Myanmar's army has deployed thousands of troops there in recent months to try to crush the AA, which is fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine. Presenting an update on the situation in Myanmar to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Lee pointed out that the military had been "using helicopter gunships against the Arakan Army." "Both sides are accused of indiscriminate use of heavy artillery fire, gunfire and landmines in civilian areas," she said. At the same time, humanitarian access "remains heavily restricted by the state government in conflict-affected townships, significantly depriving at least 100,000 people of assistance and basic services." And "imposed curfews are preventing people from reaching livelihoods, medical treatment and safe passage," she warned. Lee said in recent months she had continued to receive reports of civilians, including children, being killed, either because they were targeted or hit with indiscriminate fire in the region..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar) via AFP
Date of publication: 2019-09-17
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: The Bangladeshi government cracks down on Rohingya freedom of expression and movement
Description: "The Bangladeshi government has taken steps to restrict Rohingya refugees’ freedom of movement and communication. The hosts have adopted an increasingly repressive attitude towards the Rohingya Muslims living in refugee camps in Bangladesh in recent weeks. The Burmese government embarked on a campaign of genocide and murder in August 2017, prompting some 740,000 Rohingya to flee across the border in search of safety. There are now around 940,000 living in makeshift refugee camps along Bangladesh’s Southeast border. The Bangladeshi government is following a playbook of repression On September 3, the Bangladeshi government cut access to 3G and 4G cellular services in the border towns of Teknaf and Ukhia. The two towns are home to 36 refugee camps. While 2G services remain, the move all but signals the complete restriction of internet access for the Rohingya refugees. Abu Saeed Khan, a senior policy fellow at the LIRNEasia think tank said the shutdown, “effectively means the shutdown of the internet. With 2G network, it will be almost impossible to access.” Mobile phone operators were given seven days to provide reports to the government outlining the steps they have taken to limit connectivity in the camps...."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "ASEAN Today"
Date of publication: 2019-09-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Bangladesh: Internet Blackout on Rohingya Refugees
Topic: Refugee Rights, Asylum Seekers, Internally Displaced People
Sub-title: Shutdown Hinders Emergency Response, Risk Lives
Topic: Refugee Rights, Asylum Seekers, Internally Displaced People
Description: "New telecommunications and internet restrictions on Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh will disrupt critical humanitarian and emergency services, Human Rights Watch said today. The network shutdown imposed on camp locations in Teknaf and Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar severely limits communications and access to information for nearly one million refugees. On September 9, 2019, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission directed all telecommunication operators to shut down 3G and 4G services in the camps, media reports said. Camp residents report that high-speed service has been shut down since September 10. A week earlier, the government had ordered a shutdown of all 3G and 4G services between 5 p.m. and 6 a.m. While 2G services appear to remain available, this may only allow limited calls and text messaging. The Bangladesh government should immediately lift the restrictions. “The Bangladesh government has a responsibility to ensure safety and security in the Rohingya camps, but shutting down internet access isn’t the way to do it,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Restricting communications in the refugee camps will hinder desperately needed services, worsening already dire living conditions and putting lives at risk.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch"
Date of publication: 2019-09-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Bangladesh PM blames Myanmar for Rohingya repatriation failure
Description: "Bangladesh's prime minister has blamed Myanmar for the failure of a recent attempt to repatriate Rohingya refugees, saying its neighbouring country did not do enough to win the community's trust. The comments from Sheikh Hasina came three weeks after a fresh push to return the Muslim minority to Myanmar's conflict-scarred Rakhine state that fell flat when no-one turned up. Some 740,000 Rohingya fled their villages in Rakhine following a military crackdown in August 2017, joining nearly 200,000 already living in squalid camps across the border in southeast Bangladesh..."
Source/publisher: "CNA"
Date of publication: 2019-09-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Diplomats from ASEAN and UN organizations meet displaced persons re-entering Myanmar
Description: "Heads and diplomats of embassies of ASEAN countries and the representatives from the UNDP and the UNHCR met the displaced persons who had re-entered Myanmar, the Ministry of Information reported on September 11. The delegation comprising the heads and diplomats of embassies of nine ASEAN countries and neighbouring countries China, India and Bangladesh and the representatives of the UNDP and the UNHCR led by Deputy Minister Khin Maung Tin of the Ministry of State Counsellor Office left for Rakhine State by flight on September 10. Next, the delegation members met 11 Hindus who recently re-entered Myanmar at the guesthouse of Sittwe State on September 10. The heads and diplomats of embassies of nine ASEAN countries and neighbouring countries China, India and Bangladesh and the representatives of the UNDP and the UNHCR asked 11 Hindus questions. Replying to the questions raised by delegation members, 11 Hindus said that their family members were lost during the attack of ARSA terrorists in August in 2017; they said they were fetched to Bangladesh; they said Myanmar government brought them back for the information of Indian government and a religious leader of Hinduism in Rakhine State; they said they were threatened by the ARSA to murder; they said they were safe in living after returning Myanmar; they said they would like to settle and have livelihoods in Maungdaw; and they said they were holding NVCs, according to the report of the Ministry of Information..."
Source/publisher: "Eleven Media Group"
Date of publication: 2019-09-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Myanmar’s Hindu Refugees in Bangladesh Want to Go Home, But None Have so Far
Description: "Hindu Rohingya refugees who fled a 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar have appealed to State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi to let them leave refugee camps in Bangladesh and return to Rakhine state, according to a mobile phone video obtained by Radio Free Asia (RFA), a BenarNews sister service. Several hundred Hindus along with more than 740,000 Muslim Rohingyas fled to safety in southeastern Bangladesh after deadly attacks on border police outposts by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents provoked a brutal military crackdown in Rakhine two years ago. Though the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed to repatriate refugees now living in sprawling displacement camps, none have returned under two previous attempts, failing to show up at the border for re-entry processing. The stateless Rohingya, who face systematic discrimination in Myanmar because they are viewed as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, have refused to return unless they are granted full citizenship, recognition as a national ethnic group, and basic rights, as well as guaranteed a safe environment. The Rohingya say they had Myanmar citizenship, but it was stripped away in 1982..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: " BenarNews"
Date of publication: 2019-09-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Rohingya influx in a climate vulnerable country
Sub-title: The Rohingya refugee crisis is putting a great amount of pressure on a country that is already in peril
Description: "The geographic and socioeconomic characteristics of Bangladesh makes the country particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Around 77% of people in Bangladesh depend on natural resources and the degradation of the natural resources and biodiversity has a direct impact on the livelihood of the people. Further, sea level rise and extreme weather conditions as a result of climate change impacts will be more perilous. Threatening food security, agriculture and affecting the livelihood of the communities, as well as economic impacts would be stronger; Dhaka, the capital, attracting people around the country in search of better work opportunities, would be one of the most climate vulnerable cities in the world. A combination of factors -- poverty, oppression, safety and better opportunities -- lead to displacement of people and crossing of the national border. Migration of people to a country, which is already climate vulnerable, expands a number of problems, including the environmental concerns that eventually affect the livelihood of people. Rohingya refugees are stateless and one of the most widely persecuted minorities in the world. The violence in Myanmar led one million Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh in 2017. Though, the displacement of people from Myanmar has started since the 1990’s. From time to time environmental consequences make the safety and protection of people as well as sustainable use of the resources a massive task. The large influx of Rohingya refugees in the Cox’s Bazar District has been putting enormous stress on the local resources and the livelihood, challenging the development, infrastructure, and health care..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune"
Date of publication: 2019-09-06
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Rohingya Repatriation Failure: PM blames Myanmar
Sub-title: Says Rohingyas scared of returning home as Myanmar has not created conducive environment
Description: "Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said Myanmar is dragging its feet on resolving the Rohingya crisis although it signed bilateral agreements with Bangladesh following pressure from the international community, including the United Nations. Referring to the two failed attempts to start the Rohingya repatriation, Hasina said, “We’ve seen that Myanmar could not win Rohingyas’ trust in creating a conducive situation [in Rakhine state] for their dignified return.” She said Myanmar should have ensured a sustainable Rohingya repatriation by guaranteeing their security, freedom of movement and work opportunities in Rakhine. Replying to a query from Awami League MP Rumana Ali in parliament yesterday, the PM also said Bangladesh sent Myanmar information about 55,511 Rohingyas for verification, but the country identified only a part of these people as their citizens.” She said, “We had full preparation, but still the repatriation did not start as the Rohingyas did not agree to return. “We have seen that the Rohingyas are scared of going back to Rakhine due to various reasons, including no improvement of the security situation there. “Myanmar is not doing a family-based Rohingya verification and uncertainty looms over Rohingyas’ getting back their homes, land and other properties.” Fleeing military atrocities, including killings, rapes, tortures and burning of houses in the Rakhine State, more than 743,000 Rohingyas took shelter in Bangladesh since August 25, 2017. They joined the 300,000 others who had arrived earlier..."
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star"
Date of publication: 2019-09-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ‘Rohingya return to Myanmar depends on accountability of perpetrators’
Description: "The voluntary and sustainable return of the Rohingya refugees to Myanmar will depend partly on a process of accountability for those most responsible for the crimes that uprooted them from their homes, said the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM). In its first report submitted to the 42nd session of the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, IIMM’s head Nicholas Koumjian said that each day passes without accountability for international crimes brings concomitant sufferings for the hundreds of thousands of stranded in makeshift refugee camps outside Myanmar, and hoping and waiting to be able to safely return to their homes. “Few are likely to seek to return to a place where those that perpetrated serious crimes against them, or their families, still reside with impunity and retain the means or authority to inflict further harm,” he said. Over 743,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar amid military crackdown in Rakhine state, which was termed by the UN Fact-Finding Mission as having “genocidal intent”. The IIMM was established by the UN Human Rights Council to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse the evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law committed in Myanmar since 2011. It is also mandated to prepare files in order to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings in accordance with international law standards in national, regional or international courts or tribunals that have or may in the future have jurisdiction over the crimes. IIMM Head Nicholas Koumjian, who officially began his functions in Geneva on July 1 this year, focused on putting in place a broad strategy and concept of operations for the mechanism so that it be operational as soon as possible..."
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star"
Date of publication: 2019-09-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Rohingya crisis: Villages destroyed for government facilities
Description: "Myanmar, a majority Buddhist country, continues to deny its troops carried out ethnic cleansing and genocide. It now says it is ready to take some refugees back. But last month, a second attempt to start repatriating Rohingya refugees failed, after none of the 3,450 people approved by Myanmar to return agreed to do so. They cited the lack of accountability for atrocities committed in 2017, and uncertainty over whether they would get freedom of movement or citizenship. Myanmar blamed Bangladesh, and said it was prepared to receive large numbers of returnees. To demonstrate this they invited journalists, including the BBC, to see their facilities. Access to Rakhine is normally tightly restricted. We travelled in a government convoy, and were not allowed to film or interview people without police supervision. But we were able to see clear evidence of the deliberate eradication of Rohingya communities..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: BBC News
Date of publication: 2019-09-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: China's fast-track solutions in Myanmar fail to take off
Sub-title: Beijing's attempt to kick-start Rohingya repatriation reveals lack of oversight
Description: "The stand-off between Myanmar and Bangladesh over the planned repatriation of tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees continues. But things have just got a bit more complicated with China's intervention. Beijing -- with all good intentions -- is now trying to soothe the troubled waters, in part, a result of their earlier misjudged involvement, having proposed a trilateral meeting of foreign ministers in New York in the coming weeks -- sponsored by the UN secretary-general -- to try to find a way out of the growing impasse. But it will only succeed if China takes a realistic approach to solving the problems and if the two countries directly involved are really prepared to compromise and not just pay lip service to cooperation. Of course, it can only move the process forward if the legitimate concerns and interests of the refugees are at the heart of any future repatriation plans. The latest episode in this saga was last month's rushed attempt to start the repatriation process -- at China's persistent insistence -- which quickly turned into a fiasco when not a single refugee got in the buses that had pulled up in the camps to transport the returning refugees back to Myanmar..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Bangkok Post"
Date of publication: 2019-09-07
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Leaked ASEAN report shows Rohingya must determine their own repatriation process
Topic: Myanmar, Rakhine State, Rohingya
Sub-title: A leaked ASEAN report ignores risks to Rohingya and violence in Rakhine, showing that plans for repatriation will need to be driven by refugees themselves.
Topic: Myanmar, Rakhine State, Rohingya
Description: "A leaked ASEAN report seen by AFP and others has drawn sharp criticism from Rohingya groups, civil society, and former state officials and diplomats across ASEAN. The report allegedly claims that 500,000 of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh will make a “smooth” return to Myanmar over the next two years. The region’s leaders will meet in Bangkok for the ASEAN summit on June 22-23 and the new report is on the agenda. ASEAN made a commitment to support Myanmar with its Rohingya repatriation efforts. To fulfil this promise, ASEAN must change the mandate of the team behind the report—the Asean Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre)—so that they specifically address violent conflict in Rakhine and the marginalisation of both the Rohingya and the ethnic Rakhine. Any viable repatriation plan must be driven by input from Rohingya in both Bangladesh and Rakhine State and must respect their right to self-determination..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "ASEAN Today"
Date of publication: 2019-06-18
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Bangladesh bans two aid agencies from Rohingya refugee camps
Description: "Bangladesh on Thursday said it has banned two aid agencies from Rohingya camps in the country's southeast, alleging they were telling refugees to reject repatriation to their homeland in Myanmar. The move came amid growing impatience from Dhaka about the presence of the refugees in the country, two years after some 740,000 were driven over the border by a military crackdown on the Muslim minority. The latest repatriation attempt by Bangladesh and Myanmar two weeks ago, the second in less than a year, failed with not a single refugee volunteering to cross the border back home. US-based Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) and local organisation Al Markazul Islami were accused by the government's NGO Affairs Bureau of "instigating" the stateless minority against the recent repatriation attempt. Mr Kamal Hossain, the government administrator of Cox's Bazar district where the refugee camps are located, said Dhaka had issued a notice for the NGOs to immediately stop their activities across the country..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" via AFP
Date of publication: 2019-09-05
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Bangladesh bans mobile phone access in Rohingya camps
Description: "COX'S BAZAR — Bangladesh on Monday ordered operators to shut down mobile phone services to almost one million Rohingya refugees living in camps in the country's southeast, an official said. The move follows an outbreak of violence in recent weeks at the camps, most of whose residents fled into Bangladesh from Myanmar's Rakhine State two years ago following a military crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority. It also comes after none of the refugees turned up in late August to return across the border to conflict-scarred Rakhine, when a fresh push to repatriate the refugees to Myanmar fell flat. Telecommunications operators have seven days to submit reports on the actions they have taken to shut down networks in the camps, said the spokesman for the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), Mr Zakir Hossain Khan..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" via AFP
Date of publication: 2019-09-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Genocide and Repatriation
Sub-title: August 25th: Second Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day and Myanmar/Bangladesh Repatriation Plans
Description: " On this day, we commemorate the Rohingya genocide. On 25 August 2017, the Myanmar military launched a clearance operation to systematically remove Rohingya people from their land by burning villages, killing and harming tens of thousands of people, and enacting sexual violence against women and children. The clearance operations sparked the largest exodus of Rohingya people to date, which forced approximately 745,000 Rohingya people into Bangladesh, into an area where some 200 000 Rohingya were already located, due to previous waves of genocidal violence and persecution. The 2018 Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar’s (IIFFMM) report concluded that Myanmar’s commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and his top military leaders should be investigated and prosecuted for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. These amount to the most serious crimes under international law. As the second anniversary of the Rohingya genocide looms and passes, we are also witnessing renewed talks of repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar from Bangladesh. In August 2019, ASEAN representatives joined a Myanmar government delegation which was visiting the refugee camps in Bangladesh with the goal of restarting repatriation talks with the Rohingya community. Myanmar and Bangladesh, with the cooperation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), will potentially start repatriating people this month, and they are currently surveying refugees to identify those who wish to return voluntarily..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Progressive Voice" via Canadian Rohingya Development Initiative
Date of publication: 2019-08-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Threats of Repatriation Again Loom Over Rohingya Refugees
Description: "On 16 August 2019, the Bangladesh government announced their preparations to imminently repatriate 3,450 Rohingya refugees from Cox’s Bazar to Myanmar. The scheduled date of this repatriation is 22 August 2019. This worrying news comes as Rohingya refugees are making preparations to commemorate the second anniversary of the mass exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar due to military violence. The repatriation announcement challenges numerous assurances by the Bangladeshi authorities that any repatriation would be done in safety, with dignity, and on a voluntary basis. APRRN is deeply concerned that there will be insufficient time to determine the voluntariness of any refugee return, given the phenomenally truncated timeline. APRRN is worried that any refugee that returns, may not in fact be guaranteed safe, dignified, and sustainable living conditions in Rakhine State. Furthermore, neither the Government of Bangladesh nor the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have access to monitor the conditions for returnees. The Deputy Chair of APRRN’s Rohingya Working Group, Chris Lewa, notes that “We have simply seen zero evidence of conditions inside Myanmar having improved. Any return of refugees at this point in time would pose a tremendous risk to personal safety and would breach the internationally agreed norm of non-refoulement.” Based on UNHCR guidelines, the core components of repatriation and reintegration are physical, legal and material safety. A sustainable repatriation plan should address these components to ensure that returnees are protected by national legal systems and institutions. The Government of Myanmar must address the lack of fundamental rights for Rohingya who are presently living in Myanmar and implement the recommendations of the Rakhine Advisory Commission led by late Kofi Annan before repatriation of refugees can be considered..."
Source/publisher: "Progressive Voice" via Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network
Date of publication: 2019-08-20
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Two Years On: Rohingya Deserve Justice, A Place at the Table
Description: "61 NGOs warn of worsening crisis in Myanmar; call for refugees’ engagement on safe, voluntary returns: Two years after mass atrocities in Myanmar forced more than 740,000 people to flee for their lives, the Government and the people of Bangladesh continue to generously host nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees. While UN agencies and over 130 local, national, and international NGOs have supported the Government of Bangladesh to provide life-sustaining assistance, refugees require much more than basic support for survival; they need their rights, security and dignity. Many long to return but fear further violence and persecution back home. Refugees report feeling fearful and anxious following recent reports about possible expedited repatriation to Myanmar in the current conditions which do not guarantee their safety and rights. Current levels of engagement do not afford them their right to make informed decisions about their future, including voluntary return. Worsening Conditions in Rakhine State (Myanmar): Discriminatory policies in Myanmar mean that Rohingya communities in Rakhine State continue to face severe movement restrictions, as well as limited access to education, healthcare, and livelihoods opportunities. Some 128,000 displaced Rohingya and other Muslim communities have remained trapped in confined camps in central Rakhine State since 2012, unable to return home..."
Source/publisher: "Progressive Voice" via 61 Non Governmental Organizations
Date of publication: 2019-08-21
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Size: 121.58 KB
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Title: Asean should guarantee safe return of Rohingyas to Myanmar
Description: "Asean has a lot of work to do for the sake of its own relevancy as Myanmar and Bangladesh make another attempt to repatriate thousands of Muslim Rohingyas to strife-torn Rakhine state. The authority in Myanmar’s capital Nay Pyi Taw had announced last week that Myanmar would accept 3,450 refugees from the list of 22,000 provided by Bangladesh earlier this month, as the first batch of people to resettle in Myanmar. It is not known publicly how the list was made and on what ground their names were submitted to the Myanmar authority. The repatriation of nearly one million refugees, who fled from difficulties and conflict at home since 1990s to shelters in Bangladesh, will be an uphill task, due to scarred memories of all involved. Of the 911,000 people sheltered in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, nearly 740,000 left Rakhine state following brutal violence in August 2017. This saw Myanmar’s military (Tatmadaw) reacting in a heavy-handed manner to the series of attacks by militants working under the banner of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). The so-called clearance operation caused atrocities including arson, torture, gang rape, murder and massacre, acts that the United Nations considered ethnic cleansing. The UN even suggested that genocide charges be raised against those responsible from the Tatmadaw..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star"
Date of publication: 2019-08-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: No way home, no way out for Rohingya refugees
Sub-title: Failed repatriation try signals a permanent and increasingly destabilizing refugee population in Bangladesh
Description: "Over 3,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh were supposed to return to Myanmar on August 22, a repatriation that was supposed to mark the beginning of a process to resettle hundreds of thousands who fled Myanmar military persecution two years ago. Buses and trucks were parked outside the sprawling abysmal camps, ready to carry them back across the border. But no refugees showed up, which was hardly a surprise after UNHCR said in a statement before the scheduled return that, “So far none of those interviewed have indicated a willingness to repatriate at this time.” And there is little reason to believe that situation will change any time soon. That likely means Bangladesh is poised to shelter what is fast-becoming a permanent refugee population of over one million Rohingyas. The huge number of refugees is sprouting a host of problems, including rising resentment among the local population, environmental degradation in the areas where the refugees live and the possibility of radicalization among young, restless and desperate Rohingyas..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times"
Date of publication: 2019-08-23
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Rohingya refugees refuse repatriation to Myanmar | DW News
Description: "A new push to repatriate Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar has apparently ended in failure after no one turned up to board the waiting buses. Myanmar has given the go ahead for more than 3,000 refugees to be returned to Myanmar and issued them with documentation, but none of them have yet chosen to follow through with it, fearing what might happen to them on their return. This is Bangladesh‘s second repatriation attempt, after a previous push in November failed. Nearly 750,000 of the persecuted Muslim minority fled ethnic persecution in 2017 in Myanmar's Rakhine state..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "DW News"
Date of publication: 2019-08-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: UNHCR Statement on Voluntary Repatriation to Myanmar
Description: "Through their bilateral Joint Working Group on repatriation, the Government of Myanmar conveyed to the Government of Bangladesh the names of 3,450 Rohingya refugees who have been cleared for return to Rakhine State, Myanmar. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, sees Myanmar’s engagement in this process as a positive step in the affirmation of the right to return of Rohingya refugees. UNHCR has been assisting the Government of Bangladesh in surveying these refugees on whether they wish to return to Myanmar and to confirm the voluntariness of any individual decision to do so. Over the past few days, together with Bangladeshi officials, UNHCR has visited refugee families in their shelters to establish whether they wish to return to Myanmar. So far, none of those interviewed have indicated a willingness to repatriate at this time. UNHCR will continue assisting the Government of Bangladesh in this process to ensure that all those cleared for return are interviewed. UNHCR appreciates the consistent commitment by Government of Bangladesh to ensure that the refugees’ decisions will be respected..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: UNHCR
Date of publication: 2019-08-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Limited Rohingya repatriation to Myanmar may start Thursday
Description: "COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh: A fresh attempt will likely be made on Thursday to repatriate to Myanmar some of the Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled to Bangladesh to escape a military crackdown two years ago, according to diplomatic sources. The previous repatriation process failed in November 2018 in the face of protests by the refugees, who feared conditions in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine were not yet safe. This time the move has been initiated by China with the help of the UN refugee agency UNHCR. If everything goes smoothly the process could get under way in the morning, according to the sources. Officials said 3,450 Rohingya refugees whose identities have been verified and eligibility to return confirmed by Myanmar are the focus of the current initiative..."
Source/publisher: "Bangkok Post"
Date of publication: 2019-08-21
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Rohingya Muslims refuse to return to Myanmar without citizenship
Description: "Rohingya Muslims who crossed over into Bangladesh refused to return to Myanmar ahead of a planned repatriation starting Aug 22. Bangladesh's refugee commissioner said more than a thousand families were selected for repatriation. But all the displaced families said they would not go back unless Myanmar gives them citizenship..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "CNA"
Date of publication: 2019-08-21
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh face little hope of repatriation
Sub-title: More than 700,000 refugees from Myanmar facing dire conditions at Cox's Bazar camps two years after they fled violence.
Description: "Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh - Driving through the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, bamboo huts with makeshift tarpaulin roofs stretch across the hilly horizon as far as the eye can see, while flags with the names of aid organisations ripple in the breeze. Along the road, young boys carry reusable orange butane tanks up a hill to get in line for the day, to wait for free cooking gas, while men walk by carrying white bags of rice to bring back to their families. A few more metres down the road, a school building has been built in the grass, but remains mostly empty, with few shirtless children and cows wandering around it, no teachers or education supplies to be found. "Compared to Myanmar, Bangladesh still feels like paradise," said Metun*, a Rohingya refugee who has been living in Kutupalong refugee camp since 2017..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera"
Date of publication: 2019-08-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Bangladesh ready to repatriate 3,500 Rohingya refugees to Myanmar
Description: "COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Some 3,500 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have been cleared to return home to Myanmar beginning this week, a top official said Monday (Aug 19), nearly two years after a military crackdown sparked their exodus. Some 740,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in August 2017 from a military offensive in Myanmar - joining 200,000 already there - but virtually none have volunteered to return despite the countries signing a repatriation deal. Bangladesh refugee commissioner Mohammad Abul Kalam, however, said he was "optimistic" about a new repatriation process scheduled to start on Thursday. A previous attempt in November 2018 to return 2,260 Rohingya failed after they refused to leave the camp without guarantees for their safety. "Everything is ready ... the land transit point has been prepared," Kalam told reporters after a meeting with Myanmar officials in Cox's Bazar, southeast Bangladesh, where the refugees live in vast camps..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "CNA"
Date of publication: 2019-08-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Bangladesh, UNHCR to survey Rohingya regarding return to Myanmar
Description: "Bangladesh will work with the United Nations refugee agency to determine if more than 3,000 Rohingya refugees will accept Myanmar’s offer to return home, an official said on Monday, nearly a year after a major repatriation plan failed. More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine for camps in Bangladesh after a military-led crackdown in August 2017 the United Nations has said was perpetrated with “genocidal intent”, but many refugees refuse to go back, fearing more violence. “It will be a joint exercise led by UNHCR,” Abul Kalam, Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation commissioner, told Reuters by telephone on Monday, referring to the refugee agency. The United Nations Security Council is due to discuss the latest repatriation plan behind closed doors on Wednesday at the request of France, Britain, the United States, Germany and Belgium, diplomats said..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Reuters"
Date of publication: 2019-08-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Panic in the world’s largest refugee settlement: ‘I will kill ... my entire family if I am forced to leave’
Description: "Plans for a second attempt at repatriating Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar have spread panic in the world’s largest refugee settlement, home to 1.2 million people, prompting humanitarian officials to reassure families that no one will be forced to return. Last week, news spread through the sprawling temporary camps in southern Bangladesh that the Myanmar government had created a list of 3,450 refugees who were eligible to return with their families. But hardly any refugees are willing to go back to Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where they have suffered systematic persecution and hundreds of thousands fled a 2017 government offensive that the United Nations termed a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” An earlier attempt at repatriating 2,200 Rohingya families, in November 2018, was halted after protests by refugees and criticism from advocacy groups that argued that Myanmar had not created safe conditions for their return..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Los Angeles Times"
Date of publication: 2019-08-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: U.N. agency, Bangladesh begin survey of Rohingya over return to Myanmar
Description: "The United Nations’ refugee agency and Bangladesh authorities on Tuesday started to consult more than 3,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to determine if any want to return home, officials said, as a fresh repatriation bid was launched. More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine for neighboring Bangladesh after a military-led crackdown in August 2017 the United Nations has said was perpetrated with “genocidal intent”, but many refugees refuse to go back, fearing more violence. Myanmar cleared 3,450 people to return, from a list of more than 22,000 provided by Bangladesh, authorities said. “The intentions surveys are beginning today,” Louise Donovan, a UNHCR spokeswoman in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh, told Reuters..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Reuters"
Date of publication: 2019-08-20
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Correction: Myanmar-ASEAN story
Description: "Malaysia’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that Myanmar’s government must pursue justice for alleged human rights abuses against the Muslim Rohingya minority so that hundreds of thousands who fled a brutal military crackdown can return safely to the country. The call came ahead of a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Bangkok this week. It also followed a weekend meeting between a Myanmar government delegation and representatives of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to discuss creating conditions for their safe repatriation. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after a counterinsurgency campaign by Myanmar’s military in the western state of Rakhine in response to attacks in 2017 by a Rohingya insurgent group. The campaign led to accusations that security forces committed mass rapes and killings and burned thousands of homes..."
Source/publisher: "The Washington Post" via Associated Press
Date of publication: 2019-08-17
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar Announces Plan to Repatriate 3,450 of the 700,000 Rohingya Who Fled to Bangladesh
Description: "Myanmar and Bangladesh will soon make a second attempt to start repatriating Rohingya Muslims, 700,000 of whom fled a security crackdown in Myanmar almost two years ago, officials from the two countries and the United Nations said Friday. Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay, speaking in his country’s capital, Naypyitaw, said the parties concerned had agreed that the process would begin next Thursday. Bangladesh Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Abul Kalam said the identities of the refugees have been confirmed by Myanmar and they could go back there if they want. Speaking in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, he said the government had ordered local officials in Cox’s Bazar district to locate those on the list in the four refugee camps there, but their repatriation would only happen if they want to return voluntarily. He said Bangladesh is ready to provide support to any refugees who wish to return home, but also would not use force to make them go back. Caroline Gluck, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, told The Associated Press that the Bangladesh government has asked for its help in verifying 3,450 people who signed up for voluntary repatriation. She said the list was whittled down from 22,000 names that Bangladesh had sent to Myanmar for verification..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Time"
Date of publication: 2019-08-16
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar military business sketch alerts investors
Sub-title: Tatmadaw is responsible for systemic persecution and violence and has compromised post-2015 election democracy and free market transition, says a UN report
Description: "The United Nations Human Rights Council, charged last year with investigating the Myanmar army’s (Tatmadaw) business empire as the biggest single corporate owner amid findings of abuses and war crimes in three states, presented a complex construct of domestic and investor ties to be rolled back and unwound altogether under diplomatic and commercial imperatives. The report focuses on widespread violations in Kachin, Shan and Rakhine states, the first two with longstanding independence movements in gem-producing regions, and the last the source of the 850,000 Rohingyas’ escape to Bangladesh after company-supported “cleansing operations” that may fit the universal genocide definition. Senior generals leading the two main Myanmar Economic Holdings (MEHL) and Cooperation (MEC) conglomerates are already under personal international sanctions and asset freezes, and the UN Council’s work, to be debated at the September General Assembly, is designed to reinforce the military’s isolation..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times"
Date of publication: 2019-08-14
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: ISCG Monsoon response in Rohingya refugee camps weekly update - 2 to 8 August 2019
Description: "During the reporting period, monsoon-related events affected over 200 refugees. Some 39 refugees were temporarily displaced. Impact on sector activities and essential facilities has been limited, with only a few reports of key facilities damaged. Camp clean-up and dengue awareness campaigns continue. The monsoon season in Bangladesh officially started on 17 June. However, weather-related incidents have been recorded in the Rohingya refugee camps since April 2 . Almost 6,250 people have been temporarily displaced, while 42 have been injured..."
Source/publisher: "Reliefweb" via Inter Sector Coordination Group
Date of publication: 2019-08-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 197.31 KB
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Title: ASEAN, Myanmar hold second high-level meeting on Rohingya repatriation
Description: "ASEAN and Myanmar have held their second high-level meeting on the repatriation of Rohingyas from Bangladesh. Correspondent Leong Wai Kit shared more on how ASEAN will support the repatriation of Rohingya refugees..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: CNA
Date of publication: 2019-05-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: UN investigator reports possible fresh war crimes in Myanmar
Description: "The United Nations hurled a fresh accusation at security forces and insurgents in Myanmar. An investigator said their actions in the restive states of Rakhine and Chin may amount to war crimes. Government troops, known as the Tatmadaw, have been battling ethnic rebels, the Arakan Army, for close to two years now..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: CNA
Date of publication: 2019-07-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: ISCG Monsoon response in Rohingya refugee camps weekly update
Description: "During the reporting period, monsoon-related events affected almost 640 refugees. 86 refugees were temporarily displaced. Impact on sector activities and essential facilities has been relatively limited, with no reports of key facilities damaged or destroyed. The monsoon season in Bangladesh officially started on 17 June. However, weather-related incidents have been recorded in the Rohingya refugee camps since April 2 . Over 6,300 people have been temporarily displaced, while 42 have been injured. To date, the number of people temporarily displaced and injured is comparable to the 2018 monsoon season, when by the end of July around 6,000 people had been temporarily displaced and over 30 injured..."
Source/publisher: reliefweb via "Inter Sector Coordination Group"
Date of publication: 2019-08-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 180.29 KB
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Title: "Rohingya refugee crisis is a time bomb that must be quickly defused to avoid any future flare-up"
Sub-title: Dr. Shamsul Bari, a former Director of UNHCR, talks to The Daily Star about the Rohingya refugee crisis, its local, regional and global implications and the possible solutions to the crisis.
Description: "Based on your experience in dealing with refugees the world over, how would you categorise the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh? During my long career with UNHCR, I had the opportunity to deal with refugee problems all over the world. In fact, the influx of Rohingyas into Bangladesh in 1978 was one of the first refugee groups I dealt with at the UNHCR, which I joined the same year. However, compared to that group of around 250,000 refugees, most of whom went back, and a similar number of Rohingya refugees who came in the early 1990s, who too largely went back, and a lesser number who came in 2012 and drew international attention for their desperate efforts to travel to Malaysia and other Asean countries in rickety boats, the influx of August 2017 was of a very different nature and on a much larger scale. The latest batch of refugees was composed of people who were victims of a brutal military pogrom in Myanmar, which was planned ahead and meticulously executed. They came as a human avalanche, accompanied by heart-wrenching scenes of pain, suffering and destitution. Their narratives about the horrific circumstances which made them flee Myanmar reminded the world of human tragedies that have “shocked the conscience of mankind” throughout history. Sympathy and compassion for these refugees poured in from all corners of the world. Financial and material support flowed in from governments, international financial institutions, UN bodies, civil societies and individuals alike. Charges of genocide and crimes against humanity were raised against Myanmar forces. Calls for international accountability measures against them were rife. More than seven hundred thousand came in continuous waves in a very short period. Together with another four hundred thousand, who had remained in Bangladesh from earlier influxes, they form the largest single refugee group in the world today..."
Source/publisher: 2019-08-05
Date of publication: The Daily Star
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Rohingya ‘repatriation’ efforts just a cruel charade
Description: "The government of Myanmar reached out late last month to the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who have taken refuge in the Bangladeshi city of Cox’s Bazar with a seemingly straightforward plea: “Come back home.” That offer might have seemed irresistible for those familiar with conditions in the teeming refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar. And the dozens of Rohingya refugees that Physicians for Human Rights has interviewed there over the past two years are almost unanimous in their desire to return to Myanmar. But that desire is offset by what they know about the nature of the government that made that offer. And those refugees have made clear that they’d rather endure the privations of their Bangladeshi refugee camps than risk returning to Myanmar any time soon. That’s a wise choice. Memories of the catastrophic campaign of widespread and systematic targeted violence by Myanmar security forces against Rohingya in northern Rakhine state beginning on August 25, 2017, are still painfully fresh among the survivors who fled to Bangladesh in fear of their lives. That campaign, executed on the pretext of an anti-terrorist operation aimed at the insurgent Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, entailed what both Physicians for Human Rights and the United Nations have documented as a catalogue of atrocities against Rohingya civilians including mass killings, rampant sexual violence, torture, mutilation and the torching of hundreds of Rohingya villages. In the two years since those crimes, the 740,000 Rohingya survivors of that violence who fled to safety in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar have watched in dismay as the Myanmar government has defied all international efforts for accountability. The authorities have failed to conduct impartial and independent investigations and have stymied the efforts of the UN and other bodies seeking to do so. A four-member commission formed by the Myanmar government to investigate the alleged crimes announced in December 2018 that it had found no evidence to corroborate the UN’s accusations, an assertion roundly rejected by human-rights groups. Any lingering hopes among Rohingya refugees that the government was willing and capable of providing meaningful accountability for the bloodshed of late 2017 were dashed with the confirmation this May that the Myanmar military had pardoned the only military personnel successfully prosecuted for their role in the violence: seven soldiers convicted in April 2018 of killing 10 Rohingya men and boys in the infamous Inn Din village massacre of September 2017..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times"
Date of publication: 2019-08-05
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ‘The land where we lived has gone' – the life story of a Rohingya refugee
Description: "There has been much written about the Rohingya people of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. The Muslim ethnic group has been persecuted for generations, most recently from 2017, when 800,000 picked up whatever they could carry to flee to Bangladesh. But little has been written from the point of view of a Rohingya growing up in Myanmar – the daily humiliations, the struggle for survival, the fear, the stories whispered through generations to ensure they are not lost. Habiburahman, known as Habib, was born in a village in the west of the country around 1979 – he is not quite sure of the year. He has written his life story, and through that, the story of his people. We meet in his publishers’ bland office in Melbourne, Australia. He is dressed in a neat blue shirt and dark trousers, and his black hair is slicked back. He laughs readily and his phone buzzes with messages. Habib arrived in Australia by boat in 2009 and, although he is a recognised refugee and has a temporary visa, his status remains unresolved. He is still stateless. He has no passport. “I have nowhere to go,” he says, with a laugh that has little humour in it. We speak in English and Habib wrote the book in English with the help of a French journalist, Sophie Ansel, who has reported extensively on the Rohingya. He explains that the book began with Ansel writing him questions, to which he would provide long answers about his life. It was first published in 2018 in French and is now being released in English. Habib says he wanted to write his story because “my generation, my grandfather, great-grandfather – we have been oppressed for a long time and this has never been reported. Our history is [becoming] lost. The land where we lived in the past is now replaced with government buildings, new projects; everything has gone. The new generation of Burmese, they don’t know anything about Rohingya.” He called the book First, They Erased Our Name..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: The Guardian
Date of publication: 2019-08-04
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Bangladesh seeks world engagement for Rohingya repatriation
Sub-title: Bangladesh has sought comprehensive engagement of the international community, particularly Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in creating a conducive environment in northern Rakhine state and help repatriation and reintegration of the Rohing
Description: "“If the Rohingya crisis remains unresolved for long, it may seriously undermine the security and stability of the entire region,” Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said at the 26th ASEAN Regional Forum in Bangkok today. Thailand, chair of ASEAN, is hosting the event where foreign ministers from 26 countries and representative from European Union, USA, UK, Japan, China and India are participating. Foreign Minister Momen stated that Bangladesh is not in a position to bear the burden of the 1.1 million, including 750,000, who fled atrocities from Myanmar since August 2017, for indefinite period. “It should be a global responsibility to resolve this issue,” he said. At the forum, foreign ministers from Japan, USA, Canada, Australia, South Korea, New Zealand and Malaysia also urged Myanmar to create conducive environment for early repatriation of Rohingya in safety and dignity, while seeking ASEAN’s enhanced engagement in this process. USA, Canada and Malaysia particularly emphasised on ensuring justice and accountability in relation to atrocities committed against Rohingyas, according to a statement of the foreign ministry. At this regional high-level Forum, Abdul Momen also embarked on key regional issues, including denuclearisation of Korean Peninsula, degradation of marine environment, human trafficking, illicit drugs trafficking and cybercrimes. He stressed on the need for sustained peaceful atmosphere in the Korean Peninsula for the continued stability in the Asia-pacific region..."
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
Date of publication: 2019-08-02
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Japan urges Myanmar to take 'more strenuous efforts' to repatriate Rohingyas
Sub-title: Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono has urged the Myanmar government to take "more strenuous efforts" to take Rohingyas back from Bangladesh to their place of origin in Rakhine State.
Description: "During his recent meeting with Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nay Pyi Taw, Minister Kono said the Japanese government would continue to encourage and urge Myanmar as "much as possible", said an official. The Japanese Foreign Minister, who visited Bangladesh before his engagements with Myanmar leadership, said it is important to conduct the Independent Commission of Enquiry in a "transparent and credible" manner stressing the Myanmar government to act to that end. On May 31 last year, the government of Myanmar announced to establish an Independent Commission of Enquiry, including an international personality, concerning the violation of human rights and related issues in Northern Rakhine State since 25 August 2017. The Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population of Myanmar, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) agreed on the texts of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for repatriation and resettlement of the displaced persons to Northern Rakhine State. The government of Japan welcomed it as "important key progress" towards improvement of the human rights and humanitarian situation and the "voluntary, safe and dignified" repatriation of Rohingyas to Northern Rakhine State. The Japanese Foreign Minister, in his latest meeting with Suu Kyi, vowed to continue their efforts to help resolve the Rohingya problem by joining hands with the Myanmar government. Both the leaders exchanged views over the situation in Rakhine State and discussed the efforts to take Rohingyas back from Bangladesh. He hoped that the Myanmar government would "accelerate" its implementation efforts, including the work of the ICOE - Independent Commission of Enquiry. The Myanmar State Counsellor, however, in the meeting, described the problem of Rohingyas as a "bilateral issue" between Bangladesh and Myanmar and appreciated Japanese kind offer to help resolve the problem..."
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
Date of publication: 2019-08-02
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Rohingya crisis: India urges world to help Bangladesh
Sub-title: India recognizes humanitarian burden shouldered by Bangladesh’s society and economy, says ASEAN forum report
Description: "India has urged the world community to help Bangladesh deal with the huge Rohingya influx from Myanmar, saying it poses a threat to regional security. India recognizes the humanitarian burden on Bangladesh’s society and economy, said the Security Outlook 2019 of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum held on Friday, according to BSS, Bangladesh’s state-run news agency. India praised Bangladesh’s generosity towards displaced people in the report, the agency reported on Saturday “India is deeply conscious of the humanitarian and security implications of the displacement of nearly one million people (Rohingya) in Bangladesh from contagious areas of Rakhine state in Myanmar,” said the outlook report. “India recognizes the economic burden this crisis places upon Bangladesh’s society and economy,” it added. The report said bordering northeastern India, Myanmar’s stability and prosperity is crucial for regional security. India has provided aid to Myanmar to facilitate the return of Rohingya to Myanmar’s Rakhine state, the place of their origin. Thailand, as the ASEAN chair, hosted this year’s forum with the participation of foreign ministers from 26 countries and representatives from the European Union, U.S., U.K., Japan, China, and India. Addressing the event, A K Abdul Momen, Bangladesh’s foreign minister, sought support and cooperation from the world community to carry out the Rohingya repatriation to Myanmar in a safe manner..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: ASIA - PACIFIC
Date of publication: 2019-08-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Rohingya, Myanmar talks disappoint rights group
Sub-title: Myanmar delegation failed to make convincing case for safe return of Rohingya to their homes, says Human Rights Watch
Description: "An international human rights watchdog has described recent talks between the Rohingya representatives and the Myanmar delegation, as "disappointing". The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that during the talks, the Myanmar delegation failed to make a convincing case for the safe return of refugees. The 10-member delegation, led by the Permanent Secretary of the Myanmar Foreign Ministry, Myint Thu arrived at the sprawling refugee settlement in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh earlier this week, to discuss the repatriation of the Rohingya population. The HRW South Asia Director Meenakshi Ganguly said that the Myanmar officials, armed with "facts" and colorful brochures, tried to persuade the displaced population to return home, claiming it was safe. "They did not even use the term Rohingya," Ganguly said, quoting a refugee. She said it reminded the Myanmar government’s longstanding unwillingness to recognize the ethnic group. The Myanmar team also explained the categories of citizenship and promoted the government’s National Verification Card (NVC) process..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: ASIA - PACIFIC via Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2019-08-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Bangladesh seeks Asean support for Rohingya repatriation
Sub-title: AK Abdul Momen stated that Rohingya crisis should be a global responsibility to resolve the issue
Description: "Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has sought support and cooperation from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regional forum partners so that Rohingyas can return to their homeland in safety and security. The minister made the appeal while addressing the 26th Asean in Bangkok, a Foreign Ministry press release said on Friday. Thailand as the chair of Asean is hosting this year's forum where foreign ministers from 26 countries and high representatives from European Union, USA, UK, Japan, China, and India are participating. Minister Momen mentioned that if the Rohingya crisis remained unresolved for long, it might seriously undermine the security and stability of the entire region. Momen sought comprehensive engagement of the international community, particularly Asean, in the creation of a conducive environment in northern Rakhine state as well as in the repatriation and reintegration process. He stated that Bangladesh was not in a position to bear the brunt for indefinite period and it should be a global responsibility to resolve this issue. At the forum, foreign ministers from Japan, USA, Canada, Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, and Malaysia urged Myanmar to create a conducive environment for early repatriation of Rohingyas in safety and dignity..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Dhaka Tribune
Date of publication: 2019-08-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Rohingya Citizenship: Myanmar angry at Mahathir’s comments
Description: "Myanmar has expressed dismay after Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Rohingyas faced “massacre or genocide”. In an exclusive interview with the Anadolu Agency last week, Mahathir said the Rohingyas “should either be treated as nationals, or they should be given their territory to form their own state.” Myanmar’s Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Myint Thu said such allegations would not help the efforts of Myanmar government and ASEAN in finding a sustainable solution for peace, development and social harmony in Rakhine State. Thu, who met Malaysian Ambassador to Myanmar Zahairi Baharim on Wednesday at Myanmar’s foreign ministry headquarters in Naypyitaw, also said the Malaysian leader’s statement was not constructive and described it as a breach of principles enshrined in the ASEAN Charter. “It was also against the ASEAN’s cardinal principles of non-interference in the internal affairs and respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of ASEAN member states,” said the ministry in a statement..." Many commentators, however, blamed Myanmar for “buying time” and diverting the international community’s focus, by repeatedly denying crimes it has committed against the Rohingya community in the Rakhine state. Some 750,000 Rohingyas fled state persecution since August 2017 and took shelter in Bangladesh as thousands were killed, raped and hundreds of Rohingya villages were completely burnt. The UN independent investigators late last year called for Myanmar military generals to be investigated for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Myanmar denies the allegations. Meanwhile, nearly two years after the mass influx of Rohingyas into Bangladesh, the repatriation could not begin as the refugees say the situation in Rakhine is not conducive for return, while there is no guarantee of citizenship, which they have been denied since 1982..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
Date of publication: 2019-08-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Japan: Urge Bangladesh, Myanmar to Protect Rights
Topic: Refugee Rights, Asylum Seekers ,Internally Displaced People
Sub-title: Foreign Minister Taro Kono Should Use Trip to Raise Rohingya’s Plight
Topic: Refugee Rights, Asylum Seekers ,Internally Displaced People
Description: "Japan’s foreign minister, Taro Kono, should raise critical human rights issues during his visit to Bangladesh and Myanmar from July 29 to July 31, 2019, Human Rights Watch said in a July 26 letter to the foreign minister. “Foreign Minister Kono should press the Bangladeshi government about arrests under its draconian digital security laws and online censorship that is stifling peaceful criticism and dissent,” said Kanae Doi, Japan director. “While in Myanmar, Foreign Minister Kono should urge the government to ensure that humanitarian agencies, human rights groups, and independent media have access to ethnic Rohingya and other at-risk minorities.” Kono should press the Bangladeshi government to drop politically motivated charges against critics and the opposition. Bangladesh should also amend the Digital Security Act to ensure the right to freedom of expression, investigate enforced disappearances, and ensure that any repatriation of Rohingya is voluntary. In Myanmar, Kono should urge Aung San Suu Kyi’s government to end the arbitrary arrest and detention of government critics, reform or repeal the Media Law and other abusive legislation to eliminate restrictions on basic rights, end institutionalized discrimination against the Rohingya, and fully cooperate with international fact-finding mechanisms..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2019-07-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Thailand Offers Persecuted Rohingya Little Hope
Topic: Refugee Rights, Asylum Seekers, Internally Displaced People
Sub-title: Prime Minister’s Racist Comments Reflect Inhumane Asylum Seeker Policy
Topic: Refugee Rights, Asylum Seekers, Internally Displaced People
Description: "Thai Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha’s racist slurs directed at the Rohingya are bad enough. But they are made even worse because they reflect the Thai government’s cruel policy toward Rohingya asylum seekers who take perilous journeys to escape persecution and serious abuses in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. While presenting his new government’s policy statement to parliament on July 25, Prayuth said: “Speaking of the Rohingya, I am sympathetic. But their looks, their appearance is very different from us. If you can accept to have more of these people in Thailand, that is up to you.” Thai authorities have for years said they do not want to accept Rohingya asylum seekers, and the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), chaired by Prayuth, stops them with a three-step action plan. Under the action plan, the Thai navy can intercept Rohingya boats nearing the coast, and provide fuel, food, water, and other supplies if the boat’s occupants agree to travel onward to Malaysia or Indonesia. Any boat that lands on Thai shores is seized. Thailand treats all Rohingya as illegal immigrants, subject to indefinite detention in squalid immigration and police lockups, and refuses to let the United Nations refugee agency conduct refugee status determinations for them. But under customary international law, Thailand cannot summarily reject asylum claims at the border. It is obligated to allow Rohingya asylum seekers to enter the country and seek protection. Thailand’s inhumane “push-back” policy for new boat arrivals should be scrapped immediately. As chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Thailand should lead efforts to set up a regional preparedness and protection mechanism for Rohingya asylum seekers in collaboration with sympathetic countries and relevant United Nations agencies. In particular, Thailand should grant the United Nations refugee agency unhindered access to conduct refugee status determination interviews for all Rohingya arriving in Thailand..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2019-07-31
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Rohingya Refugee Emergency: Operational Dashboard: 2019 Indicators Monitoring (30 May 2019)
Description: "Over 741,000 Rohingya refugees have fled violence from Myanmar’s Rakhine state since August 2017 and are hosted in Bangladesh. Most of the refugees rely on humanitarian assistance, having left with few possessions and exhausted their financial resources during the journey. More than 910,000 Rohingya refugee women, men, girls and boys are hosted in Cox’s Bazar District, including 34,172 registered refugees who arrived in the 1990s (4%); and other unregistered Rohingya refugees who had settled in host communities prior to August 2017. Children make up 55% of the total refugee population and women and girls make up 52%. One in three refugee families have at least one easily identifiable protection vulnerability. Whilst the pace of arrivals has decreased, refugees continue to arrive in Bangladesh, as of end of May 2019. The dashboard monitor the monthly achievements of selected indicators from the 2019 country operation plan for each strategic area of activity with cumulative key figures and monthly highlights..."
Source/publisher: reliefweb via UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Date of publication: 2019-07-31
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 653.76 KB
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Title: Want to resolve Rohingya crisis through talks: PM
Description: "Rohingyas is a big burden for us ... we want to resolve the issue through discussions," she said during a meeting with Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon in London on Monday evening (London time). PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told UNB over phone from London that Lord Ahmad assured all possible support over the Rohingya issue, saying new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is aware of it. About combating terrorism, both the Prime Minister and Lord Ahmad said Islam is a religion of peace and it does not support terrorism. Sheikh Hasina said her government has created mass awareness involving the cross section of people to fight terrorism. She also talked about the existing communal harmony in Bangladesh, saying people of all faiths are exercising their respective religions freely. She informed Lord Ahmad that the government is establishing Islamic research centres across the country to uphold the true spirit of Islam. The Prime Minister and Lord Ahmad also shed light on the Brexit issue. Lord Ahmad highly praised women empowerment in Bangladesh under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Sheikh Hasina said only education can ensure women empowerment. Describing various initiatives of the government for ensuring women empowerment, she said the government recruits 60 percent of teachers at primary level from women. Expressing satisfaction over the existing wonderful relations between Bangladesh and the UK, they hoped that the ties will be strengthened further in the days to come Lord Ahmad was accompanied by his spouse Siddiqa Ahmed while PM's Principal Secretary Md Nojibur Rahman and Bangladesh High Commissioner to the UK Saida Muna Tasneem were present at the meeting..."
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
Date of publication: 2019-07-30
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar Delegation Holds Repatriation Talks With Rohingya in Bangladesh
Description: "A top-level Myanmar government delegation began repatriation talks with Rohingya leaders in a Bangladesh refugee camp on Saturday, an official said, with many of the Muslim minority fearing for their safety if they return home. Some 740,000 Rohingya fled a 2017 crackdown by Myanmar's military and are living in squalid conditions in camps in Bangladesh's southeastern border district of Cox's Bazar. The two countries signed a repatriation deal in November 2017 but so far virtually no Rohingya have volunteered to go back to Myanmar, where the group has faced decades of repression. The Myanmar team, led by permanent foreign secretary U Myint Thu, arrived in Cox's Bazar on Saturday amid tightened security in the camps. 'Seemed positive' The delegation visited Kutupalong — the world's largest refugee settlement — where they discussed repatriation with Rohingya community leaders over several hours, said Bangladesh refugee commissioner Mohammad Abul Kalam. "Both parties seemed positive about it and the discussion will continue [Sunday]," he told AFP. One of the Rohingya leaders who joined the talks, Dil Mohammad, said they "went well" as he reiterated demands for Myanmar to recognize Rohingya as an ethnic group. "We hope this discussion will be fruitful. We told them that we won't return unless we are recognized as Rohingya in Myanmar," he said. Myanmar denies the minority citizenship and refers to them as "Bengalis" — implying that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Second such session It was the second time in less than a year that Myanmar officials were trying to persuade Rohingya refugees to return to their homeland in violence-wracked Rakhine state, after a repatriation offer was rejected by Rohingya leaders in October. The massive camps have sparked tensions between the neighboring nations, with Bangladesh blaming Myanmar for delays in repatriating the refugees. Dhaka has said it will not force any Rohingya to leave, while Myanmar has faced international pressure to allow the Rohingya to return to Rakhine and grant them citizenship rights. The U.N. has complained that progress to address the refugee crisis has been far too slow. The new visit comes in the wake of talks between Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. China is a key ally of Myanmar, and Hasina said then that Beijing would "do whatever is required" to help resolve the Rohingya crisis..."
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Source/publisher: VOA
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar officials hold repatriation talks with Rohingya leaders.
Description: "A high-level delegation from Myanmar has visited Rohingya camps in Bangladesh, to persuade refugees to return home. Hundreds of thousands have been sheltering there since fleeing a violent crackdown...Al Jazeera's Tanvir Chowdhury reports from Cox's Bazar..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Al Jazeera English
Date of publication: 2019-07-27
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Rohingyas refuse Myanmar’s ‘naturalised citizenship’ offer
Description: "Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh refused Myanmar’s offer of “naturalised citizenship” to return to their home country as the refugees sought recognition as an ethnic group during fresh repatriation talks with officials from Myanmar at camps in Bangladesh on Sunday..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: bdnews24.com
Date of publication: 2019-07-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: The “ethnic cleansing” of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, explained
Description: "The Rohingya have been systematically driven out by the Myanmar government leading to the fastest growing humanitarian crisis in recent years. Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com to get up to speed on everything from Kurdistan to the Kim Kardashian app..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Vox
Date of publication: 2017-09-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: History of Rakhine State and the Origin of the Rohingya Muslims
Topic: Myanmar, Rohingya, Refugee, Citizenship, Persecution.
Topic: Myanmar, Rohingya, Refugee, Citizenship, Persecution.
Description: "Myanmar is the least developed country in the Southeast Asia. In the 1947 Constitution, the name of the country was proclaimed Burma, and in 1989, the military junta changed the name to Myanmar (Ullah, 2011). Some scholars believe that Burma is derived from the eponym ‘Brahma Desha’ after Brahma, one of the gods of the Hindu trinity. Some other scholars believe that “Burma” is the name derived from the spoken form of Bamar (the language of the majority ethnic group), and was also used during the independence movement in 1948. “Myanmar” is taken from the literary form of the language, and is supposed to be more neutral than Burma. “Myanmar” supposedly is associated with democratic and federalist ideologies, while “Myanmar” recalls military enforcement and hierarchal units (Dittmer, 2010). The official name of the country according to the 2008 constitution is “The Republic of the Union of Myanmar” (Government of Myanmar [GoM], 2008). Rakhine is a state located in the west coast of Myanmar, one of the poorest regions of the country. Its area is 14,200 square miles (Islam, 1999). In Rakhine, it is estimated that 59.7% of the 3.8 million people are Buddhist, 35.6% are Muslim Rohingya, and the remainder are from other religious groups. The Rohingya Muslims did not originate from just one single racial stock. They are the mixture of diverse ethnic groups, including Arabs, Moghuls, and Bengalis (Alam, 2013). In Myanmar there are 7 million Muslims, which are 15% of the total populations of the country, and half of them live in Rakhine (Jaha, 1994). Buddhist nationalism began to emerge in response to British colonial rule, and saw Buddhists identifying with Burmese culture and history. During the colonial period, the Burmese military Tatmadaw and the founders of several armies including Aung San were patronized and trained by the military of imperial Japan to defeat Allied forces and the British colonials. Myanmar’s Buddhist nationalism was influenced by Japanese fascism (Zarni, 2013). The Rohingya crisis is not only on religion but also on economical and political related (Shams, 2015). The Buddhists of Myanmar claim that the Rohingya are economically developed, and their culture is under siege than the Rohingya. The Rohingya are confronted with a deeplyentrenched Islam phobia with Rakhine in Myanmar. Myanmar is surrounded by some Islamic countries, such as Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The Buddhists think that if any Islamic country attacks Myanmar, the Rohingya will fight against Myanmar. History of Rakhine State and the Origin of the Rohingya Muslims 21 As a result, they are culturally discriminated, economically exploited, and politically sidelined by the GoM (Wolf, 2017). There have been many debates on the origins of the Rohingya and the Arakan State. The two conflicting theories are that i) Rohingyas are illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh (Saw, 2011; Ahmed, 2012), and ii) Rohingyas are native to Arakan, and are descendents of the original Muslim converted on Ramree Island (Bahar, 2010a; Forster, 2011). Although there are two opposing debates about the origin of the Rohingya, it is true that a large number of Muslims have resided in the Arakan for hundreds of years (Azad & Jasmine, 2013; Leitich, 2014). The sectarian conflict has been especially focused in the Muslim areas that lie in the northern part of Rakhine State: Maungdaw, Rathedaung, and Buthidaung Townships (Human Rights Watch [HRW], 2013). During the last few years the Rohingya ethnic violence in Rakhine became extensive, which has transformed into ethnic cleansing and genocide (Nawoyski, 2013)..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: The Indonesian Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
Date of publication: 2018-07-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Lost generation of Rohingya kids face a bleak future
Sub-title: The 500,000 children in refugee camps in Bangladesh have no access to formal education; only 30% have access to lessons
Description: "The boy’s eyes lit up when he talked about his dream of becoming a doctor. Seven-year-old “Mohammad” – not his real name – is a Rohingya Muslim from Myanmar. I met him at a learning center at a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in early July 2019. After sharing his aspirations, Mohammed quickly remembered reality. “I know my dreams will never come true,” he said with a faint smile. Mohammed is among the more than 700,000 Rohingya who have taken refuge in Bangladesh after an ethnic cleansing campaign of rape, killing and torture by the Myanmar military in mid-2017. They joined the more than 200,000 Rohingyas who had previously fled Myanmar’s brutal efforts to rid the Buddhist-majority country of this marginalized Muslim minority. 500,000 kids living in limbo Of the newly arrived Rohingya, three-quarters are women and children, according to the United Nations. In a noteworthy humanitarian gesture, the Bangladeshi government has given refuge to these persecuted people. Aided by Bangladeshi community organizations, various UN agencies and other international donors, the Rohingya have been receiving shelter, food, clothes and basic health care since the massive exodus in 2017. This essential care, which cost an estimated US$920.5 million in 2019 represents a gargantuan global effort. Still, the resources are woefully inadequate. Most Bangladeshi refugee camps are overcrowded and, as a result, unhygienic..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Asia Times
Date of publication: 2019-07-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-28
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Title: Rohingya repatriation soon amid mounting pressure on Myanmar, hopes FM
Sub-title: Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Thursday reiterated his hope that Myanmar will soon start taking back its nationals from Bangladesh as global pressure on the neighbouring country is mounting.
Description: ""I'm always optimistic. I'm hoping that the repatriation process will start soon," he said, adding that initially there was less pressure on Myanmar but it is mounting on them now. The foreign minister was addressing as the chief a dissemination workshop titled "The Rohingya Refugee Crisis and Its Impact on the Host Community" held at Brac Centre Inn jointly organised by Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) and UNDP. Bangladesh is now hosting around 1.2 million Rohingyas and most of them entered Bangladesh since August 25, 2017. Dr Momen said development projects both in Bangladesh and Myanmar will be affected if uncertainty prevails with pockets of possible radicalisation due to longer stay of Rohingyas in Bangladesh. He said Bangladesh is asking the neighbours and international community to help resolve the Rohingya crisis as quickly as possible. The Foreign Minister also said the projects of Japan and China will also be affected if this problem remains unresolved and they, for their own interest, should ask Myanmar to take back their nationals. Terming Myanmar a friendly country, Dr Momen said Myanmar took back their nationals in the past though not a single person has been repatriated this time. Referring to Prime Minister's recent China visit, the Foreign Minister said China sees political will in Myanmar to resolve the Rohingya crisis and is willing to assist the repatriation process. "We’ve achieved many things through discussion and dialogue. Therefore, I'm hopeful that we’ll be able to repatriate Rohingyas," he said mentioning that Bangladesh will not force anybody to leave. PRI Chairman Dr Zaidi Sattar said the global community must continue its pressure on the government of Myanmar to take back the forciblydisplaced Rohingyas from Bangladesh. "These displaced people must be repatriated to their homeland on condition that their return is safe, secure and dignified," he said, adding that the repatriation of 500-600 people a day could be a good beginning. PRI Research Director Dr MA Razzaque presented the report. UNDP Resident Representative Sudipto Mukherjee and Research Initiatives Bangladesh (RIB) Executive Director Dr Meghna Guhathakurta, among others, spoke on the occasion..."
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
Date of publication: 2019-07-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Communication to the press after the official visit of the UN Special Envoy of the Secretary General on Myanmar, Christine Schraner-Burgener, to Myanmar from 09.-18.07.2019 [EN/MY]
Description: "The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Myanmar travelled to the country from 9 to 18 July. In Yangon, she met with representatives of civil society, think-tanks, eminent personalities and INGOs, the UN country team and the diplomatic corps. She also met with religious leaders, members of the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance and Development (UEHRD) and members of the former Rakhine Advisory Commission. In Rakhine she travelled to Myebon and to Sittwe and visited IDP camps from both Rakhine and Muslim communities, as well as resettled Rakhine persons. She met with the representatives of civil society, political parties and members of parliament and the Rakhine State government. She also had discussions with the INGOs and with representatives of the resident UN agencies in Sittwe. In Nay Pyi Taw, she met with various government officials, including the State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi; the Union Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Dr. Win Myat Aye; the Union Minister of Labour, Immigration and Population U Thein Swe; the Union Minister of Education Dr. Myo Thein Gyi; the Union Minister of the State Counsellor’s Office U Kyaw Tint Swe; the Union Minister of International Cooperation U Kyaw Tin, and the Vice-Senior General Soe Win of the Tatmadaw . She also met with members of parliament, in particular, U Aye Tha Aung, the Deputy Speaker of the Amyotha Hluttaw (Upper House) in his capacity as Chair of the Committee for Supporting Peace and Stability in Rakhine State (CSPSRS) together with some members of the Committee, and the Public Complaints Committees of the Amyotha Hluttaw and of the Pyithu Hluttaw (Lower House)......ကုသလမဂ္ဂအတွင်းရေးမှူးချုပ်၏ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံဆိုင်ရာ အထူးကိုယ်စားလှယ်သည်မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသို့ဇူလိုင်လ ၉ ရက်နေ့မှ၁၈ ရက်နေ့အထိသွားရောက်ခဲ့သည်။ သူမသည်ရန်ကုန်မြို့တွင်အရပ်ဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းများမှ ကိုယ်စားလှယ်များ၊ တွေးခေါ်မျှော်မြင်ရေးအဖွဲ့များ (think-tanks)၊ ထင်ရှားကျော်ကြားသောပုဂ္ဂိုလ်များ၊ အစိုးရမဟုတ်သော အဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၊ ကုလသမဂ္ဂအဖွဲ့အစည်းများနှင့်သံတမန်တို့နှင့်တွေ့ဆုံခဲ့သည်။ ထို့အပြင်ဘာသာရေးခေါင်းဆောင်များ၊ ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်တွင်း လူသားချင်းစာနာမှုအကူအညီအထောက်အပံ့ ပေးရေး၊ ပြန်လည်နေရာချထားရေး၊ ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေးစီမံကိန်း (UEHRD)နှင့်ယခင်ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်ဆိုင်ရာ အကြံပေး ကော်မရှင်အဖွဲ့ဝင်များတို့နှင့်ပါ တွေ့ဆုံခဲ့သည်။ ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်တွင်သူမသည်မြေပုံမြို့နှင့်စစ်တွေမြို့တို့ကိုသွားရောက်ခဲ့ပြီး၊ ရခိုင်နှင့်မွတ်စလင်လူမှု အသိုင်းအဝိုင်း နှစ်ခုစလုံးမှ နေရပ်စွန့်ခွာသူများ နေထိုင်ရာစခန်းများသို့သွားရောက်ခဲ့သည့်အပြင်၊ ပြန်လည် နေရာချထားသော ရခိုင်လူမျိုးများကိုလည်း တွေ့ဆုံခဲ့သည်။ ထို့အပြင်သူမသည်အရပ်ဖက်အဖွ့ဲအစည်း များမှကိုယ်စားလှယ်များ၊ နိုင်ငံရေးပါတီများ၊ လွှတ်တော်အဖွဲ့ဝင်များနှင့်ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်အစိုးရနှင့်လည်း တွေ့ဆုံခဲ့သည်။ သူမသည်အစိုးရမဟုတ်သောအဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၊ စစ်တွေမြို့အခြေစိုက်သော ကုသမဂ္ဂ အဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၏ ကိုယ်စားလှယ်များနှင့်တွေ့ဆုံဆွေးနွေးခဲ့သည်။..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: reliefweb via United Nations
Date of publication: 2018-07-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf pdf
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