Internal displacement/forced migration of Rohingyas

See also Main Library > States and Regions of Burma/Myanmar > Arakan (Rakhine) State
expand all
collapse all

Individual Documents

Title: Bangladesh: Rohingya Face Monsoon Floods, Landslides
Sub-title: Donor Support Critical for Refugees’ Safety, Protection
Description: Rohingya refugees in crowded camps in Bangladesh are at serious risk of displacement and injury from monsoon flooding and landslides, Human Rights Watch said today. Since early July 2019, flooding and landslides have displaced nearly 6,000 refugees in the camps near Cox’s Bazar, damaged over 3,500 shelters, and killed two people, including a child. The International Organization for Migration reported over 400 landslides, 60 windstorms, and at least 28 incidents of flooding in the first 10 days of July, affecting over 22,000 people. Bangladesh authorities should relocate Rohingya refugees to safer areas near the refugee camps and allow permanent structures inside the camps for protection during heavy monsoon seasons, Human Rights Watch said. “Monsoons and landslides are making the Rohingya refugees’ difficult situation even more precarious,” said Bill Frelick, refugee rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Support to Bangladesh from donor governments is crucial for making sure there will be continuing assistance to the refugee population.” Myanmar’s campaign of ethnic cleansing, beginning August 2017, forced over 740,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. The Myanmar government’s unwillingness to address the systemic persecution and other serious rights violations against the Rohingya leaves the refugees stranded in Bangladesh without prospects for a safe or dignified return in the foreseeable future. Over the past two years, aid agencies have improved shelter conditions, built safer infrastructure, and developed monsoon preparedness in the camps. However, the humanitarian response remains critically underfunded. The 2019 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya humanitarian crisis has received only a third, or US$301 million, of the $920 million needed to meet the needs of the Rohingya refugees and host communities in Bangladesh this year. The Joint Response Plan notes that, “The shelter materials and disaster risk reduction training provided to the refugees in 2018 are insufficient for protection against adverse weather conditions.” Earlier in July, Human Rights Watch spoke to 10 Rohingya refugees across four settlements within the Kutupalong-Balukhali Expansion Camp. All expressed concerns about inadequate assistance. They described a shortage of drinking water and a looming health crisis due to flooded toilets, which foster disease outbreaks. Several learning centers have been inundated and children have stopped attending because of muddy conditions in their classrooms. UNICEF reported that the education of 60,000 children has been interrupted, with over 750 learning centers partially damaged and 5 heavily damaged. One of the refugees interviewed said that when a group of refugees approached a Bangladeshi camp official after several homes were destroyed, he told them not to complain. “We have been taking shelter in nearby Bangladeshi schools or with relatives,” the man said.
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2019-07-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Title: Rohingya refugee crisis is a ticking time bomb
Sub-title: Squalid and bulging refugee camps in Bangladesh risk morphing into epicenters of extremism similar to those seen in Palestine in the Middle East
Description: "Myanmar’s Rohingya refugee crisis, characterized by United Nations’ investigators as “ethnic cleansing” with possible “genocidal intent”, could finally be redounding on the country’s powerful and autonomous top brass. But while Western nations press to penalize Myanmar’s latest abuses, definitively ending a short-lived engagement with the long-isolated county, neighboring states are taking a more self-interested approach. The International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague said last month that it plans to initiate pre-trial procedures which could lead to legal action against Myanmar’s military leaders for mass atrocities. A conviction against top soldiers, including military commander Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, could spur renewed Western sanctions, soon after the US and European Union lifted their previous punitive measures in diplomatic reward for implementing democratic reforms. The government in Naypyitaw is clearly in damage control mode. Reports suggest it will send a delegation to Cox’s Bazar in southeastern Bangladesh, where at least 700,000 Rohingya refugees have been housed in squalid camps since being driven out of Myanmar in 2016 and 2017..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Asia Times
Date of publication: 2019-07-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Title: Rohingya Refugee Crisis: Contexts, Problems, and Solutions
Description: "Background: There are many problems related to statelessness and refugees in Asia, among which are the following: Assam in India; Myanmar-Thailand border; and Rohingyas in Myanmar. The Muslim majority Rohingyas have been living in the Rakhine state for as long as they, their parents, their grandparents, and their great grandparents can remember. Their land is in between Bangladesh on its west and the rest of Myanmar on its east. Myanmar is home to a multiplicity of ethnicities, religions, and languages. Research Questions: This paper responds to the following queries regarding the Rohingya refugee crisis: 1. What are the historical and current contexts that gave rise to the Rohingya crisis? 2. What were the causes and effects of the problem? 3. What are the proposed actions to resolve the current crisis? Objective: To answer the above questions, this paper presents the contexts, problems, and proposed solutions related to the Rohingya crisis. Literature Search: Since this crisis is still brewing, there is a gap in the academic journal on this matter, which this paper seeks to fill. Most of the literature cited are from the news media outlets, such as The Atlantic, BBC, Democracy Now, El Diario, Frontline PBS, The Guardian, El Mundo, El País, New York Times, and the Washington Post, to name a few. Insider views from Myanmar are also cited, including publication in the English language, such as the Irrawaddy. From the news sources reviewed, this paper analyzes, organizes, and synthesizes the current state of the literature about the Rohingya refugee crisis, which scrutinizes (1) the historical and current contexts, (2) the causes and effects of the problem which emerged, and (3) the proposed agenda to solve the refugee crisis besetting the Rohingyas. The central focus of this paper was the major events surrounding the refugee crisis which took place in 2017, looking back at the historical contexts that led to this situation as well as the synthesizing the major proposals to solve this refugee crisis..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Literature Search
Date of publication: 2019-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 359.96 KB
more
Title: Reporting Back to Myanmar’s Rohingya: The Most Important Report of All
Description: "When the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Myanmar completed a 444-page report last year documenting atrocities committed by security forces against Myanmar’s ethnic Rohingya minority, its experts reported to the Human Rights Council, the General Assembly, the Security Council, and a global audience via the media. Last month, the mission’s Experts took it upon themselves to report to the Rohingya themselves. On a May 5 visit to Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, FFM Chairman Marzuki Darusman and Expert member Christopher Sidoti met with scores of refugees – the majority of whom had fled an explosion of violence in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine State two years ago. Among those present were witnesses, survivors and community leaders who had contributed vital testimony to the report. The meeting marked the first time the Experts were able to formally brief them, and the first time the Rohingya were able to pose questions of their own. Most of those present asked about the slow pace of justice and said they were desperate to return home. Trapped inside a vast network of camps that have become the largest refugee settlement in the world (900,000 people), they complained they were being excluded from discussions over their future by governments and humanitarian organizations. One man stood up to ask about some of the greatest challenges the exiled Rohingya now face: access to education, and jobs. “Our concern is what’s going to happen to the next generation,” he said. “If we’re stuck here … what will happen to them?” A few minutes later, a woman stood up to thank the Experts for taking the time to listen. “In Myanmar we never had the chance to speak about our rights and our demands,” she said, “and even here in the camps women especially don’t have that opportunity.” The woman said the FFM’s report had helped inform the world about the “indescribable violence” the Rohingya community had experienced. She added: “we would like to know, how can this type of suffering be stopped from happening again?” A Unique Opportunity Investigative missions established by the Human Rights Council report primarily to UN member States in Geneva and New York. But because the FFM’s mandate was extended an additional year – it expires in September 2019 – the Experts had the opportunity to go back and meet with those they reported on. “For us, this was the most important report back we’ve done,” Sidoti said. “Our report was the product of what they told us. Theirs are the stories we told. So we wanted to ensure that after their cooperation with us we had an opportunity to tell them what we found and what we recommended and what’s going to happen from here.” “I hope very much that as a result of our experience this will become standard for Human Rights Council investigations,” Sidoti said, shortly after FFM staff handed out summarized copies of their 2018 findings. “The mandate given to the investigative teams should require a report, not just to UN mechanisms, but also to the affected communities.” During their visit, the Experts held two meetings in the refugee camps, one exclusively with women. They also met with Rohingya on the Bangladeshi side of a strip of land at Konarpara, which straddles the Myanmar frontier, and heard new testimony from recent arrivals. The trip was part of a 10-day journey through the region that began May 3 and ended with the Experts urging the international community to cut all financial ties to Myanmar’s military, saying its commanders needed to be “isolated” and brought before a credible court to answer charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide..."
Source/publisher: UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Date of publication: 2019-06-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: UN & Asean Continue To Exclude Rohingya Refugee Voices
Description: "Yesterday AFP media reported a leaked copy of the ASEAN Preliminary Needs Assessment for Repatriation in Rakhine State. The document is secret and we Rohingya refugees were not consulted in the assessment. The ASEAN say Myanmar will only accept 500,000 Rohingya back to Myanmar but there are over 1 million of us living in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar. The experts in the UN IFFM report last year said 725,000 Rohingya fled violence and persecution in Myanmar in 2017 and 2018. So we want to ask what will ASEAN and Myanmar do about other 500,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladsh? The ASEAN report congratulate Myanmar for increase the security forces in Rakhine in Rakhine State. Rohingya has been victims of genocide by Myanmar security forces for decades. What will ASEAN and Myanmar do to stop these forces from continuing the genocide against Rohingya when we return home? The ASEAN report also does not use our ethnic name: Rohingya. Many ASEAN countries like Malaysia and Indonesia visit the camp to take photo with us and call us Rohingya to our face but now they refuse to give us dignity. Why is ASEAN organization not using our ethnic name? Just like the recent extension of the Myanmar, UNDP and UNHCR secret MoU, Rohingya refugee leaders are not being consulted about the decision that directly affect our human rights. Why is it so difficult for ASEAN and the UN to consult us and respect our human rights and dignity? We know the answer to all of these three questions. ASEAN and UN view Roingya as a crisis and problem. They do not view us as human being with rights and dignity. We want to make it clear to the world that ASEAN and UNHCR do not speak on behalf of the Rohingya refugees. Rohingya refugees can speak for ourselves. There will be no repatriation without talking to us..."
Source/publisher: Progressive Voice via " Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights"
Date of publication: 2019-06-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: CULTURE, CONTEXT AND MENTAL HEALTH OF ROHINGYA REFUGEES
Description: "In August 2017, a major humanitarian crisis in the Rakhine State of Myanmar triggered a mass exodus of around three-quarters of a million stateless Rohingya refugees into neighbouring Bangladesh, adding to the estimated 200,000–300,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh who had fled Myanmar earlier and the estimated 73,000 Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. Limited information is available on the culture and mental health of the Rohingya, which poses significant challenges to the provision of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) and related services to this group. Therefore, UNHCR commissioned this document with the aim of providing a concise review of the literature concerning the culture, context, mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of Rohingya refugees. The content of the document is based on an extensive review of the published and grey literature including various sources of information provided by United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, and governments. The search included published and unpublished archival data, academic articles, documents, and other relevant documentary materials from disciplines ranging across the social sciences, anthropology, ethno-cultural studies, psychology and public health. A core group of multidisciplinary personnel wrote and reviewed draft versions of the document after which an advanced draft was sent out for wide review among academics, NGO staff and UN experts. The first part of the review provides a broad overview of the general context focusing on the historical, geographic, demographic, economic, political, religious, gender, and cultural factors relevant to the Rohingya people. The Rohingya are the largest Muslim group in Myanmar. Their history is complex, involving exposure to a long legacy of human rights violations including torture, rape, assault, extrajudicial killings, and restricted access to education and health care. Many, and probably most. Rohingya have been displaced, either within Myanmar or as refugees now residing in Bangladesh, Malaysia and other countries. The second part of the report focuses on the mental health of the Rohingya people, including the epidemiology of mental health conditions, the range of risk factors (e.g. exposure to potentially traumatic events, poverty, shortage of food, shelter, healthcare, loss of identity, being stateless, sexual and gender-based violence), and protective factors (e.g. religion, spiritual adherence and practice, formal and informal social support). This section also describes the various terms in the Rohingya language to indicate mental health conditions. These concepts are not equivalent to the psychological concepts of depression, posttraumatic stress disorder or anxiety disorder, although they could overlap to some extent overlap with them. Thus, MHPSS service providers need to clearly explain what they mean when they use international constructs of mental ill-health in conversations with Rohingya clients. Rohingya cultural idioms of distress (common modes of expressing distress within a culture or community) and explanatory models (the ways that people explain and make sense of their symptoms or illness) are closely related to religious ideas and concepts held by the person. The Rohingya worldview of the self/ person tends to distinguish between the brain (mogos/ demag), the mind-soul (dilor/foran), and the physical body (jism). It is important that MHPSS providers working with Rohingya have a global idea of these concepts since they influence the expectations and coping strategies of their Rohingya clients. The third part of the review describes the current humanitarian context, particularly in Bangladesh where multiple agencies are involved in MHPSS interventions within various sectors such as health, nutrition, education and protection (including child protection, community-based protection and prevention and response around sexual and genderbased violence – SGBV). This review highlights the importance of understanding the key sociocultural aspects of mental health and wellbeing to assist humanitarian agencies, government, and non-government organizations in providing effective culturally informed services to the Rohingya. An overarching aim in providing this information is to encourage a consistent and coordinated multi-sectoral approach to address the mental health needs of the Rohingya..."
Source/publisher: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency
Date of publication: 2018-10-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 2.21 MB
more
Title: For Rohingya Refugees, There’s No Return in Sight
Description: "The Rohingya Muslims have faced persecution in Myanmar for decades. And yet no violence in their recent history has compared to that which the Myanmar military inflicted in August 2017. After militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked police and army posts in northwestern Rakhine State on August 25, the military responded by killing thousands of Rohingya civilians, raping hundreds of Rohingya women and girls, and burning entire villages to the ground. In the course of a little more than three months, more than 700,000 Rohingya were forced to flee for their lives to Bangladesh. Myanmar authorities claimed they had conducted a “clearance operation” to rid the country of militants. In reality, they were fulfilling a long-standing dream of Myanmar’s Buddhist nationalists: the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims. The refugees joined hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who were already in Bangladesh seeking refuge after previous attacks, bringing the total to 1.2 million. Today, more Rohingya live as refugees than remain in Myanmar. Bangladesh and humanitarian organizations are struggling to provide for the needs of refugees, while Myanmar refuses to take the steps necessary to ensure the safe and voluntary return of the Rohingya to their homes in Rakhine State. International attention to the plight of the Rohingya has waned, even as the Myanmar military continues to terrorize those who remain in Rakhine State. Many Rohingya in the camps in Bangladesh say that they fear they will soon be forgotten..."
Creator/author: Meenakshi Ganguly, Brad Adams
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2019-06-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: UNICEF Myanmar Humanitarian Situation Report #4 - April 2019
Description: "During the month of April, the unilateral ceasefire called by the Myanmar Military in December for four months and then extended through June generally continued to hold in all areas of the country except Rakhine. In Kachin, this ceasefire has led to a relatively longer period of calm than has been experienced in several years. While this is a positive step forward, UNICEF and other humanitarian actors continue to have difficulty accessing different population groups—for assessment or response activities; this is particularly true in areas not under government control. In Shan State, though military action taken by Myanmar armed forces has halted, fighting and conflict among different armed ethnic groups continues to cause small-scale displacement for communities. Many of these communities have been displaced multiple times. While local communities are among the first to respond and support displaced populations, they have noted to humanitarian colleagues that their ability to provide assistance is becoming strained as resources are stretched due to the increasing frequency of displacement. In Rakhine State, fighting between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army (AA) continued in April causing a near doubling of displaced people. Impacted townships include Mrauk-U, Minbya, Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Rathedaung and Buthidaung and impacts mostly ethnic Rakhine populations, though Rohingya and other minority groups have also been affected. In Chin State, the number of IDPs in Paletwa township also doubled in April. Sixteen international non-governmental organizations released a statement on 1 April urging all parties to the conflict to ensure protection of civilian and be provided with unfettered and sustained access to all affected populations. The statement further identifies that at least 95,000 people living in the affected areas are unable to access basic and essential services which could jeopardize their health, food security and wellbeing. The Government of Myanmar, local communities, the Red Cross Movement, and the World Food Programme (WFP) continue to be the providers of first response but are calling for an increase in the number of nationals and international organizations to be allowed to access populations in need. With the onset of the rainy season, agencies are particularly concerned about the potential for disease outbreaks and contamination due to overcrowded, poor shelters in some locations, and a lack of required services. Support to over 128,000 Rohingya IDPs in camps in central Rakhine continues..."
Source/publisher: reliefweb via UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund)
Date of publication: 2019-05-20
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1003.43 KB
more
Title: Rohingya crisis: Japan will stay beside Bangladesh
Description: Terming the prevailing situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine state complicated, Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Hiroyasu Izumi has said his country will stay beside the host country for immediate resolution into the crisis. “Japan is beside Bangladesh on the Rohingya issue and it will continue its supports resolving the crisis,” Izumi said while addressing a press conference at his Baridhara residence in Dhaka yesterday evening. "Claiming that Myanmar Army has been fighting against the Arakan Army for nearly two years after the exodus of Rohingyas to Bangladesh, the ambassador said the overall situation in Rakhine state has become more complicated than before. Responding to a query on whether Japan would put any pressure on Myanmar to smooth repatriation of Rohingyas, Izumi said, “Only pressure is not enough. Dialogue with Myanmar is a must to put an end to the crisis”. About safe and dignified repatriation of Rohingyas, he said, “We will support and advocate for the implementation of Kofi Annan Commission’s report resolving the Rohingya crisis. Earlier on June 5 and 6, Izumi along with a popular Japanese football player and Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF Japan, Makato Hasebe, visited Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar. Addressing the press conference, Makato Hasebe said he was surprised to see that so many children in the refugee camps are being deprived of the rights of education. The world community should come forward to help in ensuring the education of the Rohingya children, said the internationally famed footballer..."
Creator/author: Hiroyasu Izumi
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
Date of publication: 2019-06-07
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya Refugee Crisis - WHO Bangladesh Bi-Weekly Situation Report #11, 09 June 2019
Description: "There are an estimated 911 359 Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, according to the latest ISCG situation report (April 2019). This includes 34 172 refugees from Myanmar who registered before 31st August 2017. All refugees, including new arrivals, face compounding vulnerabilities, including in health. WHO has been responding to this crisis since September 2017. A summary of response actions from epidemiological weeks 21 and 22 of 2019 is presented below by WHO functions..."
Source/publisher: reliefweb via World Health Organization (WHO)
Date of publication: 2019-06-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 932.59 KB
more
Title: Rohingya refugee men join push to curb sexual violence
Description: "UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, supports the identification, counselling and referral to services for all survivors, including men and boys. The role model programme seeks to encourage men to challenge sexual harassment and violence in exile, and rethink complex gender issues which sometimes lead to violent disputes. “We need to educate these young men. So we need to explain what we’re doing and what they can do,” says Mohammed, 23, another role model volunteer in the settlements, where residents are safe, housed and fed, but have few opportunities to work or study formally. “Many of these young men say: We are useless!” Mohammed says. “Many are uneducated. They feel they can do things with a young woman … and feel they can get away with it.” Mohammed is part of a group of five young men in their late teens and twenties, working alongside an imam in the settlement to challenge these attitudes. The young men, who are all community volunteers, are trained to identify issues arising from domestic violence, early marriage, dowry payments, polygamy and aggressive behaviour towards women. The were trained through role-playing as perpetrators, victims and bystanders, according to UNHCR programme coordinator Jahidur Rahman. “Our role in this was to show how to change bystanders into change makers,” Rahman says. The programme is new and, to launch it, the organizers set up meetings in mosques and community centres. The young role models were encouraged to work through sports, as a path to build trust with the community. In a direct outreach to women and girls who make up more than half the population of the camps, a network of refugee women volunteers go door-to-door throughout the settlement. If they suspect evidence of sexual violence, they contact camp authorities and have the victim moved to a woman-friendly space. “I heard about the discussions concerning sexual violence, and I wanted to get involved,” Imam Mohammed says. “The camp staff asked me to identify the biggest problems in the community. From the list, I saw a major problem of child marriage, and a rising divorce rate. I sat down with community leaders, and we prepared a document for the camp authorities. I included the Holy Koran, which prohibits violence against wives, and which discourage dowries when there is no money.” Early marriage and dowries are often linked. Parents who arrange the marriage of a daughter are relieved from supporting her, but the price is a dowry. And money in the camps is scarce. Ahmed, another role model leader, explains how the process becomes enmeshed in violence..."
Creator/author: Don Murray
Source/publisher: The UN Refugee Agency
Date of publication: 2019-05-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya refugees: an urgent need for quality education (video)
Description: "More than half of all refugees living in the Rohingya settlements in Cox’s Bazar, south-eastern Bangladesh are children under the age of 18. Currently, approximately 36% of Rohingya children aged 3-14, and 91% of young people still lack access to any learning opportunities in the overcrowded refugee sites. Many Rohingya children also lacked schooling in Myanmar. They and their parents are eager to have more and better quality education opportunities which can give them the skills to help rebuild their communities in the future..."
Source/publisher: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency
Date of publication: 2019-06-04
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: (English subtitles
more
Title: Rohingya refugees fret for their children’s futures
Description: "“My life is almost gone. If they cannot have an education, they will be ignorant,” he says, sitting in his family’s bamboo shelter in the vast Kutupalong refugee settlement, the largest in the world. “I can see with my own eyes that their life is becoming meaningless because they do not have enough education and skills to have a good career. (It) is about their future,” he says. “If I die tomorrow I will die with a pain in my heart and a regret.” Abu Sayed is among some 745,000 Rohingya refugees who fled a military crackdown in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state since August 2017 to seek safety in Bangladesh. More than half – 55 per cent - are children. His three younger children receive a basic primary education at the Sunflower temporary learning centre, a short walk from the family’s shelter. Painted red and yellow, the centre is supported by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and run by its Bangladeshi partner, BRAC. Students at the settlement receive just a few hours of education per day, learning English, Burmese, life skills, and maths, with learning centres operating three shifts per day. However, the centres have no fixed curriculum. Going forward, there is no secondary education available to students..."
Creator/author: Caroline Gluck, Iffath Yeasmine
Source/publisher: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency
Date of publication: 2019-06-06
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Will Human Rights turn around in 2019?
Description: "2018 has been a difficult year for human rights in South Asia. Crackdowns on the Right to Freedom of Expression intensified across the region. Enforced disappearances continued to scar communities in Pakistan and Bangladesh; civilian casualties remained at record highs in Afghanistan, civil society organisations continued to be harassed and shut down in almost every country. Journalists continued to be targeted, members of the political opposition were arbitrarily arrested, religious and ethnic minority groups and Indigenous Peoples continued to be demonised. The year began with the tragic news of the death of one of the region’s strongest, most prominent and fearless voices for human rights, the Pakistani lawyer and activist Asma Jahangir. For decades, she exemplified the struggles of millions in South Asia—and her loss came at a time when she was perhaps needed the most: blasphemy-related violence and violent protests threatening the lives of religious minorities intensified in Pakistan. The space to speak freely shrank dramatically, with a pall of fear descending over newsrooms where self-censorship is routinely exercised while social media users came under attack from the authorities. In India, under the regime of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, impunity for human rights violations continued to flourish. Attacks on religious minorities and marginalised communities have not just become a threat, but also a norm in the new India. The authorities continue to remain openly critical of human rights defenders and organisations, often contributing to a climate of hostility against them. The government has failed to credibly investigate and at times even acknowledge the attacks..."
Creator/author: Biraj Patnaik
Source/publisher: Amnesty International
Date of publication: 2019-01-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Armed and dangerous: Myanmar's military goes shopping
Description: "Myanmar's military has lavished tens of millions of dollars on the latest lethal hardware, leaning on allies as part of a strategy to become a first-class fighting force. The spending spree comes despite enduring European Union and US arms embargos and calls earlier this month from a United Nations fact-finding mission for the international community to sever financial ties to Myanmar's military. Senior generals already face sanctions for a scorched earth campaign that drove more than 740,000 Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh. And allegations of fresh abuses are mounting as it now tackles ethnic Rakhine rebels in the same area, according to an Amnesty International report Wednesday. But the army has continued spending, offered discounts by governments with a stake in its strategic location and an eye on a major arms market. Here are a few which it has turned to for arms, equipment or training. China Despite easing economic sanctions, the US still does not sell weapons to Myanmar. China has no such qualms. Beijing has provided diplomatic cover for Myanmar at the UN. It has also been its main source of weapons, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which estimates that from 2013–17 China accounted for 68 percent of Myanmar arms imports. That includes armoured vehicles, surface-to-air missile technology, radar, and unarmed drones, said Mr Siemon Wezeman, SIPRI senior researcher for the Asia-Pacific. He added Myanmar also placed orders for Sino-Pakistani manufactured JF-17 Thunder fighter jets valued at US$25 million each, seen in action in late 2018 at a Myanmar Air Force display. "Name it and the Chinese supply it," Wezeman told AFP..."
Source/publisher: Frontier Myanmar
Date of publication: 2019-05-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Life After Conflict: Healing the Environmental Wounds of War | earthrise - (video)
Description: "Life After Conflict: Healing the Environmental Wounds of War: earthrise looks at ways of healing one of the silent and often forgotten casualties of war – the environment. In conflict, one of the silent and forgotten casualties is often the environment. From the chemical contamination of soils with chemicals, and the collapse of water and food supplies, to the habitat damage caused by displacement, war has devastating consequences. Not only man-made infrastructures but also natural ecosystems are destroyed and lives lost. But even amid the most vicious struggles, there are people fighting to protect the world we live in and recover what was lost. "Protection of the environment is a norm. It's something which we do, where are standards in place. Yet, during conflict, it is almost as if anything goes. You can cause whatever damage you like and there is no accountability, there's no redress," says Doug Weir, director, The Conflict and Environment Observatory The Rohingya and the elephants In August 2017, a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing began in Myanmar. The military and armed fighters claimed the lives of more than 6,000 Rohingya in just one month. Fearing death, thousands more fled the country for the forests of Bangladesh. The scale of the exodus was enormous, and today they are still unable to return home. Over 1.2 million refugees are living in the sprawling refugee camps in Bangladesh. When they arrived, they were unaware that the forest in which they took shelter was already occupied - by wild elephants. Shortly after they settled, elephants began to rampage through the camp, killing 13 people in the space of five months. "All the camps used to be forest, they used to be elephant habitat," says Raquib Amin, an IUCN Bangladesh representative. "There is a space we call elephant corridor ... since the camp, [we are] completely blocking that corridor. Elephants cannot pass through the camp ... it is in search of its shelter, its food, its migration path." earthrise travelled to Kutupalong Camp in Bangladesh to find out how the Rohingya are learning to live with their elephant neighbours and how they are saving lives, both human and elephant, in the process. Saving Syria's Seed Bank In Lebanon, ICARDA seed bank, where seeds are saved from a bank in Aleppo, Syria, is helping scientists develop new pest and weather resistant crops. Crop diversity, which is so essential for food security, has declined by three quarters since the 1900s. The world's insurance policy is a network of 1,750 seed banks which safeguard plant biodiversity and can be turned to in times of crisis. But conflict can make even the seed banks themselves vulnerable. "It became impossible to access the gene bank in October 2015 because we were banned from accessing the centre by the armed group controlling the area," says Syrian seed conservationist Ali Shehadeh. "They stole the vehicles, they stole a lot of equipment ... nothing was left in the headquarters except the building and the gene bank." We meet a remarkable team of scientists who have fled the horrors of the Syrian war and are rebuilding the ICARDA seed bank in the heart of the fertile crescent where agriculture began..."
Source/publisher: Al Jazeera
Date of publication: 2019-05-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya crisis a lesson for world
Description: "Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the Rohingya crisis is a lesson for other situations of crises in the region and elsewhere in the world to overcome chaos with the power of peace, humanity and development. “We have sought dialogue and consensus over discord, even in the face of extreme provocation and crisis. We are not only responding to a humanitarian call, but we’re also aware about not allowing the crisis to escalate into chaos and regional instability,” she said. The PM was delivering her keynote speech at the 25th International Nikkei Conference on Future of Asia at Imperial Hotel here yesterday with the theme “Seeking a New Global order - Overcoming the Chaos”. Hasina said despite having extreme limitations, Bangladesh offered shelter to over 1.1 million forcibly displaced Rohingyas as a responsible nation. “The future of the world lies in convergence of interests common to humanity. As a member of the global community, Bangladesh will continue to work with all friends and partners to ensure a stable and sustainable world order for our future generations.” The PM shared some of her ideas with the Asian leaders to make a better Asia. “Today’s world is confronted with challenges and conflicts in many ways. We need to pledge to strengthen the world with greater openness, jointly address global challenges, safeguard fairness and justice and inject new impetus to cooperate using innovative ideas and measures.” Economies should take innovative practices surpassing alliances, Hasina said, adding that partnerships need to build on mutual trust and respect, common development and prosperity for a win-win strategy and to the benefit of people. She said Asian countries need to cooperate with each other in the spirit of openness, inclusiveness, equality, sharing benefits and joint contributions. Asia’s future would depend on sustainable and balanced development, improving international order and establishing win-win international relations, the PM observed. Mentioning that human civilisations flourished despite having suffered the horrors of war and the scourges of nature, the premier said she was confident that the daunting challenges confronting human civilisations would ultimately produce a positive outcome through strong, rational and responsible leadership and through partnerships among nations. In this regard, she firmly said the power of humanity and positive forces is bound to prevail. “The global community is looking up to us, the rising Asia, to innovate, aspire, and lead the world towards continued peace and prosperity.” Hasina said despite positive experience, the growing trend of trade protectionism has been seen in recent years. On the other hand, Asia has long been in support of liberalising trade and investment. Forthright, the protectionist move from many countries may eventually lead to a worldwide trade tension. “It’s a simple economics that tariff rise will cause decline in GDP growth.” The PM hoped that the Nikkei Forum would suggest how to strengthen the cooperation between the Asian countries and how to deal with protectionism within multilateral trading regime. Putting emphasis on UN system and multilateralism, she said, “Our emphasis has always been to promote peace and progress that would directly benefit people. In a multi-polar world, we would strive to strengthen the UN system and multilateralism for all countries.” Increasing close interdependence among economies in Asia and beyond would add further wealth to the economies and societies. Cross-border movement of goods and people cause exchange of a wide range of knowledge and experience and ideas, Hasina told the programme. “It is the dynamism of connectivity that forms the cornerstone for peace and prosperity around the world. Infrastructure, free trade and liberal investment give foundation to Asian development.” The premier said the unprecedented levels of wealth and opportunity, rising life expectancy, greater access to education, falling infant mortality and reductions in absolute poverty have been witnessed in recent years. Laying emphasis on facing development challenges collectively, Hasina said, “We may pool together as a group to boost world peace and stability, promote a multi-polar world and protect legitimate rights and interests of developing countries.” Terming private sector the main engine of Bangladesh’s economy, she said her government attaches utmost priority to private entrepreneurship and investments, both domestic and foreign. She said Bangladesh has one of the most liberal foreign investment regimes in South Asia, which includes legal protection of foreign investment, generous tax policy schemes and concessionary duty on import of machinery. “We also offer 100 percent foreign equity, unrestricted and full repatriation of dividend and capital on exit. We enjoy preferential access to most of the leading world markets, including the EU, Canada, and Japan. All these generate significant incentive for global investors, and we’re witnessing growing interest from foreign investors,” she said..."
Creator/author: Minister Sheikh Hasina
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
Date of publication: 2019-05-31
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: UN REFUGEE CHIEF VISITS MYANMAR THIS WEEK
Description: "The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, began his five-day visit to Myanmar this morning. This is the first visit by the head of the UN Refugee Agency to Myanmar since August 2017. Grandi is scheduled to spend the first two days in Myanmar’s Rakhine State where he will visit communities in Sittwe, and the northern townships and will meet with state and district officials. Later in the week, the UN refugee chief is scheduled meet senior Myanmar Government officials in the capital Nay Pyi Taw. This week’s visit to Myanmar comes on the heels of the High Commissioner’s mission to Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh at the end of April. More than 900,000 stateless Rohingya refugees currently live in crowded settlements in Cox’s Bazar, of whom an estimated 741,000 fled from Myanmar since August 2017. In the course of his stay in Myanmar, Grandi will follow up on a range of issues raised by refugees from Myanmar and will discuss Myanmar’s efforts to find comprehensive and durable solutions to the crisis in Rakhine State..."
Source/publisher: Progressive Voice via "The UN Refugee Agency"
Date of publication: 2019-05-20
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Tokyo stands by Bangladesh over Rohingya repatriation issue
Description: "According to the statement delivered following their talks at the Japanese premier’s office, the two leaders discussed finding a “durable and early solution” to the protracted Rohingya crisis erupted with the displacement of over a million Rohingya populations from Myanmar to Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina appreciated Japanese realization of the gravity of the crisis as “Prime Minister Abe and I discussed finding a durable and early solution to the humanitarian and political crisis”. “Japan understands that the solution to this crisis lies in the early, safe and dignified return of this displaced people to their homeland Myanmar and it is necessary for Myanmar to create conducive atmosphere in Rakhine State of Myanmar for the return of the displaced people,” she said. Sheikh Hasina thanked the Japanese government for their generous support to Dhaka in handling the crisis, and for their efforts to support early repatriation of the forcibly displaced people to Myanmar. The prime minister said she and Abe reiterated their commitment to take Bangladesh-Japan relations to new heights of cooperation and partnership..."
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
Date of publication: 2019-05-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya crisis ‘our problem’ too, says SKorea actor Jung
Description: "“The refugee issue is not only their problem, it is our problem,” Jung told a group of reporters during an interview held at the office of the UNHCR in central Seoul. “When I say ‘we,’ it could be taken as a limited meaning, but it is a problem (for all) of humanity and we belong to it.” Jung, who has been a UNHCR honorary ambassador since 2014, visited the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh from May 19-23. An estimated 910,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Rakhine state in northern Myanmar and now live outside Myanmar. About 55 percent are under the age of 17. The Rohingya are denied citizenship by Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country that sees them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. This has led to the world’s fastest-growing refugee crisis. “In other refugee camps, they had hope that they could go back home. But Rohingya refugees had doubts about whether they could go back to the land (where) they feel at home. They are the ones who are in the most devastating and appalling situations,” Jung said. What frustrates Rohingya refugees the most is the lack of access to education for their children, he said. Acknowledging that a political solution is needed to end the ongoing crisis, Jung said the burden should not lie solely on the Bangladeshi government. “Economically developed countries in Asia, such as South Korea, should more proactively perceive (the problem), sympathize and continue to give support,” he said. “We cannot leave Bangladesh, Myanmar and Rohingya Muslims with the burden of finding a solution.” Jung also stressed the role of Koreans and the Korean government. Recalling how South Korea rose from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War with the help of the international community, Jung said, “I think we, who are living in the contemporary world, should take more interest in the refugee issue.” He also expressed concerns about the hateful anti-refugee sentiment that exists within Korean society, as well as the government’s proposal to toughen the Refugee Act. “We are giving temporary opportunities for them to stand on their own feet while protecting their dignity because they are people who are in difficulty,” he said. “Toughening the act would be about controlling, alienating and managing refugees, which is far from the purpose of the act.” After all, every refugee is an individual who dreams of the lives all Koreans dream of, he said. As a goodwill ambassador for the UNHCR, Jung has visited refugee camps in Nepal, South Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq, Bangladesh, Djibouti, Malaysia and Bangladesh. His book, “If You Could See What I Have Seen,” based on his five years with the refugee agency, is set to be published next month..."
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
Date of publication: 2019-05-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Find lasting solution to Rohingya crisis
Description: "Planning Minister MA Mannan yesterday urged the international community to find a permanent solution to the Rohingya crisis. He said the recent influx of more than one million Rohingyas from Myanmar was a considerable stress on Bangladesh’s development efforts. “I call upon the international community to come forward in support of these forcibly displaced people and to devise a permanent solution to this problem,” he said. He was addressing a session at the 75th annual conference of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) in Bangkok, Thailand. The minister said Bangladesh was one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change although its contribution to the global carbon emission was almost zero. He said disasters caused by climate change were creating extreme poverty in the country, posing a threat to people’s empowerment and founding of an equitable society. He said it was also leading to massive migration of rural people to urban areas, posing a challenge to sustainable urbanisation and creating climate refugees within the country. “Therefore, I would appeal to the whole international community through the Escap for collective action without any delay to save the people and the planet. Otherwise, all of our development efforts would be meaningless.” About the country’s growing economy, Mannan said over the last decade, the country has gained commendable success in achieving gender parity in education. Female enrolment rate at the primary school is now 99.4 percent and about 2.7 million girls are receiving stipend at the secondary and higher secondary levels, he added. With a view to bringing quality healthcare services to the doorsteps of the rural people, the country has set up more than 14,000 community clinics across the country. The average life expectancy has increased to 72 years while the infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate has dropped significantly, according to the minister. Monowar Ahmed, secretary to Economic Relations Division, was also a part of the Bangladesh delegation..."
Creator/author: MA Mannan
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
Date of publication: 2019-05-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Protection Sector - Inclusive of Child Protection and GBV Sub-sectors - Rohingya Refugee Response Plan, Cyclone Preparedness & Response Sector Plan, April 2019
Description: "Starting from 25 August 2017, targeted violence against Rohingya communities in Rakhine State, Myanmar, forced hundreds of thousands of people - mostly women and children - to flee their homes, reaching a total of 909,861 refugees as of 15 March 2019 1 and leading to what has been defined as one of the largest and the ‘fastest growing’ refugee crisis in the world2 . The Rohingya refugee crisis is a protection crisis, where refugees were forced to flee to Bangladesh to seek refuge from persecution, discrimination, gender-based violence and other serious human rights violations. The crisis has also a particular gendered nature, because of the significant number of women and girls now in the refugee camps who had experienced severe forms of abuses and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) while fleeing Myanmar. Many refugees have witnessed family members killed, sexually assaulted and abused or endured long separation and are in deep psychosocial distress. Additional risks and needs are placed onto them in displacement, as a result of the current living conditions, with one-third of refugee families having at least one specific protection vulnerability that requires specialized protection attention3 . Additionally, 55 percent of all refugees being children, the majority of whom do not have access to formal education, adding to their vulnerability as education is an essential protection factor. While the overall influx has significantly slowed since the onset of the crisis, in 2018 a total of 16,765 Rohingya refugees continued to cross into Bangladesh4. As of August 2018, at the peak of last year’s monsoon season, around 200,000 individuals were estimated to be at risk of landslides and floods, while an additional 49,000 were already affected in some way by weather-related incidents as a result of monsoon rains. Bangladesh is in fact prone to natural hazards and disasters, and camps are yearly exposed to two seasons at risk of cyclone in April-May and October-December, as well as the monsoon season from June to September when heavy rains further generate floods, flash-floods, water-logging and landslides. In coastal areas, particularly in Teknaf, storm surges also represent a significant threat. Fire is also a serious hazard across all camps, given the widespread presence of flammable materials, light construction materials used, high congestion and proximity of shelters. Considering the aforementioned risks, disaster risk reduction (DRR) and emergency preparedness and response (EPR) are key planning and programming priorities and must be integrated into regularly yearly humanitarian cycles, in order to effectively prevent exposure to further risk and protect girls, boys, women and men of different ages and diversity determinants. In support of the Government of Bangladesh and its people who welcomed the Rohingya refugees, opening their borders and their homes to them, the humanitarian community rapidly scaled up its operations to provide life-saving assistance and protection. The majority of refugees who arrived since August 2017 settled in camps in expansion areas adjacent to existing registered camps of Kutupalong and Nayapara, and makeshift settlements in Teknaf and Ukhia Upazilas. By the end of 2018, a total of 34 camps had been demarcated. An additional camp in Choukhali, in Northern Teknaf, is currently being developed. Severe congestion in most camps, especially in the Kutupalong Mega-camp (home to more than 600,000 refugees and divided into 23 camps) presents serious general and specific protection risks. As refugees spontaneously settled in these largely unplanned settlements, density is as high as 10m of land per person, compared to the international UNHCR emergency standard of 45m5 . Over-congestion and a difficult terrain, mainly constituted by steep slippery slopes and flood-prone low-lying areas, make it very challenging to improve refugees’ access to humanitarian services, in particular for those with impaired mobility and disabilities. As such, access and outreach of mobile teams and volunteers, as well as ensuring that vital information reaches all persons, in particular during cyclone and monsoon seasons, should be a key priority for all Sectors. Close proximity of shelters increases fire hazards and heightens the risks of spreading of communicable disease, should a weather-related emergency arise. Deforestation, including caused by collection of firewood, also exacerbates risks of landslides and flooding, and impairs a peaceful coexistence with the host community. These harsh conditions can also trigger or intensify psychosocial and mental distress, increase community tensions and prevalence of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and violence against children. In order to mitigate environmental risks, relocations to safer locations, structural improvement works and stabilization of the terrain, as well as the building of essential infrastructure for basic service provision were successfully carried out by SMSDS Agencies as much as possible. In 2018 and at the beginning of 2019, the humanitarian community strived to stabilize and improve the camp conditions; including in order to mitigate risks in the 2019 monsoon and cyclone seasons. However, the situation in most camps continues to pose serious challenges for mobility and physical protection from the natural elements, particularly during the monsoon season and is expected to severely worsen during a cyclone (i.e. non-permanent shelters and absence of cyclone safe shelters for the largest majority of the refugee population). Among the several lessons-learned and good practices from 2018, community based protection networks of volunteers have been established and have continued to work closely within the rest of the community. In this regard, women volunteers form a substantial part of the community networks and their inclusion and direct participation is crucial to an equitable and efficient mobilization and providing information related to the emergency linking them to existing static and mobile protection teams. It is within this historical background and operational context and based on the lessons-learnt from the 2018 emergency response, that the Protection Sector, jointly with its GBV and CP Sub-Sectors, is leading the cyclone emergency preparedness and response protection plans in 2019; with substantial support of the Sector Lead Agencies and in partnership with all protection partners..."
Source/publisher: reliefweb via UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Date of publication: 2019-04-30
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.6 MB
more
Title: UN INDEPENDENT INTERNATIONAL FACT-FINDING MISSION ON MYANMAR URGES FINANCIAL ISOLATION OF MYANMAR MILITARY
Description: "The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (FFM) urged the international community on Tuesday to cut off all financial and other support to Myanmar’s military, saying its commanders need to be isolated and brought before a credible court to answer charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. FFM Chairperson Marzuki Darusman said the measures were needed because Myanmar has not done enough to resolve the nation’s conflicts and protect human rights, including those of over a million ethnic Rohingya civilians who have been forced into exile. “There has been no movement toward a resolution of the crisis,” Darusman said at the conclusion of a 10-day visit to Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. “The situation is at a total standstill.” The FFM’s 444-page report, submitted to the Human Rights Council in September 2018, documented how Myanmar’s military brutally and systemically violated the human rights of ethnic minorities throughout the country. It focused on the military’s ‘clearance operations’ against the Rohingya minority in Rakhine State in 2017, when security forces killed thousands of Rohingya civilians, raped and sexually abused women and girls and burned their villages in an explosion of violence that forced the exodus of more than 700,000 people in two months. Both military and civilian sides of Myanmar’s government persistently deny the facts and disclaim any responsibility for crimes under international law. Following this violence, Myanmar authorities have leveled empty Rohingya villages with bulldozers, effectively destroying criminal evidence, while making no substantive progress in resolving the ethnic animosities that have helped fuel the crisis..."
Source/publisher: UN Human Rights Council via "Progressive Voice"
Date of publication: 2019-05-14
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: The grim reality behind Rohingya crisis rhetoric
Description: "There are over a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh – the latest batch of 800,000 came after August 25, 2017, joining 250,000 that had arrived since the first exodus of mid-1990s. As Myanmar nationals, Rohingya Muslims have historically faced ethnic and religious persecution, culminating in 2017 in a fierce, protracted genocidal campaign by the Myanmar army against its own people. The military launched a violent crackdown leading to arbitrary killings of Rohingya, including children and the elderly, gang rape of women, inhuman torture, and razing of village after village that forced communities to seek shelter in Bangladesh, unleashing a humanitarian crisis unprecedented in recent history.False starts In the last two years, there have been many twists and turns concerning the repatriation of the Rohingya refugees to their homeland. First, a repatriation agreement signed in November 2017 failed due to the unwillingness of the Myanmar government to recognise the rights and citizenship of Rohingya Muslims. Second, Myanmar imposed an unfair screening and verification process to eliminate so-called illegal Bengali Rohingyas from the list of returnees. Third, in November 2018, a much-publicised repatriation bid for some 2,000 families was stalled after the refugees refused to return for fear of fresh persecution and confinement in newly-built camps across the border in Rakhine state. Fourth, the planned relocation of 100,000 Rohingya to Bhasan Char Island in the Bay of Bengal found no voluntary takers among the refugees for such a remote home on a flood-prone island. Finally, according to a UN official, the repatriation plan is now at a “total standstill”. With no solution to the refugee crisis in sight, there is growing concern in Dhaka and among the host communities in Cox’s Bazar, who have been severely impacted by the influx of huge numbers of outsiders in their neighbourhoods. There is equal disquiet among Bangladesh government officials about the future of the refugee situation. The challenge is to find the right balance between the official rhetoric calling for their speedy return and long-term plans for the refugees in Cox’s Bazar camps, supported largely by external aid and assistance. The ongoing initiatives for more durable houses, improved roads, solar street lamps, training and employment for women, markets/shops within the camps, and finally provisions for schools for the kids are all indications of a much longer – or even permanent – stay..."
Creator/author: Mohammad Zaman
Source/publisher: The Nation via "The Daily Star"
Date of publication: 2019-05-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Over 250,000 Rohingya refugees get identity documents, for many a first
Description: "Over a quarter of a million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have now been jointly registered and provided with identity cards by the Bangladesh authorities and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Rohingya refugees sheltering in Bangladesh are stateless. Despite living in Myanmar for generations, the Rohingya lost their citizenship following a change in Myanmar laws in 1982. Today, more than 900,000 Rohingya refugees are in crowded settlements in Cox’s Bazar, 741,000 of these being people who have fled from Myanmar since August 2017. The registration exercise, which began in June 2018, is about safeguarding the right of Rohingya refugees to be able to return home voluntarily to Myanmar in future. So far, the Government and UNHCR have registered 270,348 refugees (59,842 families) in the settlements in Cox’s Bazar district. Each day, over 4,000 refugees are registered at six different locations, where more than 450 staff are working long hours with the goal of completing the process by late 2019. Comprehensive registration is important for improving the accuracy of data on refugees in Bangladesh. It provides national authorities and humanitarian organizations with a better understanding of the population and their needs. Data will facilitate the planning of programmes and the targeting of assistance to where it is needed most, particularly for people in acute need, such as women and children heading families and people with disabilities..."
Creator/author: Joseph Tripura, Stephen Pattison, Caroline Gluck, Andrej Mahecic
Source/publisher: The UN Refugee Agency
Date of publication: 2019-05-17
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Bangladesh police rescue dozens of Rohingya being trafficked to Malaysia
Description: "Bangladeshi police prevented dozens of Rohingya Muslims, most of them women, about to be trafficked to Malaysia by boat, authorities said today. Traffickers had picked up at least 69 Rohingya from refugee camps in the Cox's Bazar district, promising them work in Malaysia where many Rohingya already live, police said. Scores of Rohingya Muslims have boarded boats in recent months to try to reach Malaysia, part of what authorities fear could be a new wave of people smuggling by sea after a 2015 crackdown on trafficking. An estimated 25,000 Rohingya crossed the Andaman Sea for Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia in 2015, many drowning in unsafe and overloaded boats..."
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
Date of publication: 2019-05-14
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: 24 Rohingya rescued from traffickers in Bangladesh
Description: "Twenty-four Rohingya refugees have been rescued from being trafficked to Malaysia in the capital Dhaka in Bangladesh, a police official said. Police also detained four traffickers as well as seized dozens of Bangladeshi passports from the smugglers, Mazedul Islam told the local daily Prothom Alo. Of the 24 rescued Rohingya refugees, 22 were women aged between 15 and 22, officials said. Islam said the traffickers have brought the refugees to Dhaka from Cox's Bazar and kept them confined at a house. Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012. According to Amnesty International, more than 750,Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA). More than 34,000 Rohingya were also thrown into fires, while over 114,000 others were beaten, said the report, titled "Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience." Some 18,000 Rohingya women and girls were raped by Myanmar’s army and police and over 115,000 Rohingya homes were burned down and 113,000 others vandalized, it added. The UN has also documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- and brutal beatings and disappearances committed by Myanmar state forces. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity and genocidal intent.000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women, and children, have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017..."
Creator/author: SM Najmus Sakib
Source/publisher: Asia Pacific
Date of publication: 2019-05-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Bangladesh: Chinese Envoy Rapped for Linking Rohingya Crisis to Economic Trade
Description: "A Bangladeshi official and political observers on Friday criticized a statement by the Chinese ambassador, who suggested this week that the Rohingya refugee crisis could be solved through economic development in neighboring Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Linking the plight of Rohingya Muslims to trade and infrastructure investments in the sub-region would be tantamount to disregarding the human rights issues that led to a massive exodus of refugees from Myanmar, the official and analysts told BenarNews. “Development alone could not resolve the Rohingya crisis,” Mohammad Abul Kalam, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner, told BenarNews on Friday. “The political will of Myanmar’s government is most crucial,” he said. “Unless the rights of the Rohingya people in Rakhine are not ensured, the crisis will not be over.” BenarNews asked Kalam and others in Bangladesh for their views on a remark made by Chinese Ambassador Zhang Zuo on the Rohingya during a news briefing the envoy gave in Dhaka on Wednesday about Beijing’s massive One Belt, One Road (OBOR) infrastructure initiative. “The real solution of the problem lies in development,” Zuo said, referring to the 740,000 Rohingya refugees who fled their homes and crossed into Bangladesh at the height of a Myanmar military crackdown in 2017. “We hope that after the violence is stopped and the people are repatriated, the Rakhine state could be further developed.” “We also hope that in the process of implementing the BCIM economic corridor, we could come up with a very good solution to the Rohingya problem,” the ambassador added. BCIM is an acronym for the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Forum for Regional Cooperation, a sub-regional organization also known as the BCIM Economic Corridor. It was conceptualized in the early 1990s to improve trade between the four Asian nations. Without elaborating, Zuo said repatriation was “only part of the overall solution proposed by China.” As proposed, the BCIM Economic Corridor would connect Kunming, the capital and largest city of Yunnan province in southwest China, with Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. The connection would run through the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka and Mandalay, the second-largest city of Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: Benar News
Date of publication: 2019-05-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya repatriation: Dhaka pins hope on Asean involvement for progress
Description: "Bangladesh has been trying to get the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), a bloc of 10 nations that includes Myanmar, involved in the process of Rohingya repatriation, which was supposed to begin more than 15 months ago as per an agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar. Dhaka hopes that Asean will be involved as a civilian monitoring entity in the repatriation process, to boost confidence among the brutally-oppressed Rohingyas – currently living in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar – to safely return to Rakhine. Recently, Bangladesh has been pitching the idea – wherever possible – of involving the bloc with the repatriation process. On May 3, during the fourth meeting of Bangladesh-Myanmar joint working group (JWG) in Naypyidaw, Dhaka highlighted the need for allowing greater engagement of Asean in improving ground situation as well as raise confidence among the Rohingyas. Senior government officials told Dhaka Tribune that Myanmar is always reluctant to involve the United Nations or any other multinational entities in the repatriation process. However, Naypyidaw seems to appear “a bit soft” regarding getting the southeast Asian bloc involved, due to its membership and trust in most of the members in the organization, they added. Of the Asean members, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore are Buddhist-majority countries, while Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei are predominantly Muslim nations, and the Philippines has an overwhelming Christian majority. Keeping all the relevant aspects in mind, Bangladesh is “deeply engaged” with Asean to convince it to be a part of the Rohingya repatriation process to ensure it is sustainable, which is “difficult, but doable,” the officials said..."
Creator/author: Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan
Source/publisher: Dhaka Tribune
Date of publication: 2019-05-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Study: 32% Rohingya children chronically undernourished, 13% acutely
Description: "More than half of over 700,000 Rohingyas who have fled to Bangladesh since August 25, 2017 are children A new research has revealed that about 32% of Rohingya children, aged between six and 59 months, who arrived in Bangladesh after August 2017 are chronically undernourished, while another 13% are acutely undernourished. The study also found that 36% of Rohingya children in the same age group who took refuge in different Cox’s Bazar refugee camps before August 2017 are chronically undernourished, while another 12% are acutely undernourished. The report was launched at a workshop on forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals in Bangladesh, organized by Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), at a Dhaka hotel on Thursday. BIDS conducted the study jointly with the International Food Policy Research Institution (IFPRI) last October. The report was presented by researchers Mohammad Younus and Binayak Sen of BIDS, and Paul Dorosh of IFPRI. Rohingya children’s nutritional status improved between 2017 and 2018, but their undernourishment remains unacceptably high due to poor maternal nutrition and hygiene conditions in the camps, the report revealed. Speaking at the programme as the chief guest, Planning Minister Abdul Mannan said although the Bangladesh government’s performance in most cases is criticized, its role in tackling the Rohingyas has been largely commended in the international arena. “The Rohingyas are actually not in good condition,” said the minister..."
Creator/author: Md Saidun Nabi
Source/publisher: Dhaka Tribune
Date of publication: 2019-05-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: World Bank grants $165 million for multi-sector Rohingya crisis response
Description: "The World Bank has given a $165 million grant under the project "Emergency Multi-Sector Rohingya Crisis Response" to help Rohingya people in Bangladesh. An agreement was signed, between Bangladesh's government and the World Bank at Economic Relation Division (ERD) of planning commission on Wednesday. Dandan Chen, World Bank acting country director for Bangladesh and Bhutan said: "The government and people of Bangladesh have shown generosity to almost a million Rohingya refugees, but now they need to address: basic services, sanitation, education, and environment. "This project addresses the current refugee crisis but goes further to help strengthen the government's overall capacity to plan, coordinate, and respond to emergencies." Under the project, 53 multi-purpose disaster shelters in-and-around the Rohingya camp will be built. It will pave more than 200km of roads, provide water and sanitation services for around 200,000 people and set up 1,500 solar streets light..."
Creator/author: Bilkis Irani
Source/publisher: Dhaka Tribune
Date of publication: 2019-05-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: ABUSE OR EXILE: MYANMAR’S ONGOING PERSECUTION OF THE ROHINGYA
Description: "One million Rohingya refugees continue to live in Bangladesh, with little prospect for safe return to their homeland in western Myanmar. Forcibly displaced by years of persecution and a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign at the end of 2017, the Rohingya are understandably afraid to go home. The government of Myanmar has neither addressed the atrocities committed in the past nor improved the wretched conditions for the few hundred thousand Rohingya estimated to still be living in the Rakhine region of Myanmar. In fact, the government is pursuing policies that are causing the situation of the Rohingya to deteriorate further. This population continues to be denied citizenship and faces severe human rights abuses, heavy restrictions on their daily lives, and little access to humanitarian aid or basic services. In February and April 2019, Refugees International interviewed Rohingya who had arrived in Bangladesh from Myanmar just days before. Those interviewed described ongoing harassment, arbitrary detention, and forced labor at the hands of Myanmar’s security forces. The newly arrived refugees also reported that the security situation in the Rakhine region had recently deteriorated. In early 2019, the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic armed group from the non-Rohingya Buddhist community in Rakhine State, carried out several attacks against police stations in the region. In response, Myanmar security forces initiated a crackdown that displaced more than 20,000 people and contributed to a sense of growing insecurity in those areas to which Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh would seek to return. The long-term trendlines for the Rohingya in Rakhine show no signs of improvement. For example, more than 120,000 Rohingya have been living in displacement camps since 2012 in what the UN has described as deplorable conditions. The government’s plans to close the camps have resulted in little more than shifting the displaced to structures next to the camps with no greater degree of freedom of movement or opportunity to return to their lands of origin..."
Creator/author: Daniel P. Sullivan
Source/publisher: Progressive Voice via "Refugees International"
Date of publication: 2019-04-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 793.72 KB
more
Title: Medical Teams in Rohingya Refugee Camps Adapt to Prolonged Crisis - (video)
Description: "The flood of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh in late 2017 created a sudden medical emergency that now has turned into a protracted crisis. For VOA News, reporter Dave Grunebaum shows how the health care community is adapting..."
Creator/author: Dr. Khalid Eltahir
Source/publisher: VOA News
Date of publication: 2019-05-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: The Rohingya Crisis: What to Watch for in 2019
Description: "Bangladesh and the UN must continue to work together to improve the conditions for nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees. The year 2018 was a dire and desperate year for the Rohingya minority from western Myanmar. Two-thirds of the population that had been living in western Rakhine State before the end of 2017 remain displaced in crowded camps in Bangladesh. The several hundred thousand who remain in Myanmar face serious restrictions, and what the chair of an independent, international fact-finding mission describes as an “ongoing genocide.” What will the year 2019 have in store for the Rohingya? Here are key developments to keep an eye on and some thoughts on what must be done to improve the outlook..."
Source/publisher: Fair Observer
Date of publication: 2019-01-02
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Bangladesh for early start to Rohingya repatriation
Description: "Myanmar was also urged to remove barriers preventing commencement of the repatriation at the meeting of the joint working group on Rohingya repatriation. The fourth meeting of the joint working group was held in Nay Pyi Taw today where these issues were discussed, said a press release of the foreign ministry. Discussions were held on all issues related to safe, dignified and sustainable repatriation of the forcibly displaced Myanmar residents to their homeland. Bangladesh emphasised on concrete steps for creating conducive environment in Rakhine and particularly on removing legal and administrative barriers to ensure such environment. Bangladesh called to ensure basic rights of the returnees including freedom of movement, guaranteeing their safety and security, and positive steps towards a well-defined time-bound pathway to citizenship that would encourage the Myanmar residents to return voluntarily. Referring to dispute on eligibility of more than two thousand prospective returnees from the first batch of verification, Bangladesh proposed to host the first meeting of the dispute settlement mechanism soon to which Myanmar agreed, the release said. Bangladesh highlighted the need for deeper engagement between Myanmar authorities and prospective returnees with a view to convincing and motivating them. Foreign Secretary (Asia and Pacific)Mahbub Uz Zaman led the Bangladesh side during the talks. The Myanmar side was led by its foreign Secretary U Myint Thu..."
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
Date of publication: 2019-05-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: “We do not believe Myanmar!” – The Rohingya Survey 2019
Description: "The Rohingya have been fleeing persecution and ethnic cleansing since escalating waves of violence against the Rohingya people started in Myanmar in the 1970s; entire families started fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh in search of protection. Despite their presence in Myanmar dating back to the seventh century, the Government of Myanmar continues to deny the Rohingya their most basic human rights. This marginalisation and denial of rights was enshrined and legitimised through the introduction of the 1982 Citizenship Law. The Law introduced unobtainable and unrealistic requirements for minority groups, like the Rohingya, to be able to claim formal citizenship - thereby de facto excluding them the chance to be recognised as equal citizens. As one of the largest stateless populations in the world, their access to employment, education and healthcare, as well as movement within Myanmar, is fraught with extreme difficulty. The most recent wave of violence hit the Rohingya in August 2017 when the Myanmar military began a disproportionate and indiscriminate campaign of ethnic cleaning which saw 745,000 Rohingya – most of whom were children – seek safety in neighbouring Bangladesh. Today, there are nearly a million Rohingya living in temporary camps in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh. For many Rohingya born and raised in the camps, Bangladesh is all they know. Despite this, Bangladesh considers Rohingya as “illegal immigrants”, instead of refugees, and subsequently their access to basic human rights, such access to education, employment or freedom of movement, are severely restricted. Nineteen months after the mass exodus in August 2017 the situation on the ground is moving from humanitarian disaster to a crisis of protracted displacement for the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya that arrived since then, bringing with it new and pressing concerns. As such, Xchange decided to return to Bangladesh for a sixth time to speak first-hand to the newly arrived Rohingya awaiting solutions..."
Source/publisher: reliefweb
Date of publication: 2019-05-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya crisis: Expert suggests Bangladesh follow Indira Gandhi’s way to deal with Myanmar
Description: "Prof Imtiaz Ahmed, who is also the director of the Center for Genocide Studies in Dhaka University, says Bangladesh needs to change the “body language” when it deals with Myanmar on the Rohingya refugee issue. “It would be easier to do it now than at any time before. We have had the election. We (the government) have a five-year mandate. So I think the government should be in a position….the body language ought to change,” he said, speaking at a seminar in Dhaka on Sunday. The Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) organised the seminar titled ‘Rohingya crisis: International Role for Tangible Solutions in Rakhine’ with its president Raheed Ejaz in chair. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam was present as chief guest while UNHCR Representative in Bangladesh Steven Corliss spoke as a panelist. DCAB General Secretary Nurul Islam Hasib made welcome remarks. Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque, secretaries to the foreign ministry Md Khurshed Alam, Kamrul Ahsan, Mahbub Uz Zaman, and Khalilur Rahman were also present. Prof Imtiaz said this body language change is “very important” in diplomacy. “The body language must change with Myanmar when we are negotiating. They are the ones who committed genocide, not us,” he said. “Look at the body language of Indira Gandhi way back in 1971”. Gandhi was a staunch supporter of Bangladesh against Pakistan’s genocide in 1971. “I can give examples of an extraordinary number of people that I know back in India and back in 1971 and what was their body language. “That body language ought to change particularly given the fact that this regime or part of the members was responsible for committing genocide,” he said, urging media to “keep a constant gaze” on Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: bdnews24.com
Date of publication: 2019-04-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: 'Do not forget the Rohingya': UN urges support for refugees
Description: "Top United Nations officials have urged the international community not to forget the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and called for global support to ensure their safe and voluntary return to Myanmar. Speaking to reporters following a visit to refugee camps in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar on Friday, Mark Lowcock, the UU under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said the body was seeking to raise nearly a billion dollars to help the Rohingya refugees and their host community. More than 700,000 members of the persecuted minority fled Myanmar following a brutal military crackdown in response to attacks by a Rohingya armed group. More than 1.2 million now live in overcrowded and squalid refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh. Lowcock said the "great exodus" of Rohingya refugees arriving at Cox's Bazar "caused all sorts of issues"...."
Source/publisher: Al Jazeera
Date of publication: 2019-04-27
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Myanmar Rohingya: What you need to know about the crisis
Description: "Risking death by sea or on foot, nearly 700,000 have fled the destruction of their homes and persecution in the northern Rakhine province of Myanmar (Burma) for neighbouring Bangladesh since August 2017. The United Nations described the military offensive in Rakhine, which provoked the exodus, as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing". Myanmar's military says it is fighting Rohingya militants and denies targeting civilians. The Rohingya, who numbered around one million in Myanmar at the start of 2017, are one of the many ethnic minorities in the country. Rohingya Muslims represent the largest percentage of Muslims in Myanmar, with the majority living in Rakhine state. They have their own language and culture and say they are descendants of Arab traders and other groups who have been in the region for generations. But the government of Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country, denies the Rohingya citizenship and even excluded them from the 2014 census, refusing to recognise them as a people..."
Source/publisher: BBC News
Date of publication: 2019-04-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Play your role
Description: ''Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday urged the United Nations to play a role in sending back over one million Rohingyas from Bangladesh to their homeland Myanmar. They need to go back to their homeland and the UN could help Bangladesh return them, she told three top UN officials at her Sangsad Bhaban office, reports UNB. After the meeting, PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters. The UN officials are in Bangladesh on a three-day joint visit to highlight the need for support for the humanitarian assistance to over one million Rohingyas living in Cox’s Bazar. The officials are UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi, Director General of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Antonio Vitorino and UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock. She mentioned that over one million Rohingyas are a big burden for Bangladesh. “How long will it continue?” she said. The PM said the local residents of Cox’s Bazar are suffering due to the influx of Rohingyas. “But still they’re listening to me, they’re extending their cooperation to the government. Their cultivable lands are being destroyed, even though Rohingyas have been given shelter destroying the forests.” The UN officials reaffirmed UN’s commitment to continue support and cooperation particularly for the education and other basic needs of the Rohingya children...''
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
Date of publication: 2019-04-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya crisis: 3 top UN officials arrive Wednesday
Description: "With no progress in sight in regards to the protracted Rohingya crisis, Bangladesh is going to receive yet another high-profile group of dignitaries from the United Nations (UN), which, according to many, has failed hundreds of thousands of persecuted people from Myanmar's Rakhine State. UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi, Director General of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) António Vitorino and UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock will arrive in Dhaka on Wednesday on a three-day visit to Bangladesh. The objective of the joint visit is "to highlight the ongoing need for support for the humanitarian needs of almost a million Rohingya refugees," a UNHCR press release said on Monday. Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, government officials concerned did not appear to be optimistic about any qualitative changes to the ongoing crisis due to this kind of high-profile visit. The country witnessed many visits similar to this, but the situation remains as it was in the beginning of the latest crisis in August, 2017, they said. All the UN needs to do is to put pressure on Myanmar to take their people back, and that is something the global body is not doing or unable to do, they added...''
Source/publisher: Dhaka Tribune
Date of publication: 2019-04-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya crisis: Brunei Sultan for ‘just and permanent solution’ Tribune Desk
Description: "Brunei Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah has put emphasis on “just and permanent solution” to the Rohingya crisis during a bilateral meeting with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. “We should make all sorts of efforts so that the Rohingyas can return,” Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque quoted the Sultan as saying, while briefing reporters after the talks on Monday morning, reports BSS. The talks were held at Baitul Mesyuarah of the Istana Nurul Iman, the official residence of the Sultan, in Brunei. During the meeting, Shahidul said, the prime minister sought Asean’s major involvement on the Rohingya issue. She also sought the Sultan’s cooperation in this regard, he said. The foreign secretary said Sheikh Hasina briefed the Brunei Sultan about her government’s steps for developing Bhashan Char island for the temporary shelter of the Rohingyas forcibly displaced from Myanmar. About the Asean, the Sultan assured that Brunei will continue to help to strengthen the cooperation between Bangladesh and the regional forum. Earlier, the prime minister had a general audience with the Sultan and the Royal family at Cheradi Laila Kenchana at the Istana Nurul Iman. Sheikh Hasina is now in Brunei on a three-day official visit at the invitation of the Sultan..."
Creator/author: Tribune Desk
Source/publisher: Dhaka Tribune
Date of publication: 2019-04-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya crisis: Host community furious over badly affected livelihood
Description: "The compassion of most of the locals in Ukhiya and Teknaf upazilas appear to have reached its limit, as many say, their lives were badly affected due to the lengthy stay of over 1.1 million persecuted Rohingya refugees, from neighbouring Rakhine state of Myanmar. Their compassion, which was exemplary at the beginning of the exodus in late August of 2017, now seems to have turned into fury, which is occasionally expressed by the host community in the form of processions and human chains. During visits to some parts the two upazilas, between Thursday and Saturday, the Dhaka Tribune came across quite a few people who expressed their fury, not only against the Rohingyas but also against the government, for what they called a “great mess.” Talking to this correspondent, the people, without any exception, said they want the government either to send the Rohingyas back to Rakhine or spread them across the country..."
Creator/author: Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan
Source/publisher: Dhaka Tribune
Date of publication: 2019-03-31
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya repatriation: Stalemate continues, no breakthrough in sight
Description: "Nearly twenty months into the latest exodus of Rohingyas to Cox’s Bazar from Rakhine, there appears to be no sign of a breakthrough in the repatriation of the persecuted people to their homes. An agreement on repatriation was signed by the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar more than sixteen months ago, but there has been no further progress.The stalemate in regards to repatriation has made both the Bangladesh government and Rohingya refugees equally frustrated. On August 25, 2017, Myanmar security forces, aided by local Buddhist mobs and people from different ethnic groups, launched a brutal crackdown on the Rohingyas, forcing hundreds of thousands to cross into Cox’s Bazar. Since the crackdown, which many including the United Nations say amounts to genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, more than 730,000 Rohingyas took shelter in Bangladesh’s coastal district of Cox’s Bazar. This figure is in addition to about 3-4 four million Rohingyas who have long been living in Bangladesh, causing a number of socioeconomic problems. High profile delegations from Myanmar and Bangladesh have held several meetings with each other in both countries since the crackdown began, and a repatriation agreement was signed in Naypyidaw on March 23. According to the deal, repatriation should have begun within two months of the signing of the instrument. Furthermore, the deal calls on Myanmar to take all necessary measures to ensure a favourable environment for the safe, secure and dignified return of the Rohingyas, but the country has failed to do so despite making repeated pledges..."
Creator/author: Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan
Source/publisher: Dhaka Tribune
Date of publication: 2019-03-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: 'State of the Rohingyas’ mental health and physical well-being is worrying'
Description: "In an exclusive interview recently with the Dhaka Tribune's Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan, Magali Roudaut, the country chief of MSF in Bangladesh, talks about the different health challenges faced by Rohingya refugees in the country, and how the organization provides services to both the refugees and the host communities The mental health and physical wellbeing of hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas living in overcrowded refugee settlements in Cox’s Bazar remain a serious cause for concern, Magali Roudaut, the Bangladesh country representative of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has said. “Mental health continues to be a significant concern. Many of our Rohingya patients experience flashbacks, generalized anxiety, panic attacks, recurring nightmares and insomnia, as well as illnesses such as post traumatic stress disorder and major depression. We are also seeing more chronic mental health problems and psychiatric needs,” she said. “The result of trauma experienced in Myanmar, a lack of livelihood opportunities, and concerns about their future impacts their mental health wellbeing,” said Roudaut, a French national. Médecins Sans Frontières, which means Doctors Without Borders in English, is a Geneva-based international independent medical humanitarian organization. They have been providing services in the refugee camps since the latest episode of Rohingya crisis began in August 2017. “As well as providing mental health services to Rohingya refugees, a significant portion of MSF’s mental health activities serve local communities around the refugee settlements, ensuring that the mental health needs of the local population are also addressed. From late August 2017 till February 2019, we have conducted 23,751 individual mental health consultations and 37,202 group consultations for mental health,” she added. Asked about the challenges to their physical health, Roudaut said: “Overcrowded living spaces in the camps and bad quality water contribute to the risk of disease outbreaks in the camps. Many of these contagious diseases can be easily prevented through vaccination.” Currently, children until two years of age are receiving routine vaccinations, but older children have not been systematically vaccinated and remain vulnerable to preventable diseases, like measles or diphtheria, she said, stressing the need for inclusion of all children above two in the routine vaccination program..."
Creator/author: Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan
Source/publisher: Dhaka Tribune
Date of publication: 2019-04-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: United Nations seeks US$920 million for Rohingya humanitarian crisis in 2019
Description: "United Nations aid agencies and NGO partners launched today the 2019 Joint Response Plan (JRP) for the Rohingya humanitarian crisis. The appeal seeks to raise US$920 million to meet the massive needs of more than 900,000 refugees from Myanmar and over 330,000 vulnerable Bangladeshis in host communities. Critical aid and services such as food, water, sanitation and shelter represent more than half of the funding needs this year. Other key sectors of the appeal include health, site management, protection activities including child protection and addressing sexual and gender-based violence, education and nutrition. More than 745,000 Rohingya refugees have fled from Myanmar’s Rakhine State to Bangladesh since August 2017, escaping violence in Myanmar and joining roughly 200,000 others already displaced in the Cox’s Bazar area by previous cycles of violence. With the generosity and support of the Bangladeshi authorities and local communities, who were the first to respond to the emergency, critical needs were met and many lives were saved..."
Source/publisher: The UN Refugee Agency
Date of publication: 2019-02-15
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: United Nations seeks US$920 million for Rohingya humanitarian crisis in 2019
Description: "United Nations aid agencies and NGO partners launched today the 2019 Joint Response Plan (JRP) for the Rohingya humanitarian crisis. The appeal seeks to raise US$920 million to meet the massive needs of more than 900,000 refugees from Myanmar and over 330,000 vulnerable Bangladeshis in host communities. Critical aid and services such as food, water, sanitation and shelter represent more than half of the funding needs this year. Other key sectors of the appeal include health, site management, protection activities including child protection and addressing sexual and gender-based violence, education and nutrition. More than 745,000 Rohingya refugees have fled from Myanmar’s Rakhine State to Bangladesh since August 2017, escaping violence in Myanmar and joining roughly 200,000 others already displaced in the Cox’s Bazar area by previous cycles of violence. With the generosity and support of the Bangladeshi authorities and local communities, who were the first to respond to the emergency, critical needs were met and many lives were saved..."
Source/publisher: The UN Refugee Agency
Date of publication: 2019-02-15
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya relocation to island now uncertain
Description: ''The planned relocation of 100,000 Rohingyas from refugee camps near the Myanmar border to Bhasan Char, an island off the coast of Bangladesh, may not happen, the Bangladesh Chronicle reported on March 27. The Chronicle quoted Bangladesh’s foreign minister AK Abdul Momen as saying that he and his government thought the Rohingya would get a better life on the island, but various international organizations have placed conditions on the move, insisting it would have to be voluntary. On March 25, the United Nations stated it appreciated Bangladesh’s efforts to seek alternative locations for the Muslim refugees from Myanmar. The UN statement went on to say that “we’re discussing with the government the critical protection and operational issues that should be considered before any relocations take place in order to ensure that refugees would be able to live in safe and sustainable living conditions on Bhasan Char.” According to Momen, Bangladesh hosts about 1.1 to 1.2 million Rohingya in the Cox’s Bazar area in the southeasternmost corner of the country. Bangladesh has been engaged in talks with the Myanmar government about the future of the refugees, most of whom arrived in 2016 and 2017. But it seems clear that the Myanmar government does not want them back and the Rohingya have said they won’t return to Rakhine State across the border unless the international community can ensure their safety, and they are recognized as citizens of Myanmar, which is unlikely to happen...''
Creator/author: Bertil Lintner
Source/publisher: Asia Times
Date of publication: 2019-04-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: 2019 Joint Response Plan for Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis (January-December)
Description: ''The Rohingya people have faced decades of systematic discrimination, statelessness and targeted violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar. Such persecution has forced Rohingya women, girls, boys and men into Bangladesh for many years, with signiicant spikes following violent attacks in 1978, 1991-1992, and again in 2016. Yet it was August 2017 that triggered by far the largest and fastest refugee inlux into Bangladesh. Since then, an estimated 745,000 Rohingya—including more than 400,000 children—have led into Cox’s Bazar. The immediate cause of their light was described by the UN-mandated Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar as a “widespread and systematic attack on [civilians]” including “murder, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, rape, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence, persecution, and enslavement” with “elements of extermination and deportation” as well as “systematic oppression and discrimination [that] may also amount to the crime of apartheid.” The Government of Bangladesh has kept its borders open to leeing Rohingya and leads the humanitarian response. The people of Bangladesh continue to show exceptional hospitality in the face of human tragedy on a massive scale. In keeping with its national policies, the Government of Bangladesh refers to these Rohingya as “Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals” in the present context. The UN system refers to this population as Rohingya refugees, in line with the applicable international framework for protection and solutions, as well as the resulting accountabilities for the countries of origin and asylum in addition to the international community as a whole. These terms refer to the same population...''
Source/publisher: Reliefweb
Date of publication: 2019-02-15
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 2.67 MB
more
Title: Myanmar army shelling villages in Rakhine state, rights group told
Description: ''Myanmar soldiers are shelling villages, detaining civilians and blocking aid as part of a new crackdown in Rakhine state by some of the army units implicated in atrocities against the Rohingya, a rights group says. Villagers and local activists in the northern Myanmar state have told Amnesty International that artillery or mortar shells are being fired in the vicinity of townships and people are returning to abandoned communities to find properties looted and damaged. Military activity in the restive state has intensified since early January when an armed ethnic Rakhine group called the Arakan Army attacked four police posts, reportedly killing 13 officers. More than 5,200 people have been displaced by the subsequent fighting, the UN says, and dozens of families have reportedly fled into neighbouring Bangladesh. Nearly a million Muslim Rohingya people are sheltering in sprawling refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, but most of those displaced in the latest fighting belong to Buddhist ethnic minorities who, unlike the Rohingya, are recognised as Burmese citizens...''
Source/publisher: The Guardian
Date of publication: 2019-02-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: United Nations seeks US$920 million for Rohingya humanitarian crisis in 2019
Description: ''United Nations aid agencies and NGO partners launched today the 2019 Joint Response Plan (JRP) for the Rohingya humanitarian crisis. The appeal seeks to raise US$920 million to meet the massive needs of more than 900,000 refugees from Myanmar and over 330,000 vulnerable Bangladeshis in host communities. Critical aid and services such as food, water, sanitation and shelter represent more than half of the funding needs this year. Other key sectors of the appeal include health, site management, protection activities including child protection and addressing sexual and gender-based violence, education and nutrition. More than 745,000 Rohingya refugees have fled from Myanmar’s Rakhine State to Bangladesh since August 2017, escaping violence in Myanmar and joining roughly 200,000 others already displaced in the Cox’s Bazar area by previous cycles of violence...''
Source/publisher: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Date of publication: 2019-02-15
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Scale of displacement across Myanmar ‘very difficult to gauge’, says UN refugee agency
Description: ''Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed deep concern over the humanitarian impact of the continuing violence and the “potential for both further internal displacement and the outflow of refugees”. “As part of inter-agency efforts, UNHCR stands ready to support the humanitarian response in the affected areas in Myanmar”, he stated, noting that more than 720,000 mostly-Muslim Rohingya had fled a 2017 military operation in Rakhine state, which was condemned at the time as being tantamount to genocide, by the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights...''
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of publication: 2019-02-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Thirty Rohingya refugees rescued from traffickers in Bangladesh
Description: ''Thirty Rohingya refugees were rescued from being trafficked to Malaysia in two separate incidents on Thursday night and Friday morning in the city of Cox's Bazar, officials said on Friday. Members of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), a paramilitary force under Bangladesh's Ministry of Home Affairs, also detained two traffickers. Of the 30 rescued, 17 were women, six were men and seven children, a BGB spokesman said. According to BGB director Asaduzzaman Chowdhury, the first batch of 12 Rohingya were found in the Shah Parir Dwip region, close to the Bangladesh-Myanmar border at 10:30pm. The 18 other refugees were spotted at Shilikhali, an area located near the refugee camps, at around 7am on Friday. "Upon speaking to two members of the group we came to know that these people paid the traffickers two lakh takas ($2,400) for each family," said Chowdhury. "We warned them that these kinds of adventerous moves could end up costing their lives as it is dangerous to cross the sea. After that we sent them back to their respective camps." It has been 18 months since more than 730,000 mainly Muslim Rohingya fled persecution in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar and set up camps across the border about 40 kilometers south of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh's top tourist location. The camps, sprawled over about 6,000 acres - just under half the size of Manhattan - have become more organised, but recent police activity suggested the risk of being trafficked had grown. The latest trafficking incident took place a day after Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie finished her three-day visit to the camps just ahead of a $920 million funding appeal by the United Nations...''
Source/publisher: Gulf Times
Date of publication: 2019-02-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Angelina Jolie urges end to injustices that have driven nearly one million Rohingya into exile in Bangladesh (video)
Description: ''UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie heard testimonies this week from Rohingya refugees who have endured years of persecution and discrimination in Myanmar and survived a desperate flight across the border. Speaking in Kutupalong refugee camp on Tuesday, Jolie said, “I am thankful that here in Bangladesh, Rohingya refugees have their existence recognized, and are being provided by the Government and UNHCR with documentation and proof of their identity – in some instances for the very first time in their lives.” The visit marked Jolie’s 64th mission with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, since 2001, and her first mission to Bangladesh. She met with displaced Rohingya people in Myanmar in 2015 and in India in 2006. Decades of injustice have driven nearly 1 million Rohingya to flee their homes in Myanmar and seek refuge in Bangladesh – the majority of them in the last 18 months...''
Creator/author: Christopher Reardon
Source/publisher: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Date of publication: 2019-02-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Angelina Jolie visits camps in Bangladesh for Muslim Rohingya refugees (video)
Description: ''U.N. refugee agency special envoy Angelina Jolie has visited camps in Bangladesh for Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and condemned the world's failure to prevent a crisis that saw 730,000 people driven from their homes...''
Source/publisher: The Irish Times
Date of publication: 2019-02-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Canada offers role in helping Rohingya refugees
Description: ''Canada wants to play a role in solving the Rohingya refugee crisis, The Bangladesh Chronicle and New Age reported on February 5. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s special envoy to Myanmar, Bob Rae, stressed during a recent visit to Bangladesh the need for productive initiatives to solve the crisis. Rae said after a meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen that “talks are underway, but we don’t know whether they’ll be successful.” So far, no refugees have been repatriated to Myanmar. According to estimates by United Nations agencies and the Bangladesh foreign ministry, the number of “undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh is 1,116,000,” news sites reported. “This is not just a problem for Myanmar and Bangladesh, but will be an issue for other countries in this region,” Rae said...''
Creator/author: Bertil Lintner
Source/publisher: Asia Times
Date of publication: 2019-02-06
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Tackling Rohingya Crisis: Canada calls for 'transition plan'
Description: ''Canada wants a transition plan for the Rohingyas as the repatriation process appears slow amid the refugees' lack of willingness in returning to Myanmar due to insecurity and non-conducive conditions in Rakhine. “Not short or long-term, we need to make a transition plan for the Rohingyas,” said Bob Rae, Canadian prime minister's special envoy to Myanmar, insisting on providing education and income generating activities for the refugees. If they do not get education and jobs, they would turn to crimes and radicalisation, he said. His comments come just days before the UN launches a joint response plan and appeals for $920 million for the Rohingyas this year. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam, however, called for continuous pressure on Myanmar from the international community for Rohingya repatriation. Providing education to the 400,000 Rohingya children could act as a pull factor for the refugees, he said, adding, “We need to address these pull factors.” The suggestions came at a panel discussion on potential long-term implication of the Rohingya crisis jointly organised by the Canadian High Commission in Bangladesh and Reading Club Trust at the Westin Dhaka hotel. Diplomats, academics, students and civil society members attended it...''
Creator/author: Bob Rae
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
Date of publication: 2019-02-06
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie begins visit to Bangladesh, host to nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees
Description: ''Angelina Jolie, the Special Envoy for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is visiting Bangladesh this week. Bangladesh has been heavily affected by the influx of more than 730,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar since August 2017 and now hosts nearly a million refugees. The majority of refugees – more than 620,000 people – live in just one area: Kutupalong, the largest refugee settlement anywhere in the world today. Jolie is undertaking a three-day mission in Cox’s Bazar to assess the humanitarian needs of the Rohingya refugees and some of the more critical challenges facing Bangladesh as a host country. The Special Envoy will conclude her in-country visit in Dhaka for official meetings with the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, and the Foreign Minister, AK Abdul Momen, to discuss how UNHCR can best support the current response led by the Bangladeshi Government, along with the need for safe and sustainable solutions to the plight of one of the world’s most persecuted minorities...''
Source/publisher: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Date of publication: 2019-02-04
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: ‘I Had No Options’: The Rohingya Man Who Smuggled Himself
Description: ''The reporting for this article was supported by The Masthead, The Atlantic’s membership program. Learn more. YANGON, Myanmar—By Kamal’s own admission, his family used to be “very rich.” His father owned a successful trading business, which sent fish and thanaka—a fragrant cosmetic paste made from tree bark—to be sold in neighboring Bangladesh. Their home in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in western Myanmar (also known as Burma), was a two-story structure in a busy quarter, and Kamal, a Muslim, taught English at a local church...''
Source/publisher: The Atlantic
Date of publication: 2019-02-05
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Myanmar: Humanitarian Crisis and Armed Escalation
Description: ''The Rohingya crisis continues to take a heavy toll on the nearly one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya remaining in Myanmar, and Myanmar’s international reputation, and remains a significant barrier to peace. No durable solution is on the horizon for the refugees, most of whom are in crowded camps exposed to health and natural disaster risks. Muslims remaining in Rakhine State suffer increasingly entrenched conditions of apartheid, with limited access to essential services and livelihoods. The human catastrophe on both sides of the border represents a major threat to peace and security. The ethnic Rakhine are also on a collision course with Naypyitaw, particularly over the detention and potential high treason conviction of a key Rakhine leader. This has undermined the Rakhine population’s confidence in politics and is driving broad support for the Arakan Army insurgency, which has sharply escalated attacks and threatens to tip the state into prolonged armed conflict. Elsewhere, in the north east, armed conflict has eased due to the unexpected declaration by the military on 21 December of a unilateral ceasefire in Shan and Kachin States. However, clashes between ethnic armed groups continue, the peace process remains moribund, and insecurity is exacerbated by increasingly lucrative opportunities for armed groups in drug production, human trafficking, and a range of other illicit activities...''
Source/publisher: International Crisis Group (ICG)
Date of publication: 2019-01-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya Camps: Chickenpox outbreak causes concern
Description: ''A chickenpox outbreak in Cox's Bazar Rohingya camps has raised a public health concern in the region, officials say. The number of patients with chicken pox, also known as varicella, reported last week was 5,376, which is more than double the number reported the week before, according to a World Health Organisation report published on Thursday. Chickenpox cases had earlier been reported on several occasions, but more and more cases kept coming since the second week of January. As many as 10,240 cases were reported between January 2018 and January 31 this year. Of them, 9,972 cases were reported last month...''
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
Date of publication: 2019-02-02
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: UNHCR: Largest ever refugee waste management facility in Rohingya camps
Description: ''The ability to treat large volumes of waste on-site at Rohingya camps, rather than having to transport it elsewhere, is a critical step to safe and sustainable disposal of such waste in emergency situations, said the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). "This will significantly reduce health risks for refugees and host communities, and the likelihood of the outbreak of disease," UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic said at a press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on Friday. UNHCR and Oxfam have together put into service this week in Cox's Bazar the biggest human waste treatment facility ever built in a refugee settlement, said the spokesperson. The facility, funded by UNHCR, can process the waste of 150,000 people – 40 cubic metres a day, reports the UNB. Close to a million Rohingyas live in a complex of settlements in the Cox's Bazar area. Kutupalong, the largest refugee settlement in the world, is home to more than 630,000 refugees, and managing the waste in this terrain requires innovative approaches...''
Creator/author: Mahmud Hossain Opu
Source/publisher: Dhaka Tribune
Date of publication: 2019-02-02
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Myanmar: Rakhine State crisis demands full government commitment to protecting human rights of all
Description: ''The ICJ called on Myanmar’s government to act as swiftly as possible to address the root causes of violence, discrimination and under-development in Rakhine, as well as for enhanced engagement by the international community in efforts to effectively address the situation, and to take measures to ensure that security operations are conducted in accordance with international human rights standards. The military operations follow attacks by ARSA on August 25 on police posts and a military base in which at least 12 police, military and government officials were killed, along with a large number of attackers (according to government figures). In the wake of the attacks on 25 August, the military launched what it has termed as a “clearance operation,” and the government announced that parts of northern Rakhine State have been designated as a “military operations area.”''
Source/publisher: International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
Date of publication: 2017-09-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Force Myanmar to take back Rohingyas
Description: ''Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday renewed her call to the international community to force Myanmar to take back its over one million Rohingya nationals from Bangladesh. “Myanmar must take back its nationals and the international community should help Bangladesh send back the Rohingyas,” she said. The PM made the comments when visiting Deputy Foreign Minister of Vietnam Nguyen Quoc Dzung, also special envoy to the Vietnam prime minister, met her at the Gono Bhaban. PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters after the meeting. He said the PM mentioned that Bangladesh has prepared a temporary shelter for the Rohingyas at Bhashan Char to provide them with a better living place...''
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
Date of publication: 2019-01-31
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Indian police arrest Rohingya group stuck at Bangladesh border
Description: ''Police in India's northeastern state of Tripura have arrested 31 Muslim Rohingya who were fleeing a recent crackdown by India's Hindu nationalist government. The group, which included 16 children and six women, was arrested on Tuesday after it was denied entry into Bangladesh and border officials from the two nations failed to agree on what to do with them.India regards the Muslim-majority Rohingya as illegal aliens and a security risk and has ordered that tens of thousands of them who live in scattered settlements and slums around the country be identified and repatriated to Myanmar. READ MORE Over 1,000 Rohingya flee India for Bangladesh fearing crackdown As many as 1,300 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh from India in recent weeks as fears of deportation to Buddhist-majority Myanmar sparked an exodus...''
Creator/author: Tanmoy Chakraborty
Source/publisher: Aljazeera
Date of publication: 2019-01-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: India's Rohingya shame
Description: ''Earlier this month, India sparked panic among its long-suffering Rohingya refugee population by deporting a family of five to their home country of Myanmar, where they will most certainly face human rights violations and imprisonment. This expulsion came on the heels of the controversial forced repatriation of seven Rohingya men last October. For Rohingya refugees currently residing in India, who the authorities claims are as many as 40,000, this second deportation seemed to harbinger a frightful pattern, especially as India's far-right government had previously pledged to deport all Rohingya. Ruling party officials have made such threats despite international law prohibiting states from refoulement, sending persons to nations where they risk persecution. In Myanmar, such persecution is a near-certainty. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after an army crackdown more than a year ago...''
Creator/author: Ashley Starr Kinseth
Source/publisher: Aljazeera
Date of publication: 2019-01-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya refugees rebuilding their lives in Chicago
Description: ''Chicago has one of the largest number of Rohingya refugees to have been resettled in the United States. More than 1,600 Rohingya are based in Chicago, having spent years in Malaysia after fleeing persecution and violence in Myanmar in the 1990s and 2000s. Rohingya are an ethnic, mostly Muslim minority who have faced decades of discriminatory policies and violence in Myanmar where the government considers them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The Rohingya Cultural Center of Chicago was founded in 2016 by Nasir Zakaria, a Rohingya refugee who settled in the US in 2013. The centre provides English lessons and Quran classes, as well as computer training, translation services and assistance with resettlement paperwork. It also organises football teams for the youth. Last December 2018, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution labelling the Rohingya crisis as "genocide". President Donald Trump has capped the number of refugees that can be resettled in the United States in 2019 at 30,000, the lowest ceiling a president has placed on the refugee programme since its creation in 1980...''
Source/publisher: Aljazeera
Date of publication: 2019-01-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: UNICEF Boss Urges Myanmar to Enact Kofi Annan’s Recommendations on Rohingya Crisis
Description: ''The head of the U.N. children’s fund urged Myanmar on Monday to implement the recommendations of a panel on the Rohingya crisis led by former U.N. head Kofi Annan, saying it had yet to create conditions right for the return of refugees from Bangladesh. Speaking at a forum in the capital, Naypyitaw, UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore said children from the Rohingya Muslim minority, a persecuted and mostly stateless community from Buddhist-majority Myanmar, were living “a precarious and an almost hopeless existence” in camps in neighboring Bangladesh. About 730,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine state, in western Myanmar, since a military crackdown in 2017 after Rohingya insurgents attacked security posts, U.N. agencies estimate. Tens of thousands remain behind in Rakhine, where they are subjected to restrictions on movement and have limited access to healthcare and education. Fore said Myanmar’s “commitment” to enacting the recommendations of Annan’s committee – which include ensuring freedom of movement and access to education – would help mend the lives of suffering children...''
Source/publisher: U.S.News
Date of publication: 2019-01-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: What do Rohingyas think about Bhashan Char?
Description: ''The displaced Rohingya population prefers living in the cramped and squalid refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, rather than living in a potentially better-sheltered and relatively more comfortable facility on Bhasan Char. The Bangladesh government is almost at the final stage of relocating 100,000 Rohingyas who were forcefully driven away from their land in a Myanmar army crackdown. However, the unwillingness of the Rohingyas to relocate to the remote island is delaying the relocation plan. Construction has already been carried out at Bhasan Char, previously known as Thengar Char, a river island which emerged twenty years ago at the mouth of the Meghna River. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to formally inaugurate the housing complex on the flood- prone isolated island soon...''
Creator/author: Sushanto Biswas
Source/publisher: Dhaka Tribune
Date of publication: 2019-01-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Delhi yet to respond to repeated requests of UN special envoy to visit India
Description: ''Delhi is yet to respond to the repeated requests from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Professor Yanghee Lee to visit India that houses around 40,000 Rohingyas from the Rakhine state. “No reply yet,” Professor Lee told the Dhaka Tribune at a press briefing in a Dhaka hotel on Friday evening. The press conference was arranged following her visit to Bangladesh from January 19 to January 25 to visit the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char Island. She had expressed concern over the deportation of Rohingyas from Saudi Arabia and pushing of Rohingyas into Bangladesh by India and urged to ensure their protection terming them as the world’s most persecuted community from Myanmar...''
Source/publisher: Dhaka Tribune
Date of publication: 2019-01-27
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Expert offers solution to prevent conflict between Rohingya refugees and locals
Description: ''While Bangladesh may have opened its borders to Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar’s genocide, the prolonged stay has soured relations between the host country and the displaced community. A researcher from University of Singapore has opined that a strong link between the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission and the local government can help mitigate problems among displaced Rohingya people and the host community. In a lecture Sunday on “Complex Humanitarian Emergencies and Disaster Management in Bangladesh: The 2017 Rohingya Exodus” at the BRAC Centre, Dr Alistair DB Cook identified several obstacles to providing humanitarian support for all and resolve the problem. Dr Cook’s research, co-authored by Foo Yen Ne – a senior analyst at NTS Centre – was published last year by Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Dr Cook is also Coordinator of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Programme at the University in Singapore...''
Creator/author: Dr. Alistair DB Cook
Source/publisher: Dhaka Tribune
Date of publication: 2019-01-27
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya crisis: UN warns against repatriation (video)
Description: ''The United Nations is again warning that Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh cannot be sent back to Myanmar, because it is not safe. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, who has been visiting Bangladesh, says the crisis could have global consequences...''
Source/publisher: Aljazeera
Date of publication: 2019-01-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: UK praises Bangladesh’s achievements, amazing development stories
Description: British High Commissioner in Dhaka Alison Blake has appreciated Bangladesh's achievements and amazing development stories, saying the United Kingdom will remain a partner in the country's development journey. ''She said this while talking to reporters after her meeting with Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday, reports UNB. The British envoy said: "I have congratulated the Prime Minister (Sheikh Hasina) on Bangladesh's achievements and the amazing development stories." The high commissioner said she shared with the minister how her government was excited about being able to work together to build stronger relationship with countries like Bangladesh. Blake also appreciated the government's fresh offer to have dialogue with other political parties. "I welcome very much the government's attempt to establish a dialogue with all the political parties, because Bangladesh has set a very ambitious target of a fully developed country status by 2041," Blake said, adding that there is enormous work before Bangladesh to achieve the goal...''
Source/publisher: Dhaka Tribune
Date of publication: 2019-01-27
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: UN expert: With Rohingyas, Bangladesh should prepare for long haul (video)
Description: ''There appears to be no chance of Rohingya repatriation in the near future as Myanmar has completely failed to create a situation conducive for the return of hundreds of thousands of persecuted people to Rakhine, a United Nations human rights expert said on Friday, urging Bangladesh to get prepared for a long haul. Instead of creating a favourable situation for the return of the Rohingyas, Myanmar is in fact on a mission to force the remaining Rohingyas in Rakhine to flee to Bangladesh through different types of crimes and intimidations, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Professor Yanghee Lee told a press conference at a local hotel upon completion of her seven-day visit to Bangladesh. She thanked the Bangladeshi authorities for facilitating her visit on Thursday to Bhashan Char, where the government wants to relocate the Rohingyas, but urged upon Bangladesh not to hurry in sending these people to the isolated island in the Noakhali district...''
Source/publisher: Dhaka Tribune
Date of publication: 2019-01-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya Refugees Create Music To Memorialize Culture For Future Generations
Description: ''More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled violence at the hands of security forces in Myanmar - that's in the last year alone. Today, nearly a million of them live in refugee camps in Bangladesh, where, as NPR's Sasha Ingber reports, they're using traditional music to document atrocities and hold on to who they are. SASHA INGBER, BYLINE: Inside a dim mud house a 40-minute bus ride from Thangkali refugee camp, Mohammed Taker takes his instruments off a shelf. The 35-year-old keeps his mandolin and harmonium stashed here, coming in the morning and going back to the refugee camp in the evening. MOHAMMED TAKER: (Through interpreter) If the government finds out that I'm singing songs, they will find me. INGBER: He's worried that if he plays music in the camp, informants from Myanmar - formerly known as Burma - will send word to the government. TAKER: (Through interpreter) We have people in our community who are friends with the Burmese government, and maybe they will sell them information. It's possible to find me because I'm one of only a few musicians. (Playing mandolin)...''
Creator/author: Sasha Ingber
Source/publisher: National Public Radio (NPR)
Date of publication: 2019-01-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: UN warns Bangladesh Rohingya long-term stay likely - (video)
Description: ''UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee has said that it is clear that Rohingya refugees cannot return to Myanmar in the near future. She has urged the Bangladeshi government to prepare to host the refugees for the long term and is concerned about the security of the refugees. Bangladesh's government plans to move around 100,000 refugees to an island in the Bay of Bengal, where the government said they will have access to education and healthcare, but the UN special rapporteur has concerns about the island's isolation. Al Jazeera's Natasha Ghoneim reports from Dhaka...''
Creator/author: Natasha Ghoneim
Source/publisher: Aljazeera
Date of publication: 2019-01-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Amid troop build-up in Rohingya's home state, UN appeals to Myanmar for peaceful solution
Description: ''Some 4,500 people have been displaced in the fighting in recent weeks, Mr Ostby noted, adding that the Myanmar authorities have announced that they intend to “crush” the so-called Arakan Army insurgents. “I think the situation as far as we know, has not broken out to major fighting, but there have been more troop build-ups”, Mr Ostby said, before speaking of his shock at attacks on police outposts last Friday that claimed 13 officers’ lives. Noting that humanitarian access to communities in need of help in Rakhine state “has not improved since 2017” - when some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled violence there to neighbouring Bangladesh - the UN official warned that facilities were not in place to cope with yet more mass movement of people...''
Creator/author: Ruslana Sirman
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of publication: 2019-01-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Myanmar army kills 13 in attack on Rakhine rebels
Description: ''Myanmar’s army says it killed 13 ethnic Rakhine fighters in counter attacks, after the well-armed group carried out deadly strikes on police posts earlier this month. Rakhine state has seen new levels of violence in recent weeks between the Arakan Army (AA) – insurgents fighting for greater autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists – and security forces. Many of the battles are taking place in the same region from which more than 720,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh after August 2017, when the army launched a crackdown the UN deemed ethnic cleansing. The AA are a more formidable force than the fighters claiming to represent the Rohingya and have inflicted historically higher death tolls on the military. On Myanmar’s independence day on January 4, the AA launched pre-dawn raids that killed 13 police officers and wounded nine before the army stepped in, setting off violence that has displaced thousands...''
Source/publisher: The Guardian
Date of publication: 2019-01-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Myanmar Failing to Create Conditions Needed for Rohingya Return: UN
Description: ''The United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, on Friday said Myanmar security forces have been engaged in an intimidation campaign against Rohingya people living in border areas and camps in Bangladesh to ensure they do not return to Myanmar. “It is evident that Myanmar is not working to create conditions for return for the Rohingya but is engaging in a sustained campaign of violence, intimidation and harassment,” she told a press conference at a hotel in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Friday evening. The press conference marked the conclusion of her 11-day visit to Bangladesh and Thailand. To the contrary, she said, Myanmar security forces have continued to force Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh...''
Creator/author: Muktadir Rashid
Source/publisher: The Irrawaddy
Date of publication: 2019-01-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Prosecute Myanmar army chief for Rohingya 'genocide': UN envoy
Description: ''Myanmar's army chief should be prosecuted for "genocide" against the Rohingya, a United Nations' human rights investigator has said. Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, added that holding the perpetrators to account for their crimes was necessary before the refugees who fled the country could return...''
Source/publisher: Aljazeera
Date of publication: 2019-01-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: The Rohingya Crisis: What to Watch for in 2019
Description: ''Bangladesh and the UN must continue to work together to improve the conditions for nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees. The year 2018 was a dire and desperate year for the Rohingya minority from western Myanmar. Two-thirds of the population that had been living in western Rakhine State before the end of 2017 remain displaced in crowded camps in Bangladesh. The several hundred thousand who remain in Myanmar face serious restrictions, and what the chair of an independent, international fact-finding mission describes as an “ongoing genocide.” What will the year 2019 have in store for the Rohingya? Here are key developments to keep an eye on and some thoughts on what must be done to improve the outlook...''
Creator/author: Daniel Sullivan
Source/publisher: Fair Observer
Date of publication: 2019-01-02
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya in the camps seek education, a say in their future
Description: "On November 26 last year fed up of being ignored, Rohingya refugees in camps in southeastern Bangladesh did something out of ordinary: they went on strike. For three days, leaders of the Rohingya community declared, that no man or woman working in the camp as a shopkeeper, teacher, health worker, or builder – would providing their crucial manpower. The call to arms was in response to new identity cards issued by the Bangladesh authorities and the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR. The ‘smart’ cards did not identify their ethnicity as ‘Rohingya’..."
Creator/author: Vidya Krishnan
Source/publisher: Asia Times
Date of publication: 2019-01-23
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingyas in Rakhine: Myanmar still forcing them to flee homes
Description: ''Rather than creating conditions for the return of the Rohingyas, Myanmar is engaging in a sustained campaign of violence, intimidation and harassment of the ethnic minority, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar said yesterday. “I spoke to one woman who arrived in Cox's Bazar a matter of days ago after her father was stabbed to death by Myanmar security forces. A man I spoke to told me that he and his entire family fled recently after his mother and sister were abducted and raped,” Yanghee Lee said...''
Source/publisher: The Daily Star via "Reuters"
Date of publication: 2019-01-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: UN envoy: No prospect Rohingya refugees can go home soon
Description: ''A U.N. human rights envoy said Friday that hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees won’t be able to return to Myanmar soon because of threats to their safety in the Buddhist-majority nation. Myanmar has been criticized by global rights groups and many nations for state-sponsored violence against ethnic minorities. Yanghee Lee, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, also criticized India and Saudi Arabia for mistreatment of the Rohingya in those countries amid global calls for protections for Rohingya Muslims. Lee spent 10 days in Thailand and Bangladesh, speaking to refugees living in Bangladesh, authorities, U.N. agencies and international experts. More than 700,000 Rohingya refugees have fled into Bangladesh since late August 2017. “It is clear that Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh cannot return to Myanmar in the near future,” she said...''
Creator/author: Julhas Alam
Source/publisher: The Washington Post
Date of publication: 2019-01-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: China offers Myanmar support over Rohingya issue after US rebuke
Description: ''China supports the Myanmar government's efforts to protect domestic stability and approach to resolving the Rohingya issue, Premier Li Keqiang told the country's leader Aung San Suu Kyi, after US Vice-President Mike Pence offered a strong rebuke. Mr Pence on Wednesday (Nov 14) voiced Washington's strongest condemnation yet of Myanmar's treatment of Rohingya Muslims, telling Ms Suu Kyi that "persecution" by her country's army was "without excuse". Meeting Ms Suu Kyi on the sidelines of the Asean Summit in Singapore, Ms Li said China attaches great importance to its ties with Myanmar and would build on their tradition of friendship, China's Foreign Ministry said late on Thursday...''
Source/publisher: The Straits Times
Date of publication: 2018-11-16
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya repatriation, relocation plans pushed back to 2019 after failed first attempt and protests
Description: ''Abul Kalam, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner, told Reuters “a new course of action” needed to be adopted on repatriation that took into account refugees’ key demands. More than 720,000 Rohingya fled a sweeping army crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017, according to UN agencies. The crackdown was launched in response to insurgent Rohingya attacks on security forces. Rohingya refugees say soldiers and Buddhist civilians killed families, burned many villages and carried out gang rapes. UN-mandated investigators have accused Myanmar’s army of “genocidal intent” and ethnic cleansing. Myanmar has denied almost all the accusations, saying its forces engaged in a counter-insurgency operation against “terrorists”...''
Source/publisher: South China Morning Post
Date of publication: 2018-11-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Statement by Ambassador Ma Zhaoxu at the Security Council Open Briefing on Myanmar
Description: '' Mr. President, First, China regrets that the Security Council heard the briefing by the Human Rights Council Fact-finding Mission on Myanmar. Such a practice undermines the unity of the Council and is not conducive to the cooperative efforts of Security Council members to resolve the issue of Rakhine State in Myanmar. Recently, with the joint efforts by the countries concerned, the countries in the region and the UN agencies, good progress has been made in resolving the issue of Rakhine. In mid-September, the first UNHCR-UNDP joint mission visited 23 villages in Rakhine. In mid-October, the second joint mission visited 26 villages in Rakhine. The Myanmar government has promised to give the joint missions full access to the entire territory of Rakhine and to actively implement the tripartite MOU. The recommendations contained in the report of the Rakhine State Advisory Board are being implemented. Recently, the Independent Commission of Enquiry on Rakhine started its work and held meetings. In consultation with Bangladesh, it will go to Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh to conduct an investigation for fulfilling the commitment of seeking accountability for human rights violations in Rakhine after the attacks by the Rohingya Salvation Army in October 2016 and August 2017. In mid-October, Myanmar once again received the visit of Ms. Burgener, Secretary-General's Special Envoy on Myanmar. The Special Envoy held in-depth exchanges with Myanmar leaders and officials, and visited Maungdaw and Buthidaung to get first-hand information on the situation in Rakhine. The joint working group of Myanmar and Bangladesh will hold its third meeting by the end of this month. His Excellency Foreign Minister Ali of Bangladesh indicated recently that on the basis of the Bangladesh list of 8,000 people and the list provided by Myanmar, the first batch of people are expected to be repatriated soon. The international community must note and fully recognize the above progress...''
Source/publisher: Permanent Mission of the people's Republic of China to the UN
Date of publication: 2018-10-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Bangladesh-Myanmar: The Danger of Forced Rohingya Repatriation
Description: ''Bangladesh is poised to begin returning several thousand Rohingya refugees to Myanmar. This repatriation is unlikely to be voluntary and should not proceed. It would not only violate Bangladesh’s international legal obligations and jeopardise the safety of the refugees, but risks triggering violence and greater instability on both sides of the border. Bangladesh and Myanmar should immediately halt the plan. The UN, including the secretary-general’s special envoy and the UN refugee agency, should continue to firmly oppose it, both in public and in private, and establish a process whereby Rohingya refugees are consulted about their future. The U.S., European Union (EU), Australia, Canada and others also should press Bangladesh and Myanmar to halt the returns and instead work to create conditions conducive to voluntary repatriation...''
Source/publisher: International Crisis Group
Date of publication: 2018-11-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 362.74 KB
more
Title: Arakan Army clashes with government forces in Rakhine state
Description: '' Myanmar’s security forces have clashed with ethnic rebels in the country’s western Rakhine state bordering Bangladesh, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported on January 2. The clash happened near Saytaung in Buthidaung township and involved rebels from the Arakan Army (AA) group of the Rakhine, the Buddhist majority in the state. Rakhine state also has a Muslim minority, the Rohingya, who live in the state’s northern townships. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled across the border into Bangladesh after an armed Rohingya group attacked police and military outposts in August 2017. The Myanmar army launched a massive offensive in the area in retaliation to the attack...''
Creator/author: Bertil Lintner
Source/publisher: Asia Times
Date of publication: 2019-01-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Asia’s version of Palestine emerging in Bangladesh
Description: ''When Myanmar security forces launched its now notorious “clearance operations” in western Rakhine state in August 2017, it was not the first time the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority had fled en masse into neighboring Bangladesh. But a failed attempt to repatriate a first group to Myanmar in November and the construction of solid, concrete buildings on an island off the Bangladeshi coast signal an entirely new situation is emerging: a Palestine-like scenario with a permanent, stateless and impoverished refugee population ripe for exploitation by extremist groups in South and Southeast Asia...''
Creator/author: Bertil Lintner
Source/publisher: Asia Times
Date of publication: 2018-12-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: China seeks big-ticket payback from Myanmar
Description: "As China surges forward again in Myanmar, new pressure to restart a controversial dam project could represent a watershed moment for bilateral relations. The Beijing-backed US$3.6 billion Myitsone dam project, which if built as previously designed would flood 600 square kilometers of forestland in northern Kachin state and export 90 % of the power produced to China, was suspended by Myanmar’s previous military-dominated government in September 2011."
Creator/author: Bertil Lintner
Source/publisher: Asia Times
Date of publication: 2019-01-16
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Myanmar: Disband Panel on Crimes Against Rohingya
Description: ''(New York) – Myanmar should disband its commission of inquiry into abuses in Rakhine state because it is clearly unwilling to seriously investigate alleged grave crimes against ethnic Rohingya, Human Rights Watch said today. At a news conference on December 12, 2018, Rosario Manalo, chair of the Independent Commission of Enquiry, stated that the commission had found “no evidence” to support allegations of human rights abuses in the four months since it officially opened its investigation. Her statement shows that the commission is disregarding evidence and testimony collected by United Nations fact-finders, the United States State Department, and international human rights organizations since violence broke out in Rakhine State in 2016...''
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2018-12-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Myanmar: Rights Catastrophe Deepens
Description: ''(New York) – The Myanmar government committed grave abuses against Rohingya Muslims and other ethnic minorities throughout 2018, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2019. Democratic space diminished in the face of increasing government actions to stifle free speech and peaceful assembly. A United Nations investigation found that the Myanmar military had committed the “gravest crimes under international law” in operations in Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan States since 2011, calling for senior military officials to face investigation and prosecution for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes...''
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2019-01-17
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Trouble ahead, trouble behind for Myanmar
Description: "There was no shortage of bad news from Myanmar in 2018 and few foresee cause for new hope in the year ahead. The Rohingya refugee crisis, the possibility that Myanmar’s military leaders may be held to account on charges of genocide at the International Criminal Court, and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi’s fall from grace as a pro-democracy icon dominated international media coverage of the country. At the same time, the United States imposed limited sanctions on certain Myanmar military leaders for their roles in the abuse of Rohingya; the European Union contemplated whether to remove the country’s tariff-free access to the bloc for the same reason...''
Creator/author: Bertil Lintner
Source/publisher: Asia Times
Date of publication: 2018-12-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: UN Members Thwart China’s Bid to Gut Funds for Myanmar Probe
Description: ''United Nations member countries thwarted an attempt by China to slash proposed funding for investigations into Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims. This ensures that a newly established UN body will have the necessary financing to gather and preserve criminal evidence for future trials. After marathon negotiations – during which China called for cutting the proposed budget in half – the UN General Assembly’s budget committee approved without a vote some US$28 million for investigations in Myanmar, only slightly less than the proposed US$29 million budget...''
Creator/author: Louis Charbonneau
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2018-12-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Myanmar sends more troops to troubled Rakhine State
Description: ''The war in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State is likely to intensify as more government forces have been deployed to the area in the wake of rebel attacks on police stations, The Irrawaddy, a Myanmar website, reported on January 10. Thirteen policemen were killed and nine injured in the attacks, which were carried on January 4 – Myanmar’s independence day – by the Arakan Army (AA), a local rebel group fighting for autonomy for the state. The Irrawaddy quoted AA commander Tun Myat Naing as saying that government soldiers “are coming by air and by road” and justified the raids because police units based in the area had helped the Myanmar Army attack the AA in December...''
Creator/author: Bertil Lintner
Source/publisher: Asia Times
Date of publication: 2019-01-14
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rebel attacks escalate war in Rakhine state
Description: "The war in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state is likely to intensify as more government forces have been deployed in the area in the wake of rebel attacks on police stations, The Irrawaddy, a Myanmar website, has reported. Thirteen policemen were killed and nine injured in the attacks, which took place on January 4 – Myanmar’s independence day – by the Arakan Army (AA), a local rebel group fighting for autonomy for the state. The Irrawaddy quoted AA commander Tun Myat Naing as saying that government soldiers “are coming by air and by road” and justified the raids because police units based in the area had helped the Myanmar Army attack the AA in December...''
Creator/author: Bertil Lintner
Source/publisher: Asia Times
Date of publication: 2019-01-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Atrocities as the New Normal
Description: ''This month we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To mark the occasion, we have asked Human Rights Watch experts to reflect on some of the key human rights challenges in their area of specialty. There is no more daunting challenge for the human rights movement than trying to spare civilians from the litany of abuses associated with the raging conflicts of our time, those that are claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and causing millions to flee across international borders. Where there once was outrage and demands for action, complacency has set in. How did it come to this? For a while, the world seemed determined to put an end to the most horrendous crimes facing humanity. Buoyed by the end of the Cold War, outraged by the genocide in Rwanda and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, a global movement was born in the new millennium with a powerful rallying cry, echoing that of Holocaust survivors: never again. Its ideas were radical at the time: no government was to hide behind its sovereignty to massacre its own people and no head of state was to stand above the law...''
Creator/author: Philippe Bolopion
Date of publication: 2018-12-10
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Human Rights in 2018: Ten Issues That Made Headlines
Description: ''On December 10, the world marks 70 years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Regrettably, instead of the anniversary signalling the enduring impact of human rights, some are fearing the “end of human rights.” Here we highlight some of the rights challenges that captured the world’s attention this year, illustrating the struggle to secure human rights is far from over...''
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2018-12-09
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Title: Rohingya Refugees Terrified of Being Forced Back to Myanmar
Description: ''“How can we go back?” Mohammad, a Rohingya refugee in a Bangladesh camp called to tell me. “They will kill us if we go back.” There is panic in the refugee camps, he said, after Myanmar and Bangladesh announced plans to start refugee repatriations very soon. While the Bangladeshi government accepted approximately 700,000 Rohingya refugees after the Myanmar army’s ethnic cleansing campaign, Rohingya say authorities are now pressuring them to return. Around 30 families are supposed to leave shortly. Security forces have been deployed in the refugee camps even as Bangladeshi officials said that there won’t be any forced returns. Myanmar authorities say they have verified the identities of 4,000 Rohingya to be returned, but no one quite knows who is on that list. Some, fearing that they are included, have fled from the camps. Others threaten or attempt suicide...''
Creator/author: Meenakshi Ganguly
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2018-11-14
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more

Pages