Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
See also Discrimination against the Rohingya in the Human Rights section
Individual Documents
Description:
"UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) of the Philippines have signed an agreement with Columban College, Inc. (CCI) to allow young Rohingya to enroll at the educational institution as part of a landmark national programme to provide a durable solution for Rohingya refugees in the region.
The agreement is a major step towards implementing the Complementary Pathways (CPath) programme of the Philippines. Set to be launched within the year, the programme will provide select Rohingya refugees displaced in Southeast Asia with a safe and regulated avenue of admission and stay in the Philippines through education, so that their protection needs and basic rights can be met.
Through the programme, the Philippines intends to strengthen the skills and self-reliance capacities of beneficiaries and lead them closer to a durable solution to their displacement – just as with any other refugee hosted in the country.
This Complementary Pathways programme is the first in the world to be created specifically for Rohingya refugees, and the first CPath programme pursued by the Philippines. The agreement was facilitated by the Refugees and Stateless Persons Protection Unit (RSPPU) of the DOJ.
Commending the signing of the agreement, Emily Bojovic, Senior Protection Officer at UNHCR’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, said: “As displacement numbers continue to rise globally, we are increasingly seeing the harms brought about by the lack of durable solutions for refugees. Complementary pathways such as this are absolutely vital to help refugees to regain their hopes for the future, to empower and enable them to contribute to the communities around them, and to support them by providing a lasting solution to their displacement.”
As the first educational institution to sign an agreement on the CPath programme with UNHCR and the DOJ, CCI acknowledged the significant role played by education in developing humanity.
CCI President Rev. Fr. Raymann Catindig said: “We perceive education, not only as a powerful tool by which economically and socially marginalized individuals can lift themselves out of poverty, but as an act of hope, one that calls for cooperation in turning a barren and a paralyzing indifference into another way of thinking that recognizes our interdependence.”
The CPath programme is another milestone in the Philippines’ long tradition of extending humanitarian assistance to refugees.
DOJ Chief State Counsel George Ortha II said that although the Philippines has limited resources, especially amid the pandemic, the country has always strived to uphold its humanitarian commitments.
“Despite limitations and challenges, we extend our best efforts based on what we have in order to provide assistance to our most vulnerable brothers and sisters,” he said. “We are going to change lives.”
UNHCR hopes the pilot CPath programme of the Philippines will inspire other countries and institutions to implement similar initiatives for the Rohingya and other refugees, in line with States’ international commitments, including the Global Compact on Refugees and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development..."
Source/publisher:
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Geneva)
Date of publication:
2022-04-01
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-02
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Statelessness: general studies and reports
Language:
more
Description:
" The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is appealing for USD 128 million in support of 1.4 million refugees and host community members in need in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar District.
Since the influx in 2017, over 900,000 Rohingya have sought temporary refuge in Bangladesh, where the protracted crisis is now entering its fifth year.
While the Government of Bangladesh and the local and international community have been providing immediate humanitarian assistance from the onset, the needs are immense and meeting them is dependent on continued support until the Rohingya are able to voluntarily return to Myanmar in a safe and dignified manner.
IOM continues to provide basic daily requirements to the refugees in a highly complex operation, thus, it is imperative for life-saving assistance to continue.
“Even as we face other pressing humanitarian crises elsewhere in the world and continue to grapple with the pandemic, the world must not forget the Rohingya refugees," said IOM Director General, António Vitorino. "We must continue to advocate for sustainable solutions in Myanmar that would eventually facilitate their voluntary and dignified return home. In the meantime, we continue to work together to ensure that they are safe and are able to live in dignity.”
IOM’s appeal is part of the Joint Response Plan (JRP) for Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis, encompassing 136 UN agencies and NGOs, 74 of which are Bangladeshi organizations. The humanitarian actors are collectively seeking to raise more than USD 881 million through the JRP, launched on Tuesday with the Government of Bangladesh.
The humanitarian community reiterated the need for continued support and financial assistance for the refugees in Bangladesh to ensure that they are not forgotten, amid emerging crises around the world.
For IOM, healthcare is a major area of focus. Additional funding will enable IOM to maintain its network of community health workers, along with the 49 primary and secondary healthcare centers that it runs or supports. Together these centers provide over 100,000 consultations per month with some operating as COVID-19 vaccination sites, supporting the Government of Bangladesh’s roll-out of vaccines for refugees over the age of 18.
Basic health is also dependent on access to clean water and sanitation. IOM is providing access to latrines and clean water, reaching almost 300,000 people on a daily basis. This includes running the largest solar-powered water treatment and distribution facilities in a humanitarian setting, together with wastewater treatment and solid waste management.
The need for new and better-quality shelters remains high. Support is needed to continue infrastructural work to improve sites, in addition to stabilizing slopes and continuously improving living conditions. This work also entails providing accessways, drains and lighting in public spaces.
To protect the most vulnerable – especially women and children who account for over 75 per cent of the population – IOM works at both the individual and community level to mitigate the risks of gender-based violence, abuse, child neglect and human trafficking. More funding is needed for Child-Friendly Corners that offer children a place to interact in safety, and Women and Girls Safe Spaces designed to improve women’s access, and participation.
Every month, IOM supports in delivering alternative sources of fuel to more than 96,000 households for cooking, contributing to food security while also reducing the environmental impact. Bamboo is the most widely used material in the camps, and over 700,000 bamboo poles have been processed through the IOM-run Bamboo Treatment Facility – the largest of its kind. Treating bamboo poles reduces pest damage and lengthens the bamboo’s lifespan, while also minimizing pressure on forests and ensuring cost efficiency.
“Along with the Government of Bangladesh and our partners, IOM will continue to support the Rohingya until they can safely return to Myanmar," said Fathima Nusrath Ghazzali, Officer in Charge at IOM Bangladesh. “This appeal is a critical element of the humanitarian community’s ongoing response, and the organization is grateful to its donors for their continued support and engagement.” ..."
Source/publisher:
International Organization for Migration ( Switzerland)
Date of publication:
2022-03-30
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
IOM Burma/Myanmar, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, UN System humanitarian assistance, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
7.08 MB (Original version) - 44 pages
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Sub-title:
The UK's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Simon Manley, delivered this statement during the 2022 Rohingya Joint Response Plan.
Description:
"Thank you Honourable State Minister Shahriar Alam, High Commissioner Grandi and Director-General Vitorino.
Thank you for giving voice to the refugees. As we enter the fifth year of this tragic crisis, we must inject renewed energy to address both its causes and symptoms. We need a long-term solution that enables the Rohingya to return voluntarily and safely to Myanmar, as soon as conditions allow. And we must make progress on accountability for the atrocities committed in Myanmar. The UK will continue to press for these objectives in New York at the UN Security Council and here in Geneva at the Human Rights Council. We will not allow this crisis and its causes to be forgotten.
We remain deeply grateful to Bangladesh for its continued hosting of the refugees. The UK is committed to supporting Bangladesh in managing the refugee crisis while the Rohingya remain. For our current financial year, we originally provided £27.6 million to the response. We are pleased to announce that we have increased this by a further £9m. This brings the UK’s total support since 2017 to £330 million.
UK support for this year includes a new contribution to the UN’s response on Bhasan Char, which now forms part of the overall response. In providing UK support, we welcome the commitment for relocations to be voluntary and for the Rohingya to be able to travel between the island and Cox’s Bazar.
At the same time, there is a need for the Rohingya to lead safe, dignified and purposeful lives both on Bhasan Char and in the Cox’s Bazar camps, where the vast majority will continue to live. There should be equal opportunities in both locations.
At last year’s launch, we emphasised the importance of education and livelihoods. Progress on both issues has sadly been frustrated, including of course by the impact of COVID. Thankfully, schools are now open. We hope to see a step change this year in access to quality education, particularly for girls, and some form of recognition or certification for their studies. And we hope a skills framework will be launched in the coming months and linked to livelihood opportunities.
These are critical ingredients to prepare the Rohingya for their eventual return home. But also to combat worsening criminality and insecurity in the camps. These issues are particularly affecting women and girls, many of whom suffer appalling abuse and exploitation.
The world faces unparalleled humanitarian needs, including in Yemen, Ethiopia, Syria, Afghanistan and now Ukraine. Against that background, and with resources already stretched by the pandemic and inflation, it is essential that we structure our collective efforts in a way which maximises the value of the money we spend, takes a longer-term perspective and optimises the range of different resources, including bilateral and multilateral development funding.
I would like to thank all those involved in the response in Bangladesh, from the Honourable Prime Minister down. The UK remains focused on the plight of the Rohingya and the strain this protracted crisis places on Bangladesh.
And, we remain firmly committed to working together to improve the situation for the Rohingya while they are in Bangladesh and the communities that host them, and to working with others to resolve the underlying causes of the crisis, including through the restoration of democracy and an end to the repression and impunity in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
Govt. UK (London)
Date of publication:
2022-03-29
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
more
Description:
"Last week, the Biden administration formally announced its determination that violence committed against the Rohingya by Myanmar’s military (the Tatmadaw) amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity. In response, the following statement is attributable to Lindsey Green, MA, program officer, Program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones, at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR):
“PHR welcomes the Biden administration’s formal determination that violence perpetrated by the Tatmadaw against Myanmar’s Rohingya minority constitutes genocide and crimes against humanity. The U.S. government’s acknowledgement of and future action on this issue are important steps toward justice for the Rohingya and a commitment to ensure meaningful accountability for crimes committed in Myanmar.
“It is past time the international community acknowledge the systematic violence perpetrated against the Rohingya as a coordinated effort to expel them from their homeland, and that the Rohingya see justice and accountability for those most responsible. For 15 years, PHR has used science and medicine to document and call attention to human rights abuses in Myanmar. Through medical evaluations and first-hand accounts from Rohingya survivors, we have corroborated evidence of widespread and systematic violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, burning of villages, shootings, and beatings, targeting the Rohingya in northern Rakhine state since August 2017. Thousands have been killed and more than 740,000 people have been forced to flee their homes due to years of persecution, abuse, and ethnic violence.
“The need for intervention by the international community to stop the ongoing military coup and end violence against all people in Myanmar, including the Rohingya, is paramount. This determination is a major step, not only in further validating the crimes committed against the Rohingya, but also because it initiates a number of more severe consequences and policy actions that the United States is obligated to pursue. PHR urges the U.S. government to hold Myanmar’s security forces accountable for their brutal crimes by passing the BURMA Act, continue to issue robust political and economic sanctions against military leaders and their affiliated entities, and supporting international efforts for justice and accountability for genocide.
“Most critically, the Rohingya community must lead in the process of determining what remedies, including repatriations, rehabilitation, and mental health and trauma-related support are owed to them for the violations they have endured. No one government or intergovernmental organization can accurately assess the severe trauma, life-changing disabilities, and immeasurable losses the Rohingya have experienced. It is imperative their voices be centered in this process now and in the future.”..."
Source/publisher:
Physicians for Human Rights (New York)
Date of publication:
2022-03-28
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, Human Rights and international relations, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
more
Topic:
water insecurity, climate change, preparedness, public health, IDPs
Topic:
water insecurity, climate change, preparedness, public health, IDPs
Description:
"Introduction:
The Rohingya IDPs in the Pauktaw Township in Rakhine State (Myanmar) suffer annual potable water scarcity during the dry season into early rainy season. Due to hydrogeology, with surface brackish water and sea water intrusion, the area’s main water source is rainwater collected in ponds. Due to water loss, linked to seepage and evaporation, the ponds go dry 3-months a year, impeding meeting the minimum humanitarian standards during water scarcity period, and water is boated in to fill the gaps.
This is a costly intervention, easily disrupted and not financially sustainable. Moreover, water supplied is limited, impacting personal hygiene, including menstrual hygiene, and public health, creating the conditions for diffusion of skin infections, COVID-19, acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) etc. Climate change is starting to exacerbate these issues, as sea level rise threatens to flood low lying camps, increases saltwater intrusion and makes rainy season unpredictable.
Update:
Considering the upcoming season of water scarcity in Pauktaw and the need for coordinated efforts to ensure continuation of water supply, as a life-saving action, it is shared below with relevant stakeholders the summary of the trend of water consumption and forecasted date of the start of the emergency response, based on our software to monitor and analyse each pond’s available water, together with the user numbers, and actual water consumption and losses, to predict scarcity timing and plan water boating for Rohingya settlements of Pauktaw township where Solidarités International is the main WASH service provider.
Together with water boating, the response provided by Solidarités International includes a gradual reduction of water consumption to 7.5 litres/person/day, and a decrease of water points to ration distribution to delay the start of water boating. In addition, water conservation behavioural change messaging is provided to IDPs. To save freshwater, brackish water is used in public handwashing stations..."
Source/publisher:
Solidarités International
Date of publication:
2022-03-24
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Internal displacement/forced migration of Rohingyas, Public Health, Climate Change - Burma/Myanmar: general, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
281.07 KB
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Description:
"BIREUEN, Indonesia, March 6 (Reuters) - Over 100 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar arrived by boat on the shores of Indonesia's Aceh province in the early hours of Sunday, an NGO group at the scene said.
Authorities were unsure for how long the 114 refugees, including 35 children, had been at sea, but some needed medical assistance when they arrived in Bireuen, Aceh, Nurul Yana Daba, a volunteer for the NGO Aksi Cepat Tanggap, told reporters.
"One female refugee got swellings on her arms and legs and is unable to stand or walk, while one man, maybe because they've been at sea for too long, is a bit malnourished," Nurul said.
Mukhtar, a local villager, said the Rohingya refugees walked into his village to seek help.
"They were asking for protection. We will leave it to the government. We are taking them in because it's the humane thing to do," he said.
Local official Alfian said villagers arranged food for the refugees but did not expect they would stay long at his village.
In December, the Indonesian navy rescued more than 100 Rohingya refugees who were adrift on a sinking boat off the western coast of Indonesia. After initial resistance to let them disembark, the authorities relented and subsequently bowed to international pressure to give them refuge.
Indonesia is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N. Convention on Refugees and is predominately seen as a transit country for those seeking asylum to a third country.
More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar after a military-led crackdown in 2017, and were forced into squalid camps across the border in Bangladesh. U.N. investigators concluded that the military campaign had been executed with "genocidal intent".
Some have fled by sea, sailing to countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia between November and April when the seas are calm. Hundreds of them came to Aceh in intervals in recent years..."
Source/publisher:
"Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication:
2022-03-06
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
more
Description:
"Jennifer Leigh, Alexander Blum, Agnes Petty, Andrea Woods, Parveen Parmar & Chris Beyrer
Conflict and Health volume 16, Article number: 9 (2022)
Abstract
Background
Documenting perpetrators of human rights violations enables effective prosecution and can help prevent future atrocities. Doing so calls for collecting reliable data using verifiable and transparent methodology. We present methods used to document crimes and identify alleged perpetrators implicated in the 2017 attacks against Rohingya civilians in Myanmar. The findings and lessons-learned have relevance to contemporary crises with widespread atrocities.
Methods
A mixed-methods assessment conducted from May to July 2018 included: (1) cross-sectional quantitative surveys among leaders of affected hamlets in northern Rakhine State, (2) qualitative interviews to record hamlet-level accounts, and (3) clinical evaluations of survivors of violence. Survey respondents who reported violence and destruction in each hamlet were asked to identify perpetrators of those acts, including known role or affiliation. The reported names were reviewed for clarity and divergent spellings, repeated references were aggregated, and the names and roles were analyzed and classified by location and affiliation.
Results
143 individuals were implicated in atrocities committed across three Northern Rakhine townships. Each was independently identified by at least three separate survey respondents as directly committing violence or destruction in their hamlet of origin, or as witnessed while fleeing to Bangladesh. Two-thirds (69%) of identified perpetrators were reported by four or more participants and 47% by five or more. Some form of additional identifying information, was provided for 85% of names. The most common affiliations were: Myanmar army (n = 40), Border Guard Police (n = 32), Village Tract Administrators (n = 17), and extremists (n = 25).
Conclusions
The methodology presented here yielded a unique record of individuals purported to have directly committed acts of violence and destruction in Rakhine State in August 2017, forming the most extensive record of individuals implicated in ground-level perpetration of those crimes. This methodology can play a key role in accountability mechanisms for the Rohingya, and in other settings in which perpetrators are many and documentation of their crimes is difficult. The use of survey methods and standardized data collection amongst affected populations to comprehensively characterize crimes committed and to identify individuals implicated in those crimes can serve as a key tool in documentation and an important component of accountability..."
Source/publisher:
BioMed Central (London) via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication:
2022-03-02
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Human Rights and international relations, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
953.78 KB
more
Description:
"Introduction: With the decline of the Cold War, attention towards ‘environmental conflicts’ was well merited and now it is being fruitful in understanding the study of how environmental degradation
acts as an agent in international and civil conflicts. The case of Cox’s Bazar is no different,
the influx of Rohingya is adversely affecting the livelihood of the host community due to deforestation, inflation and competition over. Although national and international humanitarian
agencies are providing services and creating opportunities for the local population along with
the Rohingyas, resources appear relatively scarce compared to the scale of needs which in long
term might turn into an adverse situation creating hostile conflict between the host community
and the rohingya refugees.....
Defining environmental conflict:
Environmental conflict can be broadly understood as a social conflict relating to the environment. It can be a conflict over the environment, most notably in terms of access to and control
over environmental resources. These so-called “resource conflicts” are defined by Elen Turner
as consisting of “social conflict (violent or nonviolent) associated with both struggles to gain
access to natural resources and struggles resulting from the use of natural resources.” From a neo-Malthusian perspective, environmental conflicts also consist of conflicts resulting from
environmental processes – especially resource scarcity supposedly putting strains on social
relations – even if the conflict per se is not over those “scarce” environmental resources. It
rather generates from unequal distribution of those resources (Billon, 2015)..."
Source/publisher:
Academia Letters
Date of publication:
2021-07-00
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
46.63 KB
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Description:
"Over a year since the attempted coup on February 1, 2021, the Myanmar military junta,
which is led by the perpetrators of the decades-long genocide against Rohingya, is
continuing to act with the intent of destroying this ethnic minority and indigenous group as
well as commit widespread and systematic attacks of violence against the country’s entire
population. As was reported by the United Nations (UN) Independent International FactFinding Mission in 2018, the Myanmar military and security forces had perpetrated war
crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity for decades, including by using sexual
violence as a “hallmark” of their operations; in 2017, these forces launched strategic attacks
of genocide against Rohingya, forcing hundreds of thousands to be displaced and seek
refuge in neighboring countries. Despite the International Court of Justice’s provisional
measures in 2019, today, Rohingya as a group, including the millions of refugees, have no
chance of finding peace and security, returning to their homes across Myanmar, and having
their fundamental rights restored indefinitely.
This briefer provides a brief, on-the-ground situation update of Rohingya and demonstrates
the way in which the Myanmar military and security forces are committing arbitrary
arrest and detention, including by issuing restrictions to the group's movement, to continue
their strategic persecution of Rohingya..."
Source/publisher:
Women’s Peace Network
Date of publication:
2022-03-02
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
2.52 MB
more
Description:
"Introduction: building business, breaking peace?
Myanmar’s economic opening and transition to democracy has given businesses significant opportunities to expand in a high-growth but problematic emerging market.
Foreign direct investment has grown 10-fold since 20111 across all sectors of the
Myanmar economy. But Myanmar also ranks in the bottom 5 per cent of 189 countries
surveyed by the World Bank for ease of doing business,2 permeated by endemic
corruption at the individual, institutional and political levels.3 The United Nations
Development Programme lumps these issues under the umbrella of ‘business rights’,
including contractual certainty, financial fairness and freedom from corruption and
extortion,4 together considered as the building blocks for successful business
development.
While opening brought optimism that trade and growth would lift Myanmar’s
poorest, these gains have primarily benefited existing local elites as most new investments require local partners who hold high-level roles in Myanmar’s political–
military nexus. Moreover, Myanmar’s military undertook an ethnic cleansing of
2 million Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state – just the type of authoritarian action
that economic opening was promised to temper. Today, some 700,000 Rohingya are
refugees in neighbouring India and Bangladesh, with a further 100,000 in internally
displaced persons camps.5 While many international non-governmental organisations
(INGOs) have condemned the violent cleansing, no businesses operating in Myanmar
have spoken out against it as of February 2017, and none have withdrawn their
government partnerships or left the country. This silence comes as many companies
have explicitly framed their entry (or re-entry) into the Myanmar market as action to
help solidify peace in one of the world’s least developed states, promoting their roles as
agents of peace and sustainable socio-economic development.
Myanmar’s society remains a patchwork of ethnic groups, regional fighting and
power struggles that often pre-date military rule. While growth grows the pie (and
spoils of peace), unevenness of this distribution has exacerbated societal cleavages.
There are 135 ethnic minorities in Myanmar and 18 conflict groups that base their
allegiance and fight upon the stated basis of grievances resulting from social, political
and economic deprivation.6 These conflicts tend to be based in the country’s border
areas, where employment opportunities, infrastructure and state capacity are limited,
and the likelihood of abuses by official forces is high. Nearly all of these conflicts are
rooted in the uneven division of economic opportunities and civil rights in Myanmar,
along with the heavy-handed rule used to maintain it.
Layered within these historically repressive tactics is state-supported ethnic conflict.
These issues have manifested in Rakhine state between Buddhist majority ‘ethnic
Rakhines’ and a Muslim Rohingya minority. The Rohingya are called ‘Bengali
Muslims’ by most in Myanmar, due to their migration from what is now Bangladesh
beginning in the late 1700s, and as an indicator of the desire to designate Rohingyas as
outsiders.7 This is the government’s third major cleansing attempt of Rohingya, following similar efforts in 1978 and 1991.8 Many have used the new liberalised media
landscape to promote divisive ethnic speech, most visibly Buddhist nationalists Ashin
Wirathu and Ma Ba Tha.9 These overtures culminated in a series of ‘Protection of Race
and Religion’ laws that designated Myanmar as a Buddhist state and legalised antiRohingya discrimination.10 Criticised by the UN, INGOs and some domestic NGOs,
the bills were nevertheless passed throughout 2014 and 2015.
To understand why economic opening and rapid development has failed to bring an
inclusive peace to Myanmar, we compare Myanmar’s imperfect opening to existing
assumptions on how businesses can and should operate in fragile states. The literature
has been proliferating rapidly with theories about how, where and why businesses can
contribute to peace-building.11 The business community has also been urged to be
more involved in post-conflict peace-building processes,12 through the Responsibility
To Protect, UN Sustainable Development Goals, Business and Human Rights Guiding
Principles, United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and similar multilateral initiatives.
But the empirical evidence that can support and refine such pushes remains wanting.
We have gaps in understanding national-level variations in motivations behind business
engagement in peace, how international business-peace agendas influence local business
communities, which local business agents are the most effective for peace and development, how competition from firms based in countries with more illiberal
predispositions influences ethical business decision-making and where peace-building
business activities have worsened local ethnic conflict instead of alleviating it. This
article explores new avenues for theory on these issues through analysis of national
business engagement in peace and development in Myanmar after the country’s 2011
economic opening, emphasising business owners in conflict-affected Rakhine state.
This article presents three primary findings about business actions in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
Routledge (London)
Date of publication:
2019-02-14
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-02
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Ethnic Cleansing, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
514.1 KB
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Description:
"Myanmar government’s discriminatory policies with the Rohingya ethnic group since the late
1970s have forcefully compelled a great number of Muslim Rohingya to escape their homes
in the predominantly Buddhist country. Most of them have crossed by land into Bangladesh,
while others took the sea route to reach Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The violence
of Rohingya displacement chronologically occurred after Burma had got independence from
the British, and finally, in 2017, the brutality of Myanmar Junta aroused extremely with reported rape, murder, and burning that generated a massive migration of Rohingya towards Bangladesh. There are compelling reasons for studying the refugee policy of Bangladesh. First, the
magnitude of Rohingya influx in 2017 drew unprecedented global attention when an estimated
750,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar’s Rakhine state entered Bangladesh. (Ashraf,
2021)
The Assignment has been designed with short answers to the following questions:
a) Did the military junta in Myanmar make a long-term plan to forcefully displace
hundreds and thousands of Rohingya’s painful journey to Bangladesh since August 2017?
b) How did they (military junta of Myanmar) execute their plan?
c) Did the Bangladeshi authorities fail to detect Myanmar’s plan?
d) What could have been done to prevent the 2017 Rohingya influx?
The assignment also contains four sections: the first section depicts an introduction including four questions on the Rohingya crisis, the second section draws a short identity of
Rohingya and Myanmar, the third section explains the mainstream covering the real and logical answers to the questions of section one and the final section depicts a brief conclusion.
Myanmar and Rohingya
Myanmar is the largest Buddhist-dominated country at the meeting point of South and Southeast Asia. After his independence from the British on January 4, 1948, Aung San, the general
of his national army took charge of the country’s government. During the time of General
Ne Win, it became a one-party socialist state until 1988. The military junta was melted down
authoritarian with a parliamentary election in 2010 and a nominally civilian government was
formed.
The Rohingya are an ethnic Muslim minority who practice Sunni Islam in Rakhine State
in Myanmar. They differ religiously, ethnically, and linguistically from dominant Buddhists.
Rohingyas have lived in Myanmar for centuries and they are the descendants of Muslim Arabs,
Moors, Persians, Turks, Mughals, and Bengalis who came mostly as traders, warriors, and
saints through overland and sea routes (Kipgen, 2014). They have a glorious past that informs
us about Muslim Sultanate. The Rohingya trace their origins in the region to the fifteenth
century, when thousands of Muslims came to the former Arakan Kingdom. (Eleanor Albert,
2020). But the local people and the government of Myanmar says that the Rohingya are
gradual migrant from Bangladesh. They did never confess them as the ethnic of Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
Academia Letters
Date of publication:
2022-01-00
Date of entry/update:
2022-02-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Internal displacement/forced migration of Rohingyas
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
64.08 KB
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Sub-title:
Virtual awards show hosted by actor Jay Ellis on Monday
Description:
" Fortify Rights and Doha Debates won an inaugural Anthem Award for training and supporting Rohingya refugee photographers in Bangladesh, said Fortify Rights today. The project will receive the Silver Award in “Best Local Community Engagement” at an award show that will air live on Monday, hosted by TV and film actor Jay Ellis.
“The Rohingya and all people of Myanmar are in their darkest hour, under attack by a brutal military junta, making it even more important to shine a light on the positive forces for change among the community,” said Matthew Smith, CEO of Fortify Rights. “There has never been a more important time to fortify support for refugees, and we’re hopeful this award can help us do more of that.”
Fortify Rights Senior Multimedia Specialist Taimoor Sobhan will accept the award on behalf of Fortify Rights and Doha Debates at the virtual awards show that will air live on February 28 at 1 p.m. PT at anthemawards.com.
The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences established the Anthem Awards as a new initiative of the Webby Awards to celebrate “the purpose and mission-driven work of people, companies, and organizations worldwide.” A panel of judges, including actors Daniel Dae Kim and Ashley Judd as well as prominent business and organization leaders, selected the winners from nearly 2,500 submissions from 36 countries.
Since 2018, in partnership with Doha Debates, Fortify Rights has provided on-the-ground photography and media skills training for three young Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh who are survivors of genocide in Myanmar. The organization equipped the three “media fellows” – Dil Kayas, Omal Khair, and Azimul Hasson – with mobile phones, which Myanmar authorities forbade them from possessing in their native Rakhine State. They have since documented their lives in Cox’s Bazar refugee camps on Instagram, amassing thousands of followers. The project won a Shorty Award in 2020 and was a finalist for a 2019 Shorty Award.
The 23-minute documentary film, EXODUS, produced by Fortify Rights and Doha Debates and directed by Fortify Rights Senior Multimedia Specialist Taimoor Sobhan, delves into the lives of the media fellows as they survive the Rohingya genocide.
Other Anthem Award winners this year include Dr. Jane Goodall “for her lifetime of passionate advocacy for the conservation of the natural world”; American film director, producer, screenwriter, and comedian Adam McKay “for holding up a mirror to society through his work”; and Japanese professional tennis star Naomi Osaka “for claiming her third grand slam title while igniting a conversation about mental health, racial injustice, and police brutality...”
Source/publisher:
Fortify Rights
Date of publication:
2022-02-26
Date of entry/update:
2022-02-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
They say the junta is trying to placate the international community amid an international genocide hearing.
Description:
"Ethnic Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh will not return to their home in neighboring Myanmar’s Rakhine state unless they are granted equal rights and freedom of movement, they said Thursday, days after the junta announced that it is preparing for their immediate repatriation.
The junta’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Feb. 20 that it is readying the return of “displaced persons from Rakhine state.” The announcement notably avoided both the use of the term “Rohingya,” a mostly Muslim ethnicity that the military says does not exist in Myanmar, and the term “Bengali,” which the junta favors and implies the group is originally from Bangladesh.
The junta statement also called for a meeting with the secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), saying that after agreeing to the bloc’s initial recommendations on the re-admission of displaced persons in Rakhine state, assistance is needed to implement them.
Rohingya refugees and activists in Bangladesh told RFA’s Myanmar Service on Thursday that they have no confidence the junta will act on the recommendations and said they need assurances their rights will be protected before they return.
Ali Jenner, a Rohingya refugee from the Baluhali refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district, said he and others in the camp “have no trust in the junta at all.”
“If the Rohingya people can get equal citizenship, security rights, equal rights and all our original rights as other citizens there, then we can agree to go back,” he said.
The West African nation of Gambia filed a case at the ICJ in November 2019 accusing Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention during the alleged expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya amid a brutal crackdown in 2017.
The ICJ, which is the judicial arm of the United Nations, began hearings on Feb. 21, the day after the junta statement on returning refugees, to determine whether it has jurisdiction to examine claims that atrocities committed by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya constituted a genocide.
The hearings are scheduled to last until Feb. 28 and will include arguments presented by representatives of Myanmar and Gambia
The junta’s defense lawyers — Christopher Staker and Stefan Talmon — have argued that Gambia submitted its case on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and that the ICJ has no jurisdiction because the OIC is not a country. They also argue that Gambia is not an aggrieved country and has no right to sue Myanmar.
Gambia defended its right to sue Myanmar in an appeal issued on Feb. 23. Gambian Attorney General Dawda Jallow says the case was not only brought to the ICJ to protect the rights of the Rohingya, but to uphold Gambia’s rights as a signatory to the U.N. Convention on Genocide.
Response to pressure
Rohingya living in refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh have said they are hopeful that the ICJ can bring justice for the Myanmar military’s rights violations against the ethnic minority group.
But others are wary of how the case may influence the junta in the near term.
Khin Maung, the founder of the activist group Rohingya Youth Union, who lives in Thinkhali Refugee Camp No. 13 in Bangladesh, said he cannot trust a junta statement he believes was issued as a response to international pressure.
“We welcome the fact that they want to call us home. But did they create necessary conditions for us to return to Rakhine state? That’s what we should be thinking about,” he said.
“[Junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing] is trying to use us for his advantage. He is doing this because of international pressure and not because of goodwill. We are ready to go back, no matter who makes the decision to call us back, but it is impossible to return unless our requirements are met.”
Khin Maung said it is “impossible” for Rohingyas to return home without guarantees of citizenship or security and freedom of movement in the areas where they had previously lived. Discussions about a repatriation should first be held with the Rohingyas themselves, he said.
‘Crimes on a nationwide scale’
However, junta Deputy Information Minister Zaw Min Tun told RFA that the plan to repatriate the Rohingya was created long prior to the ICJ hearings and was not part of a bid to placate the international community.
He said the Rohingya had previously said they would accept the offer to return to Rakhine state, but that Bangladesh had refused to let them leave.
“We have been saying all along that we will accept and let them live as before. Accommodations were prepared,” he said.
“It’s just that they didn’t come back even after we made three or four offers. The other side did not release them … They are working on it with a political agenda.”
Rohingya activist Nay San Lwin told RFA that members of her ethnic group cannot expect that their rights will be respected by the junta when “the military is currently committing crimes against humanity on a nationwide scale.”
In the year since Myanmar’s military seized power from the country’s democratically elected government in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup, security forces have killed nearly 1,580 people across the country.
“Even if the Rohingya return, it will probably be just a handful,” Nay San Lwin said. “Most of them have said that they will return only if they can live in peace with the full basic rights they deserve.”..."
Source/publisher:
"RFA" (USA)
Date of publication:
2022-02-24
Date of entry/update:
2022-02-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Discrimination against the Rohingya
Language:
more
Description:
"As the Rohingya crisis approaches its fifth year, Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, Kelly T. Clements, called for continued international support for Rohingya refugees, and the government and people of Bangladesh. She reiterated UNHCR’s commitment towards voluntary repatriation and other solutions, while underlining the need to build resilience and invest in refugees’ capacities in preparation for a future safe and voluntary return to Myanmar.
The United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees Kelly T. Clements and UNHCR Director for Asia and the Pacific Indrika Ratwatte undertook a joint visit to Bangladesh from 13 to 18 February, which included visits to the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar where some one million Rohingya refugees reside, as well as to the island of Bhasan Char, and meetings with senior Government officials, local and international partners.
Throughout their visit, the Deputy High Commissioner and Director for Asia and the Pacific reiterated their sincere appreciation to the Government and people of Bangladesh for hosting Rohingya refugees who have sought protection from violence and persecution in Myanmar. They emphasized the need to continue working towards voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar while also advocating for a broader longer-term focus on education, skills development and livelihoods.
The delegation spoke with refugees to understand their needs and challenges, and the contributions they wish to make to their own future. “While refugees clearly express a desire to return home, they also feel their lives would be at risk if they did so today. Therefore, we also need to start working towards other solutions while redoubling efforts to provide access to education, skills training and livelihood opportunities for them and their generous host communities,” said Deputy High Commissioner Clements.
“The strong work of refugee volunteers throughout the pandemic – often as first responders – and support for their communities in the camps highlighted not only their dedication and capacity, but the opportunity to incorporate those skills into more innovative initiatives such as environmental protection,” observed Mr. Ratwatte. “Providing youth with more learning opportunities, tools and skills will allow them to build peaceful communities and contribute to a safe environment.”
Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Government and UNHCR officials noted the positive strides to support the Bangladeshi communities hosting refugees, which includes the establishment of COVID and other specialized health facilities in Cox’s Bazar town and Ukhiya upazila, as well as the first large-scale water provision and distribution scheme in southern Teknaf that will provide safe water to more than 225,000 people.
On their first visit to Bhasan Char, the delegation recognized the positive work being done by the Government and local civil society partners on the island. “Bhasan Char has the potential to become a temporary stay for the Rohingya refugees, and there has been clear improvement in the conditions and availability of services since UNHCR and UN partners began supporting the Government in October. However, its sustainability will depend on scaling up health and education services, improving access to livelihoods and income generating activities, and above all, continuing to ensure the voluntariness of relocations to the island and regular family visits to and from the mainland,” said Ms. Clements.
With return to Myanmar unlikely in the immediate future, the visit underscored the need for a more comprehensive approach to humanitarian support. This includes alternative solutions for Rohingya refugees such as resettlement to third countries for the most vulnerable with specific protection needs, and complementary pathways overseas which could include employment and educational opportunities.
UNHCR reaffirmed its commitment to continue to support both Bangladeshi and Rohingya communities, while calling on the international community to stand by the Government and people of Bangladesh until the situation in Myanmar allows for a safe, dignified, and sustainable return..."
Source/publisher:
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Geneva)
Date of publication:
2022-02-18
Date of entry/update:
2022-02-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Education and training of migrants and refugees from Burma, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
more
Description:
"Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, 8 February 2022 - Supported by LGED (Local Government Engineering Department) of the Government of Bangladesh, generously funded by the World Bank and implemented by Mukti Cox’s Bazar, UNFPA, the Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency, opened a new Women Friendly Space - WFS- (called in Rohingya dialect Shanti Khana), a peaceful haven for many thousands of girls and women in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar.
Located in Camp 15, around 5,000 women and girls will have free access to recreational activities, such as henna making, painting, drawing, hand-stitching and sewing, as well as gender-based violence awareness-raising sessions and distribution of life-saving dignity kits, containing soaps, washing powder, slippers, clothes, panties and hand sanitisers for COVID-19 protection and prevention.
“We have been on a fruitful journey with UNFPA, dating back to 2008 and working with the Bangladeshi Host community. When the influx happened, we boosted our assistance of protecting women and girls and expanded it to the Rohingya community. We welcome the opening of another space, whose function will be for women to learn about their rights, develop their skills and share their feelings, away from the eyes of men, who will not be allowed in this space” Mr. Bimal Chandra Dey Sarker, Chief Executive of Mukti Cox’s Bazar, shared.
The new Shanti Khana will provide integrated services for women and adolescent girls with case management services for gender-based violence survivors, referral pathways to specialized health interventions, midwifery and family planning services, as well as mental health and psychosocial support.
Secondly, it will be a place for capacity building of NGO caseworkers, as well as effective community mobilization through men, boys and Imams (religious leaders) engagement in preventing gender-based violence.
“Women play an integral part in the economy and in the community. They know how their community works and, if given chances and opportunities, they can actively participate and contribute to a world free of gender-based violence” Mr. Arjun Jain, Principal Coordinator of the UN Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) in Cox’s Bazar highlighted “Protection of women and girls must be a priority, and community engagement, including the involvement of Rohingya community volunteers, is essential in creating a world where all women have access to health services, midwifery services and family planning ones”.
“Grateful to the World Bank for its support, providing a place of peace, relief and support to the refugee women, UNFPA believes that the Partnership with the Local Government Engineering Department is unique and an excellent one, allowing the marriage of hardware and software in a place where needed the most” Dr. Eiko Narita, UNFPA Bangladesh Representative a.i stated “As of now, there are nine operational Women Friendly Spaces, and with this funding, two additional ones have been made possible. We have another four pending in construction and for this, LGED’s support in approval would be crucial” she emphasized.
The Additional Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC office) Mr. Mohammad Shamsud Douza participated in the event: “Serving thousands of women and girls in the area, this new space will not only contribute to the well-being of women and girls, but it will benefit the community as a whole” he began “women will be able to come here to find peace, knowledge, share their stories in confidentiality with caseworkers and get midwifery services as well”.
The event saw the presence of adolescent girls and WFS caseworkers, already ready to enjoy the space on one hand and provide GBV sessions for women, midwifery services and psychosocial support on the other. “It is a safe place, men cannot enter, and girls can share their thoughts and feelings”, Asia, WFS caseworkers said.
A Tour of the newly WFS closed the event and renewed the spirit of collaboration and joint work to respond to the Rohingya protracted refugee crisis, as well as showing solidarity among the Rohingya community in the refugee camps..."
Source/publisher:
United Nations Population Fund (New York)
Date of publication:
2022-02-10
Date of entry/update:
2022-02-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund), Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Description:
"SUMMARY
The ICJ is part of the United Nations (UN), and its role is to consider the obligations of UN Members States under international law. The ICJ is not an investigation body or a criminal court and does not consider whether individuals have committed international crimes. The Genocide Convention is an international treaty. UN Member States that join the Genocide Convention confirm that genocide is a crime under international law which they commit to prevent and to punish.
The Gambia considers Myanmar to be in breach of its obligations under the Genocide Convention, which, so far, Myanmar denies. This represents a dispute between the two UN Member States upon which the ICJ must adjudicate, and this is the basis of the proceedings before the Court. The Gambia says that genocidal acts were committed against the Rohingya by the Myanmar military and security forces during the 2016 and 2017 “clearance operations” in northern Rakhine state.
The case is still in the procedural stages, meaning that the Court has not yet begun to consider the substance of the dispute between The Gambia and Myanmar. The Court first had to consider The Gambia’s request for provisional measures and must now consider the preliminary objections that were made by Myanmar in January 2021, before the illegal military coup began.
Preliminary objections are procedural issues that States can raise and ask the Court to adjudicate on before it can consider the actual dispute. Myanmar’s preliminary objections have not been made public, but they relate to whether the Court has jurisdiction in the case
and whether The Gambia’s application is admissible (acceptable). The Court has announced that public hearings on the preliminary objections will be held from 21 to 28 February 2022.
However, the National Unity Government of Myanmar (NUG) announced on 2 February 2022 that it has told the ICJ that Myanmar withdraws all preliminary objections, as it no longer views them as appropriate. If the Court accepts this notification, the hearings from 21 February 2022 may not proceed as they will be unnecessary.
Only States can be parties to a case before the ICJ and States are represented by their governments. Following the Myanmar military’s attempted coup on 1 February 2021, both the NUG and the illegal junta have communicated to the Court that they will now be representing Myanmar in the proceedings. The junta is not the government of Myanmar and should not represent Myanmar before the Court. The NUG should be recognised internationally as the legitimate government of Myanmar and is the only entity with the authority to represent Myanmar in the ICJ.
Justice for the Rohingya and an end to acts of genocide committed against them are the most important outcomes to be gained from the proceedings. The most straightforward option would be for Myanmar to accept The Gambia’s submissions and take meaningful steps to prevent further genocide against the Rohingya and punish the perpetrators. The NUG has expressed its commitment to this..."
Source/publisher:
Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-02-07
Date of entry/update:
2022-02-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), National Unity Government (NUG)
Language:
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
1.65 MB 434.23 KB
more
Description:
"Representatives of Myanmar's junta are expected to challenge the jurisdiction of the World Court to hear allegations the country committed genocide against its Rohingya minority in a fresh round of hearings from Feb. 21, the attorney general of Gambia, which brought the case, told Reuters on Friday.
"A hybrid hearing (is) set to commence on the 21st of February, 2022," Gambian Attorney General Dawda Jallow said. He added that Aung San Suu Kyi, who led Myanmar's defence at the first public hearings in 2019 but has since been deposed by the military, had been formally replaced as its top representative in the case.
A hybrid hearing is a procedure where some of the participants are present in person and others participate online due to COVID-19 measures.
More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar after a military-led crackdown in 2017, and were forced into squalid camps across the border in Bangladesh. U.N. investigators concluded that the military campaign had been executed with "genocidal intent".
An ICJ spokesperson declined to confirm dates for a new hearing had been scheduled.
In December 2019 Nobel peace prize laureate Suu Kyi, then Myanmar's civilian leader, personally attended hearings at The Hague to ask judges to dismiss the case.
She was deposed in a 2021 coup and has since been sentenced to six years in detention and faces a slew of further charges. The army takeover of the democratically elected government led to widespread protests. L1N2TQ09N
The military government has been fighting for international recognition and could be eager for the opportunity to show themselves as Myanmar's legitimate representatives at the U.N.'s top court.
Sources close to the case say the junta has been engaging with the court to submit court-ordered reports every six months on the situation with the Rohingya. The reports are not public.
The next step in ICJ proceedings is Myanmar's challenge to the jurisdiction of the court. The question if genocide was committed in Myanmar will be dealt with in later hearings..."
Source/publisher:
"Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication:
2022-01-14
Date of entry/update:
2022-02-02
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar
Language:
more
Description:
"Myanmar's shadow government, set up after last year's military coup, said it accepts the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to hear allegations that the country committed genocide against its Rohingya minority.
Before the military seized power last year, Myanmar's government led by the now-ousted Aung San Suu Kyi had filed preliminary objections to the ICJ over the case brought by Gambia in a move seen as likely to delay proceedings.
The National Unity Government (NUG), a parallel administration including deposed lawmakers in exile, said in a statement issued on Tuesday that it had withdrawn all preliminary objections to the case.
Still, it is not clear whether this would affect the legal process since the NUG said that through a "bureaucratic idiosyncrasy" the ICJ has been communicating with Myanmar diplomats in Brussels who were under the control of the junta.
"Should the ICJ recognise the military, it would embolden the junta to continue and escalate its daily atrocity crimes," the NUG said in a statement.
It urged the ICJ to deal with Myanmar's permanent representative to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun.
The ICJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment and a spokesman for Myanmar's junta did not answer a telephone call seeking comment.
More than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar's Rakhine State in 2017 after a military crackdown.
Rights groups documented killings of civilians and burning of villages and U.N. investigators concluded that the military campaign, launched after attacks on the security forces by Rohingya insurgents, had been executed with "genocidal intent".
In December 2019, Suu Kyi, then Myanmar's civilian leader, attended hearings at The Hague to ask judges to dismiss the case.
Suu Kyi has been put on trial by the junta and faces years in jail, though the removal of her government has sparked mass protests and a bloody crackdown on dissent by the army.
With Myanmar's military government fighting for international recognition, sources close to the case have previously said the junta has been engaging with the ICJ to submit court-ordered reports every six months on the situation with the Rohingya. The reports are not public..."
Source/publisher:
"Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication:
2022-02-02
Date of entry/update:
2022-02-02
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
more
Description:
"Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has urged the British government and its parliament to keep up pressure on Myanmar for the “safe, dignified and voluntary” repatriation of the Rohingyas soon.
He reiterated the call at a meeting with the British Parliamentary delegation on the eve of the latter’s visit to the Rohingya camps in Kutupalong and Bhasan Char on Sunday.
UK’s Conservative Party MPs Thomas Patrick Hunt and Paul Bristow interacted with Rohingya leaders in Kutupalong and visited various facilities in the two camps.
They reaffirmed their solidarity with the Rohingya and assured them of remaining seized with their legitimate demands for citizenship, security and freedom of movement in Myanmar.
The UK MPs noted that the British people, especially the British Muslims, felt strongly about the Rohingya situation, and that the international community had a responsibility to stand by this large group of people generously supported by the government and the people of Bangladesh.
Bristow recalled the UK’s humanitarian assistance to the tune of 320 million GBP since 2017 and said they would continue to raise the issue of further improving the living conditions of the Rohingya while they awaited their repatriation.
Earlier, during their meeting with Foreign Minister Momen, the British parliamentary delegation exchanged views on further enhancing trade and investment between the two countries in the post-BREXIT context.
They reiterated their appreciation for the multi-dimensional contributions being made by the British-Bangladesh diaspora in their respective constituencies as well as in the land of their origin or ancestors.
Minister Momen hoped that there would be exchange of high level political visits between the two countries on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.
He recalled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s various engagements during her visit to Glasgow and London in November 2021 and thanked the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for undertaking the ‘Brit-Bangla Bandhan’ initiative.
The UK delegation thanked the Bangladesh Foreign Minister for accompanying them during their visits to the greater Sylhet region over the last weekend.
The delegation included, among others, Vijay Shamdas Daryanani, MP, Gibraltar Minister for Business, Tourism, Transport and the Port, Samantha Helen Cohen CVO, CEO of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, and Zillur Hussain, MBE, Founder of Zi Foundation.
Faruk Khan MP, chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Shamima Begum, MP were present.
Drawing parallels: 50 years apart
Arriving in Dhaka 50 years ago, meeting Bangabandhu, and the current growing concern for the Rohingya refugees..."
Source/publisher:
"Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2022-01-24
Date of entry/update:
2022-01-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
more
Description:
"We, the undersigned Rohingya worldwide organisations, urge President Biden of the United States of America and President Macron of France to urgently introduce sanctions on gas revenue in Burma. Gas extraction projects which involve American Chevron and French Total provide hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to the Burmese military annually. This money helps pay for the military’s crimes including killing of children and indiscriminate bombings of villages.
So far both President Biden and President Macron have blocked sanctions on the gas industry, protecting the profits of American and French companies ahead of the lives of Burmese people. This urgently needs to change.
It is almost one year since the military coup in Burma on 1 February 2021. The US, EU, UK and Canada have imposed a number of sanctions on sources of income for the Burmese military, include on timber and gems, but gas production, which is one of the military’s biggest revenue sources, has so far gone untouched.
We Rohingya had to witness the genocide of our people go largely unpunished by the international community. This lack of accountability led the Burmese military to believe they could get away with the military coup. They are now attacking people all over Burma, killing children, burning villages and torturing with impunity. 300,000 people have had to flee their homes since the coup. It all echoes what the Rohingya has had to suffer at the hands of the military, and we are standing in solidarity with our fellow brothers and sisters across Burma. They are bravely resisting the military one year on from the coup, and paying for this with their lives. The international community needs to do everything they can to support them. We cannot let the Burmese military get away with impunity anymore.
Waging war costs money, and sanctions on gas revenue would stop the military getting their hands on hundreds of millions of dollars which currently help fund their crimes against the Burmese people, which amounts to crimes against humanity.
We urge President Biden and President Macron to stand with all the people of Burma in their resistance to the military coup by introducing sanctions on gas revenue..."
Source/publisher:
Rohingya Today
Date of publication:
2022-01-20
Date of entry/update:
2022-01-20
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Sanctions, Business and the Military, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
more
Description:
"A leaked memo shows how the Myanmar military is desperately trying to hide from international scrutiny of its atrocity crimes against the Rohingya and other people in Myanmar, the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK) said today.
A memo from a senior official in the Myanmar military, issued on 6 January 2022 but made public this week, orders all military personnel not to answer letters related to arrest warrants or summons from the International Criminal Court (ICC) or the Argentinian judiciary.
“It is outrageous, but far from surprising, that Myanmar military is now desperately trying to cover the tracks of its genocidal crimes against the Rohingya. This leaked memo shows clearly how the Myanmar junta can never be trusted to cooperate with international justice mechanisms in good faith,” said Tun Khin, President of BROUK.
“This memo is, however, also a sign that the efforts to hold the junta to account for its atrocities are working. It shows that the international community must redouble all efforts to bring Min Aung Hlaing and his cronies to justice.”
The ICC in November 2019 opened a case against Myanmar over crimes against humanity against the Rohingya. In December 2021, the Argentinian judiciary furthermore accepted a petition by BROUK to open a case against senior military officials over genocide and crimes against humanity in Rakhine State since 2016.
The leaked memo makes specific references to both processes and to BROUK as an organisation, while ordering all military personnel not to “accept any letters or arrest orders” from the ICC or Argentinian Courts “related to travel restrictions or arrest warrants or summons”. It is signed by Captain Aung Ko Zaw.
Apart from the judicial bodies, the memo also bans military personnel from accepting letters from “plaintiffs”, a reference to the many victims involved in the judicial processes. BROUK’s case in Argentina, for example, includes as witnesses six women who survived sexual violence during the military operation in Rakhine State in 2017.
Last month, the independent media outlet Myanmar Now revealed that the junta had issued a separate order to all of its staff to not receive any notifications issued by international courts seeking to prosecute junta leaders. That order was signed by Tun Tun Oo, a former general appointed by the regime to serve as Myanmar’s Chief Justice.
Myanmar has led a decades-long genocide against the Rohingya people. In August 2017, the Myanmar military and its proxies launched a vicious operation in Rakhine State, killing thousands of Rohingya and driving hundreds of thousands to flee into Bangladesh.
Since seizing power in a coup on 1 February 2021, the Myanmar military has further driven Myanmar to the brink of ruin. The economy and public services have been decimated, while the junta has killed more than 1,400 people and arresting and torturing thousands of others.
“The Myanmar military has terrorised all people in Myanmar for decades with impunity. The only way to break this horrific cycle of abuse is to ensure that those responsible are held to account,” said Tun Khin.
“Myanmar military will never discipline itself, so international justice is the only answer. Instead of trying to sweep its own crimes under the carpet, the Myanmar military should cooperate fully with all international justice efforts, including by the ICC and in Argentina.”
“This must also be a wakeup call to the international community to act. The UN Security Council must support a full referral of the situation in Myanmar to the ICC, while other countries should look to open universal jurisdiction cases like the one in Argentina.”..."
Source/publisher:
Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK
Date of publication:
2022-01-14
Date of entry/update:
2022-01-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Junta's foreign secretary says website contains 'false and misleading statements and information.'
Description:
"The Burmese junta has protested to the International Organization for Migration about a website the U.N. agency set up to preserve the history of the marginalized Rohingya community of Myanmar, saying the site contains false statements.
The site for the Rohingya Cultural Memory Center is an IOM initiative. The military regime’s appointed Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement on Friday, criticized the IOM for creating this website.
“The establishment of such a website is beyond the scope of the IOM’s jurisdiction and expertise, and the Myanmar Permanent Representative Office in Geneva sent a letter of protest to the IOM on 23 December 2021 against the IOM’s inability to approve the false claims of certain groups,” the ministry said in the statement posted on its website and dated Jan. 7, 2022.
“The term ‘Rohingya’ has always been rejected by the Burmese people and is not recognized by the Burmese people. Myanmar has also rejected the false and misleading statements and information contained on the website,” the statement says.
For decades, Burmese administrations have refused to call the stateless minority “Rohingya.” Even today, Myanmar insists on calling them “Bengalis.”
BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, tried to contact the ministry and the IOM to get more details but did not immediately hear back on Friday.
Myanmar, a country of 54 million people the size of France, recognizes 135 official ethnic groups, with majority Burmese accounting for about 68 percent of the population. The Rohingya ethnicity is not recognized. And both civilian and military governments have kept this status quo.
The Muslim Rohingya have centuries of history in Myanmar, a former British colony that became independent in 1948. But they are denied citizenship and voting rights, prevented from obtaining jobs and formal education, and restricted from traveling freely.
In August 2017 the Burmese military launched a brutal offensive – unleashing a host of atrocities – against the minority community in their home state of Rakhine. As many as 740,000 Rohingya fled across the border to Bangladesh and now live in camps in and around southeastern Cox’s Bazar district.
A year later, IOM conducted a mental health assessment of Rohingya refugees and the findings are what inspired the creation of the Rohingya cultural center.
The assessment found that that 45 percent of those surveyed were living with distress symptoms, such a nightmares, panic attacks, or suicidal thoughts, according to an IOM fact sheet about the cultural center that the IOM shared with BenarNews last August.
“The Rohingya community is at specific risk of mental health issues due to a number of factors, including prior history of systematic dehumanization, persecution and bearing witness to or directly experiencing extreme violence,” the fact sheet said.
The survey also showed that 50 percent of Rohingya refuges surveyed had an “identity crisis” and 73 percent of respondents identified a loss of cultural identity following their forced exodus from Myanmar in 2017.
“It was in light of the findings in Cox’s Bazar, [that] IOM envisioned the concept of a Rohingya Cultural Memory Centre (RCMC),” the fact sheet said.
“One of the main objectives of the RCMC project is to provide the Rohingya refugees in the camps of Cox’s Bazar with a creative and safe space to share their knowledge, preserve their cultural heritage and reconnect with their individual and collective memory, as a community and as an ethnic group from Myanmar."
Dildar Begum, a Rohingya chef, holds up rice cakes that she learned to make from her mother and grandmother before they died. [Photo courtesy of the Rohingya Cultural Memory Center]
The center first started as a website and now has a physical location, Shamsuddoza Noyon, an additional commissioner for refugee relief and repatriation in Bangladesh, said on Friday.
“The Rohingya Cultural Memory Center was established at Camp-18 at Ukhia to store the culture and traditions of Rohingya. It would help Rohingya to remember their old memories,” he told BenarNews, referring to a refugee camp in a sub-district of Cox’s Bazar.
The website showcases the art, architecture, food, music, memorabilia, stories and much more of the community. For instance, one article talks about the love songs of the Rohingya.
It says: “For this brave community, who have resisted generations of discrimination and displacement, love is the architecture that holds them together, that strengthens their bonds, and creates windows and doors for greater connection and meaning. Better than most, the Rohingya know that love is what makes life livable."
According to the Burmese junta’s foreign ministry, the IOM and the Bangladesh embassy in The Hague had also jointly organized an online exhibition titled “Art, Life, Rohingya.” The website says the exhibition ran from Dec. 10 to Dec. 31.
Visitors could click through a 3D virtual gallery, moving through different rooms to view collections such as Rohingya architecture and boat models, needlework, pottery, basketry, musical instruments, and the like, said the cultural center’s website.
The IOM notes in its fact sheet that many experts around the world say that one’s cultural and ethnic identity is central to a person's identity, to how they see themselves, and how they relate to the world.
“This is especially true for the Rohingya as their identity has historically been questioned by the Myanmar authorities,” the fact sheet says.
Dil Mohammad, a Rohingya leader who lives in the no-man’s land in Bandarban district, on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border lauded the idea of the center.
“This center was established to remind and tell the Rohingya community about their history, culture, traditions and memories by preserving those elements,” he told BenarNews on Friday.
“This is a great initiative.”..."
Source/publisher:
"RFA" (USA)
Date of publication:
2022-01-07
Date of entry/update:
2022-01-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Social and Cultural History, Society and Culture, Burma/Myanmar - general studies
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Tatmadaw Cadets Receive Training at Japanese Defense Academy
Description:
"(Tokyo) – The Japanese government should cut ties with the Myanmar military and immediately suspend a military study-abroad program involving Myanmar cadets, Human Rights Watch said today. On February 1, 2021, the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw, staged a coup and installed a junta that overturned democratic elections.
As of December 10, the National Defense Academy of Japan, a Defense Ministry facility, was still hosting eight cadets from Myanmar, according to a Defense Ministry official. Through the program, the trainees participate in an extensive curriculum of academic and military training, including combat and arms training.
“It’s mind boggling that Japan is providing military training to Myanmar cadets at the same time as its armed forces are committing crimes against humanity against Myanmar’s people,” said Teppei Kasai, Asia program officer at Human Rights Watch. “The Japanese government should immediately suspend the program and any other ties with Myanmar’s military.”
During a Foreign Affairs Committee session on April 14, a Defense Ministry official, Masahiro Kawasaki, said Japan had been accepting cadets from Myanmar since 2015 under article 100 of the Self-Defense Forces Act, which permits the training and education of foreign nationals in Defense Ministry facilities, including the academy, with the approval of the defense minister.
The program allows Japan to showcase how the Japan Self-Defense Forces operate under “strict civilian control” and cultivate “relationships” between self defense forces personnel and students, while increasing “mutual understanding” and “trust” between Japan and the students’ countries, Kawasaki said. He added that Japan would consider the concerns about the program while monitoring the situation in Myanmar closely.
The February coup resulted in the arrest of civilian leaders of the national and state governments, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and an announced one-year “state of emergency.” Since then, junta military and police forces have killed more than 1,300 people and detained over 10,000. Junta-controlled courts have sentenced hundreds to prison terms and sentenced 75 people, including 2 children, to death, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Widespread and systematic killings, torture, and sexual violence have amounted to crimes against humanity.
In August 2017, two years after Japan’s training program began, the Myanmar military under commander-in-chief Sen. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing carried out mass atrocities against the ethnic Rohingya in Rakhine State, forcing more than 740,000 to flee. At least 600,000 Rohingya remaining in Myanmar are confined to camps and villages under guard of local authorities and security forces, under conditions that amount to the crime against humanity of apartheid. And in long-running armed conflicts with ethnic armed groups, the Myanmar military has for many years committed summary killings, rape, indiscriminate shelling, torture, and arson, among other war crimes.
Since the coup, Tokyo has called for an end to violence and the release of elected government officials, including Aung San Suu Kyi. On March 28 Japan’s Defense Ministry issued a joint statement with 11 other countries criticizing the Tatmadaw’s use of military force against “unarmed civilians.” The Japanese government halted new non-humanitarian Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects earlier in 2021 while allowing existing aid projects to continue. The Diet passed a resolution in June that condemned the coup and called for a “swift restoration of the democratic political system.”
In March, Australia, one of Japan’s major defense partners, suspended its military cooperation with Myanmar because of the military’s deadly crackdown on anti-coup protesters. The Defense Cooperation Program was limited to non-combat areas such as English language training.
“Japan should follow suit with Australia and immediately cut ties with the Myanmar military,” Kasai said. “Japan should not be supporting and endorsing Myanmar’s extremely abusive armed forces by training Tatmadaw soldiers.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication:
2021-12-20
Date of entry/update:
2021-12-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Human Rights Defenders
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Tens of Thousands of Students Will Lose Access to Education
Description:
"The Bangladesh government should urgently reverse a decision to close thousands of home-based and community-led schools for Rohingya refugee students, Human Rights Watch said today. Unless the foreign minister or the disaster management minister overturns the action, approximately 30,000 children will lose their access to education.
The decision was issued on December 13, 2021 by the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, a Bangladesh government official responsible for education policy in the refugee camps where about 400,000 school-age children are confined. Four Rohingya teachers and two community leaders confirmed the school closures, but said no rationale was provided. Humanitarian workers said they had no warning of the decision or ability to provide alternatives.
“Bangladesh’s decision to close schools for Rohingya refugee children violates the right to education on a massive scale,” said Bill Van Esveld, associate children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “This cruel decision should be immediately reversed so that Rohingya children can get an education, which will be especially critical for their return to Myanmar when it is safe to do so.”
The Bangladesh government saved countless lives when it opened its borders to ethnic Rohingya fleeing atrocity crimes by Myanmar’s military in August 2017. However, as part of a policy to prevent refugees from integrating in the country, the authorities barred Rohingya children’s access to public and private schools. They also severely restricted the education programs that humanitarian groups could provide inside the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, near the Myanmar border. Now the alternative schools inside the camps are at risk.
The government’s 19-point decision, effective immediately, states that “home-based learning center[s] will be closed.” At these centers, set up in people’s shelters, humanitarian groups supported by international donor funding provide non-formal lessons that have been approved by the Bangladesh government. Roughly 22,000 Rohingya children are currently enrolled in the home-based centers, according to humanitarian groups. Another 92,000 students attend approved non-formal lessons at small, one-story bamboo “learning centers” outside people’s homes, which teach three daily shifts of just two hours per shift, according to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.
The decision also orders that “all private learning center[s] must be shut down,” referring to community-led schools established by Rohingya refugee volunteer-teachers. These schools have enrolled about 10,000 children and teach the formal Myanmar curriculum, but are not officially approved. These schools have not received any support from humanitarian donors and charge minimal if any fees to cover basic learning materials. Bangladesh camp authorities had closed one of these unauthorized schools, with more than 400 students, on October 14, a teacher at the school said. But the community-led schools are the basis of a p lan, which the Bangladesh government supports, to allow Rohingya to study the formal Myanmar curriculum.
Humanitarian workers said that the home-based schools are “essential” to access learning and psychosocial support, and that approximately 84 percent of the students are girls. They said the community-led schools are especially crucial for adolescents, who are too old to attend the officially approved lessons at the learning centers and have few other education options. Together, these schools had provided the only education accessible to Rohingya children during the 18 months when the authorities had closed learning centers as part of restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, until the government partially lifted the closure on September 22.
Bangladesh authorities closed at least two community-led Rohingya schools with hundreds of students on December 13. In one camp, the assistant camp-in-charge – a Bangladesh official – and police officers arrived and closed a school with 800 students and seized all the furniture and education materials “without asking a single question,” a teacher said. The authorities also seized a teacher’s UN-issued identity document, which they have yet to return.
At a school in another camp, a teacher with 50 students said that a Rohingya community leader, told him that the camp-in-charge had instructed community leaders, or majhis, to inform all teachers they had to stop teaching immediately. “I was surprised,” the teacher said. “These kids are at least studying, otherwise they do not have anything to do and their future would just be ruined.”
Two community leaders in different camps said that Bangladesh camp authorities had instructed them to provide lists of community-led Rohingya schools and teachers, and to instruct these teachers to close their schools. “I was instructed to make a list of private schools, and teachers teaching at those schools,” one community leader said. “[The authorities] follow up with us.”
Education staff at humanitarian groups said that officially approved learning centers could not accommodate the students forced to drop out of the home-based and community schools set to be closed. “The impact could be huge, and this decision might not leave any way for these students to integrate into Myanmar society if they are able to return,” one aid worker said.
The Bangladesh decision also orders that the Myanmar national anthem “must be played daily on each shift at every learning center.” It prohibits teaching Rohingya children “how to draw the national flag of Bangladesh, how to write and speak in Bangla, and most important, the national culture of Bangladesh.”
While the decision provides no explanation for these orders, staff at two international humanitarian agencies said that they believed the orders were related to a recent visit to a learning center by two Bangladesh officials who asked Rohingya children, “What is your country?” The children replied, “Bangladesh,” and drew pictures of Bangladesh’s flag, they said. Human Rights Watch could not independently confirm their account.
“Foreign donors and the United Nations have for more than four years quietly tried to persuade the Bangladesh government to stop blocking Rohingya children’s education,” Van Esveld said. “A stronger, more coordinated effort is needed so that Bangladesh reverses its outright harmful policy to deny education to a generation of children who have no more time to lose.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication:
2021-12-18
Date of entry/update:
2021-12-19
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Education and training of migrants and refugees from Burma, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
more
Description:
"Media Release from Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK
The opening testimony in the first-ever universal jurisdiction case on the Rohingya genocide highlighted vicious abuses by the Tatmadaw (the Myanmar military), including widespread sexual violence, the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK) said.
Tun Khin, President of BROUK, today took the stand at the Federal Court in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This marked the opening of the case that the Argentinian judiciary decided to open in November under the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, which holds that some crimes are so horrific that they can be tried anywhere.
“Today was a landmark day for Rohingya people everywhere and our long struggle to end the genocide. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to testify in a court of law about the plight of our people. This case will not finish over night, but I am confident that justice will prevail in the end,” said Tun Khin.
In his testimony, Tun Khin highlighted his own personal history and the decades-long repression Rohingya has faced in Myanmar. He also brought the court’s attention to a range of crimes committed by the Tatmadaw and its proxies during the violence against Rohingya in Rakhine State from August 2017.
One example is the Chut Pyin massacre, when soldiers killed hundreds of people and engaged in sexual violence in a brutal attack on a Rohingya village in Rakhine State on 27 August 2017. Six women who were victims of or witnessed sexual violence during the massacre are witnesses in BROUK’s case.
The court also heard the names of those ultimately responsible for the violence, including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and other senior Tatmadaw officials who have been identified by the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar.
Tun Khin also underlined the harmful role of Facebook during the violence in 2017, when hate speech against the Rohingya was spread unchecked on the platform. Earlier in December, Rohingya victims sued the social media company for more than £150 billion due to its failure to contain hate speech and misinformation.
“This is the start of a court case that we ultimately hope will end with the architects of the Rohingya genocide behind bars. We will focus on identifying perpetrators of these crimes, right up to Myanmar’s senior military leadership,” said Tun Khin.
“The evidence against Min Aung Hlaing and the Myanmar military is overwhelming and irrefutable. They must answer for their crimes. It is important to remember that this is not just about the Rohingya people’s quest for justice, but for all people of Myanmar who have suffered at the hands of the military, not least since the coup this year.”..."
Source/publisher:
Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK
Date of publication:
2021-12-17
Date of entry/update:
2021-12-17
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Class-action lawsuit says the company’s failure to police content played a role in a brutal campaign against the group
Description:
"Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are suing Facebook for $150 billion over the company’s alleged failure to prevent its platform from being used to incite violence against the minority group.
The class-action lawsuit was filed in the US on Monday by two law firms–Edelson PC and Fields PLLC–while British lawyers submitted a letter of notice to the company in London, Reuters reported.
“The company's failures to police content and its platform's design contributed to real-world violence faced by the Rohingya community,” the complaint says.
Social media companies enjoy strong protections from such legal action under a US law known as Section 230, which says online platforms are not legally liable for content posted by third parties.
The complainants have said they will seek to apply Myanmar law if the US law is used as a defence, but there appears to be no precedent of a foreign law being used to successfully counter a Section 230 defence.
On Thursday, 16 Rohingya youth representatives will file a separate complaint against Facebook to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental group that issues guidelines for multinational companies.
That complaint comes after the refugees tried unsuccessfully to secure “remedies” from the company in the form of funding for projects in camps in Bangladesh, where more than 900,000 Rohingya live in squalid conditions.
“After more than a year of tense discussions with Facebook Human Rights Director Miranda Sissons and the rejection of a modest request for the multi-billion dollar company to fund educational programs in the camps, the youth have decided to file an official complaint,” said a statement from Victim Advocates International, a group that is assisting the refugees.
The complaint will be filed in Ireland, home to Facebook’s Global Operations office.
The complainants are asking Facebook to divert a small portion of its profits to supporting Rohingya refugees, to adjust its business model “through the lens of equity, human rights, and compassion” and to commit not only to financial reparations, but to a “culture change” aimed at preventing further abuses of the platform, the statement said.
“We have decided to file a complaint… in the hope of starting a process that will allow us to reclaim our dignity, through demanding our right to a remedy, and to an education,” the refugees said in a joint statement.
“We believe we are owed a remedy from Facebook,” they added.
More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine State from August 2017 amid military-led mass killings, gang rape, and arson, in what rights groups and UN investigators said was part of a genocidal campaign against the group.
UN investigators said in 2018 that the use of Facebook played a key role in spreading hate speech that fueled the violence.
Monday’s lawsuit references claims by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who leaked several thousand internal documents earlier this year that highlighted the company’s failure to take effective action against abusive content in countries where hate speech is considered likely to cause the most harm.
Facebook has previously admitted it was "too slow to prevent misinformation and hate" in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-12-07
Date of entry/update:
2021-12-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Sub-title:
New evidence the junta is violating ICJ “provisional measures”
Description:
"(NEW YORK, December 6, 2021)—The U.N. Security Council should urgently impose a global arms embargo and sanctions against the Myanmar military and refer the situation in the country to the International Criminal Court, said Fortify Rights today. A Myanmar military court today sentenced the country’s democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi to four years in prison on spurious, trumped-up charges of incitement and breaking COVID-19 rules, and new evidence shows the junta is violating legally binding “provisional measures of protection” imposed on Myanmar by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as part of an ongoing trial on the Rohingya genocide.
On November 25, the Myanmar military junta issued an order reiterating longstanding restrictions on the right to freedom of movement for Rohingya in northern Rakhine State, contravening the ICJ’s provisional measures.
“These fresh restrictions brazenly contravene the ICJ’s measures and illustrate an aspect of the junta’s ongoing and unmitigated genocide in Myanmar,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights. “The ongoing atrocities against Rohingya and latest conviction of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi demonstrate yet again how this junta poses a threat to the peace. Security Council member states should support an urgent resolution and force a vote.”
Firsthand testimony and two leaked internal junta documents obtained by Fortify Rights reveal revamped efforts to restrict the movement of Rohingya in Rakhine State following the military coup d’état on February 1, 2021.
An administrative order reviewed by Fortify Rights and issued by the junta-run General Administration Department of Buthidaung Township in Rakhine State on November 25, 2021 states that, “Bengali people can only travel after obtaining legal permission (Form-4)” and that breaching the order will result in “strong action being taken as per the existing law.” The order further states that the restrictions are necessary to protect “township security and the rule of law.”
The junta refers to Rohingya as “Bengali” to deny their existence and imply they are from Bangladesh and not Myanmar. Myanmar authorities have long required Rohingya to obtain express permission to travel from one village to another village and from one township to another township. A Form-4 is typically required for travel from one township to another.
Obtaining approval through a Form-4 involves lengthy bureaucratic processes that often expose Rohingya to extortion and other abuses by the military, police, and administrative authorities. Rohingya who travel without a Form-4 can be subject to punishment under the Residents of Burma Registration Act, which carries a maximum punishment of two years’ imprisonment and/or a fine of 500 Myanmar Kyats (US$0.28).
The Buthidaung Township General Administration Department appended the November 25 order to an internal letter sent to multiple Myanmar military, police, and border-guard commanders as well as township administrative and justice officials.
In a separate internal letter, also obtained by Fortify Rights, from the military junta’s Ministry of Immigration and Population in Rakhine State’s Ponnagyun Township in Sittwe District dated November 10, 2021, Chief Officer Win Myint informs the Rakhine State Director of the Ministry of Immigration and Population located in Sittwe Township of the arrest and conviction of 45 “Bengali (Kalar)” for “travelling illegally.” Kalar is a pejorative term in the Burmese language used to describe Muslims, Indians, or those of South Asian descent. According to the letter, the Ponnagyun Township Court convicted and sentenced individuals in the group on October 21 and, on November 2, the authorities released children, who were part of the group. Five adults remain detained.
Since October 2021, the junta’s forces reportedly arrested and convicted dozens of Rohingya for traveling outside of their villages without permission.
Rohingya in northern Rakhine State told Fortify Rights that, since the coup, it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to travel between townships and villages.
“I had to take a Form-4 [from Buthidaung Township] to go to Maungdaw Township,” a Rohingya man, 25, from southern Buthidaung Township told Fortify Rights on December 1, 2021. “I went to Maungdaw north to work on harvesting a rice field . . . [The authorities] checked our Form-4 at three checkpoints while going to Maungdaw.”
Even prior to the junta’s November order a Rohingya man told Fortify Rights in July 2021 that military soldiers extorted money from him on multiple occasions at military checkpoints for not having proper travel authorization. “They took money from me three times,” he told Fortify Rights. “They were multi-department checkpoints, and they took money from me, saying I didn’t have any documents.”
Investigations over the past eight years by Fortify Rights show successive Myanmar governments systematically restricting the freedom of movement of Rohingya, including requirements that Rohingya obtain a Form-4 to travel to certain destinations and only under specific timelines enforced by the state. The military appears to be tightening the restrictions.
The ICJ’s “Provisional Measures”
In November 2019, The Gambia brought a case against Myanmar at the ICJ in The Hague alleging violations of the Genocide Convention through “acts adopted, taken and condoned by the Government of Myanmar against members of the Rohingya group.” As part of the legal proceedings, on January 23, 2020, the ICJ unanimously indicated legally binding provisional measures of protection for the Rohingya people, requiring Myanmar to prevent and preserve evidence of genocide and “cease forthwith any such ongoing internationally wrongful act and fully respect its obligations under the Genocide Convention.”
As part of the ICJ order, Myanmar must submit an “implementation report” to the court every six months on all measures taken to prevent genocide “until a final decision on the case is rendered by the Court.”
On February 1, 2021, the Myanmar military junta took power by force in an illegal and deadly coup d’état, killing more than 1,300 protesters and imprisoning more than 10,000. Included among the several thousand remaining political prisoners are State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint.
The junta does not represent the people or the State of Myanmar; nevertheless, the junta is likely to represent Myanmar at the ICJ, said Fortify Rights.
The junta’s latest report to the ICJ was due on November 23, and in turn, The Gambia is expected to respond in writing to the Court. Neither submission will be publicly available at this stage in the legal proceedings.
Fortify Rights, the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, and others have documented systematic restrictions against Rohingya, including on freedom of movement, as indicative of the Myanmar government’s intent to destroy the group in whole or in part. The draconian denials of freedom of movement prevent Rohingya from accessing livelihoods, lifesaving health care, and other aspects of basic survival.
Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a group is a prohibited act of genocide under Article II of the Genocide Convention. The “conditions of life” provision refers to methods of destruction that do not immediately kill members of the group but ultimately seek the group’s obliteration.
These latest restrictions on Rohingya freedom of movement are occurring in a wider context of ongoing genocidal acts committed by the Myanmar military against Rohingya, including killings, rape and sexual violence, burning and razing homes and villages, and denying Rohingya access to food and shelter. Impunity for these and other mass atrocity crimes is endemic in Myanmar.
On August 25, 2021—the four-year anniversary of Myanmar military-led attacks on Rohingya civilians—the military junta published an amendment to the Myanmar Criminal Code signed by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing ostensibly to outlaw the crime of genocide. Taking language almost verbatim from Article II of the Genocide Convention, the amendment was viewed as an attempt by Min Aung Hlaing to communicate compliance with the ICJ’s provisional measures. However, Article 311, section A(d) of the junta’s amendment included language outlawing measures intended to prevent births unless such measures are “in accordance with any existing laws.” This caveat provides for the prevention of births, which may be an act of genocide. Moreover, the military is typically not subject to the country’s criminal code; crimes perpetrated by soldiers are typically adjudicated in secret military courts.
“In a feigned attempt to appease the ICJ, the junta provided itself with a law to justify the genocidal prevention of births,” said Matthew Smith. “This is not what the ICJ had in mind.”
On June 3, 2021, the National Unity Government (NUG) of Myanmar—the civilian-led government comprising officials deposed by the military junta—acknowledged past atrocities against Rohingya people and committed to ensuring justice and citizenship rights based “on birth in Myanmar or birth anywhere as a child of Myanmar citizens,” which would effectively restore or grant full citizenship rights of all Rohingya people and others.
On November 11, 2021, the U.N. Security Council issued a consensus statement calling on the Myanmar military to cease violence and ensure humanitarian access to those in need. Like the provisional measures issued by the ICJ, the junta has flouted the Security Council’s statement, providing a context for heightened action by the body.
The Security Council should consider the junta’s failure to uphold the ICJ’s provisional measures as well as its failure to respect the council’s own statement, and in turn it should pass a resolution mandating a global arms embargo against the Myanmar military, targeted sanctions to deny the junta financial capital, and it should refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court, said Fortify Rights.
“The junta is committing atrocity crimes throughout the country, against all ethnicities and religious communities, including the Rohingya,” said Matthew Smith. “The world has a duty to act, end the genocide being perpetrated against the Rohingya, and ensure accountability for past and current atrocity crimes.”
Source/publisher:
"Fortify Rights"
Date of publication:
2021-12-07
Date of entry/update:
2021-12-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Human Rights and international relations
Language:
more
Description:
"We, the undersigned Rohingya organizations, denounce the so-called "Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army – ARSA" (or Harakah Al Yakeen), a criminal group that self-proclaims to be fighting for the rights of the Rohingya people. The Rohingya community does not accept ARSA as a group that represents the ideals and interests of the Rohingya community in or outside of Burma. Thus, the group must not claim it represents the interests of the Rohingya nation.
We, Rohingya, are a peace-loving community and condemn any criminal groups that promote violence on the civilian population in the name of our ethnic identity. ARSA is a criminal group targeting vulnerable Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and committing heinous cross-border crimes including but not limited to: murder, extortion, forcible abductions, tortures, sexual violence and drug trafficking etc. These criminal activities have escalated dramatically in the recent months. They have also been found to be misleading communities with propaganda aiming to further destabilize the Rohingya community and the region along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.
As survivors of the ongoing genocide perpetrated by the Burmese military (the Tatmadaw) and the extremist section of Rakhine Buddhist community, the majority of our community members were forced to flee from our homeland in Myanmar and took refuge in neighbouring countries including Bangladesh. We are sincerely grateful to the people and the Government of Bangladesh for assisting the Rohingya by providing refuge for one million of our people as they have done in the past. Although we found refuge from one form of violence in Arakan, the Rohingya now face violence in the hands of criminal groups like ARSA and others.
On 29 September 2021, a prominent Rohingya leader “Mohib Ullah” was brutally assassinated by ARSA followed by seven more Rohingya refugees in mid-October. ARSA is targeting Rohingya community leadership or anyone whom they feel could expose their criminal activities. As a result, the entire community in the refugee camps of Bangladesh live in immediate fear, ongoing trauma, and further insecurities.
While we greatly appreciate the steps already being taken by the Government of Bangladesh to ensure safety and security in the camps, we urge Bangladesh to maintain the pressure on the criminal groups, including ARSA, until their criminal operations in the camps completely cease and they are neutralized. The camps in Bangladesh where civilians are taking refuge must be free of any armed activities by any group other than the Government of Bangladesh or under its direct authority and full control.
We make our earnest appeal to the Government of Bangladesh to take serious action against ARSA, which is deliberately destabilizing the situation and continues to be a security threat for our people, for Bangladesh, and for the wider region. Further, we urge the Government of Bangladesh to protect innocent refugees by providing security in the refugee camps, understanding that the vast majority of people in the camps want nothing more than peace and security, and to return home in a safe, dignified, and voluntary manner with our human rights restored and our traditional homeland returned.
We make our earnest appeal to the Government of Bangladesh to investigate the killings of Rohingya refugees including Mr Mohib Ullah. The individuals, and their organisation, responsible for the crimes must face justice and accountability. The Government of Bangladesh must set an example that impunity in these situations will not be allowed or tolerated.
We call upon media organizations, the international community, activists and human rights bodies not to label ARSA as a member of the Rohingya community nor to characterize ARSA as representative, in any way, of the Rohingya people.
We also call upon all international organizations and foreign governments that are working in the camps to have a zero-tolerance policy towards ARSA and any other criminal gangs and criminal activities which are taking place.
We make our earnest appeal to the Government of Bangladesh and to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to work together to respond promptly when refugees report imminent threats, to provide immediate and effective protection to those in danger, and to ensure effective protection for those who report incidents.
We call on the international community — including Australia, Canada, the USA, the UK, Japan, the UN, the EU, the ASEAN and the OIC — to improve the system of providing protection and resettlement to refugees at heightened risk.
As the situation in Myanmar continues to worsen as a result of the 1 February 2021 coup d’état, we express our deepest gratitude to the many ethnic communities in Myanmar who have joined us in supporting our request for peace in the camps and in Arakan. Despite the violence, the COVID-19 pandemic, and forced starvation that all our brothers and sisters are facing throughout Myanmar because of the military junta, we are grateful for your support and we remain committed to freedom, peace, and prosperity for all with respect for human rights and dignity for everyone..."
Source/publisher:
Rohingya Today
Date of publication:
2021-12-07
Date of entry/update:
2021-12-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Discrimination against the Rohingya, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Rohingya say they will now have to pay bribes to immigration officials to get permission slips to leave the township
Description:
"Authorities in Buthidaung, northern Rakhine State, last week tightened travel restrictions against local Rohingya, requiring them to obtain a permission slip from an immigration office in order to leave the township.
The November 25 order from township adminstrator Nay Oo said that some “Muslim people” had been travelling beyond their own townships, districts, states, and regions without a document known as a Form 4, and that this threatened local security and rule of law.
The Rohingya have been subject to severe restrictions on their movements for years, one of numerous oppressive policies directed at the group that activists say form part of a genocidal campaign that came to a head with military-led mass killings in 2016 and 2017.
Those who travel without permission slips will face legal action and the new rule will be in effect for two months from the date of issue, the order said.
Until now, Rohingya in the township have needed a recommendation letter from their village administrator to travel outside the township, but did not need to ask immigration.
A Rohingya resident of Buthidaung, who asked to remain anonymous, said the new restrictions would mean delays for people who need to travel to Maungdaw to seek medical help and would make it even harder for some Rohingya to earn a living.
The permission slip from the township immigration office will only be eligible only for seven days, he said.
“They are not going to let us travel without Form 4 anymore,” he told Myanmar Now. “We will need to get a recommendation letter from the village administrator first in order to get the permission slip from the immigration office.”
“This is just discrimination; people of other ethnicities do not need Form 4. This is basically just systematic oppression,” he added.
Another Rohingya from Buthidaung said it would be necessary to bribe local immigration officials to get the permission slip. “We have to wait if we don’t pay them. We need to pay them 5,000-10,000 kyat if we want it on the same day.”
Immigration officials in Buthidaung did not respond to requests for comment. Nay Oo, the township administrator, said he was in a meeting when contacted by Myanmar Now for comment.
It is unclear if similar restrictions have been applied anywhere else in Rakhine..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-11-29
Date of entry/update:
2021-11-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
more
Description:
"The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and partners in Asia set out to explore pathways to enhance the protection of Rohingya in the Asia region.
BANGLADESH: Over the next two years, the project ‘Protecting Rohingya Refugees in Asia (PRRiA) will join forces of the Asia Displacement Solutions Platform (ADSP), the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), Geutanyoë Foundation and the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) to enhance regional protection responses in support of Rohingya refugees.
Today, the Rohingya population, originating from Myanmar, constitute the world’s largest stateless population and the fifth largest group of refugees. As of 2021, an estimated 1.6 million Rohingya refugees are hosted across the Asia-Pacific region. It is predominantly in this region, that Rohingya are victims of a systematic lack of access to rights and legal protection and with limited prospects of durable solutions to their widespread displacement.
Through support from the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), the PRRiA project addresses protection risks and needs of Rohingya refugees in Southeast Asia with a particular focus on Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. PRRiA combines evidence-based research and programmatic and advocacy expertise, to allow project partners, through their comparative advantages, to explore and advocate new paths to support Rohingya refugees and the communities hosting them.
The risks faced by the Rohingya are prevalent throughout Asia - from persecution in their homeland, throughout their journeys in search of refuge. as well as in host and destination countries. In recent years, thousands of Rohingya have embarked on perilous journeys by sea and through countries such as Thailand, India, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
The four PRRiA partners – ADSP, DRC, Geutanyoë Foundation, and MMC – are all anchored and active in the Asia region through a range of cross-sectoral activities including protection monitoring, research and analysis, as well as direct programming and advocacy efforts.
PRRiA project partners will engage key individuals and groups supporting the further development of regional and national policy and legal frameworks, and expect to engage more than 100 organisations at local, regional and global levels - including UNHCR, IOM, IFRC and civil society actors such as the Asia Pacific Refugees Rights Network (APRRN) - during the two years of the project..."
Source/publisher:
Danish Refugee Council via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication:
2021-11-18
Date of entry/update:
2021-11-20
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
268.31 KB
more
Sub-title:
17 November 2021, New York – European Union General Statement at the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee after the adoption of the Resolution on the Situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar: A/C.3/76/L.30 Rev.1
Description:
"Mr. Chair,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.
The resolution adopted today is the result of the cooperation between the EU and the OIC. We welcome and appreciate this joint endeavour, which allows us to remind the world, through the General Assembly, that appalling crimes, including reported war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been committed against Rohingya and persons belonging to other minorities in Myanmar. These crimes, committed in particular after October 2016, require truth and accountability. Their root causes remain to be addressed. The atrocities that have been taking place in Myanmar are a poignant reminder to all humanity.
The same military leadership who oversaw the crimes against the Rohingya is now leading the junta. The same military leadership staged the 1 February coup and is now reported to orchestrate the military build-up in the central and northwestern part of Myanmar, and give orders to the security and armed forces to kill, torture, imprison, employ sexual violence, including rapes, and shell villages, hospitals, and schools. All acts that are violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. The EU condemns in the strongest terms these acts and continues to call for immediate cessation of violence and for justice and accountability for human rights violations The EU hereby calls for bringing the perpetrators to justice. The current situation in Myanmar also suppresses hopes for the voluntary, safe and dignified and sustainable return of more than 900,000 Rohingya who have found refuge in Bangladesh.
There is not on one side the question of the Rohingya and on the other side the repression of people opposing the military takeover; they are the two sides of the same bloodstained coin. The strong language in the resolution, reflecting the recent deterioration of the overall human rights situation in Myanmar after the 1 February coup, confirms that.
The military coup on 1 February 2021 forcibly overthrew the civilian government in blatant violation of the will of the people, expressed by the 8 November 2020 elections, with important humanitarian, social, economic consequences. The European Union reiterates its strong condemnation of the coup and of the grave human rights violations committed by the Myanmar armed forces against all the people of Myanmar since then, and wishes to express its unequivocal support for all the people of Myanmar, including Rohingya and other minorities, and their democratic aspirations and for the democratic transition in Myanmar. This requires restoring and strengthening inclusive democratic institutions and processes, refraining from violence and arbitrary detentions, and ensuring respect for human rights and the rule of law. The continued flow of arms into Myanmar also gravely undermine human rights and should be stopped immediately. In this context, the EU welcomes the recent appointment of the new Special Envoy of the Secretary General on Myanmar, reiterates its full support to her mandate, and encourages her further engagement and inclusive dialogue with all relevant stakeholders.
The European Union continues to call for the immediate and full implementation of the commitments made at the ASEAN Leaders’ Summit in April, setting out the “Five Point Consensus”. The EU will continue to support ASEAN’s efforts to ensure a peaceful resolution of the current crisis that will ensure the country’s swift return to a democratic path..."
Source/publisher:
Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations - New York
Date of publication:
2021-11-17
Date of entry/update:
2021-11-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
more
Description:
"U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) sent a letter to Abul Kalam Abdul Momen, the Bangladeshi Minister of Foreign Affairs, advocating for increased humanitarian access and improved living conditions for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. More than 900,000 Rohingya are currently taking refuge in Bangladesh following a brutal campaign of genocide that the Burmese military have perpetrated against Rohingya Muslims.
Joining Rubio and Merkley in sending the letter were Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD), Susan Collins (R-ME), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Chris Coons (D-DE), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ed Markey (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
“We understand from discussions with numerous stakeholders that limitations on the movements of humanitarian workers and Rohingya volunteers have impeded the delivery of important social services in Cox’s Bazar,” the senators wrote. “While we acknowledge the need for caution and some restrictions due to the COVID pandemic and we understand that Bangladesh has recently relaxed some of those restrictions, we want to stress that it remains critical that humanitarian actors and Rohingya volunteers have ongoing access to the camps to ensure that refugees continue to receive basic social services and protections.”
“We are also concerned with limitations on some programming, including educational and livelihood opportunities,” the senators continued. “We welcome the Government's steps toward providing Rohingya children with an education in the camps, a sacrosanct right per the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. We urge you to work with UNICEF to revive and expand the pilot of the Myanmar curriculum across all ages and grades to enable UN humanitarian agencies and NGOs, funded by international donors, to provide Rohingya children with formal, accredited education in the camps.”
The senators also expressed concern and alarm over reports that refugees have been forcibly relocated to Bhasan Char, an island encampment built to house Rohingya refugees. Refugees have been prohibited from leaving and, in some cases, forcibly returned to Bhasan Char after escaping. The senators urged Bangladesh to allow freedom of movement for refugees, to allow independent monitoring of the relocation process to ensure it is truly voluntary, and to allow the United Nations to conduct a technical assessment of the flood-prone island’s habitability. The senators noted that the United States — the largest international donor to the refugee resettlement process in Bangladesh — has prohibited the use of any American funds to support forced relocations to Bhasan Char.
Rubio is a senior member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
The full text of the letter is below.
Dear Minister Momen,
We are grateful to the people and Government of Bangladesh for providing more than 900,000 Rohingya refugees with relative safety, security, and sustenance after fleeing horrific violence in Burma. The Government of Bangladesh – with support from international donors led by the United States, humanitarian agencies, and Rohingya and Bangladeshis in Cox’s Bazar – has admirably managed many aspects of the crisis, including limiting the spread of infectious disease and minimizing loss of life to natural disasters. We welcome especially your efforts to vaccinate over 35,000 Rohingya against COVID-19. Without taking away from these laudable efforts, we write to you to discuss concerns about humanitarian access, education and livelihood opportunities, and relocations to Bhasan Char.
We understand from discussions with numerous stakeholders that limitations on the movements of humanitarian workers and Rohingya volunteers have impeded the delivery of important social services in Cox’s Bazar. While we acknowledge the need for caution and some restrictions due to the COVID pandemic and we understand that Bangladesh has recently relaxed some of those restrictions, we want to stress that it remains critical that humanitarian actors and Rohingya volunteers have ongoing access to the camps to ensure that refugees continue to receive basic social services and protections. We are particularly concerned about the protection environment given the broader feelings of insecurity that refugees, especially women, are expressing as a result of criminal and militant groups operating in the camps and recent fires. We also note with great sadness the murder of Mohib Ullah in Cox’s Bazar and urge the government to work in a transparent manner to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice as well as to redouble efforts to ensure that criminal groups are not able to operate with impunity in the camps. More broadly, we call upon the Government of Bangladesh to allow consistent, unimpeded access to the camps for humanitarian actors and volunteers and a full resumption of protection activities.
We are also concerned with limitations on some programming, including educational and livelihood opportunities. We welcome the Government's steps toward providing Rohingya children with an education in the camps, a sacrosanct right per the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. We urge you to work with UNICEF to revive and expand the pilot of the Myanmar curriculum across all ages and grades to enable UN humanitarian agencies and NGOs, funded by international donors, to provide Rohingya children with formal, accredited education in the camps. We are supportive of the broad education goals identified in the 2021 Joint Response Plan, and ask you to work in partnership with the UN, donors, and NGOs to offer improved, accredited education to Rohingya youth.
In the face of these challenges, we understand that Rohingya frustration is increasing. We note the Government of Bangladesh’s significant investments to develop Bhasan Char and welcome the recent announcement that your government has concluded a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. It is imperative that your government take all steps to implement this MOU, including provisions allowing for freedom of movement for Rohingya Refugees on Bhasan Char. Nonetheless, we are troubled by recent reports that some Rohingya that have attempted to escape from Bhasan Char were detained and returned to the island, and that others were relocated to Bhasan Char against their will, which would go against your Government’s stated commitments to a voluntary process in which refugees are able to give fully informed consent. We urge the Government to demonstrate its commitments to voluntary and fully informed relocations by allowing Rohingya to return to the mainland if they so choose while also allowing independent monitoring of the relocation process. We encourage you to allow the UN to conduct a comprehensive technical assessment of Bhasan Char’s habitability. We do not support the forced relocation of Rohingya to Bhasan Char and have prohibited the use of funds to support such a policy.
Until Rohingya can safely return home, Bangladesh will unfortunately carry an outsized responsibility to ensure their protection. As elected officials in the United States, we are prepared to do our part to help Bangladesh attain sufficient international support and resources to help both Rohingya and affected Bangladeshi communities in Cox’s Bazar; encouraging meaningful consideration of third country resettlement options; holding Burma accountable for addressing the root causes of the crisis in Rakhine and for atrocities committed against the Rohingya; and continuing to urge the international community, including our own country, to respond strongly to the coup in Burma.
We extend our deepest gratitude for everything Bangladesh has done for the Rohingya since 2017 and, indeed, since the 1970s. As elected representatives of the United States, the largest donor to the humanitarian response in Cox’s Bazar, we look forward to continuing to work with you to find durable solutions to this crisis..."
Source/publisher:
Senator Marco Rubio
Date of publication:
2021-11-09
Date of entry/update:
2021-11-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), The discussion on humanitarian assistance to Burma
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Deputy ambassador to UN draws comparison to 2017 genocide, as UN aid chief says more than 3 million people need life-saving aid
Description:
"Britain’s deputy UN ambassador has voiced concerns a military build-up in Myanmar’s north-west bears similarities to the Rohingya genocide of 2017.
James Kariuki told reporters before heading into a closed-doors meeting with the UN security council on Monday: “We are concerned that this rather mirrors the activity we saw four years ago ahead of the atrocities that were committed in Rakhine against the Rohingya [Muslim minority]”
The remarks came as UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said the humanitarian situation in Myanmar was deteriorating, with more than 3 million people in need of life-saving aid, adding that “without an end to violence and a peaceful resolution of Myanmar’s crisis, this number will only rise”.
The security council meeting coincides with the first anniversary of the re-election of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, which was then ousted by the military in a 1 February coup.
Myanmar is facing charges of genocide at the international court of justice over a 2017 military crackdown on the Rohingya that forced more than 730,000 people to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh. Myanmar denies genocide and says its armed forces were legitimately targeting militants who attacked police posts.
About 223,000 Burmese remain internally displaced, including 165,000 in the country’s southeast – adding to those already displaced in Rakhine, Chin, Shan and Kachin states prior to the takeover, the UN emergency relief coordinator said.
Griffiths also said in a statement that the situation in the northwest of the Myanmar had become “extremely concerning” in recent weeks as fighting escalated between the Myanmar military and the Chinland Defence Force in Chin state and the Myanmar military and the People’s Defence Forces in Magway and Sagaing regions.
“More than 37,000 people, including women and children, have been newly displaced, and more than 160 homes have been burned, including churches and the offices of a humanitarian organisation,” Griffiths said.
The UN chief said attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, including humanitarian workers and facilities are banned under international humanitarian law and “must stop immediately”.
Griffiths called on the Myanmar armed forces to “facilitate safe, rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access” and the international community to “fund the response”.
“I’m hoping we will speak together today and with one voice and a statement on Myanmar,” Ireland’s UN ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason told reporters ahead of the council meeting..."
Source/publisher:
"The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication:
2021-11-09
Date of entry/update:
2021-11-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Genocide, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
more
Description:
"The Myanmar Humanitarian Fund continues to support the most vulnerable, such as women like Khadija who needs specialised health services for her daughter.
*names changed to protect privacy
In a village northwest of Sittwe in Rakhine state, Khadija and her five-year-old daughter Tasmin have become regular visitors to the Integrated Nutrition Centre which offers a range of life-changing support. Come rain or shine, they go to the centre for physiotherapy sessions that Tasmin urgently needs as she was born with cerebral palsy – a physical disability that affects her movement and posture. Like most others living in this small Rohingya village, Khadija cannot afford to pay for the specialised health services that are critical for her daughter’s development.
“My husband is a seasonal daily wage earner so it is not always easy for him to be employed, and I do not have time to find myself a job as I take care of Tasmin around the clock. We cannot even bear the expense of her physiotherapy sessions,” Khadija explains.
An estimated 140,000 Rohingya people in Rakhine remain displaced since intercommunal violence in Rakhine in 2012. Rohingya people living in both camps and villages continue to face significant challenges in accessing basic healthcare, education and livelihoods due to movement restrictions. The COVID-19 outbreak across the country has further aggravated their humanitarian situation, leaving them almost entirely dependent on humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs.
“I am overjoyed to see that my daughter can do remedial exercises without the need to travel far,” Khadija said. “I am really thankful for this kind of help. Our life would be in misery if it hadn’t been for the MHF. There is only one thing on mind, which is my daughter’s wellbeing. I want her to grow and reach her greatest potential.”
Enabling national humanitarian partners to deliver critical assistance
The Myanmar Humanitarian Fund (MHF) is a country-based pooled fund managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). It supports both national and international humanitarian organisations to address emerging and chronic humanitarian needs of vulnerable people affected by crisis. Since 2007, the MHF has provided US$80 million to support life-saving assistance through 205 humanitarian projects. In 2021 alone, the MHF made $12.4 million available to support vulnerable people affected by the armed conflict in Chin, Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states, Magway region, and the south-eastern part of Myanmar.MHF projects funded in 2020 and 2021 are currently making a difference in the lives of almost 1.2 million people, of whom around 56 per cent are women and girls, 44 per cent children and a further 11 per cent people with disabilities. The MHF ensures disability inclusion is mainstreamed in all projects implemented with its funding, while encouraging inclusion of people with disabilities and their representative organisations.
Removing barriers to accessing humanitarian assistance
Myanmar continues to grapple with dire humanitarian situation, with 3 million people in need of critical assistance and protection services, as well as COVID-19 related support. The number of people in need includes displaced families from conflict-affected areas as well as those from outskirts of big cities like Yangon and Mandalay, where there are emerging humanitarian needs due to the impact of COVID-19 and disruption of services. The ongoing political developments since 1 February 2021, have further exacerbated existing vulnerabilities and protection risks, resulting in new displacement and reduced freedom of movement, access to protection, basic services and livelihoods for affected people..."
Source/publisher:
UN Country Team in Myanmar via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication:
2021-11-05
Date of entry/update:
2021-11-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Public Health, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
He was likely lynched by a mob, police say
Description:
"Ads
He was likely lynched by a mob, police say
An alleged leader of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) has been found dead at the Whykong Rohingya refugee camp in Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar district.
The deceased was identified as Mohammad Hashim, 32, son of the late Nurul Amin of camp No 22 of Unchiprang in Whykong union.
Sub-Inspector Mahabubur Rahaman of Whykong police outpost said Hashim was probably lynched by a mob. "However, the exact cause of death will be clear after post-mortem," he said.
Also read - Family blames Rohingya militants for Mohib Ullah murder
According to police sources, Hashim used to assault Rohingya Muslims, presenting himself as an ARSA leader.
Hashim was one of the masterminds behind the recent assassination of top Rohingya leader Mohib Ullah, the sources said, not ruling out his involvement in the subsequent madrasa attack.
Also read - 6 hacked to death in Rohingya camp attack
Md Hafizur Rahman, officer-in-charge of the Teknaf police station, said the body was sent to the Cox's Bazar Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy..."
Source/publisher:
"Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2021-11-03
Date of entry/update:
2021-11-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Description:
"Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič is concluding today a three-day visit to Bangladesh to see the situation on the ground in the context of the worsening humanitarian crisis affecting Rohingya people. In the margins of his visit, he announced an additional €12 million in humanitarian aid funding for the Rohingya in Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Commissioner for Crisis Management Lenarčič said: "The EU is providing an additional humanitarian aid for the affected Rohingya in Bangladesh as well as in Myanmar, where the root causes of this crisis lie. This new funding reaffirms the European Union stands by Bangladesh and its people which hosts nearly a million Rohingya, who had to flee their homes to save their lives. At the same time I wish to commend our partners, who are supporting the refugees on a daily basis. We closely monitor the humanitarian situation in the region and remain committed to provide life-saving assistance, including through innovative ways to elevate displaced Rogingya's standard of living, as well as long-term support to Rohingya and host communities in Bangladesh and Myanmar”.
While in Cox's Bazar, Commissioner Lenarčič visited the world's largest refugee settlement, the Kutupalong camp, meeting with the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner and representatives of the United Nations, humanitarian and civil society organisations. Upon arrival to Dhaka, the Commissioner met with Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. A. K. Abdul Momen, Bangladeshi Minister of Disaster Management and Relief, Dr Md. Enamur Rahman, and the Bangladeshi Minister of Water Resources, Mr Zahid Faruk. The massive influx of Rohingya populations into Bangladesh is the largest refugee movement in the region in decades, and the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world since the Syrian emergency.
Background
Bangladesh continues to be a safe haven for over 884,000 Rohingya refugees. They fled brutal repression and wide-ranging discrimination in Myanmar's Rakhine state and currently live in refugee camps in the Cox's Bazar district. Being the world's largest stateless population, most of them without formal refugee status, the Rohingya cannot pursue education or formal employment. They remain vulnerable to exploitation and serious protection risks. Living in refugee camps, they depend entirely on humanitarian aid.
In 2021, the European Union has contributed €28.15 million* in humanitarian aid and disaster preparedness funding to Bangladesh. Since 2017, the EU has allocated over €283 million for the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh, Myanmar and the region.
For More Information
Factsheet on Bangladesh
*Updated on 28.10.21 at 15:38..."
Source/publisher:
European Commission (Brussels)
Date of publication:
2021-10-28
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Internal displacement/forced migration of Rohingyas
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
38.51 KB
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Sub-title:
Refugee camps in Bangladesh have become a source of business for vested interests.
Description:
"The Rohingya refugee crisis, which entered its fifth year in August, is showing no signs of winding down. Repatriation of refugees is nowhere in sight, even as management of the large number of refugees that Bangladesh is hosting is getting increasingly complex for its government.
On September 29, Mohibullah, an influential Rohingya community leader, was assassinated by unidentified men near his office in Lambasia in the Kutupalong camp, just a few hundred feet away from two police stations.
While speculation is rife over the identity of his killers, Mohibullah’s brother blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for the killing in a video posted on social media shortly after the assassination.
“Bangladesh authorities should urgently investigate Mohibullah’s killing along with other attacks on Rohingya activists in the camps,” Meenakshi Ganguly, Human Rights Watch’s South Asia director said a statement, adding that the murder is a stark reminder of the risks faced by those in refugee camps for speaking up for freedom and against violence.
On October 2, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen told journalists that Mohibullah was assassinated by groups with a “vested interest,” since he advocated for safe and dignified repatriation of refugees back to Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
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In addition to hosting ARSA militias, the Kutupalong refugee camp is known to be a hotbed of trafficking rings and criminal gangs who terrorize camp residents by night. There have been several incidents of violent crimes including robberies, assaults, abductions, and killings in this camp.
Analysts believe that Mohibullah’s nonviolent and democratic approach to solving the Rohingya crisis angered groups that viewed armed resistance as the only solution to the crisis. Nur Khan, a prominent human rights activist in Bangladesh, told Deutsche Welle that Mohibullah’s killing was part of an elaborate plan to leave the refugee community without a civilian leader. “You can’t solve a political problem only militarily. That’s why a leader like Mohibullah, who emerged from a civilian community, was important to solving the crisis,” Khan said.
In a 2019 Reuters interview, Mohibullah predicted that he would be killed by hardliners in the camps who were sending him death threats. Not only Bangladeshi police but also the United Nations and foreign embassies failed to protect Mohibullah although they knew that his life was under threat, Nay San Lwin, a co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition, told DW.
The repatriation of Rohingyas had been put on the back burner partly because of Myanmar’s unwillingness to take back the Rohingya refugees but also because international focus has shifted from the Rohingya crisis to the military coup in Myanmar and a looming civil war there.
Mohibullah’s assassination has brought back attention to the Rohingya repatriation issue. It has forced uncomfortable questions to the fore. Are there vested interests behind keeping the refugees in Bangladesh?
On October 5, Foreign Minister Momen said that while Bangladesh is talking about repatriation, “several international agencies are talking of long-term rehabilitation. There has been no conflict in Rakhine for the last four years; yet, they (agencies) do not tell them (Rohingyas) to repatriate. All they (agencies) talk about is keeping them in good condition and about their human rights here.”
Momen endorsed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s observations a day earlier that the Rohingya camps have become a place of business for the NGOs and aid agencies working in Cox’s Bazar.
“They (agencies) are making absurd demands like giving Rohingyas the right to buy land, giving opportunities in employment and proper schooling. But these are not acceptable,” the foreign minister said, adding that the intention of the NGOs and agencies in the Rohingya camps is to have the refugees stay in Bangladesh. “If they (Rohingya) stay here, their (agencies’) employment will be extended,” Momen pointed out.
The renewed discussion of Rohingya refugees came amid the Bangladesh government signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.N. under which the global body will provide humanitarian support to the Rohingya refugees on the remote island of Bhasan Char.
Just 34 percent of the $1 billion needed to take care of the Rohingya refugees has been disbursed to the Bangladesh government and aid agencies. With the Taliban’s recapture of power in Afghanistan humanitarian needs in that country are expected to soar, which means that funds for the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazaar will be cut back further.
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The Bangladesh government has been lobbying at many global forums including the U.N. General Assembly to ensure safe and dignified repatriation of the refugees back to Rakhine. Will Mohibullah’s murder bring global attention back to the refugee camps in Bangladesh?..."
Source/publisher:
"The Diplomat" (Japan)
Date of publication:
2021-10-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description:
"Too often, we have seen the inability to nip unrest in the bud lead to nefarious parties being emboldened
We firmly agree with Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen that the current situation in the Rohingya camps must be resolved as soon as possible, and to that end, local authorities and law enforcement agencies must take firm action to improve law and order.
While news that the police have, so far, detained eight people over the recent attack on a madrasa in the camps that left at least six dead gives some reassurance, the larger story here is that, following this attack and the murder of Rohingya leader Mohibullah not too long ago, there is unease and volatility in the camps that must be extinguished as soon as possible.
The fact that 25 Rohingya refugees have been murdered over the past one year is alarming to the extreme, more so because these camps are supposed to be safe spaces for these refugees who had to suffer through unimaginable horrors back home at the hands of the Myanmar army.
This lack of safety in the camps also paints Bangladesh in a bad light, and threatens to devalue all the good work that has been done to shelter the Rohingya and provide them with the refuge that their own country could not.
Too often, we have seen the inability to nip unrest in the bud lead to nefarious parties being emboldened and encouraged to do even more harm, and scale up to the point where the situation gets out of hand.
As such, the authorities concerned have an obligation to improve the current condition of the camps, and put an end to any and all incidents of violence that continue to exist, along with identifying those who are instigating unrest in the camps. Failure to do so threatens not only the safety of the Rohingya within the camps, but also the safety of Bangladesh as a whole..."
Source/publisher:
"Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2021-10-24
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
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Description:
"The Ministry o f Human Rights o f the National Unity Government (NUG) expresses its alarm
at reports o f killings and extreme acts o f violence in a Rohingya camp in Bangladesh on the
evening o f 21 October 2 0 2 1. According to local sources, as many as seven people were
murdered by attackers bearing knives and firearms. Others were seriously injured.
This heinous act deepens the trauma already experienced by the Rohingya residents of these
camps, themselves survivors of grave atrocities. The NUG extends its condolences to the
families o f those murdered, and will continue to pray for the quick recovery o f the injured.
This incident also lays bare the extreme insecurity in which Rohingya camp members continue
to live. Only three weeks ago, Mohib Ullah, a community leader and champion of Rohingya
rights, was also murdered in a brutal targeted attack. The NUG is gravely concerned about the
plight o f Rohingya camp residents, who face harsh conditions and now live under the threat of
wanton violence by extremists and criminal groups.
The NUG calls on relevant authorities to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation to
ensure accountability, and to take urgent steps to improve camp security.
The NUG remains committed to the voluntary, safe and dignified repatriation of Rohingya to
Myanmar. Furthermore, we remain steadfast in our belief that the establishment o f a Federal
Democratic Union, where all ethnic groups live in peace, is the most durable solution for our
country. It is only through a shared commitment to equality, inclusivity, justice, human rights
and accountability and by working together that we can move forward for the fulfilment of all
people in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Human Rights
Date of publication:
2021-10-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
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Description:
"This news comment is attributable to Johannes Van Der Klaauw, UNHCR Representative in Bangladesh.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, deplores a latest violent attack in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. This incident, which took place in the early morning of 22 October, resulted in the death of at least seven refugees and an unspecified number of injured, including children. Those with injuries are currently receiving medical care.
We once again urge the Bangladesh authorities to take immediate measures to improve the security in the refugee camps. This includes the investigation, arrest and prosecution in accordance with the law of those responsible for instigating and committing these violent attacks.
Rohingya refugees fled to Bangladesh seeking safety and security from violence. A large majority – some 80 per cent —are women and children..."
Source/publisher:
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Geneva)
Date of publication:
2021-10-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
New MoU between UNHCR and Bangladesh kept private
Description:
"The Government of Bangladesh and the U.N. Refugee Agency should revise and release their recent agreement regarding the provision of U.N. services to Rohingya refugees on Bhasan Char island, said Fortify Rights today. Both parties should ensure the right to freedom of movement to and from the island as well as the meaningful participation of Rohingya refugees in any decisions affecting them.
On October 9, the Bangladesh Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a common framework for humanitarian services for Rohingya refugees on Bhasan Char island. The MoU has not been made public; Fortify Rights obtained and reviewed a copy of the signed document.
“The U.N. and Dhaka should revise their MoU, especially a provision outlining restrictions on freedom of movement,” said Ismail Wolff, Regional Director at Fortify Rights. “UNHCR’s lifesaving services are essential and needed on the island, but the agency must ensure it is not propping up a refugee prison with this agreement.”
The MoU not only fails to ensure the right to freedom of movement of Rohingya on Bhasan Char island, but one provision explicitly codifies the government and UNHCR’s restrictions on refugee movement, permitting Rohingya movement from the island only under conditions agreed upon between both parties. Section (2)g of the document seen by Fortify Rights states that the government and UNHCR will decide on the precise ways Rohingya will be permitted to leave the island on an as-needs basis.
The Secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, Mohammed Mohsin, and the Bangladesh Representative of UNHCR, Johannes van der Klaauw, reportedly signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organizations. The memorandum allows for close cooperation between the Bangladesh government and the U.N. Refugee Agency to deliver services on the island.
A public statement by the U.N. on October 9 stated that the MoU covers “key areas of protection, education, skills-training, livelihoods and health, which will help support the refugees to lead decent lives on the island and better prepare them for sustainable return to Myanmar in the future.” The MoU provides UNHCR unhindered access to Bhasan Char, a welcomed move, and stipulates that refugees will be permitted to move freely on the island for daily activities.
The MoU also remains unpublished, despite the Rohingya people’s longstanding requests for transparency in decisions affecting them.
“Bangladesh citizens, Rohingya refugees, and the public-at-large deserve access to the MoU,” said Ismail Wolff. “There is no defensible reason to refuse anyone access to this document, especially Rohingya people, who have been subjugated by powerful actors for too long.”
The MoU also includes reference to Rohingya as “Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals” and “FDMNs,” terminology representative of Dhaka’s longstanding refusal to confer deserved refugee status on Rohingya, the majority of whom fled genocide and other atrocities in Myanmar. Bangladesh should ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol and develop a domestic legal framework to regulate the status and protection of refugees, said Fortify Rights.
At the time of writing, there are nearly one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and an estimated 20,000 Rohingya on Bhasan Char island. The Bangladesh government currently confines those refugees on the island, forbidding them from leaving.
From June to September 2021, Bangladesh security forces reportedly arrested more than 200 Rohingya for attempting to leave the island, forcing them to return or detaining them on the mainland. These arrests would constitute arbitrary detention, said Fortify Rights. During the same period, dozens of Rohingya reportedly died at sea while trying to escape the island.
Refugees on the island face widespread human rights violations, including severe restrictions on freedom of movement, beatings, and threats and ill-treatment by Bangladesh security forces. In 2020, testimonial evidence indicated that some relocations to the island were coerced and involuntary.
Over the last year, Fortify Rights interviewed dozens of Rohingya refugees on Bhasan Char regarding conditions on the island, including restrictions on freedom of movement and the fate of those who attempted to escape.
On August 14, 2021, a fishing boat capsized while carrying more than 40 Rohingya refugees, including children, fleeing Bhasan Char island. Bangladesh police reported that some had survived; Fortify Rights interviewed two survivors after authorities returned them to the island. Some Rohingya lost almost their entire families in the avoidable accident.
One Rohingya man, 27, who was on the boat when it capsized, told Fortify Rights: “I had three children. I lost every one of them on the boat while we were trying to escape the island. Along with my children, I lost a niece, my younger brother, and wife of my younger brother.”
The same man explained his rationale for leaving the island:
The reason we tried to escape the island was because of the many hardships [we faced] even for daily survival. . . After our arrival [on Bhasan Char], we found this place was nothing less than a prison. We are made crippled. . . We’re surrounded by the authorities, and we can’t move anywhere. It’s very difficult to escape the island because of the security personnel. . . The authorities know that people are in a circle of persecution and unhappy with the current system they put us in. They [the authorities] also know that if they allow movement for the people, they will not come back, so they keep all of us under control.
Almost all Rohingya on the island Fortify Rights spoke with reported restrictions on freedom of movement. A 30-year-old Rohingya mother of three told Fortify Rights how she has demanded to return to the mainland refugee camps, saying: “The suffering is unbearable on this island. . . Even on this island, the movement is restricted for us. . . We are demanding the authorities send us back to the [mainland] camps.”
Another Rohingya refugee, 32, told Fortify Rights in June 2021 about barbed-wire fencing on the island: “There is fencing around the camps on Bhasan Char. We can show you how they are keeping us. It’s as if we are in a jail.”
In 2015, the Bangladesh government began developing Bhasan Char as part of plans to relocate more than 100,000 Rohingya refugees from overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar District. Despite multiple requests by the U.N., the Government of Bangladesh did not grant U.N. agencies access to the island until March 2021 and began transferring Rohingya to the island before any protection and technical assessment by the U.N. Over the last two years, Fortify Rights and others repeatedly urged the Bangladesh government to allow the U.N. to conduct protection assessments and review the sustainability and environmental conditions on the island before any transfers are made.
While governments are obligated to protect the right to freedom of movement, restrictions are allowed under international law if they are necessary to achieve specific legitimate aims and only if they are proportionate to achieving those aims. However, given the remote and isolated nature of Bhasan Char island, the inability of refugees to leave, and the severe restrictions on freedom of movement, Bhasan Char is essentially an island detention center, said Fortify Rights. There is no basis in international law for detaining refugees solely based on their immigration status. Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Bangladesh is a state party, protects the rights to liberty, which in this case would include refugees.
“Rohingya tell us they are grateful for Bangladesh’s protection, but they must be free, and they must be front and center of all decisions that impact them. Time and again, governments and other actors have failed to ensure meaningful participation of refugees in the decisions that directly impact their lives and rights,” said Ismail Wolff. “The Bhasan Char project has been a human-rights misadventure from its very inception. The U.N. and the Bangladesh government must address previous violations and ensure the rights of Rohingya refugees are fully respected.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Fortify Rights"
Date of publication:
2021-10-15
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-19
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Amicus Curiae submitted by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and Fortify Rights in support of a Universal Jurisdiction Case in Argentina to Prosecute Atrocity Crimes against Rohingya in Myanmar
Description:
"In an amicus curiae submitted to the National Chamber of Federal Criminal and Correctional Appeals in Buenos Aires, RFK Human Rights and Fortify Rights provide expert analysis in support of a petition filed in Federal Court in Argentina on November 13, 2019 by Rohingya activist Maung Tun Khin of the Burmese Rohingya Organization U.K. (BROUK), six female survivors, and two Latin American human rights organizations. The original petition urges the court to investigate, under “universal jurisdiction,” genocide and crimes against humanity, including sexual violence, mass atrocity crimes committed with impunity against Rohingya in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
"Fortify Rights"
Date of publication:
2021-10-01
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
162.45 KB
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Sub-title:
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and Fortify Rights submit amicus curiae to Federal Court in Argentina
Description:
"In the amicus curiae submitted today to the National Chamber of Federal Criminal and Correctional Appeals in Buenos Aires, RFK Human Rights and Fortify Rights provided expert analysis to the court in support of a petition filed in Federal Court in Argentina on November 13, 2019 by Rohingya activist Maung Tun Khin of the Burmese Rohingya Organization U.K. (BROUK), five other survivors, and two Latin American human rights organizations. The original petition urges the court to investigate, under “universal jurisdiction,” mass atrocity crimes committed with impunity against Rohingya in Myanmar.
Universal jurisdiction enables states to investigate and prosecute crimes under international law, such as crimes against humanity or genocide, regardless of where they occurred. The principle of universal jurisdiction is enshrined in the Argentine national legal framework, including in Article 118 of the Constitution.
Maung Tun Khin and BROUK are represented by Argentine lawyer Tomás Ojea Quintana, a former U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar from 2008 to 2014 and a founding member of the International Advisory Board at Fortify Rights.
On July 12, 2021, a lower court in Argentina decided not to investigate atrocity crimes committed against the Rohingya in Myanmar. The court ruled that the Argentinian courts were not the appropriate forum to adjudicate the alleged crimes, as the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) is already investigating crimes against Rohingya.
Maung Tun Khin appealed the decision; the first appeal hearing was held on August 17.
In the 21-page amicus curiae, RFK Human Rights and Fortify Rights argue that the lower court in Argentina relied on a misunderstanding of the ICC’s principle of complementarity. The principle of complementarity maintains that the ICC is a “court of last resort” and may only exercise jurisdiction when States are unable or unwilling to do so; however, the rule as defined in the Rome Statute of the ICC is that the ICC would refrain from investigating if another State is already investigating, not the other way around. There is no international customary norm to support the lower court’s interpretation of complementarity.
The amicus curiae also explains that if the court were to accept the lower court’s argument, there would still be a variety of international crimes against Rohingya in Myanmar that the ICC is not at present investigating, as it is investigating only the crime of forced deportation.
Myanmar is not a State Party to the Rome Statute of the ICC. The ICC’s investigation into crimes against the Rohingya is limited to the forced deportation of Rohingya to Bangladesh and other related crimes partially committed in Bangladesh, which is a State Party to the Rome Statute.
The original petition filed by BROUK and others in Argentina covers a variety of crimes committed in Myanmar against the Rohingya since 2012, including murder, enforced disappearance, torture, sexual violence, and imprisonment.
On August 17, 2021, as a part of the proceedings in Argentina, five Rohingya survivors of sexual violence testified remotely to the Federal Criminal Appeals Court in Buenos Aires from refugee camps in Bangladesh.
On August 23, 2021, six Rohingya civil society organizations in Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh also submitted an amicus curiae to the Federal Criminal Appeals Court. The Rohingya-led groups include the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, Rohingya Youth for Legal Action, Rohingya Women Development Forum, Rohingya Women’s Empowerment and Advocacy Network, Rohingya Student Unity and Rights, and the Rohingya Peace Innovation Unity.
There are more than one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and the Myanmar military junta continues to confine more than 120,000 people, mostly Rohingya, to more than 20 internment camps in five townships in Rakhine State, Myanmar. Like the pre-coup government, the military junta now confines an estimated 500,000 other Rohingya in Myanmar to their villages, denying them citizenship, freedom of movement, and other fundamental human rights.
Since seizing power in February, the Myanmar military junta has killed more than 1,100 women, men, and children and arbitrarily arrested, detained, and charged more than 6,800 people, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
In 2018, Fortify Rights published a 160-page report detailing genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya during the Myanmar military-led “clearance operations” of 2016 and 2017..."
Source/publisher:
"Fortify Rights"
Date of publication:
2021-09-30
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), International Criminal Court, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
more
Description:
"DHAKA (Reuters) - U.N. officials signed a deal with Bangladesh on Saturday to help provide basic services to thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees who have been moved to camps on a remote island in the Bay of Bengal.
The Bangladeshi government has moved nearly 19,000 Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char island from border camps despite protests by some refugees and opposition from rights groups, who say the low-lying island is vulnerable to flooding and storms.
Authorities in the densely populated South Asian country eventually want the island to accommodate about 10% of the 1 million Rohingya refugees who currently live in ramshackle border camps after fleeing violence in neighbouring Myanmar.
UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, said the agreement signed on Saturday allowed for close cooperation with the government on providing services for the island’s growing refugee population.
“These cover key areas of protection, education, skills-training, livelihoods and health, which will help support the refugees to lead decent lives on the island and better prepare them for sustainable return to Myanmar in the future,” a UNHCR statement said.
About 81,000 Rohingya should be living on the island within three months, Mohammad Mohsin, a senior official at the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, told reporters after singing the accord.
Refugees in Bhasan Char, some of whom have protested against living conditions on the island, welcomed UNHCR’s involvement.
“Now we’ll get enough of the assistance that we need,” Mohammed Arman, a Rohingya refugee told Reuters by telephone.
Residents of the island’s camps have said they face restrictions on movement, no opportunities to earn a livelihood and inadequate healthcare and education.
Dozens of people died after a fishing boat crammed with Rohingya trying to flee the island sank in August.
Some Rohingya have spoken of being coerced to go to Bhasan Char, but Bangladesh says relocation is voluntary and has dismissed safety concerns - citing the building of flood defences, housing for 100,000 people and hospitals..."
Source/publisher:
"Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication:
2021-10-09
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Human Rights and international relations
Language:
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Description:
"GENEVA (1 October 2021) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Friday expressed her shock and sadness over the killing of Rohingya human rights defender Mohib Ullah and called for a prompt, thorough and effective investigation into his death.
“It is heartbreaking that a person who spent his life fighting to ensure that the violations committed against the Rohingya people were known world-wide has been murdered in this way,” Bachelet said.
“I want to pay tribute to an exceptional human rights defender, who despite the risks that his work entailed, nevertheless continued defending the rights of his people,” she added.
Mohib Ullah, who was chair of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH), was shot dead on Wednesday by unknown assailants in the Kutupalong / Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in southern Bangladesh. Set up in August 2017, the camp currently hosts more than 750,000 Rohingya who fled the mass killings, rapes and persecution by the Myanmar army and security forces.
For years, Mohib Ullah methodically collected information about human rights violations suffered by the Rohingya in their home state of Rakhine, in northwestern Myanmar, and sought to galvanise international action.
He travelled to Geneva in March 2019 to address the 40th session of the Human Rights Council in person, explaining how deeply the Rohingya had been discriminated against for decades and deprived of their basic rights, including nationality, land, health and education.
“Imagine if you have no identity, no ethnicity, no country. Nobody wants you. How would you feel? This is how we feel today as Rohingya,” he told States attending the Human Rights Council session. “We are citizens of Myanmar, we are Rohingya.”
“His words were very powerful and highlighted the terrible situation of the Rohingya and today, four years later, they echo as a reminder that Rohingya are still waiting for justice and still waiting to return home,” the High Commissioner said, adding that Mohib Ullah’s death highlights the precarious conditions of the Rohingya in both countries. “We need to do much more to help this persecuted community, both in Bangladesh and in Myanmar,” she added.
Insecurity has been increasing alarmingly in the Kutupalong / Cox’s Bazar camp, with growing criminality, rising tensions between different groups, as well as heavy handed security crackdowns during anti-drug operations. Anti-Rohingya sentiment has also been increasing within Bangladeshi communities.
“Whoever was responsible for his murder, Mohib Ullah’s death is a clear example of the insecurity in the camp, and the apparent attempts to silence moderate civil society voices,” the High Commissioner said.
“A prompt, thorough, and independent investigation should be conducted not only to identify and apprehend his killers, and expose their motives, but also to define what measures are needed to better protect vulnerable civil society leaders, while avoiding further securitisation in the camps,” Bachelet said.
“I fully understand the huge challenges Bangladesh has faced in hosting the Rohingya refugees, and the need for more external support. However, the safety and protection, as well as basic rights of refugees and those hosted in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char, must be ensured,” Bachelet said.
Meanwhile in Myanmar itself, the situation of approximately 600,000 Rohingya who remain in Rakhine State remains dire, with many still confined in camps. Alleged violations include unlawful killings, arbitrary arrest and detention, and high levels of extortion.
“Mohib Ullah’s killing should be a clarion call to the international community to redouble its pressure on Myanmar to recognize the Rohingya and accept their return, and to pursue accountability for the terrible crimes committed against them,” she added..."
Source/publisher:
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (Geneva)
Date of publication:
2021-10-01
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Defenders, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Discrimination against the Rohingya
Language:
more
Description:
"Responding to the killing of leading Rohingya activist Mohib Ullah, who was shot dead this evening in the refugee camp in Cox’s Bazaar, Saad Hammadi, Amnesty International’s South Asia Campaigner, said:
“Mohib Ullah was a leading representative of the Rohingya community, who spoke out against violence in the camps and in support of the human rights and protection of refugees. His killing sends a chilling effect across the entire community. The onus is now on the Bangladeshi authorities to expedite an investigation into his murder and bring all those suspected of criminal responsibility to justice in fair trials.
“We call on the Bangladeshi authorities and the UN Refugee Agency to work together to ensure the protection of people in the camps, including refugees, civil society activists and humanitarian workers from both the Rohingya and host community, many of whom have shared concerns about their safety.
“Violence in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazaar has been a growing problem. Armed groups operating drug cartels have killed people and held hostages. The authorities must take immediate action to prevent further bloodshed.”
Background
Mohib Ullah, 48, who led the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, was shot dead at around 8:30PM at his office in the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar. Mohib Ullah had represented the Rohingya community at the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2019.
At least two thousand Rohingya refugees have been forced to flee their shelters to other camps since violence broke out last year between two rival factions seeking to control the illicit trade of contraband drugs inside the camps. On 7 October 2020, around a dozen shelters in Kutupalong refugee camp were burned to the ground.
Rohingya refugees told Amnesty International that the clash broke out between a group that has been operating a drug cartel within the refugee camp and another armed group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) as they vie for control of the camps..."
Source/publisher:
"Amnesty International" (UK)
Date of publication:
2021-09-29
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, Human Rights Defenders
Language:
more
Description:
"30 September 2021: The Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) mourns the death of Mohib Ullah, one of the Myanmar Rohingya people’s leading human rights advocates and defenders. Mohib Ullah was murdered on 29 September 2021 in the Rohingya refugee camp of Lambashia, Kutupalong in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. He was chairman of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights.
SAC-M co-founder and member Yanghee Lee said, “I knew Mohib Ullah well from my work over many years as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar. He was passionately committed to the human rights of the Rohingya people. He was a man of courage and determination, an irreplaceable leader of the Rohingya people’s struggle for peace and justice.”
Marzuki Darusman, co-founder and member of SAC-M, was chairperson of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (FFM). He said, “Mohib Ullah provided invaluable assistance to the FFM’s investigations. He and his colleagues in the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights chronicled the events during and after August 2017 when the Myanmar military conducted one of the most brutal operations in recent times. His efforts led directly to international support for the Rohingya people and efforts to bring the military leadership to justice.”
In 2017, Myanmar’s military unleashed a genocidal campaign of violence on Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine state, forcing three quarters of a million people to flee to Bangladesh. Those who fled joined a quarter of a million earlier Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh where they are now confined to sprawling camps and continue to endure dire conditions.
“Mohib Ullah’s death must lead to stronger and more determined international support for the struggle for human rights in Myanmar, for the Rohingya and for all the other peoples of Myanmar,” said Chris Sidoti, the third member of SAC-M and also a member of the UN FFM. “The most important tribute we can pay him is more effective action for peace and justice for all Myanmar’s peoples.”
SAC-M calls on Bangladeshi authorities to investigate Mohib Ullah’s murder thoroughly and to charge, prosecute and punish the perpetrators according to law. It urges UN human rights mechanisms to monitor and report on the adequacy and effectiveness of the Bangladeshi investigations. Bangladeshi authorities have a duty to protect the lives of the one million Rohingya refugees confined to camps in Bangladesh whilst ensuring this tragedy is not exploited to impose further restrictions on the lives of those who have already lost so much..."
Source/publisher:
Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-09-30
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, Human Rights Defenders, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
75.79 KB
Local URL:
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Sub-title:
Myanmar’s Coup Built on Years of Failed Accountability
Description:
"On August 1, Myanmar’s commander-in-chief, Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, dressed in civilian clothes, made a televised speech six months to the day after leading a coup that thrust the country back under brutal military rule. Amid claims of establishing a multiparty democracy, the junta leader announced that his manufactured state of emergency, which has given rise to massive human rights abuses, would be extended until August 2023.
Later that day, Min Aung Hlaing appointed himself prime minister of the State Administration Council (SAC) junta’s “caretaker government.”
“We have to try to bring them back to a stable condition,” he said of the junta’s use of force against the millions of peaceful protesters who have taken to the streets since February 1. “We must apply our collective strengths.”
The past eight months have offered a stark demonstration of the military’s application of its “collective strengths.” Since the coup, security forces have carried out a bloody crackdown on nationwide protests with the same callous disregard for life that has driven their scorched-earth strategy in ethnic regions for decades. Police and soldiers have killed over 1,000 people, including about 75 children, arrested more than 6,000 protesters, journalists, and others, and tortured and raped detainees.
Human Rights Watch determined that the military’s post-coup abuses—vast, methodical, and systematic—amount to crimes against humanity. The broad-based and consistent nature of the crackdown reflects not the individual actions of security officers, but a countrywide policy of the junta.
Crimes against humanity committed since February 1 include murder, enforced disappearance, torture, rape and other sexual violence, severe deprivation of liberty, and other inhumane acts causing great suffering. Across the country, security forces have repeatedly used lethal force, including live ammunition, mortar shells, and grenades, while using so-called less-lethal weapons indiscriminately and excessively. Video footage has captured soldiers shooting down children on motorbikes, brutally beating medical aid workers, and firing shotguns into crowds of peacefully protesting doctors.
These displays are tragic but not surprising for anyone who has been paying attention to the human rights situation in the country. In 2017, Min Aung Hlaing orchestrated crimes against humanity in which the military committed genocidal acts and other horrific abuses against ethnic Rohingya in northern Rakhine State, killing thousands and forcing over 730,000 to flee to Bangladesh. The same notorious military units implicated in the 2017 atrocities—since sanctioned by the US and UK—have been deployed in the streets of Yangon, Mandalay, and other cities and towns since the coup, terrorizing protesters calling for civilian democratic rule.
The throughline of these two grave crises—the 2021 coup and the 2017 atrocities against the Rohingya—lies in the decades-long impunity enjoyed by Myanmar’s military, or Tatmadaw.
The Tatmadaw is an institution driven by brutality. It sows disunity and fear with the sole aim of propping up the supremacy of its leadership. It seeks to create an oppressive atmosphere of terror, in ways both overt and subtle. It knows no other way of exercising power. And has done so unchecked for decades.
The coup has made clear that the bloodshed happening today on the streets is a direct corollary of a military that for years has faced few to no consequences for its crimes.
In the four years since the military’s atrocities in northern Rakhine State, the situation for Rohingya in Myanmar and abroad offers a dismal reflection of justice delayed. In Rakhine State, 600,000 Rohingya remain trapped under a system of discriminatory laws and policies that amount to apartheid under international law.
In Bangladesh, nearly a million Rohingya refugees live in sprawling, overcrowded camps, their prospects of voluntarily returning to a Myanmar where they could live safely and securely more distant than ever. The commander-in-chief who orchestrated the ethnic cleansing campaign that led to the massacres of their families and neighbors has now not only evaded justice, but installed himself as leader of the country.
There have been some flashes of progress toward accountability. Gambia, one of the smallest countries in Africa, has brought Myanmar before the International Court of Justice for violating the 1948 Genocide Convention in its atrocities against the Rohingya. The International Criminal Court is conducting a limited investigation into alleged crimes against humanity which were completed in Bangladesh that will identify individuals for prosecution.
But as a whole, the international response to the Tatmadaw’s cycles of ethnic cleansing and forced deportation of the Rohingya has been fragmented and halting. The UN Security Council, the body with the authority to respond with binding resolutions on states, has remained paralyzed. At the time of coup, the Council had not produced a formal document on Myanmar in over three years.
Diplomats meanwhile have favored the closed-room tactics of quiet diplomacy and “dialogue” over strong measures for accountability—a futile approach compounded by an enduring and misguided faith in the former de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s imagined democratic credibility.
A clear and consistent multilateral strategy for accountability and justice never emerged in the wake of the 2017 violence. Instead, the military maintained its grasp on Myanmar’s levers of political and economic power, with Min Aung Hlaing remaining untouched at the helm.
When armored vehicles rolled through the streets of the capital, Naypyidaw, before dawn on February 1, with the military detaining Aung San Suu Kyi and other elected leaders, foreign governments were quick to voice concern. Their condemnation grew louder as the death toll of protesters rose in March and April.
Some consequences followed. The US, UK, EU, and Canada sanctioned junta leaders and major military enterprises, including its two main conglomerates, the Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) and Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL). But the sanctions’ toll on the military’s cash flow has not been enough.
France and other governments have skirted the global call for sanctions on the massive foreign oil and gas revenues that bankroll the junta and its weapon purchases. Japan and Australia have done even less, issuing no sanctions on military leaders or entities since February, despite condemning the coup.
Meanwhile, the Security Council’s historical inaction on Myanmar endures, with permanent members Russia and China—long serving as Myanmar’s protectors at the Council—resisting substantive action, and Western members too timid to push the limits. As a result, the Council has done little beyond issuing statements calling for the release of political prisoners and an end to the violence.
“What are we waiting for?” a US diplomat asked in a speech at a July council meeting. “The longer we delay, the more people die. This Council is failing in our collective responsibility to safeguard international peace and security. And it is failing the people of Burma.”
The UK, the Security Council’s designated penholder for resolutions on Myanmar, has for years taken a hyper-cautious approach to the country. Since the coup, it has bound its own hands under the banner of maintaining consensus among council members, focusing on anodyne statements over substantive action. This strategy already failed to achieve an ounce of justice for the Rohingya, only emboldening the military with a sense of reprieve.
The unwillingness of the UK, US, and France to press for a resolution in fear of vetoes by China and Russia has ultimately betrayed the Council’s mandate to ensure international peace and security as well as the millions of people risking their lives in Myanmar by opposing the coup.
“We will do everything we can to mobilize all the key actors and international community to put enough pressure on Myanmar to make sure that this coup fails,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said days after the coup. Eight months on, that momentum has waned. The Security Council failed to capitalize on the international outcry triggered by the coup and the window it offered for real, swift impact.
The people of Myanmar continue protesting, but they do so with a sense of having been abandoned. “There is nobody coming to help them to stop this violence,” said activist Khin Ohmar.
The dangerous narrative persists that there is a way forward with the Tatmadaw seated at the table. Calls for “all parties to engage in dialogue,” as the UK ambassador to Myanmar recently tweeted, ring hollow in the face of the military’s depravity and stark repression of any opposition. The UK and other governments’ delayed action under the pretense of waiting for effective leadership from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is similarly empty. The regional bloc has a track record of neglecting its responsibility to act to protect the people of Southeast Asia. Since releasing its five-point consensus in April, ASEAN has taken no meaningful steps to press the junta to end its abuses. Min Aung Hlaing, meanwhile, has been unwilling to meet even ASEAN’s low bar.
In June, faced with Security Council inertia, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling on member states to prevent the flow of weapons into Myanmar. Lamentably, the Security Council has yet to follow the General Assembly’s lead with a binding global arms embargo.
The Human Rights Council held a Special Session following the coup but adopted a watered-down resolution in the interest of consensus. Subsequent resolutions have been stronger, but the crisis has received reduced attention from the Council in recent months.
Over the next months, UN member states will be drafting a Myanmar resolution for the Third Committee of the 76th General Assembly session now underway. Drafters should ensure the resolution expressly condemns Min Aung Hlaing and the Tatmadaw as orchestrators of the crisis, identifies the abuses committed since February 1 as crimes against humanity, and calls for the Security Council to advance international accountability.
The resolution should recognize the coup and the atrocities against the Rohingya as intersecting crises with shared perpetrators that demand a cohesive response. This could reinvigorate pressure on the Security Council to pass a resolution instituting a global arms embargo and referring the Tatmadaw’s grave crimes across Myanmar since at least 2011 to the International Criminal Court. The Council should also impose targeted sanctions including global travel bans and asset freezes on the leadership of the junta and military-owned conglomerates.
To cut off the military from the revenue funding its ongoing crimes against humanity, the US, UK, EU, and other governments should work together to strengthen international sanctions. Governments should target the junta’s gas revenues, its largest source of foreign income, totaling about US$1 billion annually in duties, taxes, royalties, fees, and other profits. Broad coordination and enforcement are crucial for these to have an effective influence on the military’s calculations.
Myanmar’s crisis may have faded from the front pages of world news, but its urgency still pulses across the country, a hum both daily and catastrophic.
“They are attempting for the disintegration of the Tatmadaw,” said Min Aung Hlaing, denouncing the opposition Civil Disobedience Movement in his August 1 speech. In fact, what the protesters are risking their lives for is nothing more than respect for their rights and freedoms, and justice for their suffering. But concerned governments supporting the fight for civilian democratic rule in Myanmar also need to recognize that achieving such aims will require excising the Tatmadaw from the vast control it wields in every layer of Myanmar life..."
Source/publisher:
"Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication:
2021-09-27
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Discrimination against the Rohingya
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Title: IOM Bangladesh Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis Response - Monthly Situation Report (August 2021)
Description:
"IOM Supports COVID-19 Vaccination for Rohingya Refugees
The COVID-19 vaccination campaign for the Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar camps started on 10 August. As part of the Government of Bangladesh National Committee on COVID-19 vaccination plan, the vaccination campaign was for the refugees who are 50 years and above.
The first dose of the vaccine was given to 36,943 refugees -- 21,673 male and 15,270 female -- at the first phase of the campaign, which aimed to reach 43,093 refugees through this facility-based approach. By covering 86% of the targeted beneficiaries, the campaign’s first phase ended on 23 August while eligible community leaders who are supporting the camp operations were also vaccinated.
Out of the 34 selected sites for vaccination, 10 were IOM health facilities where 17% of vaccinated refugees were provided first dose of the vaccine. A total 46 IOM health workers were trained on vaccination Standard Operating Procedures as well as guidelines on Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI).
Community Health Workers (CHWs) played a key role in mobilisation and were also responsible for vaccination card distribution. There were Risk Communication and Community Engagement activities that took place prior, during and after the campaign, for raising awareness, promotion of this campaign, and establishment of trust and feedback mechanisms from the community.
For this campaign, IOM has distributed 11,693 Information, Education & Communication (IEC) materials related to vaccination and reached 134,666 beneficiaries through house to house visits, and conducted awareness-raising sessions. The next round for the second dose will begin in early September.
In addition, through the provision of tablets and orientation for staff on data entry, IOM also supported five government facilities in Cox’s Bazar with COVID-19 vaccination registration for the host community, with 423 registrations done this month..."
Source/publisher:
International Organization for Migration (IOM) ( Switzerland) via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication:
2021-09-26
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
IOM Burma/Myanmar, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Human Rights and international relations, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
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Description:
"More than 164,000 Rohingya children in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps in Bangladesh returned to learning centres today after one of the longest disruptions to schooling globally due to COVID-19.
Learning centres run by humanitarian agencies, which provide primary-level education for Rohingya refugee children, were closed 18 months ago, leaving children vulnerable to child marriage and child labour as a means for families to survive.
The government announced that learning centres could reopen for children in grades two to four after a drop in positive testing rates for COVID-19 nationally and in Cox’s Bazar to around 5% this week from over 30% in early August. Bangladeshi schools reopened on September 12 but Rohingya children were still waiting to resume their education.
Save the Children welcomed the re-opening of learning centres but called on the government to allow other age groups to also return to their classrooms and for a pilot programme using the curriculum from Myanmar. About 456,000 children are living among almost 900,000 refugees in the camps at Cox’s Bazar.
Taslim,* 9, said it would help for teachers to use the Myanmar curriculum and to have teachers from Myanmar.
“This would help me to be a doctor or teacher and be able to fulfil my dreams,” she told Save the Children.
Save the Children’s Bangladesh Country Director, Onno Van Manen, said Rohingya children and families were keen to return to learning and quality education.
“Efforts need to be re-doubled to provide quality education to Rohingya children. This can be achieved through community outreach to convince families to send their children back to school and by urgently resuming the rollout and expansion of the pilot program to allow Rohingya children to study in their mother-tongue using the curriculum,” he said.
Save the Children, with the help of Rohingya and Bangladeshi teachers, have provided education to Rohingya refugees and the host community at 100 learning centres in Cox’s Bazar camps since 2017 when almost one million Rohingya refugees fled Myanmar into Bangladesh..."
Source/publisher:
Save the Children (London)
Date of publication:
2021-09-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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Description:
"On behalf of the United States, Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced nearly $180 million in additional humanitarian assistance for those affected by the Rakhine State/Rohingya refugee crisis in Burma, Bangladesh, and elsewhere in the region.
With this new funding, our total humanitarian assistance for this response reaches more than $1.5 billion since August 2017, when more than 740,000 Rohingya were forced to flee ethnic cleansing and other horrific atrocities and abuses in Burma’s Rakhine State to safety in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
This total funding has included more than $1.2 billion for programs in Bangladesh and allows our humanitarian partners to provide life-saving assistance to the nearly 900,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. It also provides support to more than 472,000 affected members of the local host community in Bangladesh.
U.S. humanitarian assistance for this crisis delivers across multiple realms, including education, food security, health, nutrition, protection, shelter, disaster response, water, sanitation, and hygiene. We applaud humanitarian actors for a strong and well-coordinated humanitarian response, which includes preventing and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The United States recognizes the challenges and responsibilities that the response has placed on the people and Government of Bangladesh, and we underscore the continued commitment of the international community to addressing and resolving this crisis. In the aftermath of Burma’s February 1 military coup d’état and brutal military crackdown, our commitment to the people of Burma, including Rohingya refugees and internally displaced persons, as well as members of other ethnic and religious minority groups, remains unwavering. We will continue to support Bangladesh and other countries that have made the humanitarian gesture to receive refugees from Burma.
Many of those who led the military coup in Burma are the same individuals responsible for the atrocities against Rohingya, as well as atrocities and other human rights abuses against members of other ethnic and religious minority groups. The military junta must immediately stop the violence, release all those unjustly detained, restore Burma’s path to democracy, and implement ASEAN’s Five Point Consensus. We also call on the regime to allow immediate and unhindered humanitarian access to people in need —including for the delivery of critical COVID-19 assistance.
The United States commends the many countries that have supported this response and that continue to work toward a just and durable solution for Rohingya refugees and internally displaced persons. We commend the people and Government of Bangladesh, who have responded generously to the refugees who have arrived in Bangladesh. However, more assistance is required. We urge other donors to come forward now with additional funds to sustain and increase support for the Rakhine State/Rohingya refugee crisis..."
Source/publisher:
United States Department of State
Date of publication:
2021-09-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Humanitarian assistance - emergencies, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
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Description:
"ထန်ထလန်မြို့နယ်အတွင်း စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်၏ အကြမ်းဖက်လုပ်ရပ်များအပေါ် သဘောထား ထုတ်ပြန်ချက်
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ စက်တင်ဘာလ (၂၂) ရက်
ချင်းရေးရာအဖွဲ့ချုပ်သည် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်၏ အကြမ်းဖက်ပစ်ခတ်မှုများကြောင့် စစ်ဘေး ဒဏ်နှင့် ကြီးမားသော ဆုံးရှုံးမှု ခံစားနေရသည့် ထန်တလန်ပြည်သူများနှင့်အတူ ထပ်တူထပ်မျှ ဝမ်းနည်းကြေကွဲရပါသည်။
စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်သည် ထန်ထလန်မြို့နယ်အတွင်းရှိ လူနေအိမ်များနှင့် ပြည်သူများအပေါ် အကြမ်းဖက်တိုက်ခိုက်မှုကို ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ ကျူးလွန်နေကြောင်း ထင်ရှားနေပါသည်။
ဩဂုတ်လ (၂၅) ရက်နေ့တွင် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်မှ ထန်တလန်မြို့တွင်းသို့ လက်နက်ကြီးများဖြင့် ရမ်းကားပစ်ခတ်မှုကြောင့် နေအိမ်ထဲတွင် ပုန်းခိုနေသည့် (၁၀) နှစ်အရွယ် ကလေး ကျည်ထိမှန် သေဆုံးခဲ့ရပြီး ပြည်သူ (၉) ဦး ဒဏ်ရာရရှိခဲ့သည်။ နေအိမ်အများအပြား ကျည်ထိမှန် ပျက်စီးခဲ့သည်။
ဩဂုတ်လ (၂၇) ရက်နေ့တွင် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်မှ ပစ်ခတ်သည့် မပေါက်ကွဲဘဲ ကျန်နေသည့် လက်နက်ကြီးကျည်ဆံအား နေအိမ်မှ ဖယ်ရှားရန် ကြိုးစားရာမှ ပေါက်ကွဲမှု ဖြစ်ခဲ့ကာ အိမ်ရှင် ဖြစ်သူနှင့် (၁၄) နှစ်အရွယ် သားဖြစ်သူ သေဆုံးခဲ့ပြီး ပြည်သူ (၁၁) ဦး ပြင်းထန်စွာ ဒဏ်ရာရရှိခဲ့သည်။
စက်တင်ဘာလ (၉) ရက်နေ့ မွန်းလွဲပိုင်းတွင် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်၏ မြို့တွင်းစစ်ဆေးမှုများကြောင့် ပစ်ခတ်မှုဖြစ်ပွားရာ ထန်တလန်မြို့ အမှတ် (၂) ရပ်ကွက်မှ နေအိမ် (၁) လုံး မီးလောင်ပြီး၊ Thantlang Baptist Church (TBC) ဘုရားကျောင်း အဆောက်အအုံခေါင်မိုးများ ကျည်ထိခဲ့ ရသည်။ ထို့အပြင် (၉) လအရွယ်ကလေးငယ်၊ ၁၅ နှစ်အရွယ် မိန်းကလေးတစ်ဦး၊ (၂၃) နှစ်နှင့် (၅၅) နှစ်အရွယ် အမျိုးသမီးနှစ်ဦး စုစုပေါင်း ပြည်သူ (၄) ဦးလည်း ကျည်ထိဒဏ်ရာရရှိခဲ့သည်။
စက်တင်ဘာ (၁၀) ရက်နေ့တွင် လုံလဲရ်ကျေးရွာရှိ စစ်ကောင်စီစခန်းအနီးတိုက်ပွဲတွင် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်မှ တိုက်လေယာဉ်အသုံးပြုကာ လုံလဲရ်ကျေးရွာအပေါ် ဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက်ခဲ့ရာ နေအိမ် (၃၄) အိမ်ခန့် ဗုံးဒဏ်သင့်ခဲ့ရပြီး Methodist Church၊COTR (Church on The Rock) နှင့် Baptist Library အဆောက်အအုံများ ပျက်စီးခဲ့ရသည်။
စက်တင်ဘာ (၁၄) ရက်တွင် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်မှ လက်နက်ကြီး ပစ်ခတ်မှုကြောင့် ထန်တလန်မြို့ ရှိ Johnson Memorial Baptist Church (JMBC) ဘုရားကျောင်းအမိုးများနှင့် ပြတင်း ပေါက်များ ပျက်စီးခဲ့သည်။
စက်တင်ဘာ (၁၈) ရက်နေ့တွင် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်မှ မြို့တွင်းသို့ လက်နက်ကြီးများဖြင့် ပစ်ခတ် တိုက်ခိုက်မှုကြောင့် အစိုးရအဆောက်အအုံအပါအဝင် လူနေ အိမ် (၁၉) ခန့် မီးလောင်ကျွမ်း ခဲ့ရသည်။ မီးလောင်ဆုံးရှုံးမှုတန်ဖိုးမှာ ကျပ်သိန်း နှစ်ထောင်မှ သုံးထောင်ဝန်းကျင်ခန့်ရှိကြောင်း သိရှိရပါသည်။ ထို့အပြင် မီးငြိမ်းသတ်ရန် ရောက်လာသည့် ခရစ်ယာန် ဓမ္မဆရာ Pastor Cung Biak Hum အား စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်မှ ပစ်ခတ်ကာ လက်သူကြွယ်ဖြတ်ပြီး လက်ထပ်လက်စွပ်၊ ဖုန်းနှင့် နာရီတို့ကိုပါ ခိုးယူခဲ့သည်။
ထိုသို့ စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်၏ ကျေးရွာလူနေအိမ်များအပေါ် တိုက်လေယာဉ်အသုံးပြု၍ ဗုံးကြဲ တိုက်ခိုက်ခြင်း၊ ဘာသာရေးအဆောက်အအုံများအား ပစ်မှတ်ထား တိုက်ခိုက်ခြင်း၊ မြို့ပေါ်လူနေ အိမ်များအတွင်း လက်နက်ကြီးများဖြင့် ရမ်းကားပစ်ခတ်ခြင်းတို့သည် စစ်ပွဲဆိုင်ရာကျင့်ဝတ် များကိုဖောက်ဖျက်ပြီး လူသားမျိုးနွယ်အပေါ် ကျူးလွန်သည့်ပြစ်မှုမြောက်ပါသည်။ စစ်ကောင် စီတပ်သည် မိမိတို့ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သည့် လုပ်ရပ်များအတွက် တာဝန်အပြည့်ယူရမည် ဖြစ်ကြောင်း သိစေအပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Institute of Chin Affairs
Date of publication:
2021-09-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, Inter-Communal violence and discrimination - Myanmar - General articles and analysis, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
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Description:
"Objectives 1 Coordinate and monitor field activities comprehensively addressing them or reaching out to responsible sectors/units
2 Continued implementation of the Capacity Sharing Initiative (CSI) and remote management tool
3 Provide an efficient and effective delivery of core relief items, LPGs and other distributions to the persons of concern
4 Ensure that relocation of refugees is organised and implemented in line with protection standards
5 Prepare and respond to any emergency needs caused by weather related events and other emergency situations such as COVID-19
6 Foster community participation & empowerment through promotion of community representation structures for refugee camp and block committees and community led projects
Progress (January - June 2021)
Drain cleaning system: in coordination with World Food Programme (WFP), Site maintenance and Engineering Project (SMEP), partners and camp authorities, UNHCR established regular drainage cleaning across UNHCR-managed camps. Responsibilities are defined based on the type of drainage line (primary, secondary and tertiary); first and second cycles of cleaning have begun.
Capacity Sharing Initiative (CSI): Training for camp-in-charge officials continued through the month of March, as part of the interagency joint Capacity Sharing Initiative in collaboration with IOM and the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC). The training, conducted by the sector leads, included humanitarian principles and refugee protection, operational standards, principles and overviews of the main sectors including WASH, Shelter and Non-Food Items, Health, Protection, and Site Management. 38 camp-in-charge and assistant camp-in-charge officials undertook the training. Furthermore, 60 camp-in-charge staff took part in Nutrition and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support training.
Emergency preparedness and response: The 2021 Emergency Response Team (2021), consisting of 55 staff members, was established. The staff are from different units across the operation and are all trained on emergency preparedness and response, VHF, and operating satellite phones. Fire incidents and response: So far, 119 fire incidents occurred in 2021 including two large fire incidents in Nayapara Registered Camp in January and Balukhali camps (Camp 8 and 9) in March. UNHCR analyzed the incidents and conducted a mapping of fire response facilities in the camps. Four three-wheeler vehicles were procured and equipped with fire extinguishers. A modified version of the vehicles with water pumps is currently being developed.
Community-led projects: Despite limited access to the camps by partners due to COVID-19 restrictions, 389 community-led projects are in progress out of which 102 have been completed. These projects are identified through consultations with the community and coordination with relevant actors. Projects included construction and repair of pathways, bridges, and stairs to facilitate safe movement in the camps, in particular through the monsoon season. The projects are identified and led by the Rohingya refugee communities with support from UNHCR partners including cash for work opportunities for Rohingya refugees in the camps.
Safety Unit and Site Management Volunteers: Over 1,500 refugee and host community volunteers took part in training on topics including cyclone preparedness, water and flood safety, WASH facility assessment and fire safety. The effectiveness of the training has been proven during different incidents in 2021. Each week, volunteers conduct hundreds of awareness sessions at households and distribution points on COVID-19 prevention, cyclone and monsoon preparedness and fire safety. In response to the large fire incidents, volunteers helped extinguish the fires, move people to safety and help with crowd control. The volunteers also play an important role in UNHCR’s remote monitoring by sharing information when access to the camps is reduced.
Relocations: UNHCR continued to facilitate relocations, including for households in areas where fences are being constructed, and those in areas at high risk of flooding. In 2021, 2,424 households have been relocated. However, relocations remain challenging due to lack of space in the camps. Site management partners support the households with non-food items, referrals to registration and services in the new location, and refer individual protection cases. Over 400 families have been identified in need of relocation in different camps which are in flood zones.
Distribution of non-food items: Regular distribution of non-food items is ongoing at UNHCR’s distribution points. Regular and seasonal distributions continued, including female hygiene kits, bathing soap, laundry soap, water purification tablets, mosquito nets, sleeping mats, tote bags and umbrellas. In addition, following the large fire incidents, blankets, kitchen sets, solar lamps, mosquito nets and clothes were distributed to aected families. In preparation for the monsoon season, tie-down kits were distributed to all households..."
Source/publisher:
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Geneva) via Reliefweb (New York)
Date of publication:
2021-06-30
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-17
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
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"In August 2017 and in October-November 2016, Myanmar security forces advanced upon numerous
Rohingya villages in Rakhine state. The 100-300 assailants, comprised of the Myanmar military,
Border Guard Police (BGP), police, and mmobilized Rakhine civilians, besieged the villages from
their deployment stations, which typically included BGP camps, military camps, Rakhine villages,
schools, and temples.
Security forces killed and injured Rohingya villagers with indiscriminate gunfire; raped Rohingya
women, and unlawfully arrested Rohingya men. Security forces burned down Rohingya homes
and looted Rohingya property. In the terror after such mass-scale violence and killing, Rohingya
villagers escaped to Bangladesh, where they now live in temporary tents within precarious refugee
camps.
Premeditation and intent to commit genocide is apparent from security forces’ advance planning and
deployment. They commonly began intimidation tactics in the dark hours before dawn, by firing
guns, and then attacked the villages in the early hours of the morning. Security forces consistently
surrounded Rohingya villages, completely blocking escape or leaving only one of four sides open
for egress. They shot indiscriminate gunfire to incite panic and fired at Rohingya people as the
civilians fled.
Yet the systematic destruction of the Rohingya people began far earlier than August 2017. Starting
from decades earlier, the government confiscated land from Rohingya villagers.
And during the time period of 2012-2016, Rohingya experienced multiple and successive forms of
religious discrimination and persecution. This included prohibitions on giving religious sermons, on
holding religious events, on practicing Qurban (ceremonial sacrifice of livestock animals), and on
performing azan (making calls to prayer). They were forbidden to gather in groups of five or more
people, which abrogated religious fellowship. Nor could they freely use their mosque for prayer or
provide Islamic education to their children at the madrasa. Security forces physically beat, arrested,
jailed, and extorted money from those found in prayer or religious practice.
Marriage required payment of high fees, of up to 500,000 kyat, in order to obtain permission from
the authorities. As the permission was issued, the authorities directed the Rohingya to have no more
than two or three children, under threat of punishment.
The Rohingya had no freedom of movement but were forced to obtain a series of travel permits,
even to travel to a neighboring village. And despite obtaining such permission by paying large
amounts of money, security forces extorted money at checkpoints. Security forces beat, fined,
arrested, and jailed those who did not obtain travel permission. Later, the Rohingya were forbidden
to even leave their own homes between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
The Rohingya faced discrimination in schooling, thereby foreclosing their education. The
government barred them from obtaining public employment. The military regularly conscripted
Rohingya men into forced labor. The Rohingya also faced discrimination in obtaining medical
treatment and healthcare.
Although the Rohingya voted before, this too was foreclosed after 2015. Finally, no Rohingya
person held Myanmar citizenship. Indeed, the authorities tried to force them to accept NVC, a card
which would register them as foreigners. In summation, Rohingya people were deprived of basic
rights in essentially every aspect of daily life.
With this history of discrimination and persecution of the Rohingya as the backdrop, we recommend
first that the international community provide affirmative support to having the entire matter of
genocide referred to the International Criminal Court or to a newly established special or ad-hoc
court for investigation and trial. The truth-seeking investigation must proceed without any grants
of immunity, for the wrongdoers occupy all levels of society. The bad actors include the Myanmar
military, BGP, and officials of the Myanmar government, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu
Kyi and other Cabinet Members, as well as civilians who were mobilized into paramilitary forces.
We also recommend that the Myanmar government provide remedy and relief to the victims and
survivors, founded first on restoration of previously-held rights, as well as financial recompense to
those for whom such restoration is insufficient, such as victims who have suffered psychological
harm. In such situations, it is critical to respect and decide the specific substance and form of
remedy and relief according to the wishes of the victims and the Rohingya community.
Further action includes the introduction of legislation and administrative measures to abolish
systems and practices that discriminate against the Rohingya, including those involving hate speech
and other forms of prejudiced information. Education is necessary to improve awareness of hatred,
bias, and discrimination.
The Myanmar government must cease registering the Rohingya with NVC identification cards
and must ensure restoration of their citizenship rights. Finally, the Myanmar government and the
international community must actively guarantee and ensure participation of Rohingya people in
discussions about possible repatriation..."
Source/publisher:
Asian Dignity Initiative
Date of publication:
2021-09-01
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, International Criminal Court, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Format :
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Sub-title:
Investigations in international courts will only give a partial picture of what happened in 2017, the rest must not be lost to history
Description:
"More than four years after Myanmar military soldiers committed mass murder, rape and arson against the Rohingya in Rakhine State, several efforts aimed at achieving the distant-seeming goal of bringing Min Aung Hlaing and other perpetrators to justice are underway.
Cases have been accepted at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC), while Rohingya advocates in Argentina are pushing for courts there to accept a third case that specifically names both civilian and military officials implicated in the genocide, including detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Justice is by no means guaranteed for the Rohingya, or others across the country who have been suffering under the military both before and after the February 1 coup. Regardless of the legal outcomes of these cases, the reality is that the military will continue to enjoy impunity as long as it clings to power.
Even so, the one thing that these cases can do for the Rohingya is to act as truth-seeking exercises, putting down on the official record exactly what happened. But even the courts of The Hague do not have the capacity to comprehensively document what happened in the weeks and months after the killing started on August 25, 2017.
During the bloodbath, some 300 villages across Rakhine were subjected to atrocities. Nearly 24,000 Rohingya civilians were killed in numerous massacres, while 18,000 women and girls were raped, according to a report from the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).
The ICC, the ICJ and others will not and cannot do a full truth-seeking investigation covering every affected village. These international legal proceedings will focus on several villages that were heavily affected, inviting a couple of dozen witnesses to the stand.
That means a huge amount will be left out of the proceedings, information that ought to be brought to light for historical, legal, and moral reasons. We must not allow the details about what happened in the majority of Rohingya villages in 2017 to be lost to history.
In Asian Dignity Initiative's latest report on the massacre, seven Rohingya researchers interviewed 845 civilians from 30 villages in Rakhine State in a bid to ensure as many details about what happened are put on the record as possible.
We want to continue these efforts in the future so that no village is left out. When the Covid-19 situation allows again, grassroots efforts to build a comprehensive picture of what happened must resume..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-09-02
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-02
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
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Description:
"Today, 25 August, marks four years since our people fled genocidal attacks by Myanmar
security forces in Arakan State also known as Rakhine State, Myanmar in 2017. Today, 25
August, is the fourth Anniversary of the Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day.
We mark this day so that all future generations of Rohingya will know what happened to our
people. We the undersigned organizations, remember, mourn, and call for accountability
for the atrocity crimes committed by the Myanmar security forces including genocide and
crimes against humanity.
The Myanmar security forces killed, raped, and burned our villages trying to destroy us.
The attacks led to the exodus of nearly one million Rohingya to Bangladesh, where we now
live in sprawling and overcrowded refugee camps.
On 1 February 2021, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and the Myanmar military overthrew
the elected Government of Myanmar in a coup. The military and police have since
killed more than 1,000 men, women, and children- p rimarily peaceful protesters- a nd
imprisoned several thousand others for opposing the junta's rule.
The junta that controls the country is the same military junta that led genocidal attacks against
our people and now are committing human rights violations against the whole country.
Rohingya are still at grave risk in Rakhine State where the junta commits crimes with impunity.
The military continues to confine thousands of Rohingya to internment camps and Rohingya
are still denied citizenship, freedom of movement, and other basic human rights.
We are citizens of Myanmar and support the resistance movement against the junta
including the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) the National Unity Government (NUG),
and all people working for democracy and human rights.
We support the international community and the NUG's commitment for international
justice including at the International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice, and
through the universal jurisdiction case in Argentina. However, we call on the NUG to
expand on its Rohingya policy and appoint a Rohingya minster and other Muslim leaders.
We call on United Nations member states to impose targeted sanctions against the
Myanmar military and work to end impunity in the country. United Nations have been slow
to show coordinated action to hold preparators accountable for crimes.
We support the International Court of Justice genocide case at the World Court. We the
undersigned organisations, call on governments around the world including the United
States, United Kingdom, and others to make a clear genocide determination about the
crimes committed against Rohingya.
We Rohingya are still living in overcrowded and sprawling refugee camps. We thank the
Bangladesh government for welcoming us to the country and providing us safety. We long
to return home to Myanmar.
Four years on, we will work to be able to return to our homeland as citizens, to build
a country that ensures justice and rights for people regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity..."
Source/publisher:
Champions of Change, Education & Wisdom Development for Rohingya Women , Rohingya Refugee Committee , Rohingya Women Education Initiative, Rohingya Youth for Legal Action, Rohingya Youth Unity Team, Voice of Rohingya, Rohingya Student Union
Date of publication:
2021-08-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-01
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Human Rights and international relations, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Anti-coup protesters, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
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"On 25 August, 2021, the Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day Organizing Committee
and the Women’s Peace Network held an online panel discussion to commemorate the four
years since the Myanmar military’s systematic use of sexual violence in its genocidal attacks
against Rohingya.
“The military has killed indiscriminately, slaughtered us like animals. Tens of thousands
of Rohingya women were gang-raped by the Myanmar military. It was systematic and we
consider it as part of the genocide. They were using rape as a weapon against women to force us
out of Myanmar. There still is no justice for us,” explained Win Win Maw, a poet, cultural agent
and writer at the Rohingya Cultural Memory Center in Bangladesh.
Moon Nay Li, who has worked for the Kachin Women's Association for 18 years and
currently holds the position of advocacy officer and spokesperson, highlighted that for decades,
the military used rape as a weapon of war with impunity, and the international community’s
failure to act emboldened them to continue this horrific practice to this day.
“I think the lack of impunity emboldened them, the lack of punishment and the military
immunity have made the situation worse,” she said.
Khin Omar, human rights advocate and founder of a number of civil society
organizations, including the Women's League of Burma, Burma Partnership, and Progressive
Voice, then elaborated on the question of justice for survivors, stating that survivors and victims
of sexual violence needed remedy, and that Myanmar as a country needs to hold the military
accountable so that they would “stop raping women.”
Another of our panelists, Naw K’nyaw Paw, a lifelong peace activist and General
Secretary of the Karen Women’s Organization, explained the psychosocial consequences of
sexual violence as follows: “The victims of sexual violence have suffered mental and physical
trauma, they can’t focus on work tasks, they seek isolation, they become triggered and
re-traumatized, and they face stigma. Sexual violence can also separate women from their social
communities, but they need an income and social support. We need justice, but we also need to
help victims to support their livelihoods and dignity.”
As some of our speakers pointed out, sexual violence against ethinic minorities was long
seen as something normal in Myanmar, mainly because ethnic minorities such as Rohingya were
not perceived as Burmese citizens. Dr. Tin Mar Oo, a medical doctor and Rohingya women
rights activist told us that these feelings of disunity are starting to dissipate under the current
junta rule.
“Myanmar is at war. The military is attacking everybody, in different parts of Myanmar.
They are using sexual violence as a weapon, we have to understand that. It is important that we
work together to find justice for all the victims of the Myanmar military,” she proclaimed.
The fruitful discussion, moderated by former political prisoner and founder of the
Women’s Peace Network, Wai Wai Nu, demonstrated the strong need for remedy and
accountability. Hence, together with our panelists, the Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day
Committee and the Women’s Peace Network call on the international community to provide
financial and psychological support for the victims of the Burmese Military’s wide-spread use of
sexual and gender-based violence. We also call on communities to provide social and
psychological support for traumatized survivors. Further, we demand that the National Unity
Government repeal the 2014 and 2015 Race and Protection laws, which discriminate against
ethnic, racial, and religious minorities and render women and girls who are already a target to
violence even more vulnerable.
Moreover, as former Dutch ambassador, member of the Rakhine Advisory Commission,
and author Laetitia van den Assum has put it, “without accountability, justice doesn’t stand a
chance”. If we want justice for survivors, we cannot permit the junta to continue their campaign
of terror with impunity. Thus, we call on the United Nations Security Council to refer Myanmar
to the International Criminal Court or create a Special Tribunal to hold the military accountable
for their crimes..."
Source/publisher:
Women’s Peace Network
Date of publication:
2021-08-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Women's rights
Language:
Format :
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54.08 KB
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"25 August 2021: Four years ago, decades of state persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar culminated in a campaign of genocidal atrocities committed against Rohingya by the Myanmar military. Today, the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) remembers the victims, those still facing persecution in Rakhine state, and the refugees in Cox’s Bazar and around the world.
The 25th of August marks the day in 2017 when the Myanmar military and security forces descended upon Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine state and unleashed a campaign of horror against Rohingya girls, boys, women and men. Thousands were killed, thousands more were raped and tortured, and three quarters of a million people were forced to flee to Bangladesh, where they remain. Those who fled joined a quarter of a million earlier Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
“We three have all been profoundly changed by our investigations into what was done to the Rohingya in August 2017, by meeting with survivors and hearing your stories,” the members of SAC-M said to the survivors. “Today, we remember the victims, we encourage you in your struggle and we reaffirm our commitment to the continuing fight for justice, reparation and the reinstatement of your rights.”
The one million Rohingya refugees confined to camps in Bangladesh continue to endure dire conditions. Deadly fires swept through the camps earlier in the year and now serious flooding has caused further destruction.
The coup launched by the Myanmar military in February has created further uncertainty around the prospects for establishing conditions in Myanmar conducive to the voluntary, safe, dignified and durable return of Rohingya refugees.
The Rohingya who remain in northern and central Rakhine face deteriorating conditions and ongoing discrimination. Their access to COVID-19 vaccination programmes is reported to be restricted or prevented entirely. Meanwhile, the threat of more military rule – the same military responsible for the atrocities remembered today – threatens to entrench the military’s impunity for its crimes and render justice ever more remote.
“The fourth anniversary of the atrocities also serves as a moment for us all to recall the lessons of history, and what may come if racism, exclusion, persecution and impunity for human rights violations are allowed to prevail,” said SAC-M. “Those lessons must inspire the people of Myanmar as they rise up against the military and look to a future of peace, pluralism and a new democracy in which the Rohingya are full, equal participants in Myanmar society.”
Should a tragedy of such magnitude that fatefully befell the Rohingya, which is veritably a national tragedy, ever recur, that would spell the demise of the idea of the Myanmar nation.
On this day of remembrance SAC-M calls on the people of Myanmar and the international community not to forget. Not to forget what the Myanmar military has done. Not to forget what it continues to do. Not to forget what is at stake for all those striving to resist military rule. Not to forget the Rohingya..."
Source/publisher:
Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-08-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Format :
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Size:
109.62 KB 536.29 KB
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Sub-title:
August 25 is observed by Rohingya as 'Genocide Remembrance Day,' but theirs is not just the story of a single day in 2017
Description:
"Kabir, a Rohingya refugee, fled his village in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state on August 25, 2017. But this was not the first time he had been forced to flee, nor the first time Myanmar soldiers had burned down his home. Nor is Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where he now lives, the first camp he has sought refuge in.
In August 2017, Myanmar security forces launched a campaign of killings, rape and arson against the Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine amounting to crimes against humanity and acts of genocide. More than 730,000 escaped to Bangladesh over the next few weeks.
August 25 has come to be observed by Rohingya as “Genocide Remembrance Day,” but their plight is not the story of a single day, or even a single mass exodus. The roots of August 25, 2017, lie in the decades of state repression and violence that preceded it, orchestrated by successive governments to erode their freedoms and enshrine their vulnerability.
Kabir, now 27, grew up in Rathedaung township. As a teenager, he worked as a day laborer on farms or construction projects.
Kabir had to carry travel permits to pass through security checkpoints to get to work. He was, like almost all Rohingya in Myanmar, denied the citizenship that would recognize his family’s roots in the country. The authorities would harass them on the job, he told us, fining Rohingya workers for missing a day or beating them for making a mistake.
“But still I was happy,” he said. “At least we could work.”
In 2012, he said, things changed. A targeted campaign of hate and discrimination against the Rohingya started across Rakhine state, led by ethnic Rakhine nationalists and Buddhist leaders, stoked by the military and police.
That July, Buddhist monks in Rathedaung issued a statement presenting a plan for the “Arakan Ethnic Cleansing Program” of Rohingya. Violent attacks flared and tensions grew. “Our Buddhist neighbors ostracized us,” said Kabir, identified in this article by only his first name for his security.
By October, Rakhine villagers, often alongside police and soldiers, were burning Muslim homes, destroying mosques, and looting property in townships across Rakhine state.
“For 15 days, they couldn’t set our houses on fire because it was raining,” Kabir said. “But one day, our neighbors along with Buddhists from other areas attacked our village. We tried to fight back but couldn’t. Finally, we fled.”
Kabir’s family ended up in a settlement with other displaced Rohingya in Koe Tan Kauk, or Dunse Para in the Rohingya language, a village tract in Rathedaung along the Bay of Bengal. Rohingya across Rakhine were living under an oppressive regimen, denied freedom of movement and other basic rights.
In October 2016, the ethnic armed group later known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked three police outposts in northern Rakhine state, including one in Koe Tan Kauk. Myanmar military and police responded with brutal “clearance operations,” killing and raping Rohingya and burning down their homes. The authorities arbitrarily rounded up young men, interrogating and torturing them.
Soldiers rounded up all the men and teenage boys from Kabir’s settlement in Koe Tan Kauk and held them at a local military camp. The soldiers separated 12 of them from the group, including Kabir, and took them to a nearby school, where they interrogated them about ARSA and beat them. Kabir said he saw one man’s nails pulled out.
“They took each of us on our own into a room for interrogation,” he said. “Waiting outside you could hear the screams. When it was my turn, they beat me with a stick and military belt at the same time. At one point, one of them kicked me in the genitals, and I fell unconscious.”
The young Rohingya men were held at a pagoda for three days. Some were then sent to the prison in Sittwe, the state capital. Kabir and others were released after paying bribes and signing a paper from their interrogators saying they weren’t tortured.
Soldiers and border-guard police kept the Rohingya camps and hamlets in Koe Tan Kauk under constant surveillance into 2017. Rohingya men and women were barred from fishing or collecting wood; schools remained closed.
The security-force presence grew. In August, naval craft arrived off the coast of Koe Tan Kauk, bringing soldiers from the notoriously abusive light infantry divisions (LIDs) to northern Rakhine state.
On August 25 at about 4am, villagers in Koe Tan Kauk awoke to the sound of gunshots. The military later reported that two of the several ARSA attacks carried out simultaneously that morning had taken place in Koe Tan Kauk. Seven members of the armed group were killed.
Security forces, including the 33rd LID, and local ethnic Rakhine arrived that same morning, shooting at Rohingya villagers who attempted to flee to the forested hills. Some, they captured and slit their throats.
Women and girls were brought to the military camp and raped. Older persons, and people with disabilities, were burned alive in their homes as the entire Rohingya areas of Koe Tan Kauk were torched.
“The whole camp was burned,” Kabir said.
Satellites first detected active fires in Koe Tan Kauk in the early afternoon of August 25. The imagery revealed 700 buildings burned, encompassing every Rohingya hamlet and camp. The extensive areas destroyed meant it was very likely the burning was deliberate.
A United Nations Fact-Finding Mission reported later that the Myanmar naval ships stationed just offshore fired weapons at the village. Hundreds were killed. Almost every person from Koe Tan Kauk whom the UN interviewed said he or she had lost at least one family member.
Again, Kabir and his family fled. First to Inn Din, then Bossara, north of Koe Tan Kauk in Maungdaw township.
“From there, we walked for nine days to reach Aley Than Kyaw,” Kabir said, to the beach in southern Maungdaw. The trek took them through the jungle mountains where every day thousands more Rohingya were fleeing, seeking refuge as the military torched their villages and homes.
Kabir paid 100,000 kyat (US$70) a head for his family to cross the Naf River by boat to reach Bangladesh. In Cox’s Bazar, they joined what would become the world’s largest refugee camp.
Four years later they live there still, entirely dependent on humanitarian assistance and his sister’s small income from her work at an aid organization. Nearly a million Rohingya live in the sprawling, overcrowded camps, facing deadly landslides and the risk of disease, fires among the bamboo and plastic shelters, and violence.
An initial welcome by the Bangladeshi government and host communities has been replaced with increasing restrictions on their rights to livelihoods, freedom of movement, and adequate education and health. Bangladeshi authorities are threatening to move an additional 80,000 Rohingya to join the 20,000 refugees already sent to Bhasan Char, a remote, low-lying island that many fear is unfit and unsafe for habitation.
The prospect of Kabir and his family returning safely to Myanmar, meanwhile, has never been more distant. In Rakhine state, 600,000 Rohingya remain trapped in squalid and oppressive conditions amounting to the crimes against humanity of persecution, apartheid, and severe deprivation of liberty.
Since the military coup on February 1 this year, they have lived under an abusive junta led by the same generals responsible for the grave crimes against them.
Those seeking to flee by boat in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea have never faced greater risks, the UN refugee agency recently reported. Rohingya who have reached Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia or India live on the margins as undocumented migrants, facing constant threat of arrest and detention, or forced return to military-controlled Myanmar.
And everywhere, Rohingya are still awaiting justice. That is what they have been asking for, not just for the past four years, but for decades. They are demanding that those responsible for these crimes against the Rohingya be held to account, and that governments claiming to be in their corner should do all that they can to make that happen.
Myanmar’s military coup has only underscored the devastation that decades of impunity can bring.
“We are losing hope here, too,” Kabir said in Cox’s Bazar. “We were very industrious people in our village. But our fate made us live this refugee life. Still, I have hope that one day we will be able to go back to our village to live with safety and security.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication:
2021-08-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
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Description:
"Today, on the fourth anniversary of the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar, we call for justice and inclusion for the
Rohingya.
Decades of discrimination and mistreatment peaked on 25 August 2017. when the Myanmar military initiated a
brutal crackdown against the Rohingya in Rakhine State that led to mass human rights violations and caused over
725.000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. Today, approximately 1 million Rohingya reside in the refugee camps in
Cox's Bazar. Bangladesh. The overcrowded and under-resourced camps are ill-equipped to face rising COVID-19,
dengue fever, and cholera cases and are vulnerable to floods and fires. Meanwhile, back in Myanmar, hundreds of
thousands of Rohingya remain internally displaced, many confined in detention camps, and the country as a whole,
since the 1 February 2021 coup, is in a state of crisis.
Despite the hardship the Rohingya have faced, they demonstrate, on a daily basis, their resilience and strength.
Since 2019, A]AR has worked with Rohi ngya refugees in the camps and has witnessed this determi nation first-hand.
Carrying the trauma of the past and the uncertainty of the future, the refugees persist, tirelessly seeking out new
ways to improve their circumstances while continuing to honor their culture and faith.
Several international mechanisms are working to advance justice for the Rohingya. and the pro-democracy
movement has taken steps to show its support of the Rohi ngya. However, at present, both justice and the voluntary,
safe, and dignified return of the Rohingya remain a distant goal. This must change.
On this anniversary, we therefore call on the international community to:
• Advance initiatives providing urgent and interim measures to help repair the lives of survivors and invest
in long-term empowerment programming for survivors;
• Promote accountability by joining The Gambia in its case against Myanmar before the International Court
of justice (ICJ) and by supporting and enhancing understanding of the accountability mechanisms,
including the ICJ, the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the Independent Investigative Mechanisms
for Myanmar (IIMM), and by pursuing universal jurisdiction cases in their own countries;
• Support the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar;
• Support Bangladesh in the provision of assistance and resources to the Rohingya; and
• Maintain pressure on ASEAN to give effect to the right of Rohingya survivors to an effective and
enforceable remedy..."
Source/publisher:
Asia Justice and Rights, Sisters2Sisters, Perlindungan Insani Indonesia, KontraS, KontraS Aceh, The May 18 Memorial Foundation, Cross Cultural Foundation, Kurawal Foundation, Migrant CARE, Milk Tea Alliance Indonesia, SP Kinasih Solidaritas Perempuan, YLB
Date of publication:
2021-08-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General
Language:
Format :
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Size:
58.63 KB 25.59 KB 251.39 KB
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Description:
"To Our Rohingya sisters,
On this day commemorating the Rohingya genocide, the Karen Women’s Organization
(KWO) wishes to express our solidarity for the pain and suffering Rohingya victims and their
families have endured under militarized campaigns waged by the Burmese Army. KWO is all
too familiar with the brutality of which the junta is capable of. Our communities have been
devastated by scorched earth campaigns and a slow genocide of the Karen people for
decades.
The struggle of ethnic people is rooted in the military’s desire to preserve Bamar history and
traditions. Their ruthless attempts to assimilate the population has come with destruction
and force waged against the Karen, and other ethnic groups in the country. Our differences
and diversity ought to be celebrated. But instead, the junta continues to attempt to
aggressively eliminate our very existence.
Women and girls in particular have been subjected to harrowing forms of gender-based
violence and sexual assault. The Burmese military has long used rape as a weapon of war
against ethnic women to intimidate, traumatize and silence their victims. These abuses
weigh heavy, but they must not deter, distract nor disengage from our efforts to hold the
Burmese military accountable. We are haunted by the junta’s unrelenting attacks which have
taken loved ones from us too soon, and forced us to carry the weight of lives lost without
justice. But we cannot let them win. We must be strong and carry on without fear.
KWO offers our solidarity in the strongest possible forms and will fight for the day when our
suffering is no longer in vain, and for long-lasting peace in Burma where we are all
recognized as equals, regardless of our ethnicity, religion or gender. Until then, we are with
you in our ongoing calls for justice..."
Source/publisher:
Karen Women's Organization
Date of publication:
2021-08-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Women's rights
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
111.65 KB
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Description:
"Four years ago, Burma’s military launched a horrific ethnic cleansing against Rohingya in northern Rakhine State. The brutality of the military’s atrocities on that day shocked the conscience of the international community – but we recognize the Rohingya had already suffered decades of grave human rights abuses, and that many of those abuses continue today. The United States remembers the victims and recommits to pursuing and demanding accountability for those responsible for these atrocities and other human rights abuses, and seeking justice for victims. We recognize the need to address the root causes of this violence and hold perpetrators accountable to help prevent such atrocities from recurring.
Today, the same military leaders who perpetrated the February 1 coup are committing abuses against pro-democracy activists and members of ethnic and religious communities across the country, and we have seen the same light infantry brigades that terrorized Rohingya communities in 2017 inflict brutal violence on pro-democracy protestors since the coup. The coup and the brutality of the military’s subsequent crackdown have exacerbated the already precarious situation for vulnerable people across Burma, including Rohingya. The United States continues to underscore the need for unhindered humanitarian access to all people requiring assistance in Burma.
At the launch of the 2021 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis in May, the United States announced nearly $155 million in new assistance to sustain critical efforts to support Rohingya refugees and members of the host communities in Bangladesh and internally displaced Rohingya. and other affected people in Burma. Our assistance will help meet the immediate needs of nearly 900,000 refugees in Bangladesh, including women and children. This new funding, which includes life-saving COVID assistance, brought our total humanitarian aid for those affected by the crisis in Burma, Bangladesh, and elsewhere in the region, to more than $1.3 billion – including more than $1.1 billion in Bangladesh and more than $238 million in Burma – since August 2017. We encourage other members of the international community to likewise support peace building and social cohesion work in Rakhine State, and to contribute to the Joint Response Plan.
The United States will continue to promote justice for victims and accountability for those responsible for atrocities and other human rights abuses. To that end, we have imposed visa restrictions and financial sanctions on top military leaders and units, including those linked to serious human rights abuse against Rohingya, and suppression of peaceful protests since the February 1 coup. We have also supported the UN fact finding and investigative mechanisms focused on Burma; and pressed Burma to implement the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures order.
The United States also welcomes the inclusive path forward envisioned by the NUG and other pro-democracy groups in Burma and their pledge to reform the 1982 citizenship law, among other actions intended to protect the rights of Rohingya and members of other ethnic minority groups. These steps will be necessary to safeguard the human rights and human dignity of all people in Burma, including Rohingya.
The United States will continue to partner with the people of Burma to support peace and justice, critical humanitarian assistance, a return to the path to democracy, and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms..."
Source/publisher:
United States Department of State
Date of publication:
2021-08-24
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG)
Language:
more
Description:
"Today is a most memorable day for us, for our children and for our generations to come. On this day of August 25, 2017, the Burma/Myanmar brute forces, army, police and state-sponsored non-state actors and Buddhist Rakhine vigilantes started pre-planned genocidal onslaughts against our innocent people carrying out mass murder, widespread rape, systematic arson attacks and wholesale destruction of homes and villages.
Today we remember something that happened to us or to our communities. Similarly, we remember something that happened before 25 August 2017, and the mass atrocity crimes between 2012 to 2016 in Arakan and across the country. Today we also remember what befell our people before we were born, specifically the killing of about100,000 of our innocent people in 1942.
Today our people, the survivors in Arakan and refugee camps, are mere ruins. We are a people without a past for it was taken away from us, and without a future. Everything is broken and our homeland is irrecoverably destroyed.
The crimes never happen overnight. The Rohingya genocide is the last step in the continuity of destruction that began decades ago, largely from 1962 military takeover in Burma. Their aim is to destroy our people in whole or in part from our ancestral homeland to which we have physical, psychological and spiritual attachment.
There are many testimonies of survivors. They were unarmed people caught off guard, chosen as victims solely because of their ethnicity and religion. In spite of our repeated forewarning of genocide looming over our defenceless people, there was no international response.
Here, we are compelled to ask ourselves: how was this genocide possible at all? The answer lies in the inactivity of the international community, which according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crimes of Genocide (1948), was obliged to act, that is to “prevent and punish” genocide. Unfortunately, still almost all governments have avoided calling the crime by its proper name –genocide—eschew their obligation from the Convention, which, ultimately, implies intervening. Encouraged by the hesitancy of the international community, the perpetrators realized their criminal policy without punishment.
We thank the people and government of Bangladesh for sheltering and looking after our refugees on humanitarian grounds. We also appreciate the international community for their humanitarian aid.
We are grateful to The Republic of Gambia for filing a genocide case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) with the backing of Bangladesh and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Despite Court (ICJ) Order on 23 January 2020, the Rohingya who are left behind in Arakan are under constant threat of genocide facing a great humanitarian disaster. Sponsored demographic changes are progressively made in the Rohingya Homeland of North Arakan.
Under the present unsafe conditions, the return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh and elsewhere to Burma will put them at risk of further crimes. The international community must not fail them again, and it has a responsibility to protect them. The UNSC should refer the criminals to International Criminal Court. This is the time for the United Nations to intervene in Arakan/Rakhine State, if necessary, by seeking global consensus.
The punishing of crimes must be accepted as a personal moral imperative. Without embracing the responsibility for the crimes, there is no compromise with the criminals and the enemies of humanity. All perpetrators must be brought to justice.
In conclusion, today we remember and honour all those who were killed as heroes and shaheeds (martyrs). We will remember them forever. Today we also salute our female survivors, including the rape victims, for their courageous efforts to survive, even as refugee widows and orphans. The carnage is more than a tragedy. The extent of barbarity or methods employed in Arakan/Rakhine State against our people surpassed everything else that took place on the territory of Myanmar. That will not and cannot be forgotten..."
Source/publisher:
Arakan Rohingya National Organisation
Date of publication:
2021-08-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Human Rights and international relations, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
more
Description:
"On the 4th anniversary of the genocidal military offensive against Rohingya civilians, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is still refusing to act to hold the Burmese military accountable for their crimes.
Dominic Raab refuses to support referring Burma to the International Criminal Court, and refuses to join the genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
“Not only is Dominic Raab failing to act to support accountability for genocide of the Rohingya, he is actively resisting cross-party pressure on him to do so,” said Anna Roberts, Executive Director of Burma Campaign UK. “Dominic Raab refuses to join the genocide case at the International Court of Justice, despite cross-party support for him to do so. His failure to act makes no sense either in terms of promoting accountability, or politically for himself and his own reputation as an embattled Foreign Secretary who says he wants to support human rights.”
On 25th August 2017 the Burmese military launched a pre-planned attack against ethnic Rohingya civilians in Rakhine State, Burma. Around 800,000 Rohingya were forced to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. Thousands of people were killed and raped. The majority of the Rohingya forced to flee were children.
UN investigators have concluded that what took place was genocide and called for Burma to be referred to the International Criminal Court, but despite Foreign Office Minister Mark Field stating in October 2017 that the UK would support a referral if the UN supported that approach, the British government is still refusing to say it supports a referral.
At the same time Dominic Raab is refusing to join the genocide case at the International Court of Justice. While claiming international leadership on addressing human rights in Burma, it was in fact Gambia which brought the genocide case to the court, with Dominic Raab watching from the sidelines and resisting cross-party pressure in the UK to join the case.
The cross-party Foreign Affairs Committee of the British Parliament published a report in July 2021 calling on the British government to join the case.
104 MPs backed a Parliamentary Motion calling on the British government to join the ICJ case and support ICC referral.
104 MPs and Lords, including former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, wrote to Dominic Raab calling on him to join the case at the ICJ.
The Labour Party supports joining the case at the ICJ.
As does the Liberal Democrat party.
Rohingya community organisations and international human rights and humanitarian organisations have also called on the British government to join the case at the ICJ.
Burma Campaign UK has published a briefing paper detailing the hypocrisy and inconsistencies of Dominic Raab’s stated support for accountability whilst at the same time steadfastly refusing to take action to support accountability..."
Source/publisher:
"Burma Campaign UK" (London)
Date of publication:
2021-08-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description:
"On this 4th anniversary of the Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day, the Women’s League of
Burma (WLB) would like to convey our message of solidarity to our Rohingya sisters and
brothers. We share your sorrows, pain and demand justice in the name of all those who
perished in the brutal crackdowns by the Burmese military and the survivors who remain.
WLB condemns in the strongest possible terms the violence committed by the Burmese
military, which forced more than 700,000 Rohingyas to flee from Rakhine State into
Bangladesh.
The WLB and its member organizations have also experienced the agony of being forced to
flee our homelands all as well. For decades, the Burmese military has terrorized ethnic
communities with their wide-spread campaigns of violence. Sexual and gender-based
violence, especially rape has been systemically utilized by the Burmese military junta.
Women and girls in ethnic areas have long suffered under the Burmese military junta's culture
of impunity. Accountability for the crimes against ethnic women and girls is long overdue.
Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians have been forced to flee for their lives. This
humanitarian crisis has disproportionate impact on women and children. They face great risks
ranging from including malnutrition to being sexually exploited.
Since the military coup on February 1, the human rights situation in Burma is deteriorating
day by day. Civilians of every gender, religion and socio-economic background have been
killed and detained by the junta simply for demanding their basic fundamental rights and
freedoms. The Burmese military junta perhaps think it is above the law and that there are no
consequences for the atrocity crimes and human rights violations it committed in Rakhine
state and continues to do so all over Burma.
Impunity has emboldened them so the world must act to ensure that the harrowing ordeals
faced by our Rohingya sisters, brothers and other ethnic community over the decades must
never happen to others. We must put an end to sexual violence in conflict, extrajudicial
killings, arrests of peaceful protesters and inhuman treatment in detention.
WLB reinforces our repeated calls for an immediate referral of the Burmese military junta to
the International Criminal Court and domestic courts with jurisdiction to bring justice for
victims and survivors.
And to our Rohingya sisters and brothers, we hold your pain close to our hearts and vow to
work alongside you all to break free of the reins of injustice which have kept us chained for
too long.....၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် သြဂုတ်လ ၂၅ ရက်နေ့တွင် အမျိုးသမီးများအဖွဲ့ချုပ် (မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ) သည် ရိုဟင်ဂျာညီအစ်ကို ညီအစ်မများ နှင့် တသားတည်းရပ်တည်ကြောင့် သတင်းစကားပါးခြင်း ဆိုသည့် ထုတ်ပြန်ကြောညာချက်ကို ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့သည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Women's League of Burma
Date of publication:
2021-08-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Women's rights
Language:
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
27.66 KB 529.81 KB
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Description:
"1. Today, August 25, 2021, marks a grim anniversary in the world's modern history and
that of Myanmar: the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the fascist Myanmar
military's acts of genocide committed against Rohingya and torture and oppression
committed against Hindus, Mro, Thet, Khami, Maramagyi, Daingnet, and Kaman of
Rakhine State. Today also marks the 206th day since the fascist military' unjust seizure of
power from the democratically-elected government.
2. Our Spring Revolution Interfaith Network fully supports the National Unity
Government's Policy Position on the Rohingya in Rakhine State, and we welcome the
NUG's agreement to accept the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction with respect to
international crimes committed in Myanmar.
3. We, the Spring Revolution Interfaith Network, strongly urge the international
community to take action against those who have enjoyed impunity for their
unspeakable atrocities against people of diverse ethnic and religious groups historically
and through the present, in order to provide justice to victims of genocide in Rakhine
State and victims of the current regime of terror in Myanmar.
4. We, the Spring Revolution Interfaith Network, deeply regret and apologize for our
failures to speak out or work for the justice of the Rohingya who fled genocidal acts, and
the Hindus, Mro, Thet, Khami, Maramagyi, Daingnet, and Kaman people in Rakhine State
who also suffered atrocities at the hands of the fascist military.
5. We, the Spring Revolution Interfaith Network, hereby declare our strong desire to
collaborate with revolutionary groups from all ethnic communities and religious entities
in order to build a federal democratic country based on non-discrimination, freedom,
justice, and equality for all.....နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေး ဘာသာပေါင်းစုံကွန်ရက် သဘောထားထုတ်ပြန်ချက်
ခေတ်အဆက်ဆက်တွင် တရားမဲ့ပြုကျင့်ခံခဲ့ကြရသည့် နိုင်ငံအနှံ့မှ လူမျိုးစု ညီအစ်ကိုမောင်နှမများ အပါအဝင် ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်အတွင်းရှိ လူမျိုးတုန်းသတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းခံခဲ့ရသည့် ရိုဟင်ဂျာလူမျိုးများ၊ ဟိန္ဒူဘာသာဝင်များ၊ မြို၊သက်၊ခမီ၊မရမာကြီး၊ ဒိုင်းနက်၊ကမန် စသည့်လူမျိုးစုငယ်များ ခံစားခဲ့ရသည့် ဘေးဒုက္ခများအား တရားမျှတမှုရရှိစေရန် ထိရောက်စွာ လုပ်ဆောင်ပေးနိုင်ခြင်းမရှိသည့်အပေါ် မိမိတို့က ဝမ်းနည်းစွာ တောင်းပန်အပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
The Spring Revolution Interfaith Network
Date of publication:
2021-08-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
27.66 KB 241.56 KB
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Sub-title:
Covering up wrongdoing in the name of unity and as a strategy against the junta will only ensure that past injustices are perpetuated and that military rule will live on indefinitely.
Description:
"The formation of Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG) by elected members of parliament, ethnic and civil society leaders, and representatives of the Civil Disobedience Movement and General Strike Committees of the Spring Revolution was a historic moment. For the country’s diverse communities, it offered real hope that a genuine federal democracy—one that guarantees and protects their rights— can be established. As a moral as well as a political guide, the NUG must therefore transparently communicate to the people of Myanmar what and who it stands for.
To live up to its historic role, the NUG must now face the lack of justice and accountability that have allowed the Myanmar military to commit grave crimes against ethnic communities, including the Rohingya, for decades. For far too long, the military has acted with total impunity.
The last decade has seen the enactment and maintenance of racist, Islamophobic, and misogynistic legal frameworks that have served to enable the military’s most egregious abuses. The four “Race and Religion Protection Laws” adopted in 2015 built on the 1982 Citizenship Law to enshrine deeply discriminatory attitudes against a segment of the population; together with the empowerment of extremist Buddhist nationalists, they laid the groundwork for the incitement of anti-Muslim violence and the Myanmar military’s “clearance operations” against the Rohingya in 2017.
The genocide of that year went beyond the horrific crimes routinely committed by the military in ethnic areas for decades. More than 800,000 Rohingya were systematically murdered, raped and expelled from their homeland and a system of apartheid was created in which those who remained in Myanmar were confined to internment camps.
When it was in power, the National League for Democracy (NLD) remained silent in the face of the military’s grave crimes, particularly those committed against the Rohingya. Rather than cooperating with international mechanisms to hold the military accountable, the ruling party defended the generals at hearings held by the International Court of Justice. It even intentionally avoided using the term “Rohingya”, in line with state attempts to erase Rohingya identity. The NLD government did not repeal racist laws, despite having the capacity to do so with their parliamentary majority.
The culpability of the previous NLD government needs to be addressed head on. Covering up wrongdoing in the name of unity and as a strategy against the junta will only ensure that past injustices are perpetuated and that military rule will live on indefinitely.
We have seen some signs of hope. The NUG has adopted a policy paper on the Rohingya that is a positive start in acknowledging their rights, ending systemic efforts to oppress and exclude them, and recognizing the atrocity crimes that they have faced. It is encouraging that the NUG has moved towards achieving justice and accountability by working to become a party to the Rome Statute. However, more concrete steps must be taken.
It is precisely because the military has never faced any significant consequences for its crimes against the Rohingya and other ethnic groups that it is now able to inflict horrific atrocities against the rest of the population. Justice and equality for the Rohingya will serve not just the Rohingya alone, but also all the other peoples of Myanmar.
This is the moment for the NUG to start building the foundation for an inclusive, federal, and democratic Myanmar. The NUG’s declaration that it will grant the International Criminal Court jurisdiction to prosecute crimes dating back to 2002, made in response to calls from Myanmar civil society organizations and the international community, is a welcome move. The NUG must continue on this path towards ratifying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and support the Court’s procedures in order to bring the perpetrators of serious crimes to account.
The NUG and the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) should use their power now to repeal racist laws such as the 1982 Citizenship Law and the four “Race and Religion Protection Laws”. These laws are not only racist and xenophobic, but also perpetuate gendered discrimination and violence and violate the rights of children, while subscribing to the misogynistic and patriarchal system fostered by decades of military rule.
The NUG must listen to the voices of all the people of Myanmar, including those of the Rohingya and other ethnic and religious minorities—and particularly those of the victims and survivors of crimes committed by the Myanmar military. More importantly, it is vital that the Rohingya are included in the NUG’s political processes as we work towards dismantling institutionalized systems of oppression and discrimination built and entrenched by the military. This will be essential as we reimagine an inclusive and transformative future for Myanmar that guarantees and respects the humanity and human rights of all.
As the Myanmar military has waged a nationwide campaign of terror against the country’s people, solidarity with the Rohingya has been displayed on protest banners, on social media, and in comments by public figures. On August 25, the anniversary of the start of the military’s 2017 campaign against the Rohingya, members of Myanmar civil society plan to release an open letter calling for the restoration of their rights and for the military to be held accountable for its crimes. In this way, we can begin to imagine a Myanmar that derives strength from its diversity, rather than from notions of ethnic supremacy.
The NUG must act as a beacon for this future Myanmar and take concrete actions to demonstrate its political will to ensure and guarantee the equal rights of the Rohingya. They must also recognize that the crime of genocide was committed by the military against the Rohingya in 2017 and fully cooperate with international accountability mechanisms to seek justice for the victims and survivors.
Only by doing so can the NUG ensure that when democracy is restored in Myanmar, it will be able to foster a just and peaceful society based on federal principles, inclusivity, human rights, and human dignity that we can all belong to and be proud of and keep nurturing for future generations to come..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-08-24
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), National Unity Government (NUG)
Language:
more
Description:
"Immediate Release
Date: August 21, 2020
Rohingyas and those that stand in solidarity with them, will mark the 3rd anniversary of Myanmar’s genocide, in the first ever worldwide multilingual online rally. The event will bring together more than four dozen international supporters including UN officials, human rights activists, genocide scholars, international law experts, and concerned journalists from all continents. They will join Rohingya survivors and refugees to memorialise and honour the thousands of victims slaughtered, raped and tortured in the violent purge by Myanmar government troops, that began on 25th August 2017.
Solidarity, messages of compassion, and calls to end the ongoing genocide will be delivered in 12 languages including Rohingya, Burmese, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Malay, Bahasa Indonesian, Mandarin, Khmer, Japanese, Italian, Spanish and Turkish.
Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, the last OIC Special Envoy to Myanmar and former Minister of Foreign, Defence and Home affairs of Malaysia will open the global memorial service. He will be joined by former UN special rapporteur on human rights situation in Myanmar, Argentinian human rights lawyer Tomas Ojea Quintana, Head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) Nicholas Koumjian, Founding President of the Genocide Watch Prof. Gregory Stanton, Malaysian MP & Chair of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights Charles Santiago, former Secretary General of South Asia Forum for Human Rights Tapan Kumar Bose, South African author & TV journalist Imran Garda, Uzbek documentary filmmaker Shahida Tulaganova, British journalist Shafiur Rahman, and Cambodian genocide scholar Farina So.
“Neither pandemic nor repressive regimes can silence the voices of Rohingya people who demand accountability, restoration of full and equal citizenship and a homeland with inalienable rights of all peoples.” said Ro Nay San Lwin, Co-founder and Coordinator of the Free Rohingya Coalition.
Prominent Rohingya refugees and survivors – from Bangladeshi refugee camps and throughout the diaspora – will honour the memories of their fellow Rohingya victims who were murdered during past four decades of various waves of genocidal killings.
Among the Rohingya speakers are nominee for International Women of Courage Award for Malaysia (2018) by US State Department & Founder of Rohingya Women Development Network Sharifah Shakirah, Ms World Australia National Finalist 2020 Pan Sandar Myint, Co-author of “First They Erase Our Name” Habiburahman, President of Burmese Rohingya Association Japan Zaw Min Htut, and President of Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK Tun Khin.
Musicians from Asia, Africa, Europe and USA will perform live as an act of solidarity for Rohingya people.
The online rally will be Facebook Live at the Free Rohingya Coalition Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/FreeRohingyaCoalition) at 1400 GMT (3PM UK) on 25th August. In addition, it will be live streamed on Turkish International news channel Anadolu Agency through its 13 world languages programme.
Rohingyas in Myanmar have been subjected to state policies of persecution which are widely considered to be a textbook example of genocide. Myanmar is currently facing a full investigation for its grave crimes in international law including the crimes of deportation and other crimes against humanity by the ICC. Last December UN’s highest court, International Court of Justice began the public hearing over Gambia’s allegations that Myanmar has violated its obligations under the genocide convention. This January ICJ judges had unanimously ordered Myanmar to immediately end any and all acts of genocide against Rohingya people, as they are protected by the genocide convention.
The memorial is hosted by the Free Rohingya Coalition in collaboration with the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, one of the world’s leading genocide centres, and Forces of Renewal Southeast Asia, a region-wide grassroot network rights activists and scholars.
Free Rohingya Coalition is a global network of Rohingya activists and friends of Rohingyas who share common concerns about Myanmar’s ongoing genocide and the need for Rohingya survivors to play an active role in seeking a viable future for their group.
For more information, please contact:
Dr. Maung Zarni +44 7710 473322
Ro Nay San Lwin +49 176 62139138..."
Source/publisher:
Free Rohingya Coalition
Date of publication:
2021-08-21
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Human Rights and international relations
Language:
more
Description:
"The National Unity Government is deeply saddened by the horrendous violence, gross human rights
violations, and massive displacement that the Rohingya people suffered four years ago, resulting in
hundreds of thousands fleeing their home and taking refuge in neighboring countries.
The same military responsible for those atrocities have perpetrated crimes against humanity and war
crimes against people in Myanmar on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation, or political belief,
especially people living in the ethnic areas over decades. Since 1 February 2021, the entire people of
Myanmar, have been experiencing atrocities and violence, witnessed by the whole world through
different media.
We will endeavor to seek justice and accountability for all crimes committed by the military against
the Rohingya and all other people of Myanmar across the country throughout our history. It is
important to bring perpetrators to account in the interest of truth and justice, as well as because we
believe doing so will act as a deterrent against future atrocities. In this regard, we are trying to
cooperate with international judicial bodies. We have lodged a declaration with the registrar of the
International Criminal Court, accepting the Court's jurisdiction with respect to international crimes
committed in Myanmar's territory since 1 July 2002, which is the earliest date permitted by the
Statue of the International Criminal Court.
We are gravely concerned about the situation of the Rohingya people living in refugee camps of
neighboring countries and who continue to face difficult conditions within Myanmar. Voluntary and safe repatriation of Rohingya people in a dignified manner is our utmost priority. We believe that
repealing the 1982 Citizenship Law with a new one that bases citizenship in Myanmar or birth
anywhere as a child of Myanmar citizen and abolishing the process of issuing National Verification
Cards will also contribute to solving problems during the repatriation process.
We also accept the importance of addressing the root causes of the plight of Rohingya people in
Rakhine State, taking into consideration the recommendations for possible solutions in the reports of
relevant international bodies and directly from Rohingya communities. We firmly believe that
establishment of the Federal Democratic Union, where all ethnic groups belonging to the Union live
together peacefully, will be the best solution for our country. We have been attempting to achieve
that goal together with all ethnic groups.
On this solemn anniversary, we, the National Unity Government, would like to express again our
commitment to the fundamental principles enshrined in the Federal Democratic Charter, including
fundamental human rights and human dignity as well as individual rights held by each person
regardless of their ethnic origin and collective rights held by ethnic groups, and to the establishment
of a Federal Democratic Union in which the violence committed against the Rohingya people will
never be repeated..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-08-24
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Internal displacement/forced migration of Rohingyas, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
38.1 KB
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Description:
"Rohingya communities in villages and displacement camps in Sittwe and Buthidaung townships in Rakhine State say they have been facing food shortages for more than three months.
Displacement camps holding hundreds of thousands of Rohingya in the west of Sittwe have received no relief aid since June, Khaung Dokka camp manager U Maung Maung Tin told The Irrawaddy.
“We have not received cash allowances for some three months. We are having real hardships. Some already have no money to buy rice and have sold what they have to survive. The situation is that bad,” he said.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have been sheltering in camps along the Sittwe coast since sectarian strife targeted the Muslim community in 2012. Some make a living fishing, farming and doing casual work while the majority rely on international aid.
“We can hardly buy food. We can’t go out due to COVID-19 [restrictions] and we have no work. There have been petty crimes, like stealing food, committed by those who are starving. WFP [World Food Program] staff told us that they are not giving aid because of orders from their managers,” said a Rohingya from the Sae Thamar Gyi displacement camp in Sittwe.
The WFP previously provided a monthly allowance of 15,000 kyats (US$9) per head for the camp, he said.
Rohingya villages in Buthidaung Township on the Bangladesh border have received no relief aid for more than three months, said a Muslim villager from Hteik Hto Pauk in the township.
“We have received no food supplies for three months. People are being forced to sell or pawn their belongings as they can’t go out to earn a living due to COVID-19. Every day, we long for supplies and call to ask when they will come,” said the villager.
There are more than 50,000 Muslims in several villages in Buthidaung Township and the WFP used to provide them with monthly supplies of rice, oil and other basics.
By THE IRRAWADDY 23 August 2021
Rohingya communities in villages and displacement camps in Sittwe and Buthidaung townships in Rakhine State say they have been facing food shortages for more than three months.
Displacement camps holding hundreds of thousands of Rohingya in the west of Sittwe have received no relief aid since June, Khaung Dokka camp manager U Maung Maung Tin told The Irrawaddy.
“We have not received cash allowances for some three months. We are having real hardships. Some already have no money to buy rice and have sold what they have to survive. The situation is that bad,” he said.
A displaced Rohingya woman.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have been sheltering in camps along the Sittwe coast since sectarian strife targeted the Muslim community in 2012. Some make a living fishing, farming and doing casual work while the majority rely on international aid.
“We can hardly buy food. We can’t go out due to COVID-19 [restrictions] and we have no work. There have been petty crimes, like stealing food, committed by those who are starving. WFP [World Food Program] staff told us that they are not giving aid because of orders from their managers,” said a Rohingya from the Sae Thamar Gyi displacement camp in Sittwe.
The WFP previously provided a monthly allowance of 15,000 kyats (US$9) per head for the camp, he said.
Rohingya villages in Buthidaung Township on the Bangladesh border have received no relief aid for more than three months, said a Muslim villager from Hteik Hto Pauk in the township.
A displaced Rohingya woman.
“We have received no food supplies for three months. People are being forced to sell or pawn their belongings as they can’t go out to earn a living due to COVID-19. Every day, we long for supplies and call to ask when they will come,” said the villager.
There are more than 50,000 Muslims in several villages in Buthidaung Township and the WFP used to provide them with monthly supplies of rice, oil and other basics.
International non-governmental organizations are in talks with Rakhine State’s military authorities to provide relief supplies to Rohingya villages and displacement camps..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-08-23
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Internal displacement/forced migration of Rohingyas, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
more
Description:
"This Wednesday, August 25, marks the fourth year since the Myanmar military waged genocidal attacks on the Rohingya. The attacks led to thousands of deaths, mass rape, and the forced displacement of nearly 800,000 refugees to Bangladesh. Refugees International has consistently urged the U.S. government to recognize those attacks for what they are: genocide. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken launched a formal review on a Rohingya genocide determination in early 2021 and recently stated that it was being “very actively considered.” But the United States has yet to make a genocide determination.
Refugees International Senior Advocate for Human Rights Daniel Sullivan made the following statement:
“Four years ago, I witnessed hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing into Bangladesh by foot with only the clothes on their backs. They described in disturbingly consistent detail the tactics of the Myanmar military: surrounding villages, setting fires, and shooting people as they fled. The U.S. State Department, among many other organizations, has collected a mountain of evidence since.
Secretary Blinken should hesitate no longer in making a genocide determination.
The Myanmar military continues to attempt to consolidate power, expanding its history of cruel tactics against ethnic minorities to anyone who opposes its coup. Impunity has only fueled the military’s actions. Failure to recognize past abuses will only encourage the perpetrators and increase the risk of further mass atrocities. The stakes could not be higher.
A Rohingya genocide determination would underscore the United States’ commitment to accountability and create the precedent for recognizing abuses against other minority groups. It would create momentum for further global actions, including new targeted sanctions, an arms embargo, and reinforcement of accountability efforts. A Rohingya genocide determination would also signal U.S. solidarity with the Rohingya and with countries like Bangladesh, which continues to host nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees. Such solidarity may encourage increased humanitarian aid and positive policies toward refugees, even as Bangladesh implements more restrictions in the camps.
Perhaps most importantly, the horrible facts justify a legal determination that the state of Myanmar is responsible for this crime.
A genocide determination matters. It matters to the Rohingya who have suffered from the Myanmar military’s attacks. It matters to the latest targets of the military’s abuses. And it matters as a strong message to future would-be genocidaires. The time to call it genocide is now.”
Refugees International led a recent joint letter signed by 95 organizations to Secretary Blinken urging a Rohingya genocide determination. The letter builds on previous efforts with the Trump administration as part of the #CallitGenocide campaign, which included a nearly 9,000-signature petition and a legal and human rights experts letter (signed by two senior officials in the Biden administration). Refugees International’s analysis on why the attacks on the Rohingya constitute genocide can be found here..."
Source/publisher:
Refugees International
Date of publication:
2021-08-20
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-20
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Human Rights and international relations
Language:
more
Description:
"1. Foreword
2020 was the deadliest year on record for refugee journeys in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. Governments and leaders across Asia Pacific have been confronted with the question of whether we have collectively learned from history. Even more critically, we must ask ourselves whether we can sit by and repeat past tragic mistakes.
These past twelve months call to mind the events of 2015, another harrowing, landmark year for refugees and migrants at sea. The world was shocked by not one but two major, almost simultaneous humanitarian emergencies: the Andaman Sea crisis followed swiftly by the desperate journeys of more than a million men, women and children by sea to Europe.
Here in the Asia Pacific, the abandonment at sea of some 5,000 men, women and children by people- smugglers, with no government willing to bring them ashore, was a moment of reckoning. We watched in horror as human beings who had fled discrimination and persecution were left adrift, starving and sick, for months. Hundreds died. Not long afterwards, on the other side of the globe, the body of the young Syrian refugee, Alan Kurdi, washed ashore in Turkey. The collective tide of emotion was not only one of grief, but shame that such tragedies could happen.
In South East Asia, governments resolved to prevent collective inaction and its fatal consequences. Through the 2016 Bali Declaration, States acknowledged the need for a reliable and concerted response to this genuinely regional challenge. In establishing the ASEAN Trust Fund, member states also committed in 2015 to provide financial support to emergency and humanitarian relief efforts during similar movements of people, so that such vessels are never denied entry for fear of carrying the responsibility for reception and solutions alone.
Today, some six years later, these mechanisms have failed to live up to their promise. We see once again increasing movements of Rohingya refugees in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. We know their voyages are becoming more deadly. The longer a ship remains at sea, the more refugees are exposed to life-threatening risks. Increasingly, a majority of those aboard are women and children.
International Laws and conventions stipulate clear obligations for States to provide a safe harbour for those in distress at sea. But these legal frameworks derive from a much older and more instinctive truth – that rescue at sea is a fundamentally humanitarian act.
We have seen this humanity reflected in myriad acts of ordinary citizens around the world and in Asia. Acehnese fisherman who, with no fanfare or agenda, quietly rescued some 470 Rohingya refugees and brought them ashore between June 2020 and June 2021. Host communities in Bangladesh who, despite limited resources, have taken in more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees and provided them with sanctuary.
This report sets out the developing trends in movements of refugees in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, and the clear need for more comprehensive solutions. Equally critically, however, it gives voice to the thousands of refugees who have risked their lives in desperation – to reunite with family, to access education, to support themselves through gainful employment.
Among them, a young Rohingya father who was reunited with his wife and daughter after their seven- month ordeal at sea. “It was the happiest day of my life,” he told UNHCR staff upon seeing his family for the first time in over six years. “We are faceless, homeless and left adrift; we need a solution. I want to say to the whole world, please find a solution for us.”
Finally, this report makes clear and actionable recommendations on how to avoid further tragedies. These include bolstering search and rescue efforts at sea, stopping the deadly practice of pushbacks, and working towards a regional mechanism for predictable and equitable disembarkation.
For as long as States bordering the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal are reluctant to rescue and land those in distress at sea, that collective failure to act will have tragic and fatal consequences. We can and must do better.
Indrika Ratwatte Director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees..."
Source/publisher:
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Geneva) via Reliefweb (New York)
Date of publication:
2021-08-19
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-19
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), Human Rights and international relations, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Human rights and education, Public Health, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
(10.93 MB - Original version), (5.07 MB - Reduce version)
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Description:
"Dear Secretary Blinken,
We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge you to publicly determine that the state of Myanmar has committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya people. We welcomed your launch of a process earlier this year to make such an official determination. Now, several months later, as the fourth anniversary of the brutal campaign against the Rohingya approaches - and with the ongoing risk of further atrocities - we urge you to publicly announce your determination and to refer to the crimes by their proper name: crimes against humanity and genocide.
The February 1st coup by the same military that perpetrated abuses against the Rohingya, and the ongoing abuses by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya, other ethnic groups, and the Burmese population in general, only underscore the importance of recognizing the military’s past crimes against the Rohingya for what they are. We have welcomed your attention to the coup and the sanctions measures you have imposed on those responsible. While the coup does not impact the factual and legal basis for a possible genocide determination, it does underscore the importance of the United States speaking forthrightly about gross abuses of human rights when they occur. Such action is critical in sending signals to governments and the Myanmar military, that abusers will be held accountable. Such signals also play a critical role in deterring further abuses.
In the case of the Rohingya, the evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity is clear and convincing and has been amply documented. As prominent legal and human rights experts, including former high-level State Department and White House officials (two of whom are now serving in senior positions in the Biden administration), concluded in a letter in August 2020 [attached]:
“[We] believe the information and assessments produced so far compels the United States, in its capacity as a government and not as a court, to publicly express its view that genocide has been committed and may be continuing against the Rohingya of Myanmar.”
The military coup places an increased urgency on this request as the last trappings of democratic restraints on the military are pulled away. The military’s actions are already greatly exacerbating the COVID pandemic and a growing humanitarian crisis. A U.S. government determination of genocide and crimes against humanity would subject Myanmar and its military to much needed international scrutiny at a time of increased risk of atrocities against the Rohingya and other ethnic minority groups including the Chin, Karen, Kachin, Rakhine, and Shan, as well as against the population of Myanmar as a whole, who have been targeted for opposing the coup. Such a determination would also be useful in exposing atrocities and preserving the truth ahead of any future transitional justice actions. A Rohingya genocide determination would in no way preclude further atrocity determinations regarding abuses committed by the military against other ethnic groups or others. Rather, it would demonstrate a commitment to evidence-based accountability as the struggle for a truly inclusive and representative democratic Myanmar continues.
A determination would also help to ensure continued international attention on the plight of the Rohingya, while enabling the United States to mobilize additional diplomatic and economic pressure on Myanmar to shift its behavior. This attention could offer a measure of protection for the Rohingya and others in Myanmar. It would also represent an expression of solidarity with the governments of Bangladesh and other refugee hosting countries, signaling the United States is committed both to accountability and supporting conditions for safe and voluntary return when conditions so permit.
Such a determination would be wholly consistent with findings of the Department of State, which concluded that the attacks on the Rohingya were “well-planned and coordinated” and that they were "extreme, large-scale, widespread, and seemingly geared toward both terrorizing the population and driving out the Rohingya residents." The law group engaged by the State Department to investigate atrocities against the Rohingya conducted its own legal analysis and found reasonable grounds to believe that genocide was committed. Several other independent groups have reached similar conclusions including Refugees International, the International State Crime Initiative, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Fortify Rights in collaboration with Covington & Burling LLP. The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to recognize that “atrocities committed against the Rohingya by the Burmese military and security forces since August 2017 constitute crimes against humanity and genocide.” A UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission similarly found “a pattern of conduct that infers genocidal intent on the part of the State to destroy the Rohingya, in whole or in part, as a group.” The Fact-Finding Mission has further warned, “The State of Myanmar continues to harbour genocidal intent and the Rohingya remain under serious risk of genocide.”
Now is the time to use the words that fit the crimes. U.S. leadership matters. We call upon you to demonstrate the moral leadership and courage necessary to push global action in the face of genocide.
Again, we welcome your review and urge you to finalize it quickly. Should you have any questions, please feel free to be in touch with Daniel Sullivan ([email protected])..."
Source/publisher:
Refugees International
Date of publication:
2021-08-10
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-11
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Genocide, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
127.37 KB
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Sub-title:
Crowded Camp Conditions, Lack of Permanent Shelters
Description:
"Heavy rains over the past week have displaced more than 21,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. The resulting flooding and mudslides have destroyed about 6,418 shelters. With months of monsoon season still ahead, the refugees face heightened risks because they are being prevented from taking measures that could lessen the devastation from flooding.
In the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, where nearly one million Rohingya refugees who fled atrocities by the Myanmar military live, Bangladesh authorities have prohibited the construction of stronger shelters capable of withstanding not just the annual monsoon, but also frequent dry-season fires. This prohibition is a constant reminder to the Rohingya living in the world’s largest refugee camp that their stay in Bangladesh is temporary.
Making that political point has cost lives. Ever since the vast majority of refugees arrived in 2017, humanitarian agencies have warned that shelters made of bamboo and tarpaulin leave the inhabitants in danger. But the Bangladesh authorities have refused to let the agencies build any permanent structures that can be used as schools and double up as evacuation shelters in an emergency.
“We wish the authorities would allow us to build a little stronger shelters so that we do not have to face the same tragedy every year,” one refugee said, explaining that his tarpaulin roofing was leaking even before the monsoon started. Others described a shortage of drinking water because of inundated wells, lack of food, and clogged sewage facilities. Some refugees said they were moving in with relatives, risking spread of Covid-19.
An additional 5,000 Rohingya in the “no man’s land” at the Myanmar border are also experiencing floods. “Of over 500 shelters, only about 50 or 60 are still intact,” a 38-year-old Rohingya man said.
Humanitarian workers fear the spread of water borne diseases; there are already hundreds of Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) cases reported in the camps. Aid groups are experiencing a funding crisis, receiving only 30 percent of the US$943 million required for the 2021 joint response plan.
Bangladeshi host communities are also affected. At least 17 people including six Rohingya refugees have died in the landslides and floods.
Bangladesh authorities should act now to save lives, including by permitting permanent shelters and removing fencing that reduces mobility. International donors should immediately assist Bangladesh support both its nationals and the Rohingya who were forced to flee Myanmar’s crimes against humanity and acts of genocide..."
Source/publisher:
Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of publication:
2021-08-02
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Natural Disasters - General, Human Rights Watch Reports on Burma/Myanmar
Language:
more
Description:
"Renewed Rakhine-Rohingya Tensions?: On 29 July 2021, the Rohingya Post first reported that hundreds of Arakan Army troops
and Buddhist Rakhine had sealed off a Rohingya village in Minbya Township, since 24
July 2021. The village was running out of essential supplies and villagers were being
tortured in the local mosques.
Burma Campaign UK reported that the Arakan Army had occupied and laid siege to Let
Ma (also known as Lumbashor by the Rohingya) Village, Minbya Township, Rakhine
State, but had withdrawn in the afternoon of 2 August taking two villagers with them.
Burma Campaign UK called on the Arakan Army to immediately release the two villagers
and to commit to ending all abductions and hostage taking of civilians. Burma Campaign
UK also reported that the Arakan Army had forced villagers to sign documents and be
filmed stating that no human rights violations had taken place.
The Development Media Group, a Rakhine news agency promoted for its professionalism
and unbiased news, denied the report claiming that it is propaganda against the Arakan
Army and its growing influence on the people of Arakan/ Rakhine State.....What Happened and Why?: Letma or Lumbashor is a big village with quite a large population. The villagers are well
known for being very united and strong in protecting themselves from the excesses of
successive authorities, even during the Japanese occupation. There is no Tatmadaw
base near the village but there are some AA bases which means the area is likely
‘administered’ by the civilian arm of the AA – United League of Arakan.
According to local sources, on 21 July before Eid ul Adha, the festival commemorating
Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, AA troops demanded that every household
making kurbaan (animal sacrifices) in the village pay Kyat 15,000 and provide 3 kilograms
of meat (beef or mutton). Some villagers did not comply. Therefore on 24 July, AA troops
arrived at Letma from three directions. Rakhine villagers from surrounding villages then
surrounded the village. The family and relatives of 12 villagers who refused to pay were
detained and kept imprisoned in a mosque without food for three days. During the
occupation, AA soldiers apparently made the villagers cook and provide meals for them.
Soldiers were reportedly also stealing cattle and goats owned by the Rohingya villagers.
According to Burma Campaign UK, the AA troops were commanded by Lt. Colonel Zaw
Min Htun and Major Khaing Kyaw.
The AA denies the allegations and claims that they were trying to capture bandits, who
are engaged in smuggling cattle. It is true that cattle smugglers are active in the area but
Twan Mrat Naing, Commander-in-Chief of the AA, posted an apparent threat to
Rohingyas on his Twitter account today, stating: “We promote ethnic diversity and
religious tolerance but can’t afford to provide safe haven and breeding ground for the
terrorists and criminal gangs. Be aware that you are just about to turn your best friend
into (an) enemy by using your best tool of disinformation.”
Given the rapid expansion of the AA and its ‘administrative’ areas due to the absence of
local authorities following the 1 February coup, it is possible that as one observer noted,
“Twan Mrat Naing, sometimes may not know what is really happening on the ground.
Some of his commanders may have been misbehaving and intentionally wrongly
reporting to him. It is likely that they did something that was not right. But even if Rakhines
do not like what has been happening on the ground, nobody (especially Rakhine) dares
or wants to criticise the AA openly even on social media.”
If this is true, the AA leadership will need to redouble its efforts and make a
sincere attempt to improve. Compared to fighting, governance is difficult and good
governance is even more difficult. The culture of impunity so prevalent in the Tatmadaw
must not be allowed to grow in the AA and ULA. Twan Mrat Naing is a good leader and
he needs to face problems head-on. The goodwill of the Rakhine and Rohingya people
as well as that of the Myanmar and international communities must not be squandered..."
Source/publisher:
Euro Burma Office
Date of publication:
2021-08-04
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Euro Burma Office, Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Armed conflict in Burma - attacks on civilians
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
212.11 KB
Local URL:
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Description:
"Burma Campaign UK has now received reports that almost all the Arakan Army soldiers withdrew from Let Ma village on the afternoon of 2nd August, and that detained villagers have been released.
Villagers were apparently forced by members of the Arakan Army to sign documents and be filmed stating that no human rights violations had taken place.
We have also been informed that two villagers were abducted by the Arakan Army when they left.
We call on the Arakan Army to immediately release the two villagers and to commit to ending all abductions and hostage taking of civilians.
——————————————————————————————
Burma Campaign UK is alarmed by reports we are receiving from several sources that the Arakan Army has occupied and laid siege to Let Ma (Letma) Village, Minbya Township, Rakhine State.
Burma Campaign UK is still attempting to clarify all details, but the risk to life appears so serious we believe it is vital to draw attention to this crisis now.
According to information received by Burma Campaign UK, up to 300 Arakan Army soldiers began the occupation on 24th July. The Arakan Army had ordered villagers to provide meat, cow skins and 15,000 Kyat, which they describe as a tax. Some villagers refused as they also have to pay taxes to military controlled local government authorities.
The family and relatives of 12 villagers who refused were illegally detained and kept imprisoned in a Mosque without food. A month old baby separated from her mother is reportedly unconscious.
We are also receiving information that the occupying soldiers are stealing livestock from villagers.
Lt. Colonel Zaw Min Htun and Major Khaing Kyaw are understood to be commanding the Arakan Army soldiers.
Following some individuals posting about the siege on social media, Twan Mrat Naing, Commander-in-Chief of the Arakan Army, posted an apparent threat on his Twitter account today, stating:
“We promote ethnic diversity and religious tolerance but can’t afford to provide safe haven and breeding ground for the terrorists and criminal gangs. Be aware that you are just about to turn your best friend into enemy by using your best tool of disinformation.”
The link to the tweet is available here.
We call on the Arakan Army to immediately withdraw from the village and to ensure there is no further loss of life and that no further human rights violations are committed..."
Source/publisher:
"Burma Campaign UK" (London)
Date of publication:
2021-08-02
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
The National Unity Government’s plan to end discrimination against the Rohingya and replace the 1982 Citizenship Law could face opposition from among its own supporters – if the parallel government gets the chance to implement it.
Description:
"In early June, the National Unity Government, a parallel administration set up by lawmakers elected last November, issued a new policy on the Rohingya promising to end human rights abuses against them and grant them citizenship.
Discrimination and violence against the largely stateless Muslim minority have been a source of controversy within Myanmar and abroad for decades, and the NUG’s position is already proving divisive.
The United Nations welcomed the change in policy, as have Rohingya leaders. However, some also question whether the NUG can even implement what it has proposed when it is still struggling to be recognised and function as Myanmar’s government.
Due to the military coup, many people who in the past have stridently opposed recognising the Rohingya have remained quiet about the policy. Although some NUG supporters welcomed the new stance, most still seem unwilling to accept extending citizenship rights. Meanwhile, locals in Rakhine State were said to be unhappy they had not been consulted and questioned the NUG’s authority for issuing the policy.....Cautious support for the new policy: Many countries, including the United States, condemned the military coup on February 1 and expressed support for anti-coup protestors and the NUG. Despite this support, NUG representatives engaging with the international community and seeking support have faced tough questions about its position on the Rohingya.
At a May 4 hearing held by the United States House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, Myanmar’s permanent representative to the United Nations, U Kyaw Moe Tun, was questioned about the lack of Rohingya representation within the NUG and its position on granting citizenship. Representative Ted Lieu of California sent a clear message: “I cannot support the NUG and will oppose efforts for the United States to support your National Unity Government until you commit to having at least a representative of the Rohingya people and you commit to stopping the genocide.”
On June 3, the NUG released its new policy, which commits to ending human rights abuses against the Rohingya and promises to grant them equal citizenship rights. In just one of the many striking departures from National League for Democracy policy, the statement used the term “Rohingya”. The NLD government had usually called them “Muslims living in Rakhine”, but after Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacks on police and military posts in August 2017 it even referred sometimes to “extremist Bengali terrorists”.
The policy says the Rohingya should have the right to citizenship and should enjoy the same rights as other citizens in accordance with human rights law and in line with the principles of federal democracy. The NUG also promised that once a new constitution is drafted it would repeal laws used to repress the Rohingya, including the 1982 Citizenship Law, which discriminates against the Rohingya and other ethnic groups deemed non-indigenous. It also said it would abolish the National Verification Card process – the current pathway to citizenship for the Rohingya, but one that they have largely rejected. “This new Citizenship Act must base citizenship on birth in Myanmar or birth anywhere as a child of Myanmar citizens,” the policy states..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-07-15
Date of entry/update:
2021-07-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), National Unity Government (NUG), Statelessness in Burma/Myanmar, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
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Description:
"Your Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to thank you for the opportunity to engage through this interactive dialogue with the Human Rights Council and exchange on issues and situations that are of major concern to my mandate. Previous such engagements have enabled action on highlighted situations, and it is my hope that today’s discussion will do the same.
Part of my mandate as Special Adviser is to provide early warning and to collect existing information on massive and serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, including against ethnic, religious and national minorities, which if not prevented or halted, might lead to genocide. Atrocity crimes – war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide - affect entire societies through generations. Prevention is so much less costly – in all areas, and particularly in saving human lives.
The inaction to promptly respond to those warning signs allows genocide and atrocities to happen. We need stronger commitment and early action at the community, national, regional and international level and sincere approaches to prevention and early action is more urgent than ever.
We can’t repeat the same failures and their devastating impacts, such as the conflict in Syria, which has raged for over 10 years with ongoing gross violations against civilians. There must be UNITED NATIONS accountability for the gross violations and crimes committed against the people in Syria, and prompt collective actions by international community to protect the population.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Since the military takeover in Myanmar, I have issued multiple warnings of a heightened risk of atrocity crimes in this country. The widespread and increasingly systematic attacks against peaceful protesters, resulting in killings of hundreds of people, thousands arbitrarily arrested - many subjected to enforced disappearance – the targeted killings of civilians as a result of clashes between the Myanmar Armed Forces and ethnic armed organizations, may constitute crimes against humanity. The human rights, humanitarian and security situation are deteriorating quickly, with indiscriminate attacks against civilian population, threatening the lives of thousands of people in Myanmar.
I am deeply concerned about the impact that the current situation may have on the minority groups, including the Rohingya population. The office of the Special Adviser has warned, since the violence against the Rohingyas in 2017, that despite the numerous warnings of the risk of atrocity crimes, no early actions were taken to stop the killings, torture, rape, forcible displacement and horrible suffering of Rohingya people. Today, in 2021, the escalation of violence in Myanmar continues against civilians, putting the Rohingya and other minority groups at imminent risks. Root causes need to be addressed, including guaranteeing definite citizenship and other rights to the Rohingya community in Myanmar, ensuring accountability for past crimes in order to deter more atrocity crimes from being committed. Stronger support is also needed to the international mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court and the Human Rights Council- Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar in fighting impunity in the country.
In Yemen, I’m growing increasingly concerned about the protection situation of civilians as the conflict continues in the absence of a nationwide ceasefire. Indiscriminate and targeted attacks across a proliferation of frontlines have resulted in ongoing grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law that may amount to war crimes. In particular, the situation in Ma’rib has become increasingly dire for the large number of displaced people residing there as the fight for control of the area draws on. I also highlight the grave impact that the denial and obstruction of humanitarian aid and other essential goods is having on civilians countrywide, particularly as the number of cases of COVID-19 continue to rise.
On Afghanistan, I echo the recent call by the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the concerns raised by SRSG Deborah Lyons to the Security Council, for the international community to do more to support Afghanistan and prevent a reversal on the important gains made on the rights of women and minority communities over the past several years. I am particularly concerned over reports of attacks and targeting of minority communities such as the Hazara. The 8 May attack on students, most of whom were girls, in a majority-Hazara area of Kabul, is one horrific example of the violence faced by this community and which is also specifically targeted at women and girls. I urge this Council to look at ways it can support ongoing efforts to protect these populations.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In Ethiopia there are continue reports of ethnic and religious tensions, hate speech, incitement to violence and allegations of human rights violations and abuses including killings, rape, displacement of populations and destruction of property. I have previously called on the Ethiopian authorities to establish national mechanisms for accountability of alleged human rights violations and other crimes committed, to address the root causes of ethnic violence, build national cohesion and reconciliation.
Central-African Republic has witnessed increasing human rights violations, targeted violence against communities and forced displacement of civilians committed by armed groups, government forces and bilaterally deployed security personnel, which could contribute to risks of atrocity crimes.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, armed groups and intercommunal violence continues to threaten populations in eastern provinces. Escalating violence, particularly in Ituri and North Kivu, results in large numbers killed and a displacement crisis. My office is working closely with the peacekeeping mission – MONUSCO – to find ways to improve protection outcomes for the long- suffering civilian population and support the Mission’s efforts aimed at addressing and countering hate speech that contributes to fuel tensions between communities.
In South Sudan, there is persistent localized violence across many areas of the country amid limited progress in implementing the terms of the peace agreement. Much of this violence, which is perpetrated along ethnic lines, is fueled by an increasing proliferation of weapons and ammunition, with armed militia. My office has been advocating for accountability for atrocity crimes committed and the implementation of transitional justice measures contained in the peace agreement, noting that the Hybrid Court for South Sudan needs to be established and swiftly operationalized in coordination with the African Union.
I welcome the 30th special session of the Human Rights Council on the grave human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem on 27 May 2021. While I am glad that the parties to the conflict managed to agree on a ceasefire at the end of May, the situation remains very volatile in Israel and the OPT and tensions can trigger renewed violence. I support the HRC resolution establishing an international commission of inquiry to investigate violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13 April 2021, and all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions. Only by addressing the root causes of the violence, we will prevent further serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in the context of this conflict.
I welcome the resolution recently adopted by the Human Rights Council on Sri Lanka which strengthens avenues for accountability and reconciliation. The report by the High Commissioner sets out several areas of concern including continued impunity for past violations, militarization of government functions, increase in divisive and hateful rhetoric again minority communities as well as intimidation of civil society, these trends are also concerning from an atrocity prevention perspective. I encourage the Sri Lankan Government to ensure accountability for past violations, to invest in comprehensive reconciliation and to respond to hateful and divisive narratives by strengthening efforts to promote non-discrimination and inclusion for all Sri Lankans. My Office stands ready to support in these efforts.
Justice, accountability and reparation are fundamental to break those cycles of atrocity crimes, reconstruct trust in institutions, reconcile populations divided by conflict, provide victims with a real opportunity to rebuild their lives and and build real and lasting peace. I encourage this Council to ensure victims’ right to truth, justice and reparation are reflected in your actions and decisions, which will in turn assist in preventing future crimes.
Justice and accountability remain central for trust-building and reconciliation in the region of the Western Balkans. Just last week, I concluded an official visit as Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, precisely to Bosnia and Herzegovina. I expressed concern, in all my meetings, at persistent instances of genocide and war crimes denial and glorification of war criminals. I also expressed concern at increasing patterns of hate speech. Some of my interlocutors likened the ongoing inflammatory rhetoric to that which existed prior to the 1992-1995 war in the country. I strongly believe that the situation in the country requires increased high-level commitment to trust-building and reconciliation, specially by the top leadership level.
During my ten days in the country, I visited various grassroots initiatives that are contributing to build trust from the bottom up. There is much to admire and learn from the work of these local peace champions that are building mutual trust, respect and understanding at the grassroots level. They constitute a positive example to be replicated by political leaders in building a future of peace and prosperity.
In the region of the Americas, I am particular concerned on the situation of indigenous peoples.
In Brazil, Ecuador and other countries, I call on governments to protect communities at risk and ensure accountability for the crimes committed. The discrimination and hate speech against the displaced populations, such in the context of Venezuela, remains a great concern for my office. I would also like to highlight the fundamental role of transitional justice in Colombia to ensure peace can prevail, and the need for an immediate response to the violence against human rights activists and former combatants.
The Office maintains a general concern on the impact of racism and discrimination in the overall Global North, which can ignite social polarization increasing the risk of atrocity crimes when/where elements of resilience are weak with a focus on migrant/refugee populations.
Excellencies,
When atrocity crimes are committed, the repercussions are felt across borders and cause disastrous human, economic and security consequences. The sharp increase in the number of people displaced including refugees fleeing Myanmar, Central-African Republic, Ethiopia,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, among others, requires an urgent response. People displaced need to be protected by neighboring countries, according to international norms and principles, while the root causes of the problem must be addressed. This includes guaranteeing full protection and respect of human rights of the population, with attention to the vulnerable minority groups, and ensuring accountability for past crimes.
The Human Rights Council through its mechanisms have provided important contributions in deterring atrocity crimes, through the early warning of special procedures mandate holders and through the establishment of facts and promotion of accountability by the commissions of inquiry and investigative bodies. I encourage this Council to continue and strengthen such efforts on early warning and early action, to deter further atrocities to happen, with a focus on the country situations I have just highlighted. I also encourage the Council and Member States to use the Universal Periodic Review as a tool to detect and address underlying risks factors of atrocity in countries under review, as well as report on their efforts towards preventing these crimes.
I want to reiterate the call from my predecessors and the Secretary-General for the universal ratification of the Genocide Convention. Forty-two United Nations Member States have yet to accede or ratify the Convention. It is time to commit and act to eradicate the scourge of the crime of genocide from our societies.
As Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, I am committed to do my utmost to continue providing early warning and recommendations on potential situations of atrocity crimes. I will also continue to assist in building the capacity of national authorities, regional organizations and civil society, including community leaders, to prevent and respond to atrocity crimes. I ask this body and all Member States to do the same. Genocide and other atrocity crimes are preventable if we put aside narrow political interests and work together. Prevention is a collective responsibility and its upon us to make this a reality, that “never again” will any person experience the terrible suffering of this egregious crime of Genocide.....
Thank you...."
Source/publisher:
UN Human Rights Council via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication:
2021-06-28
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-29
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Individual Documents
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"862,875 Rohingya refugees assisted
143,545 Bangladeshis supported in the host community
Highlights
From 1 May, WFP increased the General Food Assistance (GFA) value from US$ 11 to US$ 12, aligning with food price inflation and increased vulnerability identified in the Refugee Influx Emergency Vulnerability Assessment (REVA-4) released in April 2021. The value increase will allow beneficiaries to access the same quantity of food as previously.
WFP re-introduced live fish and chicken in eight additional Fresh Food Corners; ten outlets now offer these popular items.
WFP expanded its livelihoods programme to Moheskhali, Pekua and Kutubdia with 14,097 new host community women supported with monthly subsistence allowances and training.
The 2021 Joint Response Plan (JRP) for the Rohingya Refugee crisis was launched. The plan outlines the needs of Rohingya refugees and their host communities, plus United Nations and NGO partner operations under the leadership of the Government of Bangladesh. It targets over 884,000 refugees and 472,000 of members of the host community requiring US$ 954 million..."
Source/publisher:
World Food Programme (Rome) via reliefweb (New York)
Date of publication:
2021-06-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
WFP (World Food Programme), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Humanitarian assistance - emergencies
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Description:
"The Myanmar military regime has organized a new legal team led by its foreign minister, U Wunna Maung Lwin, to present the defense in the Rohingya genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
The regime’s order restructuring the committee, which was previously led by detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was announced in a bulletin published by the Myanmar Gazette on Thursday.
The panel has eight members. Among them are two former military officers—U Wunna Maung Lwin, who will serve as chairman; and the regime’s planning, finance and industry minister, U Win Shein—and two serving lieutenant generals: Yar Pyae and Adjutant General Myo Zaw Thein.
The other members of the panel are the junta’s minister for international cooperation, U Ko Ko Hlaing, as vice chairman; its new union attorney general, Daw Thida Oo; its deputy foreign minister, U Kyaw Myo Htut; and Daw Khin Oo Hlaing, who is said to be an international criminal law expert and also a member of a seven-member advisory board to the regime.
After a brutal military crackdown in the western state of Rakhine in 2017 that forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee across the border to neighboring Bangladesh, the African nation of Gambia in November 2019 brought a case at the ICJ—which is an organ of the UN and is also known as the World Court—accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya. State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi defended the country against the charge in December 2019.
Gambia’s legal team submitted a list of the Myanmar military’s atrocities against the minority Muslim group in northern Rakhine state. These included mass rapes, the burning of families in their homes and the killing of dozens of Rohingya children. As the case could take years, Gambia asked the ICJ to order Myanmar to take “provisional measures” to prevent more violations.
Going further than the measures requested by Gambia, the ICJ ordered Myanmar on Jan. 23 to report on its compliance with the provisional measures in four months and then every six months thereafter. The Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led civilian government submitted two reports prior to its ouster by the military in a coup on Feb. 1.
The deputy foreign minister for Myanmar’s parallel National Unity Government (NUG), U Moe Zaw Oo, said during an online press conference on June 4 that the civilian government would no longer offer a defense in the case. It vowed to work with the ICJ and said it would accept the court’s decision in the case.
The NUG also said it is considering accepting the exercise of jurisdiction by a separate international court, the International Criminal Court, over the killings, torture and other crimes against civilians committed by the Myanmar junta since the coup on Feb. 1. The Myanmar military seized power from the democratically elected National League for Democracy government, detained civilian leaders and abolished the new Parliament on the day it was scheduled to convene.
Since the coup, the Myanmar regime has killed at least 877 people and arrested more than 6,200, of whom 5,088 remain in detention, according to advocacy group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
At least 25 civilians have been tortured to death after being arrested by regime forces since the military takeover..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-06-24
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
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Description:
"Stateless Rohingya Muslims face constant setbacks in returning to their Myanmar homeland.
Battered by monsoon rains, Rohingya refugees try to rebuild their makeshift dwellings in the world's largest refugee camp.
Tens of thousands were left without shelter when fire tore through their Cox’s Bazar camp in March. Eleven people were killed.
The fire was the start of another miserable chapter for the displaced Rohingya, who fled their homes in Myanmar after the military launched a crackdown against the Muslim minority.
Now, nearly a million of them live in squalid conditions in camps in neighboring Bangladesh.
The pandemic has made it much harder for international aid to get through. The Rohingya are worried they'll be forgotten.
The United Nations is appealing for more funding to help the Rohingya to return home..."
Source/publisher:
"DW News" (Germany)
Date of publication:
2021-06-20
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Human Rights and international relations, Burmese and other stateless people in Burma, Bangladesh and India, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
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Description:
"On 3 June 2021 the National Unity Government (NUG) of Myanmar issued its “Policy Position on the Rohingya in the Rakhine State.” In response, the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) with the Rohingya people cautiously welcomed this development. The announcement was a step in the right direction towards a credible solution for the Rohingya community of Myanmar. This process would need to be inclusive from the onset. In this regard, we encourage further direct engagement between the NUG and Rohingya representatives, and as such ARNO and our partners stand ready to play our part in what needs to be an inclusive process of engagement with Rohingya representatives.
Against this background, we wished to emphasise the following in response to the policy position:
We welcome the NUG’s clear acknowledgment of the violence and gross human rights violations inflicted upon Rohingyas, including the massive displacement inflicted on our people, with hundreds of thousands fleeing their homes in Rakhine State in the last decade. The brutality and crimes of the Tatmadaw against all civilians now in Burma is a sad reality the Rohingya people have experienced for many years. The NUG’s expression of sorrow and sympathy to the plight of the Rohingya helps to bring about genuine reconciliation.
In parallel we welcome the NUG’s commitments to actively seek justice and accountability for all crimes committed by the military against the Rohingya and all other people of Myanmar. Such accountability process needs to be comprehensive and look beyond just the period of since 1 February. In this regard, we are encouraged by the NUG’s commitments towards reparation and justice in the future Federal Democratic Union Constitution.
The cornerstone of the legitimate rights and demands of the Rohingya centre on our recognition as citizens of Myanmar. The NUG’s position towards repealing the 1982 Citizenship Law is critical in this regard, including the abolishment of National Verification Cards, and replacing it with a just and inclusive legislative process that recognises the legitimate rights of the Rohingya as citizens of Myanmar.
Finally, we fully endorse the NUG’s position on the voluntary, safe, and dignified repatriation of Rohingya people who fled to neighbouring countries from Rakhine State due to the military’s brutality. It is critical for there to be a credible policy and plan in place by the NUG in addressing the refugee needs of the Rohingya and of all Burmese people who have been forced into refuge at the hands of the Tatmadaw.
Underpinning the above is the need for genuine engagement and inclusion of Rohingya representatives. Such approach would ensure a just and durable solution for a future democratic Myanmar that we all seek. In particular we seek through this inclusion to urge the NUG to:
Intensify the focus and preparations for a comprehensive accountability process. This requires the NUG to initiate a process that grants the International Criminal Court jurisdiction over crimes committed within Myanmar against the Rohingyas and other communities. To support credible accountability efforts, it is important that NUG acknowledges all past crimes against Rohingyas to ensure victims see justice served and the cycle of violence is not repeated.
Accept the findings and recommendations of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (IIFFMM). This includes an unequivocal acknowledgment that genocide and crimes against humanity have been committed against the Rohingya, as stated by the UN Fact-Finding Mission.
Commit to a comprehensive and durable solution to safeguarding the universal rights of the Rohingya as indigenous to Arakan/Rakhine State and therefore to Myanmar. Indeed, the Rohingya are entitled to rights and privileges on a par with other ethnicities of Myanmar. Our inherent rights and ethnic identity should be safeguarded in a future Myanmar, including through the Federal Charter, new constitutional process and vision set out by the NUG.
We recognise addressing these issues are complex and securing the fair and just solution would not occur overnight. We stand ready to work with our NUG partners along this process, and remain committed to joining hands with NUG and others in the Spring Revolution against the military dictatorship in all possible ways, and bring about a free, fair and democratic future Myanmar.
Source/publisher:
Arakan Rohingya National Organisation
Date of publication:
2021-06-20
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), National Unity Government (NUG), Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
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228 KB 264.26 KB
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"A 12-year-old boy in ragged clothing shoulders a child, his younger sister of 3 years, as they walk mile after mile, escaping their home, because their father was shot dead on the spot and their mother was raped in front of them and killed thereafter. They are fleeing with many others who have similar experiences. Some of them lost their parents, or brothers and sisters while others saw their entire families burn alive. Two pregnant women walk for miles with inexplicable
hardship, but try their best to keep their babies inside alive.
The group finally enters Bangladesh after walking one day and seven hours, crossing lands and hills, and riding by boat. Like this group, more than half a million Rohingyas have fled persecution in Myanmar to Bangladesh since the military crackdown started on August 25, 2017. Following an alleged attack on 30 police camps and one military base by the radical Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), Myanmar security forces indiscriminately fired on Rohingya
civilians, burnt their houses down, raped girls and women, and killed hundreds of Rohingyas mercilessly. The intensity of atrocity was so extreme that the global community, including the United Nations, the European Union, human rights groups like International Organization of Migration (IOM), Amnesty International, and the Human Rights Watch, came forward to stand beside Rohingyas and condemn Myanmar for its deadly violence, severe brutality, and
crimes against humanity. The United Nations Human Rights Council termed it as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" and major international media outlets like the New York Times, ABC News, and CNN have called it genocide.
Many agencies working in the borderland of Bangladesh and Myanmar to support Rohingyas, particularly wounded ones, old people, children, and pregnant women, have said that this is one of the most devastating humanitarian catastrophes in the history of refugee crises. Myanmar's de facto leader, and also
a Nobel laureate in peace, Aung San Suu Ki, has also been accused by the international community of supporting the genocide committed by the Myanmar security forces.
The reason the Rohingyas, often called “the most persecuted people in the world," have been repressed and afflicted for decades is because of their identity as an ethno-linguistic and religious minority within the state structure of Myanmar. Additionally, a growing anti-Muslim Buddhist sentiment instigated by Ashin Wirathu, a Buddhist monk named by TIME “Burmese Bin-Laden,”
has contributed to the current critical condition unsuitable for Rohingya
Muslims’ peaceful living in Rakhine state.
The citizenship of Rohingya people was taken away by the Myanmar Citizenship Law of 1982, which conferred citizenship to 135 nationals, excluding Rohingyas, even though they have been residents of Arakan, what is now called Rakhine state, since the eighth century. Following the independence of Burma, now Myanmar, in 1948, the Rohingyas were close to gaining state recognition, but
after General Ne Win took power in 1962, the military regime started and this hope was lost. During this period of time, the Rohingyas underwent a brutal experience of human rights violations, atrocities, and a severe degree of oppression in their everyday experiences. Their lives were restricted, freedom of movement was cut off, education was halted, and even marriage became subject
to military approval. Following the Citizenship Law of 1982, the Rohingyas started living in an “open jail” as they were confined to their villages. In 1978, a severe military crackdown took place in Arakan state that triggered a massive influx of 200,000 Rohingyas to Bangladesh. The second influx occurred in 1991 when around 250,000 Rohingyas took refuge in Bangladesh. Following
an effective international pressure, under an agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar, almost all in 1978 and some 236,000 Rohingyas in 1992 were repatriated, but a large number of them returned to Bangladesh because the situation of the Rakhine state remained unchanged.
A big riot of Rakhine Buddhists supported by state agencies and Rohingya Muslims took place in June 2012, forcing around 120,000 Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh. In October 2016, 87,000 Rohingyas left Myanmar to escape deadly military operation. However, 2017 has witnessed even more extreme atrocities committed by the Myanmar security force, compelling around 600,000 Rohingyas to flee and take refuge in Bangladesh. Of the 600,000, 50 percent are
children, 30 percent are women (85 thousand are pregnant), 15 percent are old, and the remaining 5 percent are youth.
Many reports and Rohingyas' narratives have confirmed that thousands of Rohingya youths were killed in Rakhine state by the security forces. Now, the majority of Rohingyas live in Bangladesh (1,100,000 [combined with previously living 500,000 and newly arrived 600,000]), 800,000 live in Myanmar, and the remaining 700,000 live in other countries (India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates). Due to their miserable lives and inhuman state of livings, the Rohingyas have become an ideal example of how people lead their lives in the presence of "everyday death." Many attempts
are being made to resolve the Rohingya crisis, but nobody knows when, and how, Rohingya people will gain a peaceful life with due human dignity..."
Source/publisher:
Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs
Date of publication:
2017-10-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-19
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
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73.32 KB
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"The situation in Myanmar: The General Assembly,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1
Recalling its relevant resolutions on Myanmar, the resolutions of the Human Rights Council, including the most recent, resolution 46/21 of 24 March 2021, adopted by consensus, as well as the Security Council statement on the situation in Myanmar of 4 February 2021, the statement by the President of the Security Council on the situation in Myanmar of 10 March 20212 and the press elements of the Security
Council on the situation in Myanmar of 1 and 30 April 2021,
Expressing grave concern about the declaration of the state of emergency by the Myanmar armed forces on 1 February 2021 and subsequent actions taken against the elected civilian Government, which also impact regional stability, and stressing its
continued call upon Myanmar to act in accordance with the principle of adherence to the rule of law, good governance, the principles of democracy and constitutional government, respect for fundamental freedoms and the promotion and protection of human rights, as also provided for in the Charter of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations,3 Stressing its strong support for the central role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the continued constructive engagement of the Association with
Myanmar in a positive manner towards facilitating a peaceful solution in the interest of the people of Myanmar and their livelihoods, and welcoming the holding and the outcome of the Leaders’ Meeting of the Association, on 24 April 2021, at the secretariat of the Association, taking into account in particular the Chairman’s statement on the Leaders’ Meeting and the five-point consensus reached during the
Meeting,4 Welcoming the statements made by the Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on 1 February and 2 March 2021, in which the Chair recalled the purposes and principles of the Charter of the Association, notably the principle of democracy, adherence to the rule of law, good governance, the respect for and
protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and called upon all parties to exercise utmost restraint and seek a peaceful solution through constructive dialogue and practical reconciliation in the interests of the people and their livelihoods, Expressing deep concern about the arbitrary detention and arrest of President
Win Myint, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, and other government officials and politicians, human rights defenders, journalists, civil society members, foreign experts and others, Strongly condemning the use of lethal force and violence, which has led to
injuries and fatalities in many cases, against peaceful demonstrators, as well as members of civil society, women, youth, children and others, expressing deep concern at restrictions on medical personnel, civil society, labour union members, journalists and media workers, and people who protect and promote human rights, and calling
for the immediate release of all those detained arbitrarily, Expressing concern for the safety and rights of all foreign nationals in Myanmar,
Expressing unequivocal support for the democratic transition in Myanmar and for the need to uphold democratic institutions and processes, refrain from violence and fully respect human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law, Noting in this context the various initiatives, movements and structures aimed
at expressing the will of the people for a peaceful and democratic Myanmar, Underlining the need for a long-term peaceful political solution for Myanmar, including a return to its path of democratic transition and national reconciliation through an inclusive and peaceful dialogue between all parties, in accordance with the will and interests of the people of Myanmar, Reaffirming its support for the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Myanmar and her efforts to maintain communication and engage constructively with
all relevant parties in Myanmar, welcoming her briefing of 26 February 2021, and reiterating its request for continued reporting to the General Assembly as warranted by the situation on the ground,
Concerned at the human rights situation of persons belonging to ethnic, religious and other minorities in Myanmar, including the Rohingya Muslim minority, in particular with respect to the violations committed against them and their rights related to citizenship status, and reiterating the responsibility of the Myanmar armed
forces to respect the human rights of all persons in Myanmar, Expressing concern that recent developments pose particular serious challenges for the voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees and all internally displaced persons, including those displaced since 1 February 2021..."
Source/publisher:
United Nations General Assembly (A/75/L.85/Rev.1)
Date of publication:
2021-06-14
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-19
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
GA resolutions on the situation of human rights in Myanmar (English), Reports to the GA by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar (English), Human Rights and international relations, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Genocide
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Sub-title:
Bangladesh Provided Myanmar Information that Refugee Agency Collected
Description:
"The United Nations refugee agency improperly collected and shared personal information from ethnic Rohingya refugees with Bangladesh, which shared it with Myanmar to verify people for possible repatriation, Human Rights Watch said today. The agency did not conduct a full data impact assessment, as its policies require, and in some cases failed to obtain refugees’ informed consent to share their data with Myanmar, the country they had fled.
Since 2018 the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has registered hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladeshi camps and the Bangladesh government has issued them identity cards, which are needed for essential aid and services. Bangladesh then used the information, including analog photographs, thumbprint images, and other biographic data to submit refugee details to the Myanmar government for possible repatriation.
“The UN refugee agency’s data collection practices with Rohingya in Bangladesh were contrary to the agency’s own policies and exposed refugees to further risk,” said Lama Fakih, crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch. “UNHCR should only allow data that it collects to be shared with countries of origin when it has properly obtained free and informed consent from participants.”
Since 2016, over 800,000 Rohingya from Myanmar were expelled or fled crimes against humanity and acts of genocide across the border to Bangladesh. The Myanmar government continues to carry out the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against the remaining Rohingya population.
From September 2020 to March 2021, Human Rights Watch interviewed 24 Rohingya refugees about their registration experiences with UNHCR in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh and spoke to 20 aid workers, analysts, local activists, journalists, and lawyers who observed or participated in the Rohingya registration. Human Rights Watch sent detailed questions and its research findings to UNHCR in February and April, and received responses from UNHCR on May 10.
UNHCR denied any wrongdoing or policy violations, stating that it had explained all purposes of the data gathering exercise and obtained consent. The agency said that its data collection efforts were aimed at finding durable solutions for the refugees and that no Rohingya were put at risk.
In 2018, the Bangladesh government sought to supplement previous registrations by beginning a joint registration exercise with UNHCR. The government aimed to provide an identity card for refugees – called a “Smart Card” – that allows them to obtain aid and services. The government also sought to gather personal data collected by UNHCR to submit to Myanmar for repatriation eligibility assessments. UNHCR said this would help protect the refugees’ right of return.
In a January meeting with Human Rights Watch, UNHCR said that field officers had asked Rohingya for permission to share their data for repatriation eligibility assessments, explaining that a Smart Card would still be issued to those who did not agree. However, at the time of the registration exercise, UNHCR staff said publicly that the data was not linked to repatriations, including on a September 2018 Rohingya community radio show, and in November 2018 comments to international media. Rohingya refugees had in fact staged protests in the camps that month partly out of concern that data collection would be used to facilitate forced returns.
The refugees Human Rights Watch interviewed also gave a different account than UNHCR staff had outlined in the January meeting. All but one of the 24 said that UNHCR staff told them that they had to register to get the Smart Cards to access aid, and they did not mention anything about sharing data with Myanmar, or linking it to repatriation eligibility assessments. Three said they were told after giving their data that it might be used for repatriation purposes. One said he noticed after leaving the registration center that the box to share data with Myanmar, on a receipt printed out and given to refugees only in English, had been checked “yes,” although he was never asked. He was one of only three among the refugees interviewed who could read English.
Human Rights Watch viewed the English-only receipt that UNHCR gave to Rohingya refugees after their registration. It includes a box noting “yes” or “no” as to whether the information can be shared with the Myanmar government.
Human Rights Watch interviewed 21 refugees whose names were included in the list verified by Myanmar for repatriation. Twelve of the 21 people were added to repatriation eligibility assessment lists in 2019 – lists drawn up based on the data collected by UNHCR.
The 21 said that after being registered they later learned that their information had been shared with Myanmar and their names were on lists of people verified for return. They all went into hiding in other camps because they feared being forcibly returned. So far, Bangladesh has not forced any Rohingya in the camps to return against their will to Myanmar.
One of the 24 refugees interviewed said that the UNHCR field officer registering him asked if he consented to have his data shared with the Myanmar government. He said he felt pressure not to refuse: “I could not say no because I needed the Smart Card and I did not think that I could say no to the data-sharing question and still get the card.”
UNHCR in this case did not seek free and informed consent, which would have required making certain that the refugees knew and understood the risks of sharing their and their family’s data with Myanmar, that they had the ability to opt-out without prejudice, and that they could get the Smart Card even if they did not agree.
UNHCR staff told Human Rights Watch that they did not discuss any specific risks with Rohingya before registering them, and the Rohingya interviewed said they were not told about any such risks.
Between 2018 and 2021, the Bangladesh government submitted at least 830,000 names of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar along with biometric and other data for each person, for repatriation eligibility assessments. Myanmar reportedly agreed to allow about 42,000 Rohingya to return. UNHCR told Human Rights Watch that it played no role in drawing up these lists but that the names and other data included in the lists submitted from 2019 onwards, including biometrics, came from analog versions of the data it had gathered during the joint registration exercise, for example, non-digital thumbprint images.
In its global guidelines on sharing information on individual cases, UNHCR acknowledges the risks of sharing such information and says that “UNHCR should not share any [individual case] information with the authorities of the country of origin.”
In the Myanmar context, risks include involuntary Rohingya returns to Myanmar, particularly given Bangladesh’s forced repatriation of Rohingya to Myanmar in the 1970s and 1990s. In those cases, UNHCR tacitly condoned Bangladesh’s coerced returns.
Bangladesh’s submission of lists to Myanmar may also have put refugees, or at least the subset that Myanmar agreed to return, on track to receive Myanmar’s National Verification Cards (NVCs), which many Rohingya reject because they believe it undermines their claims to Myanmar citizenship.
The UNHCR-Bangladesh exercise appears to have violated the agency’s policy on protecting personal data that it collects, which requires UNHCR to tell people in a language and manner they understand why it is collecting their data and whether it will be transferred to another entity. It also appears to have undermined the objective of UNHCR’s policies that aim to ensure that consent is not coerced.
UNHCR’s Handbook on Voluntary Repatriation says that the agency should never directly link registration or other verification exercises with registration for voluntary repatriations because “[l]inking the two may create confusion for the refugees by giving the impression that one needs to register for voluntary repatriation in order to be entitled to assistance in the country of asylum. This may seriously jeopardize voluntariness.”
Linking the eligibility assessment and registration for services did create confusion, Human Rights Watch said. Nearly all of the refugees interviewed did not understand that their data would be shared with the Myanmar government. In the one case in which the refugee was told that it would be, he said he felt he could not refuse consent without jeopardizing his access to services.
UNHCR should have recognized that Bangladesh sharing data with Myanmar raised serious protection concerns. “[T]he idea of sharing data with Myanmar, or allowing data to be shared with Myanmar, on this community should have been out of the question until there were minimum guarantees in place – which there aren’t,” said an aid worker familiar with the process in Bangladesh.
Finally, UNHCR has a policy requiring a data protection impact assessment before it enters into data transfer arrangements like the one in Bangladesh. However, staff said they did not carry out a “full-fledged” impact assessment, only undertaking several risk assessments prior to signing the data-sharing agreement with Bangladesh. The apparent failure to take into account the history of forced returns from Bangladesh to Myanmar, in those assessments, is important.
UNHCR should not combine collecting people’s data for services or identity cards with data collection for repatriation eligibility, Human Rights Watch said. UNHCR should ensure that people who agree to have their data shared are able to withdraw that consent and know how to do so. The agency should only share data or allow data that it collects to be shared with countries of origin when it has taken all efforts to obtain free and informed consent.
“Humanitarian agencies obviously need to collect and share some data so they can provide refugees with protection, services, and assist with safe, dignified, and voluntary returns,” Fakih said. “But a refugee has the right to control their data, who has access to it, and for what purposes, and UNHCR and other agencies should be accountable to those whose data they hold.”
Purpose of the UNHCR-Bangladesh Registration Exercise
In 2017, the Bangladesh government conducted its own registration of Rohingya refugees by collecting personal data, including biometrics, and collaborated with UNHCR through its Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission to conduct a family counting exercise. In 2018, the government asked UNHCR to participate in a joint exercise to link the registration data that it had collected and the data collected by UNHCR in collaboration with the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission. UNHCR signed a data-sharing agreement with Bangladesh in January 2018.
Following Myanmar and Bangladesh’s November 2017 repatriation agreement (the Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State), which required Bangladesh to conduct a “pre-verification” exercise to vet refugees before Myanmar would carry out its own assessment of return eligibility, Bangladesh and Myanmar also entered into an agreement outlining the verification and repatriation process, including collecting and sharing refugee data.
The agreement stated that “[r]elevant information or data generated by, and available with, relevant UN agencies may be used for reference, as and when necessary … Bangladesh may provide verified lists of returnees from Bangladesh to the UNHCR Representatives for ascertaining voluntariness from prospective returnee families.” The annexed verification form requested extensive identifying data.
UNHCR’s independent evaluation of its emergency response, published in December 2018, noted that for the lists Bangladesh would need to prepare for Myanmar, authorities would “require a level of detail about place of origin, family composition and so on” that the government had not obtained in its initial registration.
UNHCR’s independent evaluation found that the agency saw the joint registration exercise as an opening to assist the “durable documentation” of Rohingya for potential returns. In its May 2021 written response to Human Rights Watch, UNHCR said that this unique verification process stems from the discriminatory nationality restrictions that Rohingya face, because most now lack official documentation proving they are from Myanmar.
UNHCR officials said that as part of the joint registration exercise, field officers asked Rohingya two questions: first, whether they consented to have their data shared with partners for assistance in Bangladesh and, second, whether they consented to have their data shared with Myanmar to assess repatriation eligibility. They said the agency began the registration exercise in June 2018, collecting “a significant amount of information about the family, place of origin and relatives overseas,” and fingerprints, iris scans, photographs, and shared much of that data with the Bangladesh government.
Following the joint exercise, Bangladesh issued refugees over age 12 identity cards known as Smart Cards, which are linked to their biometric data. UNHCR officials said that they advocated successfully to include the phrase “Forcibly Displaced Myanmar National/Person of Concern to UNHCR” on the cards, as well as a written commitment that the card bearer should be protected from being forcibly returned. The cards gave Rohingya valid identification and allowed them access to food, aid, health care, and other essential services.
During the registration exercise, some Rohingya raised concerns that the data would be used to facilitate repatriations and be integrated into the Myanmar National Verification Cards (NVC) system – an inherently discriminatory process that identifies Rohingya as non-citizens. A visit to the Bangladesh camps in early 2018 by Myanmar’s social welfare minister, Dr. Win Myat Aye, stoked those fears. He said during the visit that NVC cards would help to verify the identity of refugees returning to Myanmar. Some Rohingya held protests against the registration exercise in late 2018, which in a few cases the camp authorities met with violence.
A 2020 study by the Engine Room, an international organization working with data and technology to encourage social change, said a number of refugees spoke of fears around data sharing with Myanmar, telling them, “We are still having doubts about one matter ... they assured us that they won’t share our biodata with the [government of Myanmar], but what if they cheat us and share this data … [and] send us back to [Myanmar]?”
In response to refugee concerns, UNHCR officials made confusing public statements about the purpose of the data collection exercise. For example, in November 2018, after protesters complained that Myanmar would access the data, a UNHCR official told Reuters that the data was being collected for a verification process that would help Rohingya refugees get better protection and ensure their access to services in Bangladesh and was “not linked to repatriation.”
In its May 10, 2021 response to Human Rights Watch, UNHCR said that Reuters had selectively excerpted this statement without providing more context and that UNHCR staff consistently said that Bangladesh may share data with Myanmar to verify eligibility for returns, and this would not be linked to any “actual return movement.”
In September 2018, a UNHCR assistant registration officer had addressed the issue on a Rohingya community radio show, Bala-Bura:
There isn’t any association between the Smart Card and the repatriation to Myanmar. Repatriation is based on your own willingness and it doesn’t look like it could actually happen right now. It could only happen when there is peace in your country, when you get your rights back, when you get your house, land and properties returned, when you get the freedom of movement—these are the criteria for voluntary [returns]. And this [Smart Card] is to live in Bangladesh, to stay safely in Bangladesh, to get assistance- this card is being given to ensure all of that. There is not any association with the repatriation to Myanmar. When you receive that identity card or the “Smart Card,” the first advantage you will get is that you can stay peacefully and safely in Bangladesh.
At the same time, the official said that Bangladesh would share some limited information on who people were and what village they came from with Myanmar but did not explain that this would be linked to repatriation eligibility assessments, nor that it would include additional data including photographs or thumbprint images. In a January 2019 operational update, UNHCR said the exercise was intended to ensure that refugees had identity documents and could use those documents to get services, and “contribute to ensuring a refugee’s right to return.”
The statements from UNHCR officials contributed to refugees incorrectly believing that the data UNHCR collected was not going to contribute to anything related to potential returns.
As one aid worker, who at the time was attending meetings between Rohingya leaders and UNHCR on this issue put it, “UNHCR kept saying to them [Rohingya leaders] the memorandum of understanding it signed with Myanmar had nothing to do with repatriations and nor did the joint registration exercise. It was basically ignoring the Rohingya and their concerns that there was a link.”
Free and Informed Consent
UNHCR predicates its assistance and protection on free and informed consent by beneficiaries. A 2020 UNHCR guide for making refugee status determinations, for example, states that UNHCR should inform an individual of:
the extent of the information to be disclosed, the recipient of the information, the purpose of the disclosure and the likely use of the information. Consent must be sought each time the information is to be disclosed to a different third party or used for purposes which the Applicant was not informed about and would not have reasonably expected at the time of the initial consent.
In addition, to be valid:
consent must be informed, that is consent must be based upon a clear appreciation and understanding of the facts, implications and consequences, which obliges UNHCR to inform the person of the purpose(s) of data collection, and how the data is, or is likely to be, used. Consent must also be freely given, meaning that the individual must have a genuine choice and be able to refuse or withdraw consent without adverse consequences.
While UNHCR policy allows for processing data without consent under some circumstances, including emergency situations, this should not override the need for consent or appropriate alternatives during registration exercises so as to not expose individuals or groups to harm, or otherwise jeopardize their protection.
UNHCR staff told Human Rights Watch in 2021 that when registering Rohingya for the joint registration exercise in 2018, field staff asked refugees whether they consented to have
their data shared with Myanmar to assess their repatriation eligibility. They said that Rohingya could have registered for the Smart Card even if they did not want their data shared with Myanmar. They contended that the vast majority of refugees consented but did not say how many refused. The Rohingya interviewed by Human Rights Watch disputed these claims.
Human Rights Watch believes that combining registration required for services with consent to a repatriation eligibility assessment is contrary to the principle of free consent. Rohingya refugees require a Smart Card to get all services in the refugee camps. UNHCR’s policies provide that the agency should never directly link registration or other verification exercises with registration for voluntary repatriations.
UNHCR disputed the relevance of this principle by arguing it applies to registration for voluntary repatriation, not sharing names to assess eligibility for return. But the aim of the policy – to ensure that consent is not coerced – should also apply in the registration exercise that UNHCR conducted with Bangladesh, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch found that UNHCR gave refugees mixed messages about how their data would be used and did not provide enough information for people to understand when, how, and for what purposes their information would be shared with the Myanmar government.
UNHCR said that when communicating with refugees and media about the registration exercise, UNHCR staff members consistently noted the possibility that the government of Bangladesh may share the data with the government of Myanmar for the purpose of verifying their eligibility for return, but this would not be linked to any actual returns. In February, a UNHCR official said the question about sharing data for eligibility assessments during the joint registration exercise was a “tick box” on a consent form that each refugee signed. She claimed the agency “always asked this question and the refugees understood what we meant very quickly.”
This is contrary to the experience of 23 of the 24 Rohingya refugees interviewed, who said that they believed at the time that the data collection was only to get the Smart Card and access to services, and a counting exercise. They said they did not sign a form, but instead gave their data in their own language to a field officer typing into a computer, and received a printed English language-only receipt with that data at the end of the interview. One Rohingya man who shared with Human Rights Watch the English language receipt said he was shocked to see that his data could be shared with Myanmar:
When I got to the [registration] center no one there told me why they were collecting my data, it was assumed that I knew like everyone that it was in order to receive services and for a counting exercise. After they took my data, they printed out a receipt. I walked back to my tent, and then I looked at the paper, and noticed that on the top there was a tick box that the person at the center had marked as “yes” without ever asking me, that my data would be shared with Myanmar. I was so angry when I saw that, but I had already given my data, and I needed services, so I didn’t know what I could do about it. And I am one of the few people who probably even realized that. Most Rohingya do not read English. But why did they do that? Why don’t they ask the person in front of them instead of just clicking and maybe even causing us harm by doing that?
The man said that before his data was collected, a senior UNHCR official told a community meeting he had attended that, “in the future, if you agree, UNHCR and Bangladesh will share your information with Myanmar so the government can verify where you are from,” but that he was never told this collection exercise would be for that purpose.
Another Rohingya man said:
UNHCR did not tell us it would be used for anything linked to repatriations. When the registration exercise started, we had said we didn’t want to participate because we were worried about repatriations, but the UNHCR staff told us, “We will not share your information with Myanmar until you give us permission to.” And then they never came back to us to ask if they could share our information.
He added that when field staff collected his data, they did not discuss consent in any detail. In its May responses, UNHCR stated that Rohingya refugees were provided extensive counseling on the sharing of their information with Myanmar for the purposes of verification of eligibility for return, but at the same time acknowledged that in some cases a more thorough explanation and counseling for refugees may have helped them better understand the process and its purpose.
UNHCR said that the vast majority of refugees in 2017 and 2018 were expressing a desire to return home “if conditions were conducive” – a sentiment that refugees also expressed to Human Rights Watch at the time. The Rohingya refugees have repeatedly said that they wish to return to Myanmar when it is safe and their citizenship rights, right to freedom of movement, and other human rights are guaranteed. But when Bangladesh started submitting names to Myanmar for repatriation eligibility assessments in 2018, Rohingya refugees told Human Rights Watch that they still did not feel safe to return.
The one Rohingya man who said UNHCR did ask his consent to share his data with Myanmar said he felt pressure not to refuse. He added that he assumed, based on UNHCR’s mandate to protect vulnerable people, the data would only be shared at a time when safe and dignified repatriations were possible. “We would be very worried to have our full information shared without those conditions, especially now with the Myanmar military in control of the government,” he said.
Bangladesh officials said that by early 2021 they had submitted lists with at least 830,000 names to Myanmar. Bangladesh’s foreign minister reported that the lists included all the data the government had on each individual, including biometric data. Myanmar authorities verified the eligibility of 42,000 people for return, though UNHCR considered the situation in Myanmar not conducive for safe refugee returns.
Once they were verified for return, UNHCR interviewed those selected, and almost all said they did not want to return, with some going into hiding out of fear of forced repatriation.
Human Rights Watch believes that biometric data should only be gathered when necessary and proportionate, and when fully compliant with privacy and data protection legislation and internal data retention and privacy policies. If biometric data collection (such as fingerprint images) is deemed necessary, in line with various data protection regulations and established principles of data collection in sensitive contexts, UNHCR should collect and store as little data as possible about vulnerable people.
Implementation of UNHCR Policy
UNHCR has a policy and practical guidance to protect personal data that it collects on beneficiaries and shares with third parties. The policy specifies that “before entering into data transfer arrangements with Implementing Partners or third parties which may negatively impact on the protection of personal data of persons of concern, UNHCR needs to carry out a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA).”
UNHCR told Human Rights Watch that it did not carry out a “full-fledged DPIA,” but undertook several risk assessments prior to signing the data-sharing agreement with Bangladesh and embedded and applied risk-mitigating measures into the agreement. In its assessments, UNHCR said it took into account “application of data protection provisions, refugees’ consent, UNHCR’s prior written authorization to disclose, limitations to the use of data, the format in which data are being shared, and balanced any identified risks against the benefits of upholding refugees’ right to return to their country.” It is important, though that it did not seem to take into account the context of historical involuntary returns from Bangladesh to Myanmar.
A former senior UNHCR staff member said that while the agency has a policy in place, “UNHCR has not put procedures to enforce the policy. DPIAs are generally not conducted.” He added that while the policy document seeks “adequacy” with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, in practice staff deviate from the requisite standards including informed consent.
UNHCR’s policy also dictates that when it collects personal data. it should inform the person “in a manner and language that is understandable” of the specific purpose for which the data will be processed and whether the data will be transferred to another entity.
Twenty-one of the 24 Rohingya interviewed said they found out their names were on repatriation eligibility assessment lists only after the Myanmar government had verified them for return.
UNHCR said it was unable to share a copy of its data-sharing agreement with Bangladesh without the government’s permission. Human Rights Watch asked the Bangladesh government for a copy of the agreement but has yet to receive a response.
UNHCR said its protection staff in Bangladesh and Myanmar have monitored whether the sharing of refugee data has resulted in any harm to refugees or their families and had not identified any harm thus far.
Potential Harm
Involuntary Repatriations
In a May meeting with Human Rights Watch, a UNHCR official defended the agency’s data sharing with Bangladesh – knowing that Bangladesh would, in turn, share this data with Myanmar as part of the process for verifying eligibility to return – by saying that UNHCR’s engagement would help to ensure that any returns would be voluntary. UNHCR said that an April 2018 memorandum of understanding between the agency and Bangladesh on the voluntary return of Rohingya to Myanmar includes a role for UNHCR to assist Bangladesh to register refugees who indicate a willingness to return and to ascertain the voluntariness of their decision after the eligibility for return is verified and confirmed between Bangladesh and Myanmar. It also states that UNHCR will assist in voluntary returns but only when the conditions for safe and dignified return are in place.
In its May written response to Human Rights Watch, UNHCR repeated that Bangladesh is upholding its commitment not to involuntarily repatriate Rohingya and pointed out that in November 2018 and August 2019, Bangladesh did not force any Rohingya who had been verified for return to go back to Myanmar. It said that “UNHCR has insisted since the beginning of the Rohingya refugee crisis that the refugees have a right to return if conditions are conducive yet that this should be voluntary and on the basis of informed consent.”
If the necessary conditions are not in place for safe and dignified return, UNHCR engagement on return is usually limited to planning, monitoring, counseling, advocacy, and ongoing analysis of obstacles to and conditions necessary for return, and identifying the necessary actions to address them. By indirectly assisting Bangladesh, through the collection of data, to draw up lists for verifying return eligibility, UNHCR has in effect assisted with potential repatriations, governed by the bilateral agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar.
This comes in the context of previous forced repatriation from Bangladesh to Myanmar, first in 1978 and then between 1992 and 1997, including UNHCR’s involvement in those episodes of mass forcible return, or refoulement. A study by the Stimson Center found:
In the 1970s and 1990s, UNHCR made choices that prioritized relationships with the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar over explicitly addressing human rights and protection concerns facing refugees… protection practices and norms such as individually interviewing refugees prior to return, were often sidelined in favor of maintaining these relationships.
In 2021 Bangladeshi authorities have continued their rhetoric around the need for repatriations, including directly after the February 1 military coup in Myanmar. Human Rights Watch questions the extent to which UNHCR will be able to prevent forced returns should they be attempted, given its inability to prevent the Bangladeshi government from relocating – including involuntary transfers – Rohingya to facilities on the remote island of Bhasan Char, where they lack freedom of movement and sustainable livelihoods or education.
The principle of nonrefoulement, the right of refugees not to be returned to a country where their lives or freedom would be threatened, is the cornerstone of international refugee protection, enshrined in article 33 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. Although Bangladesh is not a party to the UN Refugee Convention, it is bound to uphold the principle of nonrefoulement as a matter of customary international law.
Returning Rohingya to Myanmar would put them at grave risk of arbitrary arrest, torture and other ill-treatment, and possible death. An estimated 600,000 Rohingya remain in Rakhine State, confined to camps and villages without freedom of movement or access to adequate food, health care, education, and livelihoods. Approximately 130,000 internally displaced Rohingya have been arbitrarily held since 2012 in open-air detention camps.
A 2020 report by Human Rights Watch found that that the repression imposed on the Rohingya amounts to the crimes against humanity of persecution, apartheid, and severe deprivation of liberty. The UN-backed Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar warned in 2019 that the Rohingya remaining in Myanmar faced a greater-than-ever threat of genocide in the face of ongoing marginalization and brutality by the authorities.
The 21 Rohingya who told Human Rights Watch that their names had been on repatriation eligibility assessment lists and been verified for return fled their huts and went into hiding into other camps because they were afraid of being forcibly returned. One said his family fled because Bangladeshi security forces threatened that if they did not return to Myanmar, “then they would bulldoze our hut inside the camp.” Another Rohingya man said Bangladeshi authorities had told him he must return to Myanmar or he would be forced to, though he was not ultimately forced to do so.
One aid worker who witnessed families fleeing their huts said that in November 2018, when authorities tried to get the first group of Rohingya that had been verified for return to leave, she saw camp leaders trying, and ultimately failing, to forcibly round them up and put them on buses.
Denial of Citizenship and Potential Statelessness
The Rohingya are a predominantly Muslim ethnic group who have lived for generations in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. They are not listed among the 135 national ethnic groups Myanmar recognizes and are effectively denied citizenship under the discriminatory 1982 Citizenship Law. Without citizenship, they are for practical purposes stateless, facilitating long-term and severe Myanmar government human rights violations, including deportation, arbitrary confinement, and persecution.
Myanmar authorities have issued documents under successive “citizenship verification” systems, including “white cards,” or temporary registration cards, which were nullified in 2015. The end of the “white cards” was followed by the current National Verification Card (NVC) process, which has been marked by coercion and deceit. Rohingya are also registered on documents under repressive travel authorization and administrative procedures, such as household lists, Form 4s, and “Village Departure Certificates.”
At the time of their registration in Bangladesh, many Rohingya were concerned that their data would be integrated into the Myanmar NVC system, which they believe would undermine their claims to citizenship. A 2019 repatriation assessment conducted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with support from the Myanmar government stated that all returning refugees will be registered for NVCs upon arriving at Rakhine State “reception centers.”
Arbitrary Detention
In line with its repatriation agreements with Bangladesh, the Myanmar government has built “reception centers” and “transit camps” in northern Rakhine State to process and house returnees. They are surrounded by high barbed-wire fencing and security outposts, similar to the central Rakhine State detention camps. Such camps, constructed on land from which the Rohingya had fled, including villages that were burned and bulldozed in their wake, would invariably limit basic rights, segregate returnees from the rest of the population, restrict freedom of movement, and exacerbate persecution. The ASEAN repatriation assessment outlines “strict security measures,” including the extensive presence of armed border guard police at the camps that raise grave rights concerns.
One Rohingya man told Human Rights Watch that his name had appeared on a Myanmar government list of suspected members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the ethnic Rohingya armed group. He said that around August 2019, he found out from a Bangladesh government-appointed representative in the camp that his name had been included on one of the repatriation eligibility assessment lists and he was verified for return. “I am worried that the Myanmar authorities added my name to the list as a trap, so they can bring me back to Myanmar and then arrest me for membership in ARSA,” he said.
Recommendations
Human Rights Watch appreciates the vital role that UNHCR plays in ensuring that Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are issued identity documents and have access to basic services. Human Rights Watch also recognizes that Bangladesh authorities require some personal data to issue these documents. It is less clear, however, to what extent facial images, fingerprints, and other biometric data are necessary and proportionate to serve this purpose. As UNHCR guidelines recognize, there are significant risks that this information could be shared with refugees’ countries of origin and the personal information collected should only be shared with the country of origin after an individual confirms that they want to voluntarily return home.
In its April 14 letter to UNHCR, Human Rights Watch included detailed recommendations for the agency to consider. These included investigating the manner in which data collection proceeded in Bangladesh in 2018. More broadly, Human Rights Watch recommends the following to UNHCR:
Do not combine collecting data on individuals to provide services or identification documents with collecting data for repatriation eligibility assessment or repatriation. Data collection for repatriation purposes should remain a separate exercise, ideally with a strict firewall in the databases maintained;
Instruct field officers to engage in detailed consent discussions with every person being considered for eligibility for repatriation, and for repatriation, which should include ensuring that refugees understand any risks of having their data shared and that they have the ability to opt-out without prejudice;
Only share data or allow data that it collects to be shared by host countries with countries of origin, when individuals have given free and informed consent;
Ensure that people who agree to have their data shared for repatriation purposes are able to later withdraw that consent, and are informed how to do so in a clear manner at the time they give initial consent;
Impose restrictions and safeguards that limit the authorities who can access and share data within the government and prohibit access to this data by third governments and other parties;
Carry out mandatory data assessments and, to ensure independence, use teams supervised by an independent body to conduct data impact assessments before engaging in new programming that requires sensitive data collection. Assessments of this risk should include an examination of the historical context of the communities and countries involved; and
Ensure that all data collection, including biometric data, meets the requirements of necessity and proportionality.
Human Rights Watch also recommends that donor governments play a greater role in ensuring rights-based data practices. This includes requiring agencies and organizations that collect sensitive data to use independently supervised entities for data protection impact assessments for new projects before data collection begins, and to conduct annual data protection audits..."
Source/publisher:
"Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication:
2021-06-15
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), UN System humanitarian assistance, Human Rights Watch Reports on Burma/Myanmar, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
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Description:
"A Muslim minority ethnic group in Buddhist dominated Myanmar, the Rohingya constitute about 4 percent of the country’s population. They inhabit the northern part of the Rakhine (formerly Arakan) State of Myanmar, one of the least developed parts of the country.
Persecuted for decades by the Burmese State, their numbers inside Myanmar have diminished steadily over the years from well in excess of a million to a few hundred thousand. Denial of citizenship, religious persecution, killings, rape, massacres and refusal to provide
even the most basic of human rights by subjecting them to forced labor, seizure of their land and property, extortion, denial of the freedom to travel to find work, and most humiliatingly
placing restrictions on marriage and the number of children they can have has led to hundreds of thousands of impoverished Rohingya fleeing to neighbouring countries, especially Bangladesh, over the course of the last seven decades. The United Nations (UN) has described them as "the most persecuted minority in the world".
At the core of the issue is the identity and religion of the Rohingya, with the Myanmar government refusing to acknowledge or use the term Rohingya, insisting on calling them ‘Bengali’ instead to highlight their alleged foreign origins. The largeststateless community in the world,the close to a million Rohingya living in appalling
conditions in makeshift refugee camps in Bangladesh are confronted with an enormous humanitarian crisis. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stated on 13 December 2017, that while there were 400,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh in early
2017, by the end of that year this number had swelled to over 1,000,000. The scale of the crisis is put into clear perspective by the fact that in contrast to their swelling numbers in Bangladesh, only an estimated 180,000 Rohingya remain in their native Rakhine State in
Myanmar. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently termed the State of the Rohingya as "catastrophic" and "completely unacceptable". Their miserable condition is being sought to
be exploited by radical Islamic organizations backed by the Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) such as the Lashkar-e-Taibah (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), as well as by other Sunni militant organizations, to serve their own nefarious purposes. Rohingya insurgent organizations such as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) are being set up, and the attacks against Myanmar security forces launched by these insurgents
are providing the excuse for a highly disproportionate response by the Myanmar government, thereby exacerbating the already grave plight of the Rohingya. That the ISI-backed groups are
also looking to direct the attention of radicalized elements from the Rohingya against the Sheikh Hasina-led government in Bangladesh and against India lends wider security ramifications to the issue.
US Vice President Mike Pence assessed the situation aptly when he described the Rohingya expulsion as a "historic exodus" and a "great tragedy unfolding", adding that the situation may "sow seeds of hatred and chaos that may well consume the region for generations to
come and threaten the peace of us all"..."
Source/publisher:
European Foundation for South Asian Studies (Amsterdam)
Date of publication:
2018-05-00
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
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Description:
"Deaths and Arbitrary Arrests
As of 8 June 2021, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a total of 5,858 people have been arrested whereas 4,704 people are still under detention, 1,936 people have been issued with warrants and 857 people ruthlessly murdered by the military since 1 February 2021 when the military unleashed systematic and targeted attacks and violence against innocent civilians.
Already more than 120 days have passed since the coup; the military terrorist group has not stopped its inhumane acts and arbitrary arrests against the unarmed civilians until today.
Military’s Unstoppable Brutal Actions
Arbitrary Arrests: On 2 June 2021, a 62-year-old mother and wife of a man whom the junta was searching for were arrested when the junta forces did not find him at home.
On 2 June 2021, in Myitkyina, Kachin State, Mr. Thet Tun Oo, a lawyer who is taking pro-bono case for people was arrested for staging anti-dictatorship protests.
On 3 June 2021, a man was shot to death when he did not stop his motorcycle for inspection by junta troops in Monywa, Sagaing Region.
On 4 June 2021, Mr. Thaw Zin who is LGBT was shot and killed. Junta troops hit him with three bullets in arm and rib when he and his two friends were on the way home riding a motorcycle.
On 4 June 2021, in Monywa in Sagaing Region, Mr. Khant Zin Ko, who is a member of Monywa University Student Union, was arrested when the junta forces did not find his father at home.
On 8 June 2021, Mr. Marn Zar Myay Mon, a protest leader of Chaung-U Township in Sagaing Region was shot and arrested by the military forces. He was issued with warrant under Penal Code Section 505(a) before the arrest.
On 8 June 2021, in Hlaing township in Yangon, when the junta forces cracked down a protest, about 4 youths including 2 males and 2 females were arrested. According to a protester involved in a rally, plains-clothed wearing police turned up into the rally and arrested the youths.
Clashes between Villagers and Military Forces: On 5 June 2021, in Kyonpyaw Township in Ayeyarwady region, it is reportedly clashes between villagers and military forces after a villager named Mr. Kyay was taken into custody on early morning. The junta accused Mr. Kyay, who sells bananas to Yangon, of transporting weapons. Shootout between two sides lasted for about an hour and three civilians were shot dead including a 19-year-old youth. According to the information received, the military took control of Hlay Swel village and villagers from eight neighbouring villages fled their homes.
Violent Crackdowns in Moebyel in Shan State: According to the information received from the local residents, the military used heavy forces, set fire the houses and buildings, broke into houses and took the properties since four days ago.
Deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in Kayah State: In the early days of May, some young generations residing in Phekhone, Moebyel, Demoso, and Seebu townships have been resisting against the military’s repression with homemade guns. Since then, the military have been operating systematic and targeted attacks on the entire ‘Kayan’ people including civilians who are not directly taking part in the hostilities.
Now, around 1 million of ‘Kayan’ are displaced directed towards Seebuu Township, due to the heavy artillery and Airstrikes of the military. The estimated Kayan population is about 2 millions. Therefore, about 85% of the ‘Kayan’ people would become displaced persons and nowhere to hide since the geographical position of these regions are not interconnected with international borders, and if the military continues their strikes in Seebuu township.
Targeting the members of NLD party
The junta has more targeted to arrest the members of the National League Democracy (NLD) party. On 4 June 2021, Mr. Khin Maung Shwe, NLD Chairman of Shwebo Township, who was arrested and charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code was sentenced to three years imprisonment.
On 5 June 2021, Mr. Kyaw Ohn, NLD Chairman of Man Ywet Village of Mogaung Township of Kachin State, was arrested at his home by the junta forces who were wearing plainclothes.
Moreover, on 6 June 2021, in Taungyi Township, Mr. Tin Myint, Taunggyi Township, Executive Committee Member of NLD was beaten and arrested at his home by junta forces.
On 7 June 2021, Dr. Aung Moe Nyo, former Magway Region Chief Minister, was sentenced to two years imprisonment under 505(b) of the Penal Code and a new charge on natural disaster management law was opened.
Issuing Warrants for the Members of Trade Unions
At the end of May 2021, under the Myanmar Penal Code 124 (A), the junta issued warrants for 28 members of the Central Committee of the Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar (CTUM). The passports of all members were also declared null and void at the same time.
Anti-Coup Resistance Movements
Despite tight security and violent actions against the civilians by the junta, anti-coup resistance movements are still gaining momentum across the country.
On 8 June 2021, members of the Mandalay Society of Engineers which is one of the most consistent groups protesting the dictatorship, organized a motorcycle rally. On the same day, members of student union from townships in Mandalay marched to call for democracy and boycotted the military’s slave education system.
In addition to rallying every day across Dawei, on 8 June 2021, young people handed out anti-junta leaflets in markets.
Policy Position on the Rohingya in Rakhine State
The National Unity Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar issued the policy position on the Rohingya in Rakhine State on 3 June 2021. The salient points in the statement are as follow:
- The National Unity Government will consider the opinions and views of the entire people of Myanmar including those in Rakhine State, in drafting a new Constitution that can resolve problems caused by the 2008 Constitution.
- The process of repealing, amending and promulgating laws, including the 1982 Citizenship Law, by the new Constitution when the drafting is completed will be beneficial in resolving the conflict in Rakhine State.
- The new Citizenship Act must base the citizenship on birth in Myanmar or birth anywhere as a child of Myanmar citizens.
- The National Unity Government further commits to abolishing the process of issuing National Verification Cards, a process that the military has used against the Rohingyas and other ethnic groups coercively and with human rights violation.
- The Rohingyas are entitled to citizenship by laws that will accord with fundamental human rights norms and democratic federal principles.
Announcement on Counter terrorism and designation of terrorist organizations
On 7 June 2021, the National Unity Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar issued the announcement on counter terrorism and designation of terrorist organizations. In the statement, the National Unity Government (NUG) designated the Tatmadaw and its affiliated organizations as terrorist organizations under Section 3 of Myanmar’s Counter-Terrorism Law.
The National Unity Government (NUG) also highlighted the following acts of terrorism that the Tatmadaw and affiliated organization have perpetrated towards innocent civilians to create public fear and to control the region:
- Killings of more than 800 civilians using lethal weapons
- Arbitrary detentions of more than 5,000 people, many of whom have been tortured and sexually abused
- Decimation of the economy with the near collapse of the banking system and the threatening of people’s savings and property
- Disregard for a food security crisis, with the number affected set to increase from 1 to over 3 million people in the coming months
- Abandonment of Myanmar’s COVID CERP program along with an overall collapse of the healthcare system
- Massive money laundering operations
International Pressure on the Illegitimate Military Group
On 3 June 2021, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) issued the statement regarding the visit of ICRC President Peter Maurer to Myanmar to meet with the Chief of military group, who staged the coup and seized the power in Myanmar since 1 February 2021. In the statement, it is expressed that during the meeting, ICRC president emphasized that people in Myanmar are in need of urgent assistance and protection in the current situation. He also stressed the importance for the ICRC to resume its purely humanitarian visits and activities in places of detention in Myanmar which are essential to secure humane treatment and conditions of detention for all detainees and to restore communication between detainees and their families.
Entering to the fifth month of crippling unrest and chaos following the military coup in Myanmar, there are reports that ASEAN envoys arrived in Myanmar on 3 June 2021 to meet with Myanmar military leader. On the same day, ASEAN Secretary-General and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs of Brunei, who is ASEAN Chair for 2021 arrived in Myanmar.
During the visit to Jakarta, European Union Foreign Affairs Chief, Mr. Josep Borrell said on 3 June 2021 that the EU is planning a new round of sanctions on the ruling generals of Myanmar and their economic interests and these third row of sanctions on Myanmar will be approved in the coming days. He also told the journalists that the leadership to find a political solution for the situation of Myanmar belongs to ASEAN.
On 7 June 2021, envoys from ASEAN called on Myanmar’s military group to release all political prisoners and urged to implement the ASEAN’s five-point-consensus to end the turmoil in the country following the coup.
On 7 June 2021, the U.S welcomed the commitment to address discrimination and human rights abuses against Rohingya in the statement of NUG. Secretary of State of the US said the NUG’s pledge to address discrimination and human rights abuses against Rohingya is an important signal to all those working for an inclusive, democratic future.
The United Nations in Myanmar issued the statement on 8 June 2021, expressing the concern about the rapidly deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in Kayah State and other areas in southeastern Myanmar. The statement highlighted the recent violence by the Myanmar security forces against civilians in Kayah states, which resulted in massive internal displacement of an estimated 100,000 people including men, women and children, and incidents of seeking safely by those in host communities and neighbouring Shan State. It also reiterated its earlier calls for all parties to urgently take the necessary measures to protect the civilians and protected objects including medical units and personnel.
On 8 June 2021, Mr Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar also called for immediate action to avoid a massive loss of live in Kayah State. He urged all the regional actors, INGOs and civil society organizations to do all that can avoid a catastrophic loss of life, and the neighbouring countries to support the cross-border displacement of Myanmar. He also called international community to cut off the resources access which the junta needs to continue the brutal attacks on the people of Myanmar.
*****
Date: 8 June 2021
Permanent Mission of Myanmar, New York..."
Source/publisher:
Permanent Mission of Myanmar to the United Nations (New York)
Date of publication:
2021-06-08
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Human Rights and international relations, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Humanitarian assistance - emergencies, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
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Sub-title:
Bangladesh: Remove Fencing, Support Fire-Affected Refugees
Description:
"The Government of Bangladesh should remove barbed-wire fencing confining Rohingya refugees to camps and support those affected by suspicious fires that destroyed buildings and shelters and killed at least 14 refugees in Cox’s Bazar District since January 2021, said Fortify Rights today.
“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina should order the immediate removal of barbed-wire fencing surrounding the Rohingya camps,” said Ismail Wolff, Regional Director at Fortify Rights. “The fences are a deadly experiment that infringe on basic freedoms and have now contributed to injury and death.”
In April 2021, Fortify Rights interviewed 13 refugee eyewitnesses and other Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar District who said that barbed-wire fencing enclosing the camps hampered efforts to escape fires and directly contributed to injuries and at least one death during a major blaze in the Kutupalong-Balukhali camp on March 22. Fortify Rights also spoke with five humanitarian aid workers operational in Bangladesh and reviewed and analyzed videos and photographs of the recent fires and aid-agency maps of the fencing.
The fencing, which the Bangladesh authorities erected during the past 17 months, is part of a broader system of restrictions on refugees’ freedom of movement. The fencing surrounds the camps and includes limited exit points, confining nearly one million Rohingya refugees who fled persecution and genocide in Myanmar and creating unnecessary protection risks.
At least 86 fire incidents occurred in at least 25 of the 34 Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar District this year, according to data reviewed by Fortify Rights from the Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG)—the central coordinating agency for the international Rohingya refugee response in Bangladesh. The incidents ranged from minor fires that were quickly extinguished to major blazes that left at least 14 dead, hundreds injured, and thousands without shelter, according to the U.N. refugee agency and media reports.
In the most severe incident this year, a massive daytime fire engulfed large sections of the Kutupalong-Balukhali camp on March 22, affecting more than 48,000 people and leaving 10,100 households without shelter according to ISCG. The fire resulted in at least 11 deaths and injured more than 560 people, according to a joint assessment conducted by humanitarian organizations operational in Bangladesh. The fire began in the afternoon and spread rapidly through four sections of the camp.
Some refugees are still rebuilding their homes as monsoon season approaches.
He was trying to climb the fence. The barbed wire cut him. It was impossible to jump. He tried to climb the fence . . . Suddenly, the fire caught up to him. This happened as he was trying to escape and jump the fence . . . The fire was so dangerous, and people could not rescue him.
A Rohingya family member later confirmed with Fortify Rights the young man had died in the fire.
“Some were climbing the wire fence to escape,” said a 29-year-old Rohingya refugee who was in the camp during the fire on March 22 and saw at least 15 people injured. “Those who could not escape were burned in the fire.”
A 27-year-old Rohingya woman from Balukhali camp described to Fortify Rights her attempt to flee the March 22 fire with her three-month-old child:
I saw black smoke in the sky . . . [and then] the fire became very close. I started to go back to Boli Bazar market and saw that it was also on fire. When the fire became dangerously close, we started fleeing towards the fencing. We tried to get over [the fence]. We were running here and there inside the fencing. We ran along the border of the fence but couldn’t jump over it . . . It was such a horrible day. I thought my baby and I were going to die . . . We have lost everything. My shelter and belongings are all burned.
A Rohingya on the other side of the fence cut through the fence with bolt cutters, rescuing the woman and her child. She described how others tried to get through the fence:
Some men used their hands to break the fence, injuring their hands on the barbed wire. People were cut by the barbed wire trying to flee. They got stabbed in the legs, arms, head, and back. Some were bleeding . . . The fence should be taken down.
On April 12, another fire occurred in Balukhali camp, damaging several buildings and shelters. A Rohingya refugee man, 26, told Fortify Rights he witnessed Bangladesh police beat a Rohingya man trying to extinguish the flames:
I saw it myself. The police beat him with the end of their guns and a stick. The police hit him more than five times. He was trying to put out the fire . . . There were three police hitting him. The rest of the police tried to push the other people back to prevent them from putting out the fire..."
Source/publisher:
"Fortify Rights"
Date of publication:
2021-05-05
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-13
Copyright holder:
html
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Internal displacement/forced migration of Rohingyas, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
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Description:
"Indian Supreme Court rules Rohingya refugees can be returned to Myanmar
(Cox’s Bazar, April 9, 2021)—The Government of India should protect Rohingya refugees and prevent their forced return to Myanmar, Fortify Rights said today. On April 8, the Supreme Court of India denied a petition challenging the arbitrary detention of Rohingya refugees in northern India. The court further ruled that the refugees could be returned to Myanmar, where Rohingya have faced mass atrocity crimes by Myanmar security forces for years.
Since a February 1 military coup d’état, the Myanmar military and police have killed more than 600 men, women, and children.
“India has a responsibility under international law to protect refugees from being forcibly returned to a place where their lives or freedoms are threatened,” said Amy Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights. “The same military responsible for the ongoing genocide against the Rohingya is now violently carrying out a military coup in Myanmar.”
On March 6, Indian authorities in Jammu and Kashmir detained more than 160 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, according to media reports. Two refugees petitioned the Supreme Court last month, seeking the release of the detained refugees and an order to prevent their return to Myanmar.
On April 8, the Supreme Court of India rejected the petition, paving the way for the forced return of the refugees to Myanmar. In a six-page interim order reviewed by Fortify Rights, the court said, “we cannot comment upon something happening in another country” regarding the petition’s claims that returnees would face persecution should they be returned to Myanmar. “It is not possible to grant the interim relief prayed for,” the order said.
Under customary international law, the principle of non-refoulement prohibits a state from returning any person on its territory or under its jurisdiction to a country where they face persecution. Article 3 of the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which India is a party, states: “No State Party shall expel, return (‘refoule’) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he [or she] would be in danger of being subjected to torture.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Fortify Rights"
Date of publication:
2021-04-09
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Internal displacement/forced migration of Rohingyas, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
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Sub-title:
Scores of Rohingya reportedly adrift at sea
Description:
"Regional governments in South and Southeast Asia should support safe disembarkation and humanitarian assistance for scores of Rohingya refugees on a boat reportedly adrift at sea.
“Too many Rohingya lives have already been lost at sea due to the callous inaction or pushbacks of regional governments,” said Amy Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights. “Regional governments in South and Southeast Asia should urgently protect those on board to prevent any further loss of life.”
Fortify Rights spoke with Rohingya refugees in Malaysia, Bangladesh, and India, who made phone contact with passengers on the boat. A Rohingya on the boat told a family member in Bangladesh by phone that there are 90 people on board, including 65 women. The stranded Rohingya also told family members that the boat departed Bangladesh on February 11 and that the boat went adrift after the engine failed. Fortify Rights received taped phone conversations between Rohingya refugees, who claimed to be on the boat, and their relatives.
“More than five people died today,” a Rohingya man says on one recording. “Please try to send water by any means.”
In another audio recorded on February 22, a Rohingya man on the boat says: “The India Navy is helping us. They provided food to us. Please tell my mother to pray for us. We can drink water now.”
After locating the boat on February 22, the Indian Navy reportedly provided food, water, and first aid to the refugees on the boat. According to Reuters, a senior Indian Coast Guard official confirmed they tracked the boat to an area off the coast of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
On February 22, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)–the U.N. agency mandated to protect refugees–called for the “immediate rescue of a group of Rohingya refugees in distress on the Andaman Sea.” The statement said: “Many [of the Rohingya refugees] are in a highly vulnerable condition and are apparently suffering from extreme dehydration. We understand that a number of refugees have already lost their lives, and that fatalities have risen over the past 24 hours.”
“Mohammed Jubar”–not his real name–in Kutupalong refugee camp told Fortify Rights on February 22 that his brother departed on the boat more than ten days earlier. He said his brother called him from the boat on February 21, saying he and others were out of drinking water and stranded at sea.
“I heard people are dying on the boat,” Mohammed Jubar told Fortify Rights. “If they have to stay on the boat, my brother will also die.”
Mohammed Jubar told Fortify Rights that on February 21 he received a call from a dallal–a term in the Rohingya language to describe an intermediary involved in human trafficking–requesting a payment.
“[The dallal] told us to give 200,000 Bangladeshi Taka [US$2,300],” Mohammad Jubar said. “If we pay him, he said on the phone he will bring my brother home.”
The name of the trafficker is on file with Fortify Rights.
Another Rohingya refugee in Malaysia, who spoke to a relative on the boat, told Fortify Rights that his relative and others on the boat “need water and food.”
“Pushback” actions and policies violate the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the “rejection at the frontier, interception and indirect refoulement” of individuals at risk of persecution. The principle of non-refoulement is part of customary international law and binding on all states. Under this principle, all countries are obligated to protect Rohingya from being returned, including through returns that are informal, such as pushbacks out to sea.
In February 2020, at least 15 Rohingya from refugee camps in Bangladesh reportedly drowned in the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean after their boat, carrying more than 100, capsized en route to Malaysia. In April 2020, Fortify Rights documented killings, beatings, and severe deprivations of food and water by crew members on boats of Rohingya refugees.
In March 2019, the National Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) and Fortify Rights published a 121-page report, “Sold Like Fish,” based on a multi-year investigation into mass graves and human trafficking of Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladesh to Malaysia from 2012 to 2015.
On February 1, the Myanmar military overthrew the democratically elected Government of Myanmar. The junta has arrested more than 600 people and used lethal force in its crackdown on peaceful anti-coup protesters. Rohingya continue to face genocide and other international crimes in Myanmar, and migration routes available to them remain deadly. There are more than a million Rohingya refugees in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, where the government continues to restrict basic freedoms of Rohingya refugees.
“We’ve seen this emergency before, and it can be avoided,” said Amy Smith. “Governments should urgently rescue and provide immediate protection to Rohingya stranded at sea.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Fortify Rights"
Date of publication:
2021-02-23
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Humanitarian assistance - emergencies, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
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Description:
"PREFACE: The Rohingya crisis defies easy summary. Terms such as ethnic
cleansing, genocide, abuse of human rights, have all been
applied to what is undoubtedly a major humanitarian crisis of our
times. Understanding and responding to the plight of hundreds of
thousands of Rohingyas requires a multi-disciplinary approach,
with the need for engagement from a wide variety of
perspectives. Legal and medical questions, issues around
cultural contexts and the physical environment, psychological
and social factors, religious and political considerations, are all
highly relevant. There is no simple solution to a whole complex
of interconnected issues: here, as in so many other cases, the
eruption and tragic human consequences of collective violence
raise innumerable challenges. It is all the more urgent that we
can bring people together to engage in the kind of informed
debate that can assist intelligent action.
We are delighted that such a distinguished and broad range of
scholars and practitioners have contributed their insights in this
booklet of abstracts, and that some of them will be able to
contribute further in person at the conference held at UCL on 4-
5 July 2019. We welcome participation in what we hope will be a
productive set of encounters, seeking both to understand and,
through enhanced understanding, to inform more effective
responses to this still unfolding crisis.....Genocide Studie.....FORWARD : According to the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), there are over 70 million people worldwide
who have been forcibly displaced from their homes. As an
underlying principle of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) to be achieved by 2030 is to leave no one behind, it is
essential that the needs and aspirations of the forcibly displaced
are addressed. Of these about 10 million are stateless. With
limited or no legal rights, and often denied refugee legal status,
the challenges they face are severe. About one third of the
stateless forcibly displaced, belong to the Rohingya diaspora.
The Rohingya are a Muslim-majority ethnic group from today's
Rakhine State in Myanmar. After a long period of systematic
exclusion, the Rohingya were stripped of their citizenship in
1982. Since the late 1970s, nearly two million Rohingya have fled
Myanmar, with another one million living as internally displace
people (IDPs) within Rakhine State, in waves of violent forced
displacement perpetrated by the Myanmar authorities.
Violence towards the Rohingya in Myanmar from 2017, caused
the mass displacement of people to southeastern Bangladesh.
The Human Rights Council acting under UN resolution 34/22 has
cited this as a crime against humanity and called for an
investigation for genocide against the authorities in Myanmar.
The majority of the nearly one million displaced persons are
residing in overcrowded temporary makeshift shelters, of
bamboo frames and plastic sheeting, in Cox’s Bazar district.
Kutupalong is the world’s largest refugee camp. These camps
are highly susceptible to rainfall-triggered landslides, flash
flooding and cyclones and the likelihood of a public health
emergency from infectious diseases is high, which in this
vulnerable population threatens new disaster...."
Source/publisher:
University College London
Date of publication:
2019-07-05
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Internal displacement/forced migration of Rohingyas, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Human Rights and international relations, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Muslims in Burma, Statelessness in Burma/Myanmar, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
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pdf
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1.74 MB (246 pages)
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Description:
"This article is part of a Just Security series on the Feb. 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar. The series brings together expert local and international voices on the coup and its broader context. The series is a collaboration between Just Security and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School.
This installment reflects conversations with Rohingya residents of refugee camps in Bangladesh about the coup in Myanmar. Camp residents’ views were collected by Shabbir Ahmad and other members of a team of Rohingya researchers during a recent community feedback collection project. The opinions expressed here are the views of the authors and camp residents, not those of any institution with which the authors are affiliated.
The Rohingya community of Myanmar has been isolated and persecuted for decades, leading to waves of mass displacement, isolation, and resistance. The situation of the Rohingya deteriorated further into crisis after the National League for Democracy (NLD) took power in 2015, starting with a 2016 crackdown and culminating in the massive 2017 violence that displaced over 700,000 people.
Refugees in Bangladesh believe the situation could worsen even further under the current junta, creating new risks for the Rohingya who remain in Myanmar and indefinitely delaying any prospect of a safe repatriation for those displaced. According to one camp resident: “The democratic government didn’t do well for us Rohingya. However, the current conditions will be even worse for us, and maybe for everyone in Myanmar.” According to another, “We Rohingya people don’t expect anything positive to come from the military coup. We know very well that the Myanmar Army is merciless and doesn’t feel afraid of committing injustice.” The greatest fear for many camp residents is that repatriation at a large scale will be impossible as long as Myanmar remains under the control of the Myanmar military, the Tatmadaw. In recent comments, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing affirmed these concerns, reiterating once again that the Tatmadaw does not recognize the identity of the Rohingya people or their right to return home. As long as the junta remains in place, there is little possibility of forging solutions to the outstanding political, legal, and justice questions surrounding the Rohingya crisis.
But there is another dimension of the coup in which an unanticipated, positive change has emerged: There has been a wave of social and political reconciliation between Rohingya and other Myanmar people. Though the situation remains formidable both for Rohingya in Myanmar and for those who seek to return from Bangladesh, certain social and political fault lines that have been present throughout Myanmar’s recent history seem to be shifting.
Emerging Grassroots Solidarity
After the first large-scale protests against the coup took place in Yangon on Feb. 6, Shabbir Ahmad, a young Rohingya social activist and educator who currently lives as a refugee in Bangladesh, met with several other youth. They decided to use Twitter to express support for the anti-coup protesters within Myanmar. And they have been at it ever since.
At first, Shabbir and his friends’ tweets received little attention, but they persisted. The Tatmadaw’s crackdown on protesters grew increasingly brutal, and Shabbir watched as civilians across Myanmar were afflicted by violence similar to that committed against Rohingya in 2017. Many in Myanmar began to recognize the magnitude of the Rohingya people’s suffering as they experienced indiscriminate violence firsthand themselves. Rather suddenly, according to Shabbir, “hundreds of Twitter users began apologizing in comments under my tweets. They expressed regret for not supporting Rohingya during the Tatmadaw’s genocidal campaigns, for misunderstanding our plight, and for being afraid to speak up. It was remarkable for us to finally feel their support.”
Shabbir continued posting prayers for the protesters’ safety and security, sharing condolences for those killed in the protests. Four months after the coup, he still posts solidarity messages and photos from the camps nearly every day under his Burmese name, Naing Oo. (Rohingya and others from minoritized ethnic groups in Myanmar often have two names, one in their mother tongue and one in Burmese.)
Shabbir’s most viral Tweet to date was a photo series of refugees whose bamboo and tarpaulin huts burned in the recent devastating March 22 fire that left 45,000 refugees without shelter. “Despite losing their homes and possessions the night before the photos were taken, my subjects were eager to be photographed squatting atop the ashes and rubble of their shelters while making the three-finger Hunger Games salute that has become emblematic of the Myanmar anti-coup resistance movement,” Shabbir described. “Their determination to show solidarity during their own moment of loss struck Myanmar Twitter users, dozens of whom apologized to the Rohingya under my post. Some expressed regret, shame, and grief.” Shabbir tried to reply to each comment in order to make personal connections.
In the past, Shabbir said, “We Rohingya lamented our inability to build a good relationship with other Myanmar people. We never felt any support from them, even during our most difficult times. But since we began voicing our support for the coup protestors, we have felt a big shift in the relationship between the communities.” This includes elders and others who don’t use social media but have heard from others about the online reconciliation. “Everyone in the camps is aware that this is happening, and nearly everyone has been supportive,” he added.
Still, the outpourings of solidarity were not without controversy. “Mistrust was hard to overcome. Amongst refugees, there were a few people who didn’t like what we Twitter users were doing,” Shabbir explained. “They thought Myanmar civilians were pretending to reconcile in order to get support from the international community, and that they would betray Rohingya after using them. My friends and I worked tirelessly to convince our fellow camp residents that our outreach efforts could bring long-term benefits, and subsequently, we think we have earned most people’s trust.”
According to Shabbir, “It seems that refugees here in the camps have authentically forgiven and are feeling happy to finally forge good relationships with Myanmar people of all ethnicities.” He expressed that no one could have imagined that the coup would bring about this positive development, which has shown that some solutions can and must be forged by “ordinary” people rather than by politicians and figureheads in Myanmar and the international community.
Signs of Political Progress
The emerging reconciliation was soon visible offline as well, with anti-coup protestors in Yangon showing up to rallies with handwritten signs apologizing to Rohingya. The willingness of new civilian leaders to recognize the Rohingya suggested to Shabbir and his peers that social activism could trickle up to influence discourse at the national level. Supportive comments made by members of the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) and its international envoy Dr. Sasa, who has promised to pursue justice for Rohingya, were a source of encouragement to continue expressing solidarity.
However, during the initial months after the coup, there was ambiguity as to whether the positive expressions from Dr. Sasa and others would amount to a departure from the stance of the previous NLD government. The National Unity Government (NUG) was formed by the CRPH on April 16 and there were some initial doubts over whether it would condemn longstanding policies of Rohingya exclusion and persecution. But it has since taken several steps to distinguish itself from the recently ousted civilian administration. One positive sign came on May 20, when NUG Special Representative U Htin Linn Aung stated during a Wilson Center webinar that the NUG fully intends to support Rohingya repatriation. On May 30, the NUG published a press statement asserting that it would cooperate with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) process currently underway to determine whether Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya.
Then, on June 3, the NUG released a progressive policy position statement lauded by many observers and described as a “monumental shift” by the human rights group Fortify Rights. The NUG’s statement declared its intent to do away with Myanmar’s problematic and outdated 1982 citizenship law, and to ensure birthright citizenship to all people born in Myanmar as well as to the children of Myanmar citizens. This would effectively mean the acknowledgement of existing citizenship rights for the Rohingya.
The June 3 statement also clarified the NUG’s position in regard to the current International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation on crimes committed by the Tatmadaw against the Rohingya. Previously, the NUG had only mentioned that it would consider accepting the ICC’s jurisdiction to investigate the Tatmadaw’s crimes since the coup, which would not cover earlier periods of violence against the Rohingya. According to the June 3 statement, however, the NUG intends to “initiate processes to grant the ICC jurisdiction over crimes committed in Myanmar against the Rohingyas and other communities” – a commitment that offers hope for full accountability.
Despite feeling hopeful about the recent developments, Shabbir and others in the camps have been careful to temper their optimism. The junta’s grasp on power in Myanmar remains fierce, if threatened, and the NUG has no certain pathway to gaining control. Shabbir sees the addition of a Rohingya representative to the NUG cabinet as a critical next step to bridge the gap between social reconciliation and the political action needed to forge lasting solutions, but so far, no Rohingya cabinet members have been named.
According to Shabbir, “This lack of inclusion has been disheartening for many people who fear it signals that the support from Dr. Sasa and others is disingenuous. But we camp residents remain hopeful that the NUG will involve the Rohingya soon.” Whether this will happen remains questionable. Though Dr. Sasa was appointed as the NUG’s International Cooperation Minister, politicians who have publicly expressed anti-Rohingya views were also given key positions in the NUG. “Fortunately, Rohingya Twitter users have seen various Myanmar people posting on social media to encourage the NUG to involve us,” Shabbir added. “We acknowledge that it may take time to build a good relationship with the NUG, and we are encouraged by the progress made thus far.” The need for recognition of Rohingya issues by the NUG has been noted internationally as well. During a congressional hearing on May 5, several U.S. officials said that support for the NUG should be contingent upon adoption of an explicit anti-genocide policy.
Life as a Waiting Game
Meanwhile, life for those in the camps continues as a waiting game. Eager to return home, many closely follow Myanmar politics, weighing whether each development might promote or hinder the prospect of safe repatriation. The coup is the most significant of these developments since the mass exodus of Rohingya to Bangladesh four years ago. Many people arrived in Bangladesh expecting to return home “in days or weeks, not years” once the violence subsided, as one person put it. Now, they are confronted with the reality of having to endure camp conditions for years or even decades. Those initially confident in prompt repatriation now accept that the violence and instability resulting from the coup is likely to further delay the prospect of repatriation in the near term.
Camp residents nevertheless remain hopeful that international justice and accountability delivered through the ICJ and ICC will help expedite progress toward solutions, and the NUG’s statement of support for these international mechanisms is a positive step. However, the residents lack access to clear information about these legal mechanisms, their scope, and their limitations, leading to what many would argue are overly optimistic perceptions given the history of international justice moving at a glacial pace. Victims have long called for international action to resolve the refugee crisis and hold perpetrators of war crimes and other atrocities accountable, but many have been disappointed by an international response perceived as slow and inadequate: “What is the reason why we need to suffer in the camps for over three years? Why isn’t the international community doing anything for us?” Anti-coup protestors in Myanmar are now similarly frustrated by what they view as a lack of prompt and effective international support.
But many forms of justice that Rohingya need in their daily lives – citizenship, repatriation, access to education, and other services – will not be delivered by foreign politicians or faraway courts in Europe. As the coup and resulting instability cement the reality of long-term displacement, camp residents’ need for access to education, livelihoods, civil justice, and basic rights demands more urgent attention. Parents fear that their children will become part of a lost generation of unschooled youth, and illicit economic activity proliferates as refugees face financial pressures but lack the right to formal employment. While international accountability is ultimately necessary for sustainable peace, displaced Rohingya families face more urgent needs every day, as do Rohingya still living in Myanmar.
Complex Hopes and Next Steps
There are a few outliers in the camps, people who have an open mind about the Tatmadaw’s seizure of power or who think that the coup could have a positive impact on repatriation. They wonder if, free of the democratic process laden with complexities and bureaucratic red tape, the Tatmadaw might opt to relieve international pressure by addressing the crisis. One person commented, “The NLD had no real power to give us our rights. Whenever they consulted about Rohingya issues in Parliament, some members would always object, so they couldn’t do anything. But if the military could be convinced by the international community to give rights to Rohingya, they wouldn’t need to consult in Parliament and they could do as they wish.”
But these optimistic views were mostly voiced immediately after the coup. Some people’s hopes were raised when Tatmadaw commanders met with groups of Rohingya elders in Rakhine State just days after seizing power. The commanders blamed Aung San Suu Kyi for the crisis and vowed to make progress where the NLD had failed. Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing stated the same in a televised address on February 8. However, no follow-up action was taken, and these early hopes have faded. Some commentators were struck by the Tatmadaw’s audacity in attempting to shift blame for military repression of Rohingya to the previous civilian government.
As the junta has made no public efforts to engage with the ICC and ICJ cases about the Rohingya crisis while continuing to enact violence throughout Myanmar, it has provided no reason for affected communities to believe that it would pursue just and sustainable solutions. And the voices of hope have diminished with time as the Tatmadaw’s indiscriminate cruelty has been on full display with the killings of civilians in the streets and renewed violence against other ethnic minorities in the border regions.
Over the past four years, contending with the daily hardships of refugee life was difficult enough, but was viewed by many in the camps as a short-term necessity. People’s mental health is now impacted as they orient to the bleak prospect of remaining displaced for the foreseeable future due to the coup. In this context, the NUG’s positions in support of Rohingya citizenship and international justice are particularly welcome signs that progress is possible and that they will someday return home. As Rohingya have continuously stated, the right to Myanmar citizenship is the most fundamental guarantor of their future protection. Without citizenship, it is hard to envision a pathway toward just, safe, and sustainable repatriation.
Ultimately, the end of military rule is necessary as a precursor to forging peace and political solutions. In the meantime, the NUG should not lose sight of the need for Rohingya inclusion, their daily challenges in Myanmar and in the camps, and their right to justice. A meaningful next step would be for the NUG to add a Rohingya representative to its cabinet. As others have noted, the NUG should also reconsider the inclusion in the cabinet of officials who hold anti-Rohingya views. Taking these steps would earn the NUG greater international legitimacy, and, more importantly, would strengthen its ability to work toward an inclusive and just society..."
Source/publisher:
Just Security (New York)
Date of publication:
2021-06-10
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-11
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG)
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Description:
"May 25, 2021)–The Government of the United Kingdom should take immediate action to deprive the Myanmar military junta of natural gas revenues, weapons, and political legitimacy, and ensure accountability for its past and present mass atrocity crimes in the country, Fortify Rights said today in a submission to the U.K. Parliament.
Fortify Rights today submitted evidence to the U.K. Foreign Affairs Committee, which is holding an inquiry into the U.K. government’s response to the crisis in Myanmar following the February 1 coup d’état. The committee will also hear oral evidence from U.N. Special Rapporteur Thomas Andrews, Myanmar National Unity Government (NUG) Minister Dr. Sasa, human rights defender Thinzar Shunlei Yi, and others. The committee will then draft a report and make recommendations to the U.K. government.
The Fortify Rights submission recommends the U.K. “work with relevant governments and foreign operators of Myanmar gas fields to ensure the junta is unable to access natural gas revenues from its accounts and ensure revenues are effectively held in trust until democracy is restored.” Fortify Rights urged the U.K. to sanction the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise and other specified entities to ensure the country’s natural gas wealth is not controlled by the illegal military junta.
As the penholder at the U.N. Security Council, the U.K. should table a resolution that includes a global arms embargo, targeted sanctions, and a referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC), forcing a veto from China or Russia, if necessary, Fortify Rights said. The U.K. should simultaneously lead efforts beyond the Security Council to build an international coalition to achieve these same aims.
Fortify Rights also called on the U.K. government to reverse recently announced funding cuts to Rohingya refugee response efforts in Bangladesh and to conduct an urgent public review of U.K. aid spending in Myanmar to ensure it does not reach the military junta. The U.K. government should also work with countries receiving Myanmar refugees, including Thailand, Bangladesh, India, and Malaysia, to ensure refugee protection.
In November 2019, The Gambia opened a case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, alleging Myanmar violated its obligations under the Genocide Convention with regard to mass-scale, army-led attacks against Rohingya men, women, and children. In light of the coup, long-persecuted minorities in Myanmar, such as the Rohingya, face increased existential risks,Fortify Rights said.
“The U.K. should formally join the case at the ICJ brought by The Gambia against Myanmar for violations of the Genocide Convention,” Fortify Rights said in its submission.
Since the coup, the junta-controlled military and police reportedly killed more than 800 people and arbitrarily detained more than 4,000 nationwide. In a document seen by Fortify Rights, provided by the Myanmar junta to members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ahead of an emergency summit to discuss Myanmar last month, the junta claimed it detained 9,848 persons, released 4,511, and charged 5,070 between February 1 and April 15. The junta has also launched airstrikes against villages in ethnic army-controlled border areas, reportedly killing, injuring, and displacing tens of thousands of civilians. The junta also cut internet access and mobile data nationally, preventing the population from communicating with each other and the outside world.
On April 16, elected legislators in Myanmar and others formed the National Unity Government (NUG) to fulfill the will of the people as expressed through the November 2020 elections. In its submission to the Foreign Affairs Committee, Fortify Rights recommended the U.K. government recognize and engage the NUG as the legitimate Government of Myanmar.
In its April 29 announcement launching the U.K. inquiry, the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Tugendhat, referenced “deeply distressing reports” of the junta’s human rights violations against peaceful protesters in Myanmar, noting that “[e]fforts to curb the violence and brutality through the imposition of sanctions have, unfortunately, fallen short.”
“This urgent inquiry will determine how the Government can improve its response to the crisis, as well as how the U.K. can use its influence in organizations such as the U.N. to help deliver a peaceful resolution for the people of Myanmar,” he said..."
Source/publisher:
"Fortify Rights"
Date of publication:
2021-05-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Genocide, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Human Rights and international relations, Business and the Military, Sanctions, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Sub-title:
But the International Community Should Do Much More to Ensure that the Refugees Can Safely Return to Myanmar
Description:
"In late May, thousands of Rohingya refugees whom Bangladesh authorities had relocated to remote Bhasan Char island broke out of their shelters during a visit by United Nations representatives. “We don’t want to live here,” they chanted.
The protests indicate the extent of the problems on the silt island in the Bay of Bengal, where nearly 20,000 Rohingya, including over 8,000 children, have been moved in recent months from the refugee settlement in Cox’s Bazar.
In research by Human Rights Watch for a new report, refugees described being lured to the island with false promises of adequate food and livelihood, monthly cash assistance and access to proper health care and schools. A recent cyclone that missed the island still caused strong winds and some flooding there, leading refugees to fear for their safety in the face of the upcoming monsoon season.
Many concerns
On May 31, the refugees protested during a meeting with a visiting high-level delegation from United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the UN refugee agency, to share their concerns about conditions on the island. Bangladeshi security forces had warned them to stay inside, but if asked, to only praise the arrangements on the island. They had complied with such orders during previous visits by foreign officials, but this time many of the refugees grew desperate and surged forward, only to be beaten back by the police.
“The Rohingya who are there became unruly the moment the UNHCR representatives landed [on the island] by helicopter today,” the local police chief, Alamgir Hossain, told AFP. “They came at the police...Their demand is they don’t want to live here.”
UNHCR issued a statement saying it was “deeply concerned” that refugees, including women and children, were injured. The government blamed international media and civil society organizations for opposing Bhasan Char relocations to “undermine the magnanimous humanitarian gestures and the sincere efforts of Bangladesh”.
After the delegation had left, Bangladeshi officials threatened the refugees. “You all are finished,” one refugee says an official told him.
How did it come to this?
The Bangladesh government deserves praise for opening its borders in August 2017 to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who were fleeing the Myanmar military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing, including crimes against humanity and acts of genocide. Bangladeshis responded with an outpouring of sympathy. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina committed to help, saying that if the country could afford to feed its 160 million people, it could provide for the additional refugees as well.
“If necessary, we will eat one meal a day and share another meal with these distressed people,” she said.
Now, after more than three years, and with nearly a million refugees crowded into the settlement in Cox’s Bazaar, that warm welcome is fast fading.
Myanmar has shown no signs that it will create conditions for the safe, dignified, and voluntary return of the refugees. Its failure to take any meaningful actions to address recent atrocities against the Rohingya or put an end to the decades-long discrimination and repression against the remaining population in the country, including the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution, is at the root of delays and failures in refugee repatriation.
Instead, since the military coup in Myanmar on February 1, 2021, the country is fully controlled by the same generals who led the campaign of mass atrocities against the Rohingya in 2017, making the prospect of a safe and dignified return ever more distant. Since the coup, the junta leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, has said that Myanmar will not repatriate people whom they do not consider its citizens.
Heavy-handed tactics
This is increasingly vexing the Bangladesh host community. In what appears to be an effort to show that the Rohingya refugees are temporary residents, the authorities have denied Rohingya the right to build permanent housing, restricted their movement by erecting barbed-wire fencing, and denied their children any access to formal education.
The Bangladesh government, resorting to heavy-handed tactics, has not stopped its security forces from committing serious abuses, including arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings, against any Rohingya suspected of crimes. Access to the internet and telecommunications was blocked for nearly a year after the refugees had staged large demonstrations in the camps to demand their right to return to Myanmar.
The Bangladesh government is frustrated by having been left to shoulder the refugee burden alone. Malaysia, Thailand, and India have all attempted to push refugees that turn up at their coasts or borders back to Bangladesh. “Has Bangladesh been given the global contract and responsibility to take and rehabilitate all the Rohingya or boat people of the world?” said Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen last February. “No, not at all.”
In May 2020, after Bangladesh authorities rescued about 600 Rohingya refugees who had been stranded at sea, they detained over 300 of them on Bhasan Char instead of reuniting them with their families in the refugee camps. The government has ignored refugee pleas to return to the mainland, and stalled UN officials who sought visits to assess their protection needs.
Bangladesh says it has invested up to $300 million to develop infrastructure on the island. But the government broke its promise to first accept an independent assessment of technical and protection needs on Bhasan Char, and to act on the report’s recommendations, before starting any voluntary relocation. Instead, since December the government has brought thousands of Rohingya refuges from the camps to Bhasan Char.
Bangladeshi officials told Human Rights Watch in December 2020 that the relocations were voluntary, and claimed that “the 13,000-acre island has year-round fresh water, an uninterrupted supply of electricity, agricultural plots, cyclone shelters, two hospitals, four community clinics, mosques, warehouses, telecommunication services, a police station, recreation and learning centers, playgrounds and more”.
The refugees, who generally agreed that the shelters and open areas on Bhasan Char were better than in the mainland camps, said though that there were only informal classes for young children instead of proper schools, and that the healthcare services were inadequate. Of the 14 people we interviewed about their health needs, four had passed away by the time we published our report. Family members said they died because of a lack of proper medical care. One man said his wife died in childbirth because he could not get permission in time to transfer her to a hospital on the mainland, which is three hours away by boat followed by a two-hour drive.
The refugees also described food shortages. Without proper livelihood opportunities, they said they did not have the money to supplement their rations or afford fish, which is their staple. Whether the move to Bhasan Char was voluntary is also in question. Several refugees said that they had no idea how they had ended up on the lists to be relocated or that the authorities had made false promises as they compelled the refugees to relocate.
Scores have started fleeing Bhasan Char. Those caught escaping have been detained and beaten by security forces.
The Bangladesh authorities know there are shortcomings on Bhasan Char and it is not quite the “beautiful resort”, they once claimed. But instead of waiting to conduct proper consultations to assess the island’s emergency preparedness, habitability, and safety, the government sought to present the United Nations and international donors with a cruel fait accompli, putting pressure on them to start supporting the refugees on the island or take responsibility for the consequences. What is more, the authorities are still stalling on policy and technical dialogue with agencies and donors about humanitarian operations.
The government says that any “undue criticism” of its temporary arrangements for the Rohingya refugees “will only shift the focus from the permanent solution, which lies in repatriation and reintegration of Rohingyas in Myanmar”.
While there is no doubt that the international community should do much more to ensure that the Rohingya can safely return to Myanmar with justice and dignity, the Bangladesh government should also accept that it needs to protect the rights of the refugees in its care.
Bhasan Char should first be thoroughly and professionally assessed and deemed safe – with proper emergency and logistical response preparations– for refugees, for humanitarian workers, as well as for the Bangladeshi officials and security personnel who support them. There needs to be a civilian governance structure. Relocations from mainland camps should be fully informed and voluntary. This means that the Bangladesh authorities should allow any refugee who wants to return to Cox’s Bazar to do so.
With the monsoon fast approaching, the Bangladesh government should stop stalling, and once again focus on securing Rohingya refugee lives..."
Source/publisher:
Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of publication:
2021-06-07
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights Watch Reports on Burma/Myanmar, Human Rights and international relations, UN System humanitarian assistance, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
more
Description:
"U.N. agencies have commended the Indonesian government for offering a safe haven to dozens of Rohingya refugees who have been stranded at sea for months.
Ninety Rohingya embarked on their ill-fated journey from Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh in the first week of February. Nine refugees reportedly had died by the time their harrowing four-month odyssey came to an end last Friday.
Spokesman for the U.N. Migration Agency Paul Dillon said the boat ran into trouble almost immediately after it set sail. He said the engine broke down leaving the group adrift at sea and putting the refugees’ lives at risk.
“They ran into engine trouble again near East Aceh last week. Local fishermen discovered their stranded vessel and brought them to safety. Upon disembarkation, the local government of Aceh officials immediately conducted rapid COVID-19 tests and COVID-19 vaccinations were subsequently provided to all of the arrivals," he said.
Dillon said his agency is providing food, drinking water and medical support to the 81 Rohingya who survived the journey. He said the group consists of 45 women, 17 men and 19 children.
U.N. refugee spokesman Babar Balloch said the UNHCR and humanitarian partners also are onsite to provide additional support and to ensure that refugee needs are met.
He notes this is not the first time Rohingya refugees at sea have been rescued by the communities and local authorities in Aceh, Indonesia. He praises them for providing a lifeline to the desperate people, noting not all nations are as humane.
“It is both a humanitarian imperative and an international obligation to provide vessels in distress with life-saving assistance and disembarkation to a place of safety…Vulnerable women, children and men should not be left to the mercy of the high seas,” said Balloch.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled to Bangladesh to escape violence and persecution in Myanmar in 2017. Human rights officials say thousands of refugees flee the overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar every year in hopes of achieving a better life in countries such as Malaysia and Thailand.
The International Organization for Migration says roughly 1,400 Rohingya found themselves stranded at sea during the 2020 sailing season, which ended with the arrival of the monsoons in early June. It says at least 130 Rohingya are reported to have died..."
Source/publisher:
"VOA" (Washington, D.C)
Date of publication:
2021-06-09
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Human Rights and international relations
Language:
more
Sub-title:
NUG issues monumental policy shift on Rohingya rights
Description:
"The National Unity Government (NUG) of Myanmar should appoint an ethnic-Rohingya representative to help it implement and expand upon its new policy on the rights of Rohingya people, Fortify Rights said today.
The NUG today issued a new “Policy Position on the Rohingya in Rakhine State,” acknowledging the rights of Rohingya people and atrocity crimes they faced in Myanmar. The statement represents a monumental shift from the persecution of the Rohingya by the military junta as well as previous governments, which routinely denied the existence of the Rohingya as well as evidence of mass atrocity crimes they suffered.
“This is an important moment for the Rohingya people and Myanmar as a whole,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights. “This new policy establishes a foundation for the future realization of Rohingya rights in Myanmar, and for a more unified path to democracy.”
The statement commits the NUG to ensuring justice and accountability for crimes against Rohingya in Myanmar.
“We will actively seek justice and accountability for all crimes committed by the military against the Rohingyas and all other people of Myanmar throughout our history,” the statement reads. “We intend if necessary to initiate processes to grant [the] International Criminal Court jurisdiction over crimes committed within Myanmar against the Rohingyas and other communities.”
The NUG committed to “abolishing” the National Verification Card process, which is coercive and requires Rohingya to identify as foreigners. The NUG further committed to ensuring citizenship rights based “on birth in Myanmar or birth anywhere as a child of Myanmar citizens,” which would effectively restore or grant full citizenship rights of all Rohingya people and others.
The NUG also affirmed its commitment to “voluntary, safe, and dignified repatriation” of Rohingya refugees to Rakhine State.
The NUG cabinet presently does not include any Rohingya representatives. Established on April 16 by elected legislators and others ousted in the February 1 military coup d’état, the NUG is comprised of 26 ministers and four executives, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, who both remain imprisoned by the military junta.
“The NUG should appoint a Rohingya envoy to liaise with Rohingya people and to ensure Rohingya concerns are adequately represented and addressed by the cabinet,” said Matthew Smith. “This new policy is a positive first step in that direction.”
In addition to appointing a Rohingya representative, the NUG should continue to prioritize meaningful consultation with Rohingya people globally, including Rohingya women, said Fortify Rights..."
Source/publisher:
"Fortify Rights" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-06-03
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), National Unity Government (NUG)
Language:
more
Description:
"This is the US campaign for Burma’s fourth monthly On-The-Ground in Burma briefer! This month’s briefer will focus on the ongoing situations between armed groups formed in ethnic states and the military, as well as how these conflicts affect the local civilians. It also includes discussions on ASEAN’s response, policies regarding arms embargo, and war crimes, but concentrates more on analyzing the increased number of IDPs and issues in ethnic states.
This month’s briefer includes:
An analysis on what’s in store for ethnic states, policy analysis, and critiques for ASEAN
Six major policy recommendations
A story by a Rohingya refugee
An overview of IDP issues and rights abuses in each ethnic state
As the conflict escalates in Myanmar between the militias, local armed groups, and the military, so has violence and rights deprivations of those in ethnic regions. The Tatmadaw feels comfortable attacking these areas because they are far from the prying eyes of the international media. This briefer intends to bring to attention the plight of these minorities at the hands of the military..."
Source/publisher:
U.S. Campaign for Burma
Date of publication:
2021-06-02
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
ASEAN-Burma relations, Burma: Internal displacement/forced migration of several ethnic groups., Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), National Unity Government (NUG), Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
2.51 MB
more
Description:
"HIGHLIGHTS
As of end of March 2021, there were 13 operational Severe Acute Respiratory Infection Isolation and Treatment Centres (SARI ITC) in the refugee camps, with a total of 502 available beds, in addition to 415 beds that are on standby for COVID-19 case management.
Since the begining of the outbreak; cummulatively, 34,224 COVID-19 tests were conducted among the Rohingya refugees by March 2021. Of these, 438 tested positive.
The Director General of Drug Administration (DGDA), Health Sector partners and WHO conducted a series of meetings and field monitoring visits on 21st and 23rd January to strengthen Post Marketing Surveillance (PMS) by risk based sampling and testing through mini laboratories to enhance access to safe, effective and quality medicines and vaccines for all..."
Source/publisher:
Health Cluster and World Health Organization via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication:
2021-06-06
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Public Health, COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Human Rights and international relations, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
1.52 MB (13 pages)
more
Sub-title:
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
Description:
"Ahead of next Tuesday’s (18 May) donor conference and launch of the 2021 Joint Response Plan (JRP) for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency is calling for renewed international commitment, support and solidarity for Rohingya refugees.
The 2021 JRP brings together the efforts of the Government of Bangladesh, and 134 UN agencies and NGO partners to target almost 1.4 million people this year. The US$943 million plan seeks to meet the needs of more than 880,000 Rohingya refugees and 472,000 Bangladeshis in the surrounding host communities in Cox’s Bazar District. Most Rohingya refugees, some 740,000, fled violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State in 2017.
With the refugee crisis in its fourth year, Bangladesh needs robust and sustained international support to ensure the safety and wellbeing of stateless Rohingya refugees. This must not become a forgotten crisis. Both Rohingya refugees and Bangladesh, having generously hosted them for decades, must see the world standing with them.
Adding to the complexity of this crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded vulnerabilities for refugees and host communities alike. To date, the Government of Bangladesh, with the support of the humanitarian community, has effectively managed the COVID-19 response and the spread of the disease in the Rohingya camps and surrounding areas, though the trajectory of the virus remains unpredictable. A coordinated and inclusive response has saved lives. However, it is critical to ensure the continued delivery of all humanitarian assistance and protection services.
The needs of Rohingya refugees reach beyond subsistence and physical safety. Refugees, like any other people, cannot be allowed to wait for years without access to education and options for a decent life and a meaningful future. In order to mitigate the risks of people taking dangerous onward journeys, more must be done to ensure that refugees have hope in Bangladesh, and of a future back home in Myanmar. Otherwise, they may increasingly risk such journeys by land or sea to find a solution elsewhere.
Last year, the United Nations appealed for more than US$1 billion to meet the needs of the Rohingya refugees and host communities in Cox’s Bazar District. At the end of 2020, this appeal was just 59.4% funded. We stress that the international community must not only maintain support for refugees and their hosts, but also adapt to new and emerging needs and pursue the search for durable solutions.
The search for durable solutions must remain focused on the voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees to their homes in Myanmar, when conditions allow them to do so. However, the ongoing crisis and political instability in Myanmar have added new layers of complexity to this challenge.
Jointly co-hosted by the Government of Bangladesh, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNHCR, the virtual 2021 JRP launch event will highlight the most immediate needs and ongoing humanitarian response..."
Source/publisher:
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Geneva)
Date of publication:
2021-05-14
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), Humanitarian assistance - emergencies, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Sub-title:
NUG says it will scrap law denying citizenship, in ‘notable step forward’ for rights of Rohingya people
Description:
"Myanmar’s parallel government has urged Rohingya to join with them in fighting the military junta, promising to offer justice and citizenship to the persecuted minority.
The statement has been welcomed by rights experts as “an important and notable step forward” in the movement for full rights for the Rohingya, who have faced decades of discrimination and violence in Myanmar.
Despite roots that go back for centuries, Rohingya are widely seen as foreigners in the country and have been denied citizenship under successive governments, including that of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). Her government avoided even using the term Rohingya, instead referring to the minority ethnic group as “Muslims in Rakhine state”. In 2019 Aung San Suu Kyi appalled international observers when she traveled to The Hague to defend the military against allegations of a genocide.
In a statement on Thursday, Myanmar’s national unity government, which includes many NLD politicians, said attitudes were changing.
“The entire people of Burma is sympathetic to the plight of the Rohingya as all now experience atrocities and violence perpetrated by the military,” it said.
“The solidarity of the entire people is now at its best. We are confident that we can build a union that meets the needs of all those in the country who have a stake in its future.”
The statement said the NUG would scrap a 1982 citizenship law that denies Rohingya citizenship, and which has effectively rendered them one of the largest stateless populations in the world. Citizenship would instead be based on birth in Myanmar, or birth anywhere to a Myanmar citizen, the NUG said.
The NUG, which was set up after the military coup, also said it was committed to the safe repatriation of Rohingya who have been forced to flee military violence, and promised to “actively seek justice and accountability for all crimes committed by the military against the Rohingya”.
Nearly 900,000 Rohingya refugees remain stuck in squalid, crowded conditions in refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh. This includes about 750,000 people who were forced to flee over the border in 2017, when the military launched a genocidal campaign of violence, rape, murder and torching homes.
The NUG, which is seeking international recognition, has faced questions, including from the US, over whether it will recognise the citizenship and rights of Rohingya.
Tun Khin, president of Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, said the NUG’s statement was a welcome announcement, but that further clarity was needed, including on how the NUG would commit to seeking international justice.
“The NUG must, crucially, recognise that a genocide is taking place against the Rohingya,” he said. “If we can’t face the reality of the past, there is no way that we can build a common future.”
Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, said the NUG’s announcement was “an important and notable step forwards”.
“I am hopeful that today’s policy statement marks an initial, long-deserved though long-denied movement towards peace, justice and security for the Rohingya,” he said in a statement. International governments should increase pressure on the junta, Andrews added, so that such commitments could be transformed by Myanmar’s legitimate representatives into law.
At least 845 people have been killed by the military since it seized power on 1 February, while thousands remain in detention, including Myanmar’s elected politicians..."
Source/publisher:
"The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication:
2021-06-04
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Discrimination against the Rohingya, National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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