Discrimination against the Rohingya

See also Main Library > Refugees > Burmese Refugees in Bangladesh and Main Library >Administration and administrative areas > Arakan (Rakhine) State - http://www.burmalibrary.org/show.php?cat=1241&lo=d&sl=0 - which carries OBL's main documentation on the current crisis of the Rohingya, with links to UN, governmental, NGO and other sources.
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Title: ICJ’s Judgement On The Rohingya And Its Challenges – Analysis
Sub-title: Political will is extremely crucial since ICJ has no jurisdiction or legal apparatus over individual nations.
Description: "In a historic judgement, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 23 January ordered Myanmar to implement vital measures to protect its Rohingya population from any further atrocities. This ruling has been hailed as an “accomplishment of international justice.” This lawsuit was brought by Gambia, a small African Muslim state backed by the 57 nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in November at the United Nations’ highest body for disputes between states. It accused Myanmar of genocide against Rohingya in violation of a 1948 Genocide Convention. The court witnessed the trial on 10–11 December where the State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi was herself present to defend her country’s honour. She emphasised that the accusations made against her government are “incomplete and misleading factual picture of the situation,” thus categorically denying the allegations of genocide and thereby requesting to dismiss the charges brought to it. Under the presiding Judge Abdulqawi Yusuf and 16 other judges present in the panel, the undisputed ruling on 23 January granted Gambia’s request for preliminary measures. According to the court, the Rohingyas face an ongoing threat that necessitates Myanmar to “take all measures within its power to prevent all acts” prohibited under the 1948 Genocide Convention, and report back to the court within four months, and then, every six months after that..."
Source/publisher: Observer Research Foundation (ORF) via "Europe-Asia Studies"
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-11
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Title: The Rohingya Conflict: An Analysis through the Lens of the Geopolitical Economy of Resources
Description: "Worldwide 70.8 million people were forcibly displaced from their home because of armed conflict, generalized violence and human rights violations. These millions of stateless people have been denied national identity and fundamental rights (education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement) (UNHCR, 2019a). According to UNHCR, 67% (Two-thirds) of all the refugees worldwide belong to only five countries: Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar and Somalia (UNHCR, 2019b). The Rohingya ethnic minority group is among some of those stateless people who used to live in the Rakhine state of Myanmar. Myanmar is a multiethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious country which has 135 official ethnic groups. All of these ethnic groups are aggregated in eight major ethnic groups where Bamars (32% of the total population) are the majority, and intrastate conflicts are often recorded between the Burmese military force (Tatmadaw1 ) and other ethnic armed groups (Stokke et al., 2018:3-4, 46; Strömberg, 2018:6; François and Souris, 2018:12; Mithun, 2018:648). In contrast, compared to the other ethnic conflicts in Myanmar, “The Rohingya conflict is highly asymmetrical in terms of power, resources and military assets as the Rohingya population as a group has very few resources, military or otherwise”. Describing the Rohingya conflict as a two-party conflict is difficult. It is more like systematic discrimination, denial of human rights and violence, specifically against the Rohingya civilians (SIDA, 2019:2)..."
Source/publisher: Academia.edu (USA) via Mostakim Bin Motaher
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-11
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Title: Belonging in a New Myanmar: Identity, Law, and Gender in the Anthropology of Contemporary Buddhism
Summary: "Recent literature on Buddhism in Southeast Asia and especially Burma or Myanmar has focused on Theravada formations in traditional and modern contexts.1 Theravada civilizations, in particular,...
Description: "Recent literature on Buddhism in Southeast Asia and especially Burma or Myanmar has focused on Theravada formations in traditional and modern contexts.1 Theravada civilizations, in particular, are characterized by elite institutions, by their use of a prestige language, Pali, and by related, vernacular narratives that convey in art, manuscript, and print cultures the ethical values or imaginaries of this religious tradition. These imaginaries are sustained through social discourse, cultural practices, and regional networks.2 The study of traditional Theravada Buddhist social formations thus presumes an encompassing hegemony that is grounded in truth claims about particular civilizational narratives, teleological histories, and the moral universe they embody. Showing how Theravada Buddhist literature, practices, and discourse have shaped local and regional histories has allowed scholars to go beyond received distinctions between text and practice in the study of Theravada Buddhism. Anthropological studies in particular have centered on Buddhist institutions, monastic and lay practices, and ritual exchange, around which social hierarchies are constructed. Interdisciplinary and transregional studies on Theravada formations also describe the cultural and historical contexts in which the ‘Pali imaginary’ has been articulated and trace its vernacular iterations in social practices, particular formations, and local and transregional discourses that distinguish Theravada civilizations (Schober and Collins 2012, 2017)..."
Source/publisher: Juliane Schober via Academia.edu (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-10
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Title: The Dark Side of Liberalization: How Myanmar's Political and Media Freedoms Are Being Used to Limit Muslim Rights
Description: "Divisive groups have taken advantage of Myanmar’s much lauded new political and media freedoms to pursue an agenda that will limit the civil and political rights of the country’s Muslim population. This article examines how extremist groups such as the Ma Ba Tha have exploited these new political and media freedoms and analyses the policy agenda they have pursued. The article argues that the enforcement of the four Protection of Race and Religion Laws will disadvantage Myanmar’s already politically marginalized Muslim residents by creating a de facto religious test for full Myanmar citizenship rights. Despite considerable evidence that Myanmar’s democratization process has stalled (Anguelov 2015; Eck 2013; Irrawaddy 2014; Kingsbury 2015; Sifton 2014), the country has nonetheless liberalized more during the last five years than throughout the previous five decades of direct military rule (Hlaing 2012; Renshaw 2013; Ware 2012; Zin and Joseph 2012). This article examines the freedoms that have accrued to Myanmar’s residents since the country’s 2010 national elections began a transition to a notionally civilian administration. It will briefly describe the nature of these freedoms and the opportunities they have provided for the country’s long-suppressed pro-democracy groups to organize and engage with the political process. However, the darker consequences of these freedoms will be addressed as well. It will be shown that increased freedoms to express political opinions, combined with a growing, less censored media landscape and ready access to the Internet and mobile phones, have provided opportunities for divisive voices to enflame religious and ethnic tensions and promote discriminatory policies, often to the detriment of Myanmar’s Muslim population (Freedom House 2013; Holland 2014; Trautwein 2015)..."
Source/publisher: Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations via Academia.edu (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-10
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Title: The Limits of Press Freedom in Myanmar.
Description: "For over half a century, Myanmar had no real press, not much freedom and certainly no press freedom. An absurdly oppressive military dictatorship turned the South-East Asian country into a pariah state where private daily newspapers were prohibited, the rightful president were in house arrest and the internet was a place where the term 'democracy' wouldn't exist either. But now, something exciting is happening in Myanmar, and it is happening at a dizzying speed. Under president Thein Sein, Myanmar currently experiences an unprecedented political transition. The government is trying to shed its rogue status and has freed not only political prisoners from jail, but also one of the most repressed media systems in the world from an all-encompassing paralysis. Suddenly, the formerly ignored journalists find themselves at the frontline of democratic reforms. After Thein Sein's government abolished all censorship in August 2012 and allowed private newspapers in April 2013, now is the time to critically ask what the relaxation of state control towards media freedom mean – and which changes it brought along for journalists and citizens. In this study, the effects and limits of the political liberalization towards political newspaper coverage should be examined..."
Source/publisher: Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-10
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Title: Abandoned and Apartheid (A case study of Myanmar’s Rohingya Migrants)
Summary: "State sponsored persecution and subsequent migration of Rohingya has emerged as a serious challenge to existing International system as the international community despite recognizing the fact that...
Description: "State sponsored persecution and subsequent migration of Rohingya has emerged as a serious challenge to existing International system as the international community despite recognizing the fact that Rohingya are subjected to systemic persecution and genocide could only silently witness the burning villages and capsizing boats of Rohingya refugees effectively failing to respond to the crisis. Forced migration of Rohingya has therefore posed serious questions to the effectiveness of incumbent International security regime centered around UNSC; and international human rights regime particularly Genocide convention and International Refugee Convention of 1951. This essay presents to its readers a chronological record of the longstanding crisis surrounding Rohingya and response of the regional as well as international players at different stages of the conflict. Thus, An attempt has been made to understand the anatomy of Rohingya migration crisis with an aim to explore doable options to resolve this protracted humanitarian issue.."
Source/publisher: Iqra University via Academia.edu (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-09
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Title: Humanity and Security: Internal and External Dynamics behind the Muslim Rohingya Refugee Crisis, The role of Turkey and Bangladesh
Description: "The concepts of Human rights have become most crucial and also momentous issues of the current history in Muslim as well as western countries. In all respects, the history, as well as the philosophy of human rights, has been to confirm the human reverence, religion, impartial of a nation, race and also colour. Articles, Theories, and also some conduct have been introduced to assure initial ethics and morality. On the other hand, There is one of the groups in the world has been deprived of their basic human rights like Rohingya refugee Muslims. The Rohingya are Muslim communities who have encountered overwhelming disparity of Myanmar since their countries turn to autocracy in 1962. However, Rohingyas are one of the most oppressed minorities in the world. Their situation has impoverished by Myanmar’s current prejudiced democratization and to rebuild ‘Buddhism’, whereas a newly opened public space has been unfortunately filled with persecutions, unrestricted arrests, using religion to escalate oppression, oppression, and also assassination have been repeated again and again against this minority group. For this reason, Most of the Rohingya people try to escape from their motherland, searching for a new and better life, but most of them die at the sea area and some of them coming to Bangladesh. This lachrymose news made the world commiserate with the Rohingya as well as alleged Human rights infractions in Rakhine State are a reason for anxiety at the world’s community. UNO, EU, NAM, SAARC and also ASEAN international organizations only denounce this matter. But, Most of the Imperialist countries like the US, UK, China, Russia, and India are directly stoking with supporting to Myanmar because of their self-interest to controlling South Asia, Australia, and Africa continents even though Turkey is the main partner of Bangladesh for dealing Rohingya issues along with a proactive approach since 1990. Another reason is that there is a plethora of natural resources in Arakan like iron, uranium, coal, petroleum as well as the maritime line about of 300 Kilometers and also a strategic area for military whatever they want to control itself. However, OIC, D8 and also Muslim International organizations should build up as a strong platform to ensure basic human rights in the United Nations about this. This research tries to show that an overview of the Rohingya crisis from the Human rights perspective including the role of Turkey and Bangladesh. Therefore, this research will highlight that the residence place of Rohingyas like an independent Arakan state might be a proper solution to this Rohingya refugee crisis..."
Source/publisher: Balkan and Near Eastern Journal of Social Sciences
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-09
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Title: Introduction: Myanmar Media Historically and the Challenges of Transition
Description: "At the end of August 2018, as this book was about to go to press,the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) released its report summarizing the main endings and recommendations of its Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar. Thereport outlines serious human rights violations and abuses in Kachin,Shan and Rakhine States. It recommends that six senior military agures be investigated for genocide against the Rohingya, including Myanmar’s armed forces commander-in-chief Senior General MinAung Hlaing, and that the case be taken up by the InternationalCriminal Court (ICC), or alternatively that an ad hoc internationalcriminal tribunal be created (Human Rights Council 2018). 1 The report notes that “The role of social media is significant. Facebook has been a useful instrument for those seeking to spread hate, in a contextwhere for most users Facebook is the internet. Although improved inrecent months, Facebook’s response has been slow and ineffective” p. 74). Facebook quickly responded to the report’s release byremoving the accounts of eighteen high-profile army figures in Myanmar, including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and fifty-two Facebook pages, which had a combined total following of close totwelve million users (Facebook 2018).A few days later, two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were sentenced to seven years in prison under the Official Secrets Act over accusations of holding secret government documentsthat they intended to share with international media and the ethnicarmed group Arakan Army (Sithu Aung Myint 2018). The two werearrested in December 2017 after investigating a massacre of Rohingyamen and boys in the coastal town of Inn Din in northern Rakhine State. After responding to a call from police officers, who met them in a restaurant and handed them documents, the journalists were arrestedfor having the documents in their possession. As they were beingtaken away from the court after the sentencing, Wa Lone was quotedas saying, “We know we did nothing wrong. I have no fear. I believein justice, democracy and freedom” (Shoon Naing and Aye Min Thant2018, 122). The arrest and subsequent sentencing were met with nationaland international condemnation, as was the rejection of their appealin early 2019. At a public protest to call for their release, organizer EiEi Moe, from the pro-democracy youth movement Generation Wave,described their jailing as “blocking the eyes and blinding the ears ofthe public” (Dunant and Su Myat Mon 2018, 115). 2 These events underscore the complexities of Myanmar’s muchlauded “transition”. Celebrated early on for the release of imprisoned journalists and the end of pre-publication censorship, hopes forincreased freedom of expression and media freedom were tempered by the crackdown that followed. Much has happened in the mediasector since the controversial elections in 2010 organized by themilitary junta and boycotted by Aung San Suu Kyi and the NationalLeague for Democracy (NLD), including reforms to laws that hadrepressed the media for decades. Some argue that these changes area continuation of the military government’s Seven Step Roadmap toDisciplined Democracy, announced in 2003 (see the interview withThiha Saw, this volume; Lall 2016; Rogers 2012)..."
Source/publisher: Academia.edu (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-09
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Title: Micropolitical Opportunity Structure in Burma
Description: "On September 22, 2007, a group of monks and protestors marched past barricades in downtown Yangon, Burma1 , chanting the words of Buddha’s loving kindness. They stopped outside the house where Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was serving her sentence of house arrest and she tearfully greeted them at the gate. Four days later, the Burmese military cracked down violently on the peaceful demonstrations, killing at least nine unarmed protestors. During the Saffron Revolution, hundreds of thousands of citizens took to the streets to peacefully protest against the repressive military regime. This was the largest social movement in Burma since the 1988 protests, which led to the deaths of 3,000 people in the resulting government crackdown. Why did the people of Burma choose to participate peacefully with the knowledge that the military government would undoubtedly respond with violence? How does a country with no civil rights or political freedoms find peaceful means for conflict resolution?..."
Source/publisher: Syracuse University (New York)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-09
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Title: Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims - Whose Responsibility to Protect?
Description: "Myanmar is on a long and tedious road to democratic transition. As the country prepares for General Elections in 2015, the struggle to maintain hegemony and legitimacy is becoming even more intense for Thein Sein‘s Union Solidarity and Development party, given the public support enjoyed by the newly revived opposition party National League for Democracy led by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. This transition and struggle to maintain status quo is coming at a high price for Myanmar, particularly for those belonging to the ethnic minority groups. This paper is particularly concerned with the situation of one such minority group — the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. The Rohingya Muslims live in the Rakhine state bordering the Bay of Bengal in the west. Despite an estimated 1-2 million Rohingya Muslims living in the region, they are not recognized as ethnic minority group by the Myanmar government but are believed to be Bangladeshi migrants who have settled in the state illegally. This perspective has given birth to all the discriminatory policies and actions against them since beginning of the last century. In June 2012, sectarian violence broke out between the majority Arakanese Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslims, triggered by the rape of a 28-year old Buddhist woman by three Muslim men. The violence in October was on a larger scale and much more lethal. The ensuing violence since June has reportedly claimed hundreds of lives and caused thousands of Rohingyas to flee their homes. As of July 2013, an estimated 140,000 Rohingya Muslims have been displaced from their homes. An unaccounted number of people are dying almost daily in the open sea as they attempt to flee to neighboring countries on rickety boats, and many more are dying due to systematic blockade of aid, food, water or medicine supply in the Rohingya IDP camps. Several factors clearly indicate that the ongoing violence is much more than sectarian clash..."
Source/publisher: European Peace University via Academia.edu (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-09
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Title: Paradox Of Rohingya Crisis: A Legacy Of History
Summary: "Rohingyas are the inhabitants of historical Arakan (RakhineState) of Myanmar. Arakan shares nearly 171 mile-longcommon border with Bangladesh. Its toatal area is 14,914 sq mileswhich contains...
Description: "Rohingyas are the inhabitants of historical Arakan (RakhineState) of Myanmar. Arakan shares nearly 171 mile-longcommon border with Bangladesh. Its toatal area is 14,914 sq mileswhich contains approximately 3 million population according to the census of 2014. Out of this, there are around one million Rohingyas in Arakan (Farzana, 2017, p. 2). It is a piece of land along the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal from the Naaf river on the border of Chittagong to cape Negaris. Topographically, it is separated from the mainland of Myanmar by Yoma range in one side and widely connected to the Bay of Bengal in the other side. That is why it is known as the ‗Gate Way to the Far East‘ (Yunus, 1994, p. 7). Because of its geographical location, it started to atract the seafarers from the very ancient period. It was one of the maritime activities centre in the South Asia. With this Arakan grew up with economic development and multi cultural environment. However, because of the geographical condition, Arakan remained as an independent entity from the very ancient period. According to archaeological evidences, the earliest human settlement in Myanmar dates back to 11,000 BC (Maw, 1995, pp. 213-220). In case of Arakan, antique relics have been found from Indo-Aryan groups who arrived from the Ganges Valley to Arakan as early as 3000 BC. And these people were basically from the ancient India. Hence, the culture of Arakan was influenced by India instead of mainland of Myanmar at least up to the 10th century because of its easy access to the Gangetic land and the Bay of Bengal instead of mountainous boundary on the other side..."
Source/publisher: Borno Prokash Ltd. via Academia.edu (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-09
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Title: Reworking the Colonial- Era Indian Peril: Myanmar’s State-Directed Persecution of Rohingyas and Other Muslims1
Description: "Myanmar’s widely hailed transition from military dictatorship to a Chinese model of great commercial opening and calibrated political liberalization— “discipline flourishing democracy,” as the generals call it—has had one unintended consequence for the country’s military-controlled government: ugly things have been exposed.4 Suddenly, the dark secrets of this predominantly Buddhist nation of 51 million people with diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds have been laid bare. Te world now has access to hitherto-closed-of sites of religious and ethnic persecution via international media such as CNN, BBC, wire news agencies, and so on. First, the world witnessed the eruption of two large bouts of violence in 2012 between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhist Rakhine communities in the western coastal region of the country.5 Within a year, there were incidents of organized violence against Muslims in about one dozen towns and neighborhoods across the country.6 Burmese social media sites were littered with various hues of genocidal comments, articles, analyses, and updates, and remain so to date. Many openly call for the slaughter of all Muslims (or Kular, in Burmese), while others are more specifc about the type of Muslims that should be killed: the phrase “kill all illegal Bengalis,” a popular racist reference to Rohingyas, indicates that they belong in former East Bengal (Bangladesh) and not in Buddhist Myanmar.7 Led by Buddhist monks, protests sprang up in the Rakhine state and in other major urban centers such as Mandalay and Yangon; they called on the quasi-civilian, military-backed government of ex-General Tein Sein to crack down on Muslims and expel all Bengalis to any country, Muslim or Western liberal, that would take them. In fact, in President Tein Sein’s meeting with António Guterres—the then visiting head of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)—in Naypyidaw in August 2012, Tein Sein stated that “the only solution” to the troubles in Rakhine was either to send unwanted Rohingyas to countries that may be prepared to accept them as refugees or to contain them in UNHCR-administered camps.8 Burmese media outlets, including those run by former Burmese political exiles, echoed the ofcial and popular view that Rohingyas were illegal Bengali migrants with no organic ties to the country..."
Source/publisher: Maung Zarni and Natalie Brinham
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-09
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Title: The Rohingya conflict: Genesis, current situation and geopolitical aspects
Description: "The word “Rohingya” was used for the first time as "Rooinga" (= inhabitant of Arakan, today's province Rakhine) in 1799 in the "Journal Asiatic Researches" for a longestablished population in Rakhine (Ibrahim 2016, Gill 2015). Later they were called "Muslim Arakanese". Myanmar is one of the most ethnically diversified societies of the world. 135 "ethnic nationalities" with numerous subgroups are officially recognized in the Burma Citizenship Law from 1982, but the ethnic Rohingya were not included (Farzana 2017, 2018). In the first constitution of Myanmar in 1947, all people living at that time in “Frontier Areas” and who intended to stay permanently were considered citizens and accepted as “The People of Burma” (Farzana 2018). However, when General Ne Win came to power in 1962, the Rohingya were deemed as not compatible with other ethnic groups in Burma. Other Muslims, who do not belong to the Rohingya, have Myanmar nationality (Ibrahim 2016). The Muslims in Rakhine have not always identified themselves as an independent group. But a uniform concept with an identifying name had political advantages, since recognition as an ethnic group would increase the chances to gain the right to citizenship. The common experience generated by decades of discrimination contributed further to the identity formation of the Rohingya. The term "Rohingya" as an ethnic group spread only after the major refugee movements with the human rights debate through international organizations (Farzana 2017; Bochmann 2017)...ဓ
Source/publisher: Academia.edu (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-09
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Title: The Southeast Asian " Boat People Crisis " of 2015: Human (In)Security, Precarity, and the Need for an Ethic of Cohabitation
Description: "This paper problematizes the situation of vulnerable migrants, in particular, that ofrefugees and asylum seekers in Southeast Asia as against policy pronouncements towards a people-centered ASEAN. As a case in point, the paper highlights the so-called Boat People Crisis of 2015 and argues that the events that lead to and resulted from it reveal a situation ofhyper-precarity, as well as a crisis of and for human security. Additionally, the paper offersJudith Butler’s notion of an ethic of cohabitation as a means of substantiating claims for a people-centered community. From Visions of a ‘People-Centered’ Community to PrecarityMany trace the emergence of visions for a ‘people-centered’ ASEAN community to the development of human security or otherwise less state-centric approaches to security in the region. As early as the 1960s, Indonesia’s concept of ketahanan nasional or national resilience, Malaysia under Mahathir, and Singapore’s notion of Total Defence, all embrace a concept of security that goes beyond the military dimension to incorporate political, economicand socio-cultural dimensions (Caballero-Anthony, 2004: 160). Nishikawa argues that suchformulations were still essentially state-centric because protecting territory and resourcesfrom internal and external threats continue to be the main concerns for Southeast Asiancountries as a result of its postcolonial experiences. Nonetheless, since the 2004 VientianneAction Programme (VAP), which outlines ASEAN’s program of actions towards the creationof an ASEAN Security Community (ASC), Nishikawa agrees that there has been a move awayfrom a traditional military definition of security towards a more a more people- centeredapproach (Nishikawa, 2009: 217)..."
Source/publisher: Southeast Asia Research Centre via Academia.edu (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-09
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Title: Rohingya justice: Why the ICJ's public rebuke of Myanmar matters
Sub-title: The ICJ's order that Myanmar does all it can to prevent genocide offers the Rohingya hope for the future.
Description: "On January 23, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague imposed emergency "provisional measures" on Myanmar regarding its actions against and treatment of the Rohingya minority - my people. To the average person this may sound like incomprehensible legalese. But for many Rohingya, who had long been waiting for the international community to take meaningful action to end their suffering, this was some of the best news they had ever received. With this decision, the United Nations' "World Court" effectively instructed the government of Aung San Suu Kyi to respect the requirements of the 1948 genocide convention and bring an end to its military's attacks on the Rohingya. This decision marked the first time that a credible international body said "enough" to the government that for so many decades has abused and oppressed us. My people's plight captured global headlines in August 2017, when the Tatmadaw (the Myanmar military) launched a vicious "clearance operation" in the Rakhine State, which was home to more than a million Rohingya. Over the course of a few weeks, soldiers rampaged through the region, killing thousands, committing mass rapes, burning villages to the ground, and driving more than 700,000 people to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh. As shocking as the violence was, it was only the tip of the iceberg. For decades, the Myanmar authorities have confined the Rohingya to a virtual open-air prison in the Rakhine state. It denied us citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering us stateless. Our freedom of movement even within Myanmar is extremely limited. We are expected to acquire official permission, and often pay bribes, to leave our home villages. Healthcare and education are off-limits to most Rohingya. This is all part of a deliberate effort by Myanmar not only to dehumanise us, but also to make our lives so miserable that we have no option but to leave..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-08
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Title: Stop ignoring us: Rohingya refugees demand role in running camps
Sub-title: Refugees in Cox’s Bazar complain the international aid community does not utilise their experience and say the lack of education risks creating a ‘lost generation’
Description: "In a tea room just outside Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee camps, a group of young activists fiddle with their phones, which have suddenly started pinging in chorus now they are finally reconnected to the internet. To circumvent a government internet blackout around the camps in Cox’s Bazar, they have to break a ban on travelling to nearby Bangladeshi towns, from where they can communicate and coordinate messages for the international community. With simple smartphones the activists have been able to build some kind of Rohingya voice, speaking to the world through WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter. But their efforts have often been frustrated, mostly for a more fundamental reason than the technological barrier in place since August: they believe the aid community sent to help them is not listening. “The Rohingya community are not weak, but the situation makes us weak,” says Mohammad Arfaat, an activist who was part of a Rohingya team that made a short film about how violence had forced them from Myanmar in 2017. He has been calling for more help for Rohingya to launch their own initiatives, for everything from education to arts, but complains there has been no support. “The Rohingya youth are very talented … but nobody sits, nobody talks with them, so their voices have stopped,” says Arfaat..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-08
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Title: Europeans Press For Action on Rohingya After China, Vietnam Shield Myanmar at UNSC
Description: "European member states of the United Nations called for Myanmar on Tuesday to take measures to hold to account those responsible for committing human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims after the Security Council failed to support an order by the international body’s top court to protect members of the minority group. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Jan. 23 ordered Myanmar to implement emergency provisions to protect Rohingya living in the country from genocide and to preserve evidence of atrocities from a 2017 military-led crackdown targeting them. After the Council did not reach an agreement on issuing a declaration urging Myanmar to comply with the ICJ’s order, current Council members France, Estonia, Germany, and Belgium, and former member Poland issued a statement calling on the Southeast Asian nation to take measures to prevent a Rohingya genocide. “Myanmar must address the root causes of its conflicts” and take “credible action to bring to justice those responsible for human rights violations,” the joint statement said, according to news wire reports. “Myanmar must also create conditions for and facilitate a voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of the Rohingya to Myanmar,” the statement said, referring to the yet to be realized repatriation of some of the more than 740,000 Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh during the crackdown. The Rohingya who have been officially approved for repatriation have refused to return, citing safety concerns and demands for full citizenship..."
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-07
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Title: Hasina seeks EU support for Rohingya return to Myanmar
Description: "Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has sought continued support of the European Union (EU) to ensure safe, dignified, and sustainable return of the displaced Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, a media report said on Friday. "The Bangladesh Prime Minister thanked the EU members, including Italy, for their support to the cause of the Rohingya," The Daily Star newspaper quoted a joint statement issued on Thursday after talks between Hasina and her Italian counterpart Giuseppe Conte in Rome, as saying. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Hasina's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim said both sides welcomed the January 23 decision of International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the Rohingya crisis. Karim said that Conte appreciated Bangladesh's management of the Rohingya crisis, adding that he encouraged Hasina to continue with the policy of hospitality. In its January ruling, the ICJ directed Myanmar to prevent the alleged genocide against the Muslim minority community. The court said Myanmar must "take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts" described by the convention. Nearly 738,000 Rohingya refugees are living in camps in Bangladesh since Aug. 25, 2017, following a wave of persecution and violence in Myanmar that the UN has described as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing and possible genocide. Myanmar does not use the Rohingya term and also doesn't recognize them as its citizens, arguing that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh..."
Source/publisher: Daijiworld.com
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-07
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Title: Some Rohingya Return to Myanmar But Find Little There Left For Them
Description: "The more than 600 Rohingya refugees who have returned to Myanmar from Bangladesh of their own volition say they have not yet been able to go back to their original villages and are facing hardship in violence-ridden northern Rakhine state nearly three years after their expulsion by army troops. Thousands of members of the Muslim minority group were killed during a brutal military-led crackdown on their communities in 2017, while more than 740,000 others escaped across the border, where they now live in sprawling displacement camps in southeastern Bangladesh. Despite an agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh to repatriate Rohingya refugees who receive approval to return, none of the displaced Rohingya has shown up at border crossings to go back to northern Rakhine state through the official program, citing fears of ongoing discriminatory policies and more violence. A refugee named Chowbi told RFA's Myanmar Service that he returned to northern Rakhine on his own in September 2019 via the Taungbyo border crossing. The 35-year-old fled Oodaung village during the August 2017 violence, which included indiscriminate killings, mass rapes, and community torchings, and lived for two and a half years in the Thankhali refugee camp in Bangladesh..."
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-07
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Title: Commentary: International law has its limits in protecting the Rohingya in Myanmar
Sub-title: The reach of the International Court of Justice is limited in ameliorating violent conflicts within or between states, says Hurst Hannum.
Description: "Myanmar has been ordered by the International Court of Justice to take “provisional measures” to protect the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority in the Buddhist-majority country that has suffered “mass killing, mass displacement, mass fear [and] overwhelming … brutality” at the hands of the military. Over 700,000 Rohingya fled or were forced out of the country since 2016, most to neighbouring Bangladesh. The order comes after the African state of Gambia in November 2019 filed a complaint of genocide of the Rohingya against Myanmar with the International Court of Justice, the judicial organ of the United Nations. Under the 1948 Genocide Convention, genocide requires a specific intent to destroy a group in whole or in part. READ: Myanmar already protecting Rohingya, ruling party says after world court's order The United Nations (UN) General Assembly and numerous human rights organisations have for years condemned Myanmar’s attacks on the Rohingya..."
Source/publisher: "CNA" (Singapore)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-05
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Title: EU states urge justice in Myanmar at UN Security Council
Description: "The UN Security Council's EU member states called Tuesday for Myanmar to bring to justice those who have carried out human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims. France, Estonia, Germany and Belgium urged Myanmar to comply with measures meant to prevent genocide set forth by the International Court of Justice, in a joint statement issued following a closed-door Security Council meeting. The text was also signed by former Security Council member and EU state Poland. But it marked the first time the EU members have issued a joint Security Council statement without Britain, which exited the union on Friday. Britain was among the countries that requested the meeting on Myanmar, alongside France, Germany, Belgium and the United States. China, an indispensable ally for Myanmar, opposed issuing a joint declaration by the entire council, according to a diplomatic source. "Myanmar must address the root causes of its conflicts," the joint statement said, urging the southeast Asian nation to take "credible action to bring to justice those responsible for human rights violations." "Myanmar must also create conditions for and facilitate a voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of the Rohingya to Myanmar," they said..."
Source/publisher: "The News International" (Pakistan)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-05
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Title: ICC to now investigate Myanmar for crimes against Rohingyas
Sub-title: The International Criminal Court has officially launched an investigation into Myanmar.
Description: "Phakiso Mochochoko, director of the Department of Jurisdiction, Cooperation and Complementarity, made the announcement at a press conference at Pan Pacific Sonargaon hotel in Dhaka this afternoon. “Justice will be delivered,” Mochochoko said following the announcement. Investigations from the Office of the Prosecutor will now carefully and thoroughly seek to uncover the truth about what happened to the Rohingya people in Myanmar which brought them here to Bangladesh, the press release added. The ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression..."
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-05
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Title: Myanmar reimposes Internet shutdown in conflict-torn Rakhine, Chin states
Description: "Myanmar has reimposed an Internet shutdown in two conflict-torn western states, after partially lifting the blackout five months ago, a leading telecoms operator said late on Monday. Norwegian mobile operator Telenor Group said in a statement the transport and communications ministry had ordered for mobile Internet traffic to be stopped again in five townships in Rakhine and Chin states for three months. A months-long Internet blackout in four Rakhine townships - Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung, and Myebon - and one in Chin state had been lifted in September amid peace talks seeking to end clashes between government troops and ethnic insurgents. Officials cited "security requirements and public interest" for the reinstatement, Telenor said, adding that four other townships remain under a blackout first imposed in June last year. Tun Tun Nyi, a Myanmar military spokesman, said the army was unaware of the shutdown. "We don't know and we haven't heard about it," he told Reuters by phone on Tuesday..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK) via "CNA" ( Singapore)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-05
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Title: UN fails to take action on order against Myanmar on Rohingya
Sub-title: Myanmar's allies China and Vietnam block vote on a joint statement forcing EU member states to make separate report.
Description: "The UN Security Council on Tuesday discussed the International Court of Justice's order that Myanmar do all it can to prevent genocide against the Rohingya Muslims, but failed to agree on a statement. China, an ally of Myanmar, as well as Vietnam, which is a member of the regional Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) along with Myanmar, objected, diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because it was a closed-door meeting. More: 'As expected': People in Myanmar shrug off ICJ Rohingya ruling After ICJ ruling, Myanmar denies genocide against Rohingya Myanmar: Defending genocide at the CJ Instead, the European Union members of the council urged Myanmar in a joint statement to reporters afterwards to comply with the measures ordered by the UN's top court, stressing that they were "compulsory under international law." France, Germany, Belgium and Estonia along with former council member Poland also urged Myanmar "to take credible action to bring to justice those responsible for human rights violations."..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-05
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Title: Behind Myanmar’s Military Alibi: A Path for Compliance with the ICJ’s Order to Protect Rohingya
Description: "In the wake of the ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Myanmar to prevent genocide against the Rohingya going forward, the initial excitement was tempered by pragmatics—how this important court order can be enforced so that it actually protects the 600,000 Rohingya who remain in Rakhine State. To be sure, there is no confusion that these measures are binding—as the court noted, they create international legal obligations that require Myanmar’s compliance. But how can the international community guarantee that Myanmar actually does anything? And does Myanmar’s civilian government have the capacity to do what is needed? The answers to these questions are mixed, generally relying on exertion of geopolitical pressure, including through the United Nations Security Council, to which the order has been transmitted. As a general rule and absent a concrete enforcement mechanism, ICJ orders have a reliable compliance rate. However, looking at the Myanmar case in context, and in particular the measures requiring prevention of the commission of genocide by Myanmar’s military, compliance will require a serious and concerted effort by both the international community and the civilian government..."
Source/publisher: "Just Security"
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-04
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Title: Two Rohingya women killed in Myanmar shelling
Description: "Two women, one pregnant, were killed and seven other people were wounded when shells hit a Rohingya village in Myanmar's Rakhine state. The army rejected accusations from a local lawmaker, a villager and the Arakan Army (AA), a rebel group, that the Myanmar military was responsible for the shelling at Kin Taung, two days after the United Nations' highest court ordered Myanmar to protect the Rohingya. Maung Kyaw Zan, a member of the national parliament for Buthidaung township in northern Rakhine state, said shells fired from a nearby battalion hit Kin Taung village in the middle of the night. "There was no fighting, they just shot artillery to a village without a battle," he told Reuters by phone, adding it was the second time this year that civilians had been killed. Soe Tun Oo, a Rohingya villager living a mile from the village, told Reuters by phone that two houses were destroyed. A military statement confirmed the deaths, but blamed the AA, a Rakhine ethnic rebel group which has been fighting for greater autonomy in the state for more than a year. Two military spokesmen did not answer calls seeking comment. "AA terrorists committed firing at Bengali villages with the use of heavy weapons and planting mines," the statement said. The Arakan Army said in a statement on its website that there was "ample evidence" that the army committed the killings without giving specific details. It accused Myanmar's forces of "deliberate, false and misleading lies" aimed at discrediting the group. Reuters was unable to independently confirm the details of the incident. At a press conference on Feb 3, the army objected to the story about the deaths that Reuters had published on Jan 25, saying the account was biased. It referred specifically to the headline on the story, which blamed the army for the deaths, citing the member of parliament. It said it had filed a complaint to the Myanmar Press Council (MPC), which adjudicates disputes between authorities and news media..."
Source/publisher: "CNA" ( Singapore)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-04
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Title: U.N. Court Orders Myanmar to Protect Rohingya Muslims
Description: "Rejecting arguments made by Myanmar’s civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled on Thursday that Myanmar must take action to protect Rohingya Muslims, who have been killed and driven from their homes in what the country’s accusers call a campaign of genocide. The court said Myanmar must “take all measures within its power” to prevent its military or others from carrying out genocidal acts against the Rohingya, who it said faced “real and imminent risk.” It also essentially put Myanmar under court oversight, telling it to submit regular reports to the tribunal explaining what steps it had taken. The decision is the first international court ruling against Myanmar over its military’s brutal treatment of the Rohingya. While the court has no enforcement power, any member of the United Nations can request action from the Security Council based on its rulings. “The chances of Aung San Suu Kyi implementing this ruling will be zero unless significant international pressure is applied,” said Anna Roberts, executive director of the rights group Burma Campaign UK..."
Source/publisher: "The New York Times" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-04
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Title: Bangladesh grants Rohingya refugee children access to education
Sub-title: Children aged 11-13 will be first to benefit as government eases long-standing restrictions in effort to avoid ‘lost generation’
Description: "Bangladesh has confirmed it will lift restrictions on education for young Rohingya refugees, easing bans in place since the existing camps were established 30 years ago. The government’s move to allow schooling for children aged 11-13 has been widely welcomed by activists and teachers. “We don’t want a lost generation of Rohingya. We want them to have education. They will follow Myanmar curricula,” the country’s foreign minister, AK Abdul Momen, told reporters on Tuesday. A statement put out by the UN on behalf of “the UN and humanitarian community” praised the decision. “We believe this is a positive step and a clear indication of the commitment by the government of Bangladesh to ensure access to learning for Rohingya children and adolescents, as well as to equip them with the right skills and capacities for their future and return to Myanmar when the conditions allow,” it read. “In line with the government’s decision, the education sector for the humanitarian response in Cox’s Bazar now plans to pilot the introduction of the Myanmar curriculum in the Rohingya refugee camps starting in April, initially targeting 10,000 Rohingya students in grades six to nine. The use of the Myanmar curriculum will be expanded to other grades in a phased manner.” More than 700,000 ethnic Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in 2017 after Myanmar’s military carried out a series of operations that the UN described as having “genocidal intent” against the minority, taking the total refugee population in Bangladesh to almost a million..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-03
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Title: ICJ ruling shows Rohingya crisis rights and wrongs
Sub-title: Landmark initial ruling against Myanmar also raises doubts about UN impartiality and credibility
Description: "Given the persistent global publicity and intense lobbying on behalf of persecuted Rohingya refugees, a provisional decision handed down on January 23 against Myanmar by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague came as no surprise. The ICJ, the United Nations’ principal judicial organ, ordered Myanmar to take measures to stop killing and harming Rohingyas and to implement “all measures within its power to prevent genocide.” The ruling, likened in reports to a “restraining order”, said Myanmar’s government must further ensure that its military does not “attempt to commit genocide or conspire to commit genocide.” At the same time, ICJ judges underlined in dry legalese that the initial ruling would in no way prejudice the court’s dealing with the “merits of the case”, meaning it has not yet decided whether or not genocide was committed. The court did go further than requested by Gambia, the country which has brought the case to the ICJ on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), by ordering Myanmar to report on measures taken to comply with the ruling in four months and thereafter every six months. The initial ruling will add more international pressure on Myanmar to hold those responsible for alleged crimes against humanity to account, but will also likely cause the nation’s leaders to more deeply entrench their position of denial..."
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-03
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Title: International law in spotlight following Myanmar genocide verdict
Description: "The Rohingya, who have been described by the UN as the most persecuted minority in the world, experienced a glimmer of hope last week, when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered a remarkable ruling that those members of the community remaining in Myanmar currently face a credible threat of genocide. This was the first time that a genocide case has been brought before the ICJ by a signatory county — in this case, The Gambia. The case before the ICJ took an unexpected turn in November, when Aung San Suu Kyi, the long-time pro-democracy icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and currently the most powerful person in the civilian government in Myanmar, announced that she would defend Myanmar against the charges of genocide in person before the court in The Hague. For a while, Suu Kyi’s former friends and allies in the international community sought to make sense of what was happening to the Rohingya by casting her as a prisoner of fate to the military establishment, which still controls most of the reins of power in the country. But as Suu Kyi became an increasingly prominent apologist for the army, and even adopted the language of those clamoring for the genocide by denying the very identity of the Rohingya and casting them as foreign “Bengalis,” we have increasingly run out of doubt to give her the benefit of. All possible doubt was finally dispelled when she appeared before the ICJ, casually admitting that war crimes had taken place, but that what had happened could not be genocide because there was no genocidal intent. She made this case while still refusing to utter the word “Rohingya” and insisting that she was talking about “Bengalis” — an “other” she should not be expected to be responsible for..."
Source/publisher: Arab News (Saudi Arabia)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-03
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Title: Myanmar Update: Court Order tries to Protect Rohingya Muslims from Genocide
Sub-title: The Myanmar military’s years-long campaign against the Rohingya Muslims left hundreds of villages a smoldering pile of debris.
Description: "Myanmar has been ordered by the International Court of Justice to take “provisional measures” to protect the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority in the Buddhist-majority country that has suffered “mass killing, mass displacement, mass fear [and] overwhelming…brutality” at the hands of the military. Over 700,000 Rohingya fled or were forced out of the country since 2016, most to neighboring Bangladesh. The order comes after the African state of The Gambia in November 2019 filed a complaint of genocide of the Rohingya against Myanmar with the International Court of Justice, the judicial organ of the United Nations. Under the 1948 Genocide Convention, genocide requires a specific intent to destroy a group in whole or in part. The U.N. General Assembly and numerous human rights organizations have for years condemned Myanmar’s attacks on the Rohingya. The country – which was slowly emerging from the global economic and political isolation that followed its 1989 military coup by making some very modest concessions to democracy – has also been subjected to new sanctions..."
Source/publisher: The National Interest Online (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-03
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Title: The persecuted Rohingya now have legal protection, but will it amount to anything?
Sub-title: The ICJ ruling on Myanmar is a rare bright point in a woeful international response. Unfortunately its powers are limited
Description: "On Thursday the internet in Kutupalong, a city-sized refugee camp in south-eastern Bangladesh, was switched back on for a few hours. The camp’s residents gathered around their phones as, 5,000 miles away in The Hague, the international court of justice (ICJ) delivered a ruling on Myanmar’s treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority. They cheered as the court issued a set of legally binding obligations: that Myanmar’s military does not commit acts of genocide against some 600,000 Rohingya who still live in the country, and that evidence of past crimes remains intact. This was the first legal victory for Rohingya since 2017, when upwards of 700,000 were driven into Bangladesh in a campaign by Myanmar’s military that produced the most concentrated outflow of refugees anywhere since the Rwanda genocide in 1994. Responding to attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in late August 2017, military units acted with such ferocity that, within two months, the country had been emptied of nearly half its entire Rohingya population. Those who made it to Bangladesh recounted how troops encircled villages at night and opened fire, cutting down those who fled. Satellite imagery revealed more than 380 destroyed villages, and in the year that followed, new security bases were built where Rohingya homes once stood. Yet until now, there had been little substantive international action..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-03
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Title: Myanmar Rohingya: World court orders prevention of genocide
Sub-title: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered measures to prevent the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar (formerly Burma).
Description: "The decision comes despite de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi defending her country against the accusations in person last month. Thousands of Rohingya died and more than 700,000 fled to Bangladesh during an army crackdown in 2017. UN investigators have warned that genocidal actions could recur. The ICJ case, lodged by the African Muslim-majority nation of The Gambia, called for emergency measures to be taken against the Myanmar military until a fuller investigation could be launched. The man who took Aung San Suu Kyi to the world court Myanmar Rohingya: What you need to know The Lady who fell from grace Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist state, has always insisted that its military campaign was waged to tackle an extremist threat in Rakhine state. In her defence statement at the court in The Hague, Ms Suu Kyi described the violence as an "internal armed conflict" triggered by Rohingya militant attacks on government security posts..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-01
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Title: Myanmar’s get out of jail free card
Sub-title: So-called Independent Commission of Enquiry whitewashes military abuses in bid to elude genocide charges
Description: "Myanmar’s government made a stunningly rare admission of wrongdoing recently when it admitted that “war crimes” had been perpetrated against Muslims in Rakhine state during the violence of 2017. Unsurprisingly, it concluded the savagery did not constitute genocide as United Nations (UN) and other human rights investigators have suggested. The government made the admission following the finalization of the Independent Commission of Enquiry (ICOE) report, the executive summary of which was made public just days before the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced temporary provisions on Myanmar in its ongoing proceedings on genocide charges. The ICOE’s conclusions evinced two broad international receptions: one of measured acknowledgement that it admitted to serious crimes previously flatly denied by the administration of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi – and thus provides a foundation for further discussion on accountability – and another of blithe indifference. While the report should be dismissed as another exercise in cynical codswallop from an unrepentant military and civilian government, the ICOE experience nonetheless signals something more. That is, the report bids to peddle a sense of official partial closure on what happened in Rakhine state and that government business may now return to normal..."
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-01
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Title: Preventing genocide in Myanmar: Court order tries to protect Rohingya Muslims where politics has failed
Description: "Myanmar has been ordered by the International Court of Justice to take “provisional measures” to protect the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority in the Buddhist-majority country that has suffered “mass killing, mass displacement, mass fear [and] overwhelming…brutality” at the hands of the military. Over 700,000 Rohingya fled or were forced out of the country since 2016, most to neighboring Bangladesh. The order comes after the African state of The Gambia in November 2019 filed a complaint of genocide of the Rohingya against Myanmar with the International Court of Justice, the judicial organ of the United Nations. Under the 1948 Genocide Convention, genocide requires a specific intent to destroy a group in whole or in part. The U.N. General Assembly and numerous human rights organizations have for years condemned Myanmar’s attacks on the Rohingya. The country – which was slowly emerging from the global economic and political isolation that followed its 1989 military coup by making some very modest concessions to democracy – has also been subjected to new sanctions. But this is the first judicial intervention in the crisis. Can international law protect the Rohingya when diplomacy, politics and sanctions have failed?..."
Source/publisher: "The Conversation"
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-01
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Title: 'As expected': People in Myanmar shrug off ICJ Rohingya ruling
Sub-title: Despite indifference to legal cases some ethnic minority groups are backing the Rohingya to push back against military.
Description: " While thousands rallied in Yangon in December to support Myanmar's government as it contested allegations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, the public response to the first of the court's rulings has been decidedly more muted. The ICJ imposed a series of provisional measures on Myanmar last week, ordering it to take certain action to prevent future acts of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority. The judges also rejected Myanmar's motions to dismiss the case, which means the trial will now proceed to hear arguments on the alleged genocide itself. The decision brought criticism from officials. Than Htay, the chairman of the military-aligned opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party claimed “all 52 million people” in Myanmar would disagree with it, according to The Standard Time Daily, a local newspaper. But on the streets of the country's biggest city, the ruling barely registered. Two students who spoke to Al Jazeera separately both said neither they nor their friends particularly cared about the ICJ. “Yes I know about it, but I don’t really follow it,” said one. Another woman, from Rakhine but living in Yangon, said the result was “as expected”. When asked if she agreed with the ruling, she said: “Yes. It should be.” The ICJ case against Myanmar was brought by the Gambia accusing the country of committing genocide in its actions against the Rohingya and a brutal military crackdown in Rakhine in 2017 that sent 740,000 people fleeing across the border to Bangladesh..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-31
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Title: ICJ, finally, acts on the Rohingyas of Myanmar | Opinion
Description: "The inability of international law to effectively address situations of mass human rights atrocities, in particular genocide, within States has been the source of much consternation for international lawyers. The term genocide, deriving from the Greek prefix genos meaning race or tribe and the Latin suffix cide meaning killing, was coined by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944, in the aftermath of the Holocaust. It was soon codified as an independent crime under the 1948 United Nations Convention, acceded to by around 152 states. However, in over 70 years of operation of the Convention, the record of establishing State responsibility for the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide has been unsatisfactory, illustrated by well-documented failures in Cambodia, Rwanda and Yugoslavia. However, in a significant ruling on the Rohingya issue, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) took tentative steps towards remedying In its preliminary judgment, the ICJ unanimously granted provisional measures, at the request of Gambia, directing Myanmar to take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts, including by any persons subject to its direction, control or influence, which constitute genocide under the convention in relation to the Rohingya people in its territory; and take all measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to the allegation of genocide. More strikingly, the ICJ sought to oversee the implementation of its provisional measures, directing Myanmar to submit a report to the court on all measures taken to give effect to the order, within four months from the date of the order, and thereafter every six months until the final decision.its otherwise unenviable record of adjudicating allegations of genocide..."
Source/publisher: "Hindustan Times " (India)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-30
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Title: This tiny African country got the U.N.’s top court to investigate Myanmar for genocide
Sub-title: Why would Gambia step up for the Muslim minority Rohingya thousands of miles away?
Description: "On Thursday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a unanimous ruling that ordered Myanmar to “take all measures within its power” to protect its ethnic minority Rohingya population from genocide. The case — against which Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, argued unsuccessfully — ended up in front of the ICJ because of a tiny African country thousands of miles away. Here’s what you need to know about this story. How the case got started The case before the ICJ started a few weeks ago, when Gambia accused Myanmar of violating the United Nations’ 1948 Convention on Genocide. Suu Kyi flew to The Hague to defend her country, arguing that her government’s actions were legitimate counterinsurgency efforts against rebels in Rakhine state. Gambia requested immediate measures to prevent further harm to the Rohingya. Last week’s ruling was the ICJ’s response. The ICJ has not yet ruled whether genocide has been committed. The court demanded that Myanmar report back within four months on what steps it has taken and preserve any evidence relevant to the genocide case..."
Source/publisher: "The Washington Post" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-30
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Title: ICJ Orders Preliminary Relief in Myanmar Genocide Case
Description: "For the first time, a court has ordered Myanmar to take actions to protect the Rohingya. Last Thursday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nation’s highest court, issued an order in a case brought against Myanmar by Gambia claiming violations of the Genocide Convention. For more on Gambia’s filing in this case, as well as other efforts to bring accountability for the crimes against the Rohingya, see my previous post for Just Security here. Preceding its decision, the ICJ held oral arguments concerning Gambia’s request for what are known as “provisional measures” in early December. A request for provisional measures is in some ways comparable to a request for a preliminary injunction in U.S. courts. A party is requesting that the court issue an order to prevent further harm while the case is proceeding, which can be particularly important at the ICJ where cases can take years to conclude. A request for provisional measures typically comes early in the case, and well before the record is fully developed and the issues can be judged on their merit. However, the standard of proof for granting provisional measures is that of a prima facie showing, considerably less than that required for final judgment. In theory, determinations made at the provisional measures stage have no bearing on the ultimate decision reached on those issues later. While a request for provisional measures is not uncommon, what made the December oral arguments extraordinary is that Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and the de facto head of Myanmar (albeit with the military retaining a great deal of power) chose to act as the “agent” for Myanmar. This meant she would be leading the delegation and defending Myanmar in court. Once a symbol for human rights, she had already been widely criticized for her actions and inactions in regards to the Rohingya people..."
Source/publisher: "Just Security"
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-29
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Title: Myanmar Rohingya: Government rejects ICJ ruling
Sub-title: Myanmar has responded defiantly to a ruling by the UN's top court ordering measures to prevent the genocide of Rohingya Muslims.
Description: "The country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it presented a "distorted picture of the situation". Thousands of Rohingya died and more than 700,000 fled to Bangladesh during an army crackdown in 2017. The measures imposed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are binding and not subject to appeal. However the ICJ has no way of enforcing them. The case was lodged by the African Muslim majority nation of The Gambia. The ruling warned that genocidal actions could recur. The man who took Aung San Suu Kyi to the world court Myanmar Rohingya: What you need to know The Lady who fell from grace Myanmar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said its own commission, the Independent Commission of Enquiry, found that there had been no genocide in Rakhine state. However it did say that war crimes had occurred, and were being investigated and prosecuted by Myanmar's national criminal justice system. It also blamed condemnation by "human rights actors" for affecting Myanmar's bilateral relations with some countries. "This has hampered Myanmar's ability to lay the foundation for sustainable development in Rakhine," it added in a statement..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-29
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Title: Real justice for Myanmar's Rohingya will require more than an ICJ ruling
Description: "Rohingya Muslims, described by the UN as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, have finally seen a beacon of light in the fight for justice driven forward by Gambia. The historic decision by the UN's International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Myanmar is now legally bound to protect Rohingya Muslims from genocide, and stipulated four provisional measures they must take in doing so. This unprecedented ruling means that Myanmar's government must prevent any Rohingya Muslim in the country from being killed and reserve any evidence of a genocide that has already happened. In spite of this ground-breaking turning point in the path to justice, concerns still exist in the steps to seeking accountability to bring the perpetrators of the crimes against Rohingya to account. The Myanmar military crackdown in 2017 saw thousands of Rohingya Muslims killed, and 700,000 flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. Rohingya communities continue to be subjected to indiscriminate killing and gang rape. Pregnant women, babies, children and the elderly have not been spared. With so many accounts and evidence of human rights violations, it is shocking that Myanmar continues to evade accountability..."
Source/publisher: "The New Arab" (London)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-29
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Title: Myanmar ordered to prevent genocide against Rohingya by top UN court
Description: "The top court of the United Nations has ordered Myanmar to prevent acts of genocide against the country's persecuted Rohingya minority and to stop destroying evidence, in a landmark case at The Hague. The case was brought to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Netherlands by the tiny West African nation of Gambia, which in November alleged that Myanmar committed "genocidal acts" that "were intended to destroy the Rohingya as a group" through mass murder, rape, and destruction of communities. It asked the 15-judge court to enact provisional measures to compel the Myanmar government and military to end all acts that amount to or contribute to genocide, and to ensure Myanmar preserves evidence that could play a part in the case. The emergency measures act like an injunction while the main genocide case gets underway. That central case has not yet been heard and it could take years to reach a verdict..."
Source/publisher: "CNN" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-24
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Title: International court to rule in Myanmar Rohingya genocide case
Sub-title: Momentous pronouncement follows Hague hearing at which Aung San Suu Kyi gave evidence
Description: "The United Nations’ highest tribunal is to deliver its decision on whether emergency measures are required to prevent Myanmar conducting genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority. The momentous pronouncement on Thursday follows a three-day hearing at the international court of justice in The Hague last month at which the Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi defended her country against accusations of systematic human rights abuses and war crimes. The ruling on the need for “provisional measures” will be read out at 10am local time by the court’s president, Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, and may take more than an hour to deliver. The hearing will be broadcast live on the ICJ website. The case was brought by the Gambia, a predominantly Muslim west African state that alleges Myanmar has breached the 1948 genocide convention enacted after the Holocaust. It argues that the violence is continuing..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-23
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Title: Myanmar Panel: War Crimes But No Genocide Committed Against Rohingya
Description: "An independent panel created by the Myanmar government has concluded that government security forces committed war crimes against Rohingya Muslims but that they did not commit genocide against the ethnic minority. The findings were included in a report released Monday by the Independent Commission of Inquiry. The commission, established by the government in July 2018, says it was “tasked to investigate allegations of human rights violations and related issues” after terrorist attacks in 2017 by a Rohingya insurgent group in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. The Myanmar government responded to the attacks with a military-led crackdown against the insurgent group, known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine state to neighboring Bangladesh during the weekslong crackdown that was widely condemned internationally..."
Source/publisher: "VOA" (Washington, D.C)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-23
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Title: Myanmar: Government Rohingya Report Falls Short
Sub-title: War Crimes Admitted, but Full Findings Not Released
Description: "Myanmar’s investigation of its 2017 “clearance operations” contains selective admissions of military wrongdoing but does not begin to address the massive violations by government security forces against Rohingya Muslims, Human Rights Watch said today. Myanmar’s donors and concerned governments should be clear that the Independent Commission of Enquiry’s report falls well short of creating the conditions for justice and accountability or the safe return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh. The 15-page executive summary released by the Office of the President on January 21, 2020 acknowledged that members of Myanmar’s security forces committed war crimes and serious human rights violations against “Muslims” in northern Rakhine State. Yet it found “no evidence of gang rape committed by Myanmar’s security forces,” despite extensive documentation of widespread rape against Rohingya women and girls by the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar and human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch. The summary found no evidence of genocidal intent and did not address alleged crimes against humanity. The government has yet to release the full report..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-23
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Title: Rohingya refugees pray for justice as court to rule in genocide case
Description: " Rohingya refugees who fled persecution and violence in Myanmar are praying for justice as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague prepares to deliver an initial verdict on Thursday in a genocide case filed against Myanmar. More than 730,000 Muslim Rohingya fled an army offensive in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017. The United Nations says gang rapes and mass killings were carried out with “genocidal intent”. Hundreds of villages were burned to the ground and later razed. Myanmar denies the charges of genocide. Gambia has asked the ICJ to order “provisional measures” to prevent more harm, a first step in a legal case that is expected to run for years. It has also asked judges to order Myanmar to ensure any evidence of atrocities is preserved. At the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh, where the Rohingya who fled are settled, many hope for a ruling in their favor after years of persecution. “The Burmese (Myanmar) government and the army tried to wipe out the entire Rohingya community. We want justice,” said 30-year-old refugee Nurul Amin, who fled to Bangladesh with his pregnant wife during the 2017 army crackdown..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-23
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Title: Will the ICJ order Myanmar to stop the Rohingya genocide?
Sub-title: The International Court of Justice is set to decide on emergency measures to stop the genocide of the Rohingya.
Description: "The highest court of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, will on Thursday be issuing its much-anticipated decision on a request for "emergency measures" in a landmark genocide case against Myanmar. The case against Myanmar was filed by The Gambia in November, alleging that Myanmar was committing "an ongoing genocide" against its minority Muslim Rohingya population. Myanmar denies those allegations. The appearance of Myanmar's political leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, at the ICJ - also known as the "World Court" - in The Hague in December brought the case into the international spotlight. Experts describe the case as an "historic legal challenge" - but have expressed concerns about whether Myanmar will comply with whatever the court orders..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-23
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Title: Atrocities against Rohingyas: ICC starts investigation
Sub-title: 'As far as I am aware an ICC team is currently visiting Bangladesh'
Description: "The International Criminal Court (ICC) has begun its investigation into the alleged crimes against humanity and other atrocity crimes committed by Myanmar against hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people sheltered in Bangladesh, said sources in Dhaka and The Hague, the Dutch capital, the house of the court. “Yes, the investigation has already begun. Multiple visits by experts from the office of the ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, to Bangladesh have already taken place,” a source in The Hague familiar with the investigation told Dhaka Tribune. “As far as I am aware an ICC team is currently visiting Bangladesh,” he said. The purpose of the visits of the ICC teams is to gather necessary evidence from different sources, he added. “They (ICC teams) are coming and going. They work independently without any alignment with the government. We will only provide any support if we are asked,” a source at the Foreign Ministry told this correspondent, adding, “I don’t know if any team from the ICC is currently visiting Bangladesh.” The activities of the ICC will mostly be focused on Cox’s Bazar for obvious reason, said the sources. The Prosecutor’s office did not respond to the emails from Dhaka Tribune seeking its comments in this regard. The ICC is an intergovernmental organisation and international tribunal with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression..."
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-22
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Title: Is Myanmar guilty of genocide?
Summary: "It was recently reported that Myanmar had conceded that it had committed “war crimes” against its Rohingya Muslim community. This is as far as Myanmar has ever gone in admitting responsibility for...
Description: "It was recently reported that Myanmar had conceded that it had committed “war crimes” against its Rohingya Muslim community. This is as far as Myanmar has ever gone in admitting responsibility for the atrocities committed against its Rohingya minority. Still, to some observers, this is not good enough. On 20 January, a Myanmar-appointed panel concluded that some soldiers likely committed war crimes against the Rohingya but that the military, however, was not guilty of genocide. The "Independent Commission of Enquiry (ICOE)" released the results of its probe just ahead of a ruling by the United Nation's (UN) top court on whether to impose urgent measures to stop alleged ongoing genocide in Myanmar. "There is insufficient evidence to argue, much less conclude, that the crimes committed were undertaken with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical (sic), racial or religious group." The fact that the ICOE would not admit that Myanmar’s military, also known as the Tatmadaw, were actively engaging in genocide as has been alleged, however, did not bode well with human rights groups..."
Source/publisher: "The ASEAN Post" (Malaysia)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-22
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Title: Myanmar inquiry into treatment of Rohingya criticised after finding no evidence of rape
Sub-title: Government-appointed investigators failed to meet alleged victims living in Bangladesh
Description: "A Myanmar government-backed inquiry that dismissed allegations of genocide against the Rohingya has been condemned as a deeply flawed cover-up, after it failed to interview a single victim of rape. The full report of the panel inquiry, which has been criticised by the UN, was not made publicly available. It is not clear how many Rohingya were interviewed by the panel. An executive summary of the findings were released just days before the International Court of Justice, which is hearing a genocide case against Myanmar, is due to announce whether or not it will request for emergency measures to prevent further harm against Rohingya. In 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya people fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh following a military-led crackdown in Rakhine state in which villages were burned, women raped and thousands killed. A UN fact-finding mission later declared that the violence had “genocidal intent”. The long-overdue report by the Myanmar-appointed inquiry stated that it did not travel to meet any of the more than one million Rohingya refugees living in refugee camps in Bangladesh, blaming the neighbouring country’s government for failing to facilitate visits..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-22
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Title: OPINION - Myanmar gov't doggedly continues with its genocide denial
Sub-title: 'Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her partners in crimes should know that denial is a part of genocide'
Description: "After having co-presided with the visiting Chinese president Xi Jinping over the signing of 33 agreements, including bilateral trade deals, Memorandums of Understanding, strategic partnership agreements, and technical cooperation, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi was all smile again this Monday. On the official website of Myanmar's Independent Commission of Enquiry, smiley Ms Suu Kyi was seen posing for cameras as the former Deputy Foreign Minister of the Philippines Ms Rosario Manalo presented her with the final report of the Myanmar-established Independent Commission of Enquiry which the Philippines diplomat chaired. The Free Rohingya Coalition, an international network of Rohingya refugee activists and their supporters, issued a statement, refuting the findings of the commission that there is “no” or “insufficient” evidence to establish the genocidal intent behind Myanmar’s destruction of the Rohingya community in Rakhine state and the mass deportations of estimated 800,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh in 2016-2017..."
Source/publisher: "Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-22
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Title: Myanmar finds war crimes but no genocide in Rohingya crackdown
Sub-title: ICOE report comes days before UN's top court issues ruling on whether urgent measures are necessary to stop genocide.
Description: "A commission set up to investigate the 2017 crackdown in Rakhine that led hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim Rohingya to flee Myanmar, has concluded that while some soldiers probably committed war crimes there was no genocide. The Independent Commission of Enquiry (ICOE) released the findings of its investigation, but not the full report, to the country's president on Monday, a few days before the United Nations' top court is set to rule on whether to impose urgent measures to stop the alleged continuing genocide in Myanmar. More: Transcript: Aung San Suu Kyi's speech at the ICJ in full Rohingya refugees reject Aung San Suu Kyi's 'lies on genocide' Top court to rule on emergency measures against Myanmar on January 23 The ICOE conceded some security personnel had used disproportionate force and committed war crimes and serious human rights violations, including the "killing of innocent villagers and destruction of their homes". But the crimes did not constitute genocide, the panel decided..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-21
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Title: Myanmar panel: Security forces likely committed war crimes
Description: "An independent commission established by Myanmar’s government has concluded there are reasons to believe that security forces committed war crimes in counterinsurgency operations that led more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. However, the commission, headed by a Philippine diplomat, said in a report given Monday to President Win Myint that there is no evidence supporting charges that genocide was planned or carried out against the Rohingya. The Independent Commission of Enquiry announced its findings in a statement posted on its Facebook page and the full report does not appear to have been publicly released. Nevertheless, it went further than any public statements issued by Myanmar’s government in suggesting government forces were guilty of major abuses. “Although these serious crimes and violations were committed by multiple actors, there are reasonable grounds to believe that members of Myanmar’s security forces were involved” in war crimes, serious human rights violations, and violations of domestic law in 2017, it said. “The killing of innocent villagers and destruction of their homes were committed by some members of the Myanmar’s security forces through disproportionate use of force during the internal armed conflict,” it said..."
Source/publisher: "Associated Press" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-21
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Title: UN envoy: We are putting pressure on Myanmar to ensure peace in Rakhine
Sub-title: The envoy visited a refugee camp near the Naikhongchhari border
Description: "Visiting UN envoy Yanghee Lee on Monday suggested that the United Nations (UN) have been applying increasing diplomatic pressure to stop genocidal atrocities in the Rakhine state of Myanmar and ensure an environment that is fit for the safe return of Rohingya refugees. During her visit, the special envoy met representatives and leaders of different Rohingya organizations at the government office conference room in Kutupalong refugee camp, Ukhiya. Later, she met five out of the 63 Rohingya refugees who had recently relocated in the refugee camps in Bangladesh after serving prison sentences. Yanghee Lee then visited a refugee camp near the Naikhongchhari border and spoke to refugees at the camp. Previously, she visited Bangladesh in January 2018 to visit the refugee camps..."
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-21
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Title: War crimes, not genocide committed against Rohingya: Myanmar probe
Description: "A Myanmar-appointed panel concluded on Monday (Jan 20) that some soldiers likely committed war crimes against its Rohingya Muslim community but the military was not guilty of genocide, findings swiftly condemned by rights groups. The "Independent Commission Of Enquiry (ICOE)" released the results of its probe just ahead of a ruling on Thursday by the UN's top court on whether to impose urgent measures to stop alleged ongoing genocide in Myanmar. It conceded some security personnel had used disproportionate force and committed war crimes and serious human rights violations, including the "killing of innocent villagers and destruction of their homes". But the crimes did not constitute genocide, the panel decided. "There is insufficient evidence to argue, much less conclude, that the crimes committed were undertaken with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical (sic), racial or religious group." Military operations from August 2017 forced about 740,000 Rohingya to flee over the border into sprawling camps in Bangladesh..."
Source/publisher: "CNA" ( Singapore)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-21
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Title: China struggles in new diplomatic role, trying to return Rohingya to Myanmar
Description: "In a muddy field in western Myanmar, hundreds of Chinese shipping containers fitted with single narrow windows stand in neat lines, empty of the refugees they were designed to host. The gray boxes were sent by China two years ago as quick and cheap housing for some of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar for Bangladesh during a military-led crackdown in 2017 that the United Nations said was conducted with genocidal intent. The empty containers, situated near the town of Maungdaw in Rakhine state, reflect months of failed efforts to entice the Rohingya to return to Myanmar despite a diplomatic drive by the country’s close ally and neighbor, China. In a sharp departure from its official policy of non-interference in the affairs of other countries, China has positioned itself as the key mediator in resolving the protracted crisis. But like the Indonesian and United Nations envoys who previously attempted to mediate between the parties, China is finding the business of diplomacy tough going, with little signs that the crisis will soon be resolved..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-20
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Title: Long-term solutions for the Rohingya response
Description: "Two years after the people of the Rohingya minority fled Myanmar, 900.000 refugees are trying to rebuild their lives in neighbouring Bangladesh. NORCAP experts support the humanitarian response and our projects target some of the most critical gaps in the assistance. The violence and abuse against the Rohingya population in Myanmar led to 750.000 refugees entering Bangladesh in less than three months at the end of 2017. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) referred to the attacks as “textbook ethnic cleansing”. Today, the district of Cox’s Bazar, only a few kilometres from the Myanmar border, houses one of the world’s largest refugee camps, with close to 900,000 refugees living in temporary shelters. The concentration of people in these camps is amongst the densest in the world and the conditions are poor. People lack proper shelters, toilet facilities, clean water and food. The national authorities in Bangladesh and Myanmar have established a repatriation agreement, but few Rohingya are willing to return to Myanmar as long as the Myanmar government does not guarantee them citizenship and protection from further violence..."
Source/publisher: Norwegian Refugee Council (Oslo)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-19
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Title: India’s ominous threat to Rohingya Muslim refugees
Description: "The tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled to India to escape widespread and systematic violence and discrimination in Myanmar face an existential threat from a new source: India’s government. Early this month, a senior government minister announced that Indian authorities would move expeditiously to deport the country’s sizable Rohingya refugee population back to Myanmar regardless of the risks to the refugees. “There are no ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ … what would happen here is that the next move would be in relation to [the deportation] of Rohingyas,” Jitendra Singh, minister of state for development of the North Eastern Region, stated on January 4. Singh justified that call for Rohingya deportation on the terms of India’s controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The CAA, passed by India’s Parliament on December 12, explicitly denies the rights of Muslim “irregular immigrants,” those who lack UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) identity cards. Singh’s comments constitute a visceral threat to the safety of the thousands of Rohingya who have sought safety in India over the past decade. The government estimates that 40,000 Rohingya refugees live in India, of whom fewer than half possess UNHCR identity cards designed to protect them from “harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention and deportation.” Those refugees have fled Myanmar government-imposed institutionalized discrimination, including restrictions on movement, education and health-care access, as well as spasms of deadly violence such as the bloody purge perpetrated against Rohingya in northern Rakhine state in late 2017..."
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-17
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Title: Myanmar Has Blazed a Path to Democracy Without Rights
Description: "The paradox at the heart of the Rohingya genocide has always been Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Just a few short years ago, the Rohingya regarded the international democracy icon as their champion and defender in an increasingly hostile Myanmar. Last month, she was standing before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, defending the soldiers and politicians who erased the Rohingya from their native lands in Myanmar. Her history is a lesson for the optimists who thought democracy would also bring liberalism—and a disturbing portent of the compatibility of democracy and oppression that’s playing out from New Delhi to Budapest. The Rohingya Muslim minority have been a favorite target for successive Buddhist central governments in Myanmar, previously known as Burma, for almost the entire post-imperial history of the country. But they have been far from the only target. Other, smaller, Muslim groups have always been on the radar of the Theravada nationalist military juntas that ruled the country between 1962 and 2011. Christian groups and a plethora of borderland ethnic groups such as the Chin, Kachin, Shan, and Karen were also oppressed under the juntas..."
Source/publisher: "Foreign Policy" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-17
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Title: Rights group: Myanmar continues to deny Rohingya rights
Sub-title: Bangkok-based Fortify Rights says Myanmar government instructing officials to issue IDs describing Rohingya as 'Bengali'
Description: "Myanmar continues to deny basic citizenship rights to persecuted Rohingya community, a rights group said on Thursday. The Bangkok-based Fortify Rights group revealed internal communications in the Myanmar government directing junior officials to issue National Verification Cards (NVCs) to Rohingya in internment camps. "The document states the team would be tasked with issuing NVCs to 'Bengali people' -- a term often used by Myanmar officials to refer to Rohingya, implying that they are from Bangladesh and their ethnic Rohingya identity does not exist," the group said in a statement that included the testimonies of five Rohingya people. The rights group demanded Myanmar take steps to "urgently restore full citizenship rights to Rohingya". "New evidence collected by Fortify Rights […] confirms that Myanmar authorities are continuing to force and coerce Rohingya to accept National Verification Cards, which effectively identify Rohingya as foreigners and strip them of access to full citizenship rights," it added. Fortify Rights also assessed a new strategy by Myanmar that it said sought to close camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)..."
Source/publisher: "Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-17
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Title: Rights group denounces Japanese envoy for comments on Myanmar Rohingya
Description: "Tokyo-based human rights activists on Wednesday decried recent remarks by Japan's ambassador to Yangon, who told local media he did not think the Myanmar military committed genocide on the Rohingya Muslim minority in the country. More than 730,000 Rohingya fled the Southeast Asian nation to Bangladesh in 2017 after a military-led crackdown. The United Nations has said the campaign was executed with "genocidal intent" and included mass killings and rape. The military offensive has sparked a series of ongoing legal cases filed in recent months at courts across the globe, including the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), both based in the Hague. Zaw Min Htut, vice president of an advocacy group, Burmese Rohingya Association in Japan, said the ambassador's remarks were "disturbing". "I am very disappointed and appealing again to the Japanese government. Please try to help Rohingya people and don't side with criminals," Zaw Min Htut told foreign correspondents in Tokyo..."
Source/publisher: "Japan Today" (Japan)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-16
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Title: Why Myanmar’s genocide denial will come back to haunt it
Description: "Maung Zarni is the co-founder of FORSEA, a grass-roots organization of Southeast Asian human rights defenders, and the co-author of “Essays on Myanmar’s Genocide of Rohingyas.” Last month, Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi took the stand at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague to rebut allegations that her country’s systematic persecution of its Rohingya population amounts to genocide. Aung San Suu Kyi, once lionized for her stand against an oppressive military dictatorship, strenuously denied the charges — despite reams of evidence and the presence of nearly 1 million Rohingyas in refugee camps in Bangladesh. They ended up there after fleeing a so-called counterterrorism campaign by the Myanmar military in 2017 that left uncounted thousands dead..."
Source/publisher: "The Washington Post" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-16
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Title: ICJ to rule on emergency measures in Myanmar genocide case
Sub-title: UN court's decision on measures to prevent more harm against Myanmar's Rohingya minority expected on Jan 23.
Description: "The International Court of Justice, the United Nations' highest court, will issue a decision on a request for emergency measures in a genocide case against Myanmar on January 23, the Gambian Ministry of Justice said on Twitter on Monday. The mainly Muslim West African country filed the suit in November, alleging Myanmar was committing "an ongoing genocide" against its minority Muslim Rohingya population. More: Myanmar: New Al Jazeera documentary uncovers Rohingya abuse Myanmar: Defending genocide at the ICJ Myanmar cannot be trusted to put own soldiers on trial: Gambia The ICJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Gambia has accused Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention in a military campaign that expelled more than 730,000 Rohingya from the country. It asked the ICJ to order "provisional measures" to prevent more harm, a first step in a legal case that is expected to go on for years..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-15
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Title: Myanmar: Seeking International Justice for Rohingya
Sub-title: Crackdown on Free Expression Tightens
Description: "The Myanmar government faced increasing pressure during 2019 for international justice for its human rights violations against the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2020. Respect for free expression and assembly also declined sharply during the year as the authorities escalated their use of repressive criminal laws. “Myanmar’s failure to hold its military accountable for atrocities against the Rohingya is finally turning the wheels of international justice,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. “Two international courts are now examining whether Myanmar committed genocide and who should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity against the Rohingya.” In the 652-page World Report 2020, its 30th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in nearly 100 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth says that the Chinese government, which depends on repression to stay in power, is carrying out the most intense attack on the global human rights system in decades. He finds that Beijing’s actions both encourage and gain support from autocratic populists around the globe, while Chinese authorities use their economic clout to deter criticism from other governments. It is urgent to resist this assault, which threatens decades of progress on human rights and our future..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-15
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Title: UN expert on Myanmar on her final mission to Bangladesh
Sub-title: Myanmar continues denying Yanghee Lee access to that country
Description: "Special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee will carry out her final mission to Bangladesh next week. Lee will visit Thailand and Bangladesh from January 15 to 23 on her final leg as the rapporteur. She will come to Bangladesh from Thailand. Despite her last request to visit Myanmar being denied by the government, Lee will visit Thailand and Bangladesh to speak to interlocutors and receive information about the situation in Myanmar from both sides of the border, said a news release forwarded by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva on Tuesday. Myanmar has been constantly denying her office access to the country since 2017. Myanmar’s denial of access has not dissuaded me from doing everything I can to impartially report to the international community accurate first-hand information that has been provided to me during my visits to the region,” Lee said. “My mission and the end of my tenure come at a critical time for human rights in Myanmar and I will continue to strive to do my utmost to improve the situation,” she said. Lee has held the mandate of special rapporteur since 2014 and enjoyed biannual visits to the country until she was denied entry from December 2017. She will report to the Human Rights Council session in March, 2020..."
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-15
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Title: World Court to Rule on Emergency Measures in Myanmar Genocide Case on January 23: Gambia
Description: "The International Court of Justice, the United Nations' highest court, will issue a decision on a request for emergency measures in a genocide case against Myanmar on Jan. 23, the Gambian Ministry of Justice said on Twitter on Monday. The mainly Muslim west African country filed the suit in November, alleging Myanmar was committing "an ongoing genocide" against its minority Muslim Rohingya population. The ICJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Gambia has accused Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention in a military campaign that expelled more than 730,000 Rohingya from the country. It asked the International Court of Justice to order "provisional measures" to prevent more harm, a first step in a legal case that is expected to go on for years..."
Source/publisher: "The New York Times" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-15
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Title: Myanmar sends Rohingya captured at sea to Rakhine
Summary: "Nearly 200 Rohingya Muslims arrested at sea last month by Myanmar's navy after a voyage of hundreds of kilometres have been sent back to Rakhine state, officials said Monday. Seasonal calmer...
Description: "Nearly 200 Rohingya Muslims arrested at sea last month by Myanmar's navy after a voyage of hundreds of kilometres have been sent back to Rakhine state, officials said Monday. Seasonal calmer waters have seen an increase in the number of Rohingya putting their lives in the hands of traffickers in a desperate bid to reach Malaysia or Indonesia by boat. But few make it as far as Kawthaung, Myanmar's southern-most tip, where the group of 173 were picked up mid-December. Images taken on Monday showed 17 men, women and children looking exhausted from their ordeal as they climbed down from a wooden boat on to a beach near western Rakhine state's capital, Sittwe. Wearing identification numbers around their necks, they lined up on the sand clutching their meagre belongings before being escorted away by armed police. They were taken to Thechaung camp, while the remaining 156 were transported further north to Ngakhuya camp in Maungdaw township, Rakhine State minister for security and border affairs said. Ngakhuya is a processing site for returning refugees on the Bangladeshi border. "I'm not sure whether action will be taken against them or not," Colonel Min Than told the media, adding that their fate would be decided by the UEHRD, a government department overseeing Rakhine..."
Source/publisher: "The ASEAN Post" (Malaysia)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-14
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Title: Rohingya Deportation Case: UN Special Rapporteur Seeks to Aid SC
Sub-title: E. Tendayi Achiume said she would like to assist the court by offering her expertise on "the issue of State parties’ obligations under international law with regard to the prevention of racial discrimination”.
Description: "A UN-appointed expert has filed an application in the Supreme Court’s ongoing hearing challenging the deportation of Rohingyas from India, to seek permission to assist on the issue of states’ obligations under international law. The Supreme Court is currently hearing a petition filed in 2017 against the Indian government’s plan to deport all Rohingya Muslims, estimated to be around 40,000, back to Myanmar. On January 10, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance E. Tendayi Achiume filed an application seeking to intervene in the ongoing case, which is being heard three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde. Special Rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UNHRC with specific thematic mandates. Achiume, who is also a professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law, said that the aim of her intervention was “to assist the Court by offering her expertise and experience on the issue of State parties’ obligations under international law with regard to the prevention of racial discrimination”..."
Source/publisher: "The Wire"
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-13
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Title: U.N. condemns Myanmar's abuses against Rohingya
Description: "The U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution Friday strongly condemning human rights abuses against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims and other minorities, including arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and deaths in detention. The 193-member world body voted 134-9 with 28 abstentions in favor of the resolution which also calls on Myanmar’s government to take urgent measures to combat incitement of hatred against the Rohingya and other minorities in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but they do reflect world opinion. Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya to be “Bengalis” from Bangladesh even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless, and they are also denied freedom of movement and other basic rights. The long-simmering Rohingya crisis exploded on Aug. 25, 2017, when Myanmar’s military launched what it called a clearance campaign in Rakhine in response to an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. The campaign led to the mass Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh and to accusations that security forces committed mass rapes and killings and burned thousands of homes..."
Source/publisher: "Japan Times" (Japan)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-12
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi party official killed in Rakhine
Sub-title: Rohingya rebels who had been holding him for weeks said he died during military attacks on Christmas Day
Description: "An official from Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party was killed in Rakhine state after planning a show of support for the leader’s defense of Myanmar against genocide allegations at The Hague, a spokesman said Thursday. The National League for Democracy’s Ye Thein, party chairman in Buthidaung township, had been held for weeks by the Arakan Army, insurgents fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists. The rebels said he was killed in military attacks on Christmas Day but the claim could not be verified and NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt said the group bore responsibility. Ye Thein was detained on December 11 ahead of demonstrations backing Suu Kyi’s high-profile opening statements at the UN’s top court the same day. “We, all members of NLD, are very sorry for the loss,” Myo Nyunt told AFP. “His gathering to support her was righteous and it was not a crime.” The Arakan Army has carried out a series of daring kidnappings, bombings and raids against the army and local officials in Rakhine state. Myanmar’s military has hit back hard, deploying thousands of additional soldiers to the western state and carrying out what Amnesty International called enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions..."
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-11
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Title: Fate of Rohingya Boat People Remains Unknown as They Are Returned to Myanmar’s Rakhine State
Description: "Scores of Rohingya Muslims detained in December by the Myanmar Navy aboard a boat in the Andaman Sea as they attempted to leave the country have been transferred to western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, a coastal forces commander and state immigration minister said Friday. “We sent these 172 Muslims to Sittwe on Jan. 8 by navy vessel No. 617,” Colonel Thant Zin Oo, regional chief of the Coastal Command, told RFA’s Myanmar Service. The 172 Rohingya left a detention center where they were being held on an island and were being taken to Rakhine’s capital Sittwe, though Thant Zin Oo said he does not know where they will be sent once they arrive there or if any further action will be taken against them, The group was accompanied by 42 officials from the military, the police, and the health, immigration, and general administration departments, said Kyaw Min, minister of Rakhine state’s Immigration and Human Resources Ministry..."
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia (RFA)" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-11
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Title: Thailand asks Malaysia to help find dozens of Rohingya escapees
Description: "Thailand has asked Malaysia to help find a group of Rohingya Muslim trafficking victims who absconded from a detention centre in the south of the country, Thai police said. Nineteen Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar escaped from the detention centre in Thailand's southern Songkhla province, around 5 kilometres from the Thai-Malaysian border, early on Wednesday, using a piece of cloth to climb down from a third floor window, police said. They were part of some 40 Rohingya Muslims, identified as victims of human traffickers, who were intercepted by Thai authorities on their way to Malaysia and had been detained at the centre to await repatriation to Myanmar, police said. Two were found later on Wednesday, police said..."
Source/publisher: "The Sydney Morning Herald" (Sydney)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-10
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Title: Western Union 'cuts ties' with Myanmar military's bank
Sub-title: Rights groups have been calling on companies to cut ties with Myanmar military responsible for Rohingya atrocities
Description: "A leading global money transfer service Western Union has stopped using a military-owned bank as one of its agents in Myanmar, rights groups said. Western Union is one among the most recognizable names on the Dirty List of the international companies for doing business with military in Myanmar. The list was published by two rights campaign groups -- Burma Campaign UK and International Campaign for the Rohingya -- in December 2018. In an e-mail to Burma Campaign UK on Wednesday, Western Union said it has ended contract with Myawaddy Bank, a subsidiary of military business conglomerate Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (UMEHL), with immediate effect, said a joint statement by the advocacy groups. Western Union could not be reached for a comment, but an official at Myawaddy Bank confirmed the development to Anadolu Agency. "Western Union services are no longer available from our bank. It is Western Union’s decision to end the contract," the official told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media. The campaign groups said that Western Union has now been removed from the Dirty List. Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, said that Western Union is the biggest company so far to end a business relationship with a military-owned company..."
Source/publisher: "Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-09
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Title: EU releases new tranche of $11m aid for Rohingyas
Sub-title: The fund will help address the under-nutrition for the one million Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh
Description: "The European Commission has released $11.19 million in humanitarian support for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and the displaced people in Myanmar’s Rakhine. The new tranche of funding, announced on December 23 last year, brought the EU’s total support for the Rohingya crisis through 2019 to around $48.12 million, a European commission statement said. It said the new funding will focus on providing quality health care and help address the under-nutrition for the one million Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh, after living conditions further deteriorated over the last months. It will also provide food nutrition and protection for all displaced people living in Myanmar's Rakhine state, where the humanitarian situation has further deteriorated this year due to the escalation of violence in the region, the statement added. European Union’s (EU) Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič said: “The EU's support has helped save countless lives over the last two years since the crisis began, but cannot stop now as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya rely on humanitarian aid to survive. Today's additional funding is another clear sign that the EU remains committed to stand by the side of the Rohingya for as long as it takes..."
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-08
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Title: Landmine kills 4 Rohingya children in Myanmar
Sub-title: Deadly landmine explosion happens in forest where Rohingya from nearby villages went to harvest firewood
Description: "Four Rohingya children were killed in a landmine explosion in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state early Tuesday, according to an official. A group of more than 10 local Rohingya -- including several teenagers -- were harvesting firewood in the forest near Hteiktoo Pauk village in Kyauktaw Township when the mine exploded around 10.30 a.m. local time (0600GMT). “Four children, two of them 8 years old and two of them 10, were killed on the spot,” said Aung Thaung Shwe, lower house lawmaker for the area. He told Anadolu Agency by phone on Tuesday that six other Rohingya -- one adult man and five teenage boys -- were also injured in the landmine explosion. It is still unclear whether Myanmar’s military or the Arakan Army -- a predominantly Buddhist ethnic group fighting for greater autonomy in the region -- planted the landmine in the forest. “It is an act of terror as it targets civilians,” said Aung Thaung Shwe. According to local media reports citing data from civil society groups, around 100 civilians have been killed in Rakhine state by armed clashes since the Arakan Army launched synchronized attacks on police outposts last January, killing 13 officers..."
Source/publisher: "Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-08
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Title: How to Promote Tolerance in Myanmar, a Country that Recently Experienced a Genocide
Description: "In 2017, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya muslims were driven from their homes in Myanmar. At the time, a UN official called this a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” And today, the government of Myanmar is being sued at the International Court of Justice for perpetrating a genocide. These attacks against the Rohingya are the most recent and extreme example of sectarian violence and discrimination in Myanmar — which is an incredibly diverse country with a long history of ethnic conflict. So how does one stop this trend? How do you promote tolerance and pluralism in a place in which diversity has been used to fuel conflict? On the line with me today is someone who is doing just that. Aung Kyaw Moe is the founder and executive director of the Center for Social Integrity in Myanmar. This is an organization that provides both humanitarian relief but also engages in peace-building and advocacy work. He is Rohingya and has used humanitarian aid in parts of the country where Rohingya live to encourage cross ethnic partnerships. Aung Kyaw Moe and his organization recently received a high honor, the Global Pluralism Award, which is conferred by the government of Canada and the Aga Khan Foundation — and after listening to this episode, it will be clear why he won that award. We kick of discussing diversity in Myanmar before having a longer conversation about how that how diversity has been used as a wedge to ignite conflict, and how Aung Kyaw Moe is working to reverse that trend..."
Source/publisher: UN Dispatch
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-07
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Title: UN condemns Myanmar over human rights abuses against Rohingya
Sub-title: General assembly’s vote in favour of resolution also calls on Myanmar to urgently combat incitement of hatred
Description: "The United Nations general assembly has approved a resolution condemning human rights abuses against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims and other minorities, including arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and deaths in detention. The 193-member body voted 134-9 with 28 abstentions on Friday in favour of the resolution, which also calls on Myanmar’s government to take urgent measures to combat incitement of hatred against the Rohingya and other minorities in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states. General assembly resolutions are not legally binding but do reflect world opinion. Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya to be “Bengalis” from Bangladesh, even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless, and they are also denied freedom of movement and other basic rights. The long-simmering Rohingya crisis exploded in August 2017 when Myanmar’s military launched what it called a clearance campaign in Rakhine in response to an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. The campaign led to the Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh and to accusations that security forces committed mass rapes and killings and burned thousands of homes..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-07
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Title: ‘Growing Together Campaign’ launches Rohingya children’s art exhibition
Description: "The Earth Society organised an eight-day exhibition with drawings made by Rohingya children, aged between nine and twelve. The event opened at EMK Center, Dhanmondi, on January 4. 21 drawings, portraying the heart-wrenching reality of the Rohingyas and the genocide and torture by the Myanmar Military, are on exhibit at the show. The Earth Society is a local NGO working with capacity building, youth engagement, development, disaster management and refugee crisis, among other things. Their ‘Growing Together Campaign’ includes the youth of two different countries finding sustainable ways to address the refugee crisis. The campaign was organised by The Earth Society, with support from InterCollege, FGU, UNG AKTION, and co-funded by Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. 25 young people from the Danish organisation Youth Action and 27 young people from The Earth Society teamed up to build a project that would help both Rohingya children and their local communities through the Youth Exchange Program 2019. They visited two refugee camps, some of the host communities and participated in a number of interactive sessions with the refugees..."
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-07
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Title: Myanmar’s ‘Rohingya’ vs ‘Bengali’ Hate Speech Debate
Sub-title: A new campaign seeks to single out local media outlets that refer to the Rohingya ethnic group as “Bengalis.”
Description: "Rohingya activists have accused the Myanmar Press Council, a quasi-government media adjudication and ethics body, of defending the practice of using the word “Bengali” to refer to the Rohingya. Rights groups and Rohingya advocates argue that the term amounts to “hate speech” and that it is directly linked to misinformation, “fake news,” and vilification campaigns against the Rohingya actively promoted by the government, the military and others. Myanmar’s internet and social media landscape has come under increasing scrutiny after a Reuters investigation found over a thousand examples of hate speech attacking the Rohingya and Muslims of Myanmar. Following a UN report’s conclusion that the army had carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya “with genocidal intent,” a number of social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, banned the accounts of Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar’s army chief, and others in an unprecedented move to control hate speech..."
Source/publisher: "The Diplomat" (Japan)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-06
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Title: Why is most of Asia looking away from Myanmar?
Description: "The latest resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly condemning rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims and other minority groups in Myanmar was the third such resolution on the subject. It was approved by 134 votes in favour and nine against while 28 nations abstained. A vote so close to the hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over a petition seeking interim measures to prevent further killings and abuses with genocidal intent demands closer scrutiny to understand global community’s attitude towards the Rohingya crisis. China and Russia’s opposition to any international condemnation of Myanmar was not unexpected as both of them in the past had supported so-called security operations against alleged insurgency. Had these two veto-wielding nations allowed the UN Security Council to find a way forward to resolve the crisis or at the least refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC), victims of those atrocities carried out by Myanmar security forces would have gotten some hope for justice. Apparently, there’s too little Bangladesh can do to win them over. The other seven nations who voted against the resolution were Belarus, Cambodia, Peoples Democratic Republic of Lao, Philippines, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and Myanmar. Records show that these nations too have consistently sided with Myanmar. All these countries for decades have been criticised for their human rights records. Among them, Cambodia has bitter experience of dealing with genocide. It had cooperated fully with international jurists and experts to hold some of the perpetrators to justice. But, the current authoritarian regime’s appalling human rights records in the domestic front and reliance on China for military and economic aid explain its inability to support international actions against Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-05
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Title: Myanmar Rohingya: UN condemns human rights abuses
Summary: "The UN resolution passed on Friday expressed alarm at the continuing influx of Rohingya to Bangladesh over the past four decades "in the aftermath of atrocities committed by the security and armed...
Description: "The UN resolution passed on Friday expressed alarm at the continuing influx of Rohingya to Bangladesh over the past four decades "in the aftermath of atrocities committed by the security and armed forces of Myanmar". It highlighted the findings of an independent international mission "of gross human rights violations and abuses suffered by Rohingya Muslims and other minorities" by Myanmar's security forces, which the mission described as "the gravest crimes under international law". The resolution called on Myanmar to protect all groups and to ensure justice for all violations of human rights. It was passed by a total of 134 countries in the 193-member world body, with nine votes against and 28 abstaining. UN General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but can reflect world opinion. The UN ambassador for Myanmar, Hau Do Suan, called the resolution "another classic example of double-standards [and] selective and discriminatory application of human rights norms". He said it was designed to exert "unwanted political pressure" on Myanmar and did not attempt to find a solution to "the complex situation in Rakhine state"..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-04
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Title: The Plight of Stateless Rohingya and ASEAN’s Responsibility
Description: "It is for the first time for ASEAN to have an Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission whose main job is to deal with all human right problems within the association. This newly formed body would not be effective unless it deals properly by collective arrangements within the region. ASEAN would face criticism as a lip service body, which fails to take a firm action to deal with the Rohingya issues. Persecution and human rights violations against the Rohingya inside Burma, especially in Arakan state, have persisted for over 20 years, with insufficient international attention. Within the study of International Relations, the problem of forced migration and displaced persons are understudied, despite they are daily features in global conflict. The problem have great significance to understand the international society’s behaviour, yet “there has been little systematic attempt...to explore what the central concepts within IR might offer to the study of forced migration” (Betts and Loescher 2011, 11). Forced migration and displaced persons are both causes and consequences of conflict and instability, hence mitigation needs involvement of both states and non-state actors. The Rohingya problem has been unique since their displacement is not caused by internal conflicts but because of denial of citizenship. Within ASEAN member countries we are witnessing some groups of people holding this status. Including the Rohingya people, almost everywhere the non-citizens facing official and non-official discrimination. Having social and practical hostilities from their surroundings. This essay, however, explores why ASEAN continues to turn a blind eye to the plight of the Rohingya even though ASEAN has inaugurated the Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission..."
Source/publisher: Airlangga University (Indonesia) via "Academia.edu" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-04
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Title: UNGA resolution condemns abuses against Myanmar's Rohingya
Sub-title: UN member states voted 134-9 with 28 abstentions to call for urgent action to stop racial hatred against the Rohingya.
Description: "The UN General Assembly (UNGA) approved a resolution on Friday strongly condemning human rights abuses against Myanmar's Rohingya and other minorities, including arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and deaths in detention. The 193-member body voted 134-9 with 28 abstentions in favour of the resolution, which also calls on Myanmar's government to take urgent measures to combat incitement of hatred against the Rohingya and other minorities in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states. More: Transcript: Aung San Suu Kyi's speech at the ICJ in full Rohingya refugees reject Aung San Suu Kyi's 'lies on genocide' At top court, Myanmar urged to 'stop genocide of own people' UNGA resolutions are not legally binding but they reflect world opinion. Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya to be "Bengalis" from Bangladesh, in spite of their families having lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless; they are also denied freedom of movement and other basic rights..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-04
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Title: Myanmar cannot escape justice
Description: " Nothing can justify just egregious human rights abuses as those that have taken place in Rakhine state Myanmar and its military are currently being exposed for its gross violations of human rights -- through their ethnic cleansing operations of the Rohingya minority -- at the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the United Nations. This is all thanks to the tireless efforts of Gambia, a relatively small West African nation, who saw shades of the Rwandan genocide in the plight of the Rohingya. And it is because of Gambia, largely, that the world is finally starting to give the Rohingya crisis the attention it deserves. Perhaps the biggest news to arrive from the trials so far is the United States imposing strict sanctions against four of the Myanmar army’s top military leaders, including military chief Min Aung Hlaing and his deputy. This is truly an amazing turn of events. Backing Gambia’s initiative is the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and its 57 member states, Canada, and the Netherlands. And while the trials have only just begun, it is nothing short of heartening to see so many countries finally waking up to Myanmar’s history of abuse against its own minority groups..."
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-16
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Title: U.S. slaps sanctions on Myanmar military chief over Rohingya atrocities
Description: "The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on four Myanmar military leaders, including the commander-in-chief, in the toughest action taken yet by Washington for alleged human rights abuses against the Rohingya and other minorities. The sanctions targeted military chief Min Aung Hlaing on the same day that Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, attended the first day hearings at the U.N.’s highest court in The Hague, where she will lead Myanmar’s defense against the charge of genocide. A 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar drove more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. United Nations investigators have said Myanmar’s operation included mass killings, gang rapes and widespread arson and was executed with “genocidal intent.” Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, denied accusations of widespread abuses and said the military’s actions were part of a fight against terrorism. The U.S Treasury Department said in a statement on Tuesday Burmese military forces had committed “serious human rights abuse” under Min Aung Hlaing’s command..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-16
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Title: The West turned Aung San Suu Kyi into a saint. She was always going to disappoint
Description: "Few people have risen so high in the international imagination only to fall as dramatically as Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2013, after the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was released from house arrest in Myanmar, as the military regime gradually liberalized in the face of punishing international sanctions, Suu Kyi was hailed in the British parliament as a "conscience of a country and a heroine for humanity." Two years later, as she celebrated victory for her National League for Democracy (NLD) in Myanmar's first free elections in decades, the moment seemed to solidify her place in history as Asia's Nelson Mandela. This week, the "heroine for humanity" appeared at the Hague to defend her country -- and by extension herself -- from accusations of genocide against Rohingya Muslims, hundreds of thousands of whom have been forced out of northwestern Myanmar by a yearslong military crackdown. Few people are as perfect as their public image, especially when they are perceived as a saint. Nor did the 2015 election represent as much of a break with Myanmar's past as it first seemed -- the military kept a firm grip on power, while the ethnic strife and civil war which have racked the country since independence never went away..."
Source/publisher: "CNA" ( Singapore)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-16
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Title: New documentary explores the roots of Myanmar’s persecution of the Rohingya community
Description: "The film ‘Exiled’, directed by veteran war reporter Shahida Tulaganova, “explores the roots of increasing violence” in Myanmar’s Rakhine State from the perspectives of Rohingya refugees, former Burmese government officials and radical Buddhist monks. Also interviewed in the film is General Khin Nyunt, the former head of Burmese Military Intelligence accused of masterminding the policy of persecution of Rohingya. Myanmar has a predominantly Buddhist population, but also has more than one hundred ethnic minority groups, including the Rohingya, whom the government refuses to recognize and considers ‘illegal migrants’ from Bangladesh and India. In recent years, communal violence erupted in Rakhine between some Rohingya and radical Buddhist groups. Hate speech against the Rohingya, who are mostly Muslim, is also amplified online. Since 2017, thousands of Rohingya were forced to flee their homes after the government army clashed with the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army..."
Source/publisher: "Global Voices"
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-15
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Title: 'The World Has Not Forgotten Us.' A Rohingya Activist Speaks as Myanmar Faces Genocide Case
Description: "Wai Wai Nu is a Rohingya activist, former political prisoner, and founder of the Women Peace Network in Myanmar. Since her release from prison in 2012, Nu has dedicated herself to working for democracy and human rights, particularly on behalf of marginalized women and members of her own ethnic group, the minority Rohingya population. Originally from Rakhine state, Myanmar, she was named as a TIME Next Generation Leader in 2017, and is currently studying at Columbia University as an Obama Foundation scholar. This week, Nu is present at the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s highest court, in The Hague, the Netherlands for hearings in a landmark case claiming Myanmar has violated the 1948 convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide. Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is leading the country’s defense and said Wednesday that “genocidal intent cannot be the only conclusion.”..."
Source/publisher: "Time"
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-12
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi impassive as genocide hearing begins
Sub-title: World’s failure to act over Myanmar is ‘stain on collective conscience’, UN court told
Description: "Aung San Suu Kyi has sat impassively through graphic accounts of mass murder and rape perpetrated by Myanmar’s military at the start of a three-day hearing into allegations of genocide at the UN’s highest court. “I stand before you to awaken the conscience of the world and arouse the voice of the international community,” Abubacarr Marie Tambadou, the Gambia’s attorney general and justice minister, said as he opened his country’s case against Myanmar at the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague. “In the words of Edmund Burke: ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ “Another genocide is unfolding right before our eyes yet we do nothing to stop it,” he said. “This is a stain on our collective conscience. It’s not only the state of Myanmar that is on trial here, it’s our collective humanity that is being put on trial.” Before dawn on Tuesday, a long queue had formed outside the Peace Palace in the Dutch city to witness the first of three days of hearings that will focus attention on military clearance operations in 2017 against the Rohingya Muslim minority, 700,000 of whom were forced to flee across the border to neighbouring Bangladesh..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-11
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Title: A Journalist Looks Back as Myanmar's Government Faces Genocide Charges
Description: "The sight of more than a dozen young men armed with machetes walking out of a burning village in Western Myanmar is the moment I realized that I was witnessing a genocide in progress. In the eight years I spent documenting a campaign of oppression against the country's ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims, I had heard countless tales from victims who had endured or witnessed atrocities committed by Myanmar's security forces. Now, I was witnessing it in real time during the tail end of a government-approved press tour to Rakhine state’s conflict zone in September of 2017. Two men, barefoot and wearing traditional longyis, stopped briefly on a dirt footpath in front of me as I filmed the destruction. A journalist asked what they were doing. Speaking a local dialect, one replied that they had been ordered by Myanmar's Border Guard Forces (BGF) to burn the village. At their feet lay plastic jugs with diesel fuel. Behind them, orange flames devoured the bamboo huts in the now-empty hamlet of Gaw du Thara.
Source/publisher: "VOA" (Washington, D.C)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-11
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Title: Myanmar's Suu Kyi to take stand in genocide case at The Hague
Sub-title: In an unprecedented move, former human rights icon defends Myanmar generals over mass killings, rape, and displacement.
Description: "Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi will defend genocide allegations against Myanmar's military on Wednesday amid accusations of mass killings, rape, and expulsion of the Rohingya Muslim minority. The Gambia, a small West African country, launched the case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations's highest court, alleging it violated the 1948 Genocide Convention. More: New Rohingya book tells of the 'slow burn of genocide' Aung San Suu Kyi arrives at ICJ as Myanmar faces genocide case US slaps sanctions on Myanmar military chief over Rohingya abuses Aung San Suu Kyi - once a human rights icon who fought against the powerful military for democracy - shocked critics and galvanised supporters at home by travelling to The Hague to head her country's delegation. Her office said she was going to "defend the national interest". She listened impassively on Tuesday as lawyers for The Gambia detailed graphic testimony of suffering of Rohingya at the hands of Myanmar's security forces, including gang rape, torture, and murder. "It was very important to see her have to sit inches away from people who were describing - in really painfully excruciating detail - all the horrible crimes of the Burmese military that happened on her watch," Brad Adams, of New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), told Al Jazeera..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-11
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Title: UK to still fund Myanmar camps despite fears of 'apartheid-like' conditions
Sub-title: Humanitarian agencies say Rohingya people displaced by violence in Rakhine state are forced to live in squalid conditions
Description: "The UK has broken ranks with the UN and will keep funding “closed” Rohingya camps inside Myanmar despite fears that doing so may entrench “apartheid-like” conditions in the country, the Guardian has learned. Internal briefing documents as well as interviews with UN and humanitarian agency officials in Myanmar showed the British government was maintaining a policy of providing aid and other support to displaced people living in camps in Myanmar’s Rakhine state that have been slated for closure since 2017. The facilities have been criticised for being squalid, unsanitary and entrenching the segregation of Rohingya and other Muslim minorities, who in most cases are prevented from leaving..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-11
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi to appear at ICJ as Myanmar faces genocide case (Text)
Sub-title: Myanmar leader will defend country against charges of genocide over a 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya filed by Gambia.
Description: "Aung San Suu Kyi will appear at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Tuesday for a highly anticipated genocide case against Myanmar. The country's civilian leader, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle against Myanmar's military dictatorship, arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on Sunday alongside Wouter Jurgens, the Dutch ambassador to Myanmar, and was greeted by a handful of supporters. More: Rohingya campaigners say won't be 'silenced' by online threats Myanmar sets up special legal unit as Rohingya cases loom A boy who can sing: The life of a Rohingya child refugee Several demonstrations, for and against her, are expected to take place in the coming days in the Dutch city. The case, the first international legal attempt to bring Myanmar to justice over alleged mass killings of the Rohingya minority, comes after the Gambia on November 11 filed an application at the ICJ, accusing Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention. Aung San Suu Kyi's office confirmed last month that she would participate in the hearing and lead her country's team to "defend the national interest". More than 700,000 Rohingya, a mostly-Muslim minority, fled to neighbouring Bangladesh after a bloody crackdown in 2017 by the Myanmar military, which UN investigators have concluded was carried out with "genocidal intent"..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-10
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Title: From democracy icon to genocide defender
Description: "From democracy champion to defending Myanmar against genocide charges, the shock decision by civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to face the UN’s top court risks further damaging her image overseas and deepening the siege mentality at home. “We stand with you,” proclaim billboards across Myanmar, sporting beaming portraits of the Nobel laureate as she prepares to face the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the Rohingya crisis. Suu Kyi’s supporters are printing off T-shirts, organising rallies and even signing up to VIP tours to The Hague to offer their backing. Political parties and even some rebel armed groups have also fallen over themselves to give their support, in a country where the Rohingya garner little sympathy and are widely regarded as illegal immigrants. Yet overseas, particularly in the West and in Muslim countries, Suu Kyi’s reputation lies in tatters with multiple awards and even an honorary citizenship revoked. Critics say “The Lady”, once lauded alongside Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, has become an apologist for a murderous military intent on wiping out the country’s Rohingya Muslims. The spectacle of Suu Kyi standing up in court on behalf of the nation might play well at home but she risks suffering a fatal blow to what remains of her international reputation. “If she’s only going to use the visit to demonstrate defiance and continue to defend the indefensible, then it only widens the impasse,” Yangon-based analyst David Mathieson told AFP..."
Source/publisher: Agence France-Presse (AFP) (France) via "The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-10
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Title: Myanmar Rohingya: Suu Kyi to defend genocide charge at UN court
Description: "The Nobel Peace Prize laureate will hear allegations that Myanmar committed atrocities against Muslim Rohingya. Thousands of Rohingya were killed and more than 700,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh during an army crackdown in the Buddhist-majority country in 2017. Myanmar has always insisted it was tackling an extremist threat. The case has been brought by the small African nation of The Gambia. In the initial three-day hearing at the ICJ, it will ask the court to approve temporary measures to protect the Rohingya. What are the accusations? At the start of 2017, there were one million Rohingya in Myanmar (formerly Burma), most living in Rakhine state. But Myanmar, a mainly Buddhist country, considers them illegal immigrants and denies them citizenship. Blow by blow: How a 'genocide' was investigated Will Omar get justice for his murdered family? The Rohingya have long complained of persecution, and in 2017 the military - the Tatmadaw - launched a massive military operation in Rakhine. According to the ICJ documents, the military stands accused of "widespread and systematic clearance operations" against the Rohingya, beginning in October 2016 and expanding in August 2017. It will hear allegations that the clearances were "intended to destroy the Rohingya as a group, in whole or in part", via mass murder, rape, and setting fire to their buildings "often with inhabitants locked inside"..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-10
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Title: Rohingya campaigners launch Myanmar boycott
Sub-title: The Free Rohingya Coalition begins 'Boycott Myanmar Campaign' in the face of genocide hearings at the ICJ.
Description: "Human rights campaigners supporting Myanmar's Rohingya mainly Muslim minority have called for a global boycott of the country, a day before genocide hearings begin at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. The Free Rohingya Coalition (FRC) said in a statement on Monday it was starting the "Boycott Myanmar Campaign" with 30 organisations in 10 countries. It called on "corporations, foreign investors, professional and cultural organizations to sever their institutional ties with Myanmar". More: Bangladeshi-American teen activist fighting for climate action Myanmar sets up special legal unit as Rohingya cases loom A boy who can sing: The life of a Rohingya child refugee More than 730,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh following the brutal crackdown by the military in August 2017, which United Nations investigators have concluded was carried out with "genocidal intent". The FRC statement added that the campaign was intended to "to bring to bear economic, cultural, diplomatic and political pressure on Myanmar's coalition government of Aung San Suu Kyi and the military"..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-10
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Title: Timeline: How the crackdown on Myanmar's Rohingya unfolded
Sub-title: A brutal crackdown on the minority Rohingya has brought Myanmar to the UN's highest court and charges of genocide.
Description: "Aung San Suu Kyi, former political prisoner, Nobel Peace Prize winner and now Myanmar's civilian leader, is in the Netherlands to defend the country against charges of genocide in relation to a brutal 2017 crackdown on its Rohingya minority. Around 740,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya fled into neighbouring Bangladesh when the military swept through villages in western Rakhine state after an armed group attacked a number of security posts. The United Nation's top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), will start hearing the case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar on Tuesday. The International Criminal Court has also approved a full investigation of allegations of crimes against humanity committed during the military crackdown, while Aung San Suu Kyi herself has been accused of committing crimes against the Rohingya in a case brought in Argentina. Myanmar has denied charges of genocide..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-10
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi heads to The Hague for Myanmar genocide showdown
Sub-title: Peace prize winner will lead her country’s defence against claims at court in Netherlands
Description: "A momentous legal confrontation will take place at the UN’s highest court on Tuesday when the Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi appears in person to defend Myanmar against accusations of genocide. Once internationally feted as a human rights champion, Myanmar’s state counsellor is scheduled to lead a delegation to the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague. The claim that Myanmar’s military carried out mass murder, rape and destruction of Rohingya Muslim communities has been brought by the Gambia, a west African state that belongs to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The contrast is repeatedly drawn between Aung San Suu Kyi’s 1991 peace prize win and 15 years spent under house arrest, and her present position as chief denier that any ethnic violence has been perpetrated against the Rohingya. Last year, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum revoked her Elie Wiesel award..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-09
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi risks image defending Rohingya genocide
Description: "From democracy champion to defending Myanmar against genocide charges, the shock decision by civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to face the UN’s top court risks further damaging her image overseas and deepening the siege mentality at home. “We stand with you,” proclaim billboards across Myanmar, sporting beaming portraits of the Nobel laureate as she prepares to face the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the Rohingya crisis. Suu Kyi’s supporters are printing off T-shirts, organizing rallies and even signing up to VIP tours to The Hague to offer their backing. Political parties and even some rebel armed groups have also fallen over themselves to give their support, in a country where the Rohingya garner little sympathy and are widely regarded as illegal immigrants..."
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-09
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Title: How To Move Forward. Yanghee Lee, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar
Description: "Speaking at the first day of the International Conference on Protection of Rohingya Survivors and Accountability for Genocide, professor and UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee delivered an inspirational opening keynote, calling Myanmar’s policies of persecution towards Rohingyas a classic genocide while exhorting activists in the audience – and on YouTube – to “call a spade a spade”. She invoked the inter-state treaty known as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Lee rightly slammed the United Nations, particularly the Security Council, to discharge its founding charter, exposed the unconscionable presence of Myanmar solders among the UN Peacekeepers and destroyed the credibility of the United Nations. The two-day International Conference was at at Sogang University in Seoul, S. Korea, August 23-24, 2019..."
Source/publisher: "FORSEA Forces of Renewal Southeast Asia"
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-09
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