UN-appointed expert says better sanctions on Myanmar needed

The Washington Post

By David Rising | AP
September 22, 2022

FILE - A school bag lies next to dried blood stains on the floor of a middle school in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin township in the Sagaing region of Myanmar on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, the day after an air strike hit the school. A United Nations-appointed human rights expert called Thursday for governments and companies to coordinate efforts to cut off the military-led government of Myanmar from its revenue and weapons sources, saying life in the Southeastern Asian nation has become a “living hell” for many since the generals seized power last year. (AP Photo, File) (Uncredited/AP

BANGKOK — A United Nations-appointed human rights expert called Thursday for governments and companies to coordinate efforts to cut off the military-led government of Myanmar from its sources of revenue and weapons, saying life in the Southeastern Asian nation has become a “living hell” for many since the generals seized power last year.

Tom Andrews, in Geneva to deliver his annual report on Myanmar to the U.N. Human Rights Council, told reporters that while many countries have been imposing sanctions on individuals, military entities, financial institutions and energy companies, what is needed is “coordinated action.”

Fighting in Maungdaw: A Strategic Turning Point in Western Myanmar?

THE I DIPLOMAT

Kyaw Hsan Hlaing

September 21, 2022

The return of conflict in northern Rakhine State has brought the Arakan Army’s goal of autonomy one step closer to fulfillment

On the morning of September 16, around two months after intensive clashes resumed between the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar military in northern Rakhine State, Bri. Gen. Dr. Nyo Twan Awng, the AA’s deputy commander in chief, shared a message to the Rakhine people through his social media accounts. The message described the return to war against the junta as “a final war and decisive war” for building “the state of the Arakan.”

The AA, the armed wing of the United League of Arakan (ULA), was formed by 26 Rakhine youths in April 2009 in Laiza, in northern Myanmar’s Kachin State, under the guidance of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). In early 2015, the AA moved to Rakhine and began engaging in clashes with the Myanmar military in Kyauktaw township and Paletwa township in neighboring Chin State. Fighting escalated late in 2018 and raged until just before the national election in November 2020.

A life without prospects

NEWAGE

Rodion Ebbighausen
Sep 16,2022

 

 — Qantara

 

FIVE years ago, Myanmar’s army launched what it called ‘clearance operations’ against the Muslim-minority Rohingya people in Rakhine State, which borders Bangladesh. Civilians were murdered, girls and women were raped and entire villages razed to the ground. About 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, where most remain to this day in refugee camps.

Rohingya plea for education to deter risks of becoming a lost generation & More News Headlines

AA

Md. Kamruzzaman
September 8, 2022 

  
Only education can ensure future leadership for survival as nation, says father of 3

One early afternoon, thousands of Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh’s sprawling refugee camps had just completed their midday prayers and were moving toward makeshift tents for lunch.

A sweet sound of the recitation of the Quran by a chorus of children was heard from a camp-based mosque in camp no. 12.

The world’s largest refugee settlement in Bangladesh, divided into 34 camps, is currently home to more than 1.2 million Rohingya, most of whom fled a brutal military clampdown in their home country of Myanmar’s Rakhine State in August 2017.

Myanmar’s threat on Bangladesh’s sovereignty

dailyobserver 

Published : Monday, 5 September, 2022 

Mehjabin Bhanu

 

Despite strong protests, Myanmar continues to violate the border. A week after firing mortar shells on the Bangladesh border, the Myanmar forces again fired from warplanes on the Bangladesh border. Yesterday (On September 03), two shells fired by the Myanmar army exploded in Bangladesh territory near the zero line of the Naikshyongchari border in Bandarban. Although it exploded within 120 meters of the terrain, no one was injured or injured in the incident. In the morning, the place where the two bullets fell is an uninhabited area. 6 days before this incident, on August 28, mortar shells landed in the populated area of Ghumdhumpara, north of Naikshyongchari.

But it did not explode. With two such incidents in a row and ongoing fighting between Myanmar's insurgent group Arakan Army (AA) and Myanmar's security forces, the local residents of the Bangladesh border are suffering from fear and insecurity. Those who cultivate jum(One kind of cultivation method in the hilly area) in the hillsadjacent to the border are staying at home instead of farming. Security analysts said that such incidents are disrupting the normal life of the residents of the border areas.

The Rohingya Refugee Crisis: Legal Protection on International Law and Islamic Law

Rohingya Refugee Crisis Needs Prompt And Thorough Solution – OpEd

eurasiareview

Samina Akhter
September 3, 2022

Displaced Rohingya in Myanmar. Photo Credit: Tasnim News Agency

Our attention was drawn to a recent news story on statements made by notable people and international organizations on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the Rohingya catastrophe. Reiterating their assurances, they all essentially stated that they will “continue efforts to find a durable solution to solve the man-made humanitarian disaster.”

A deadly military campaign that began in Rakhine, Myanmar, on August 25, 2017, forced almost a million displaced Rohingyas to seek sanctuary in Bangladesh. Since then, thousands of babies have been born, bringing the total to more than 1.2 million.

Joint forces operation on Rohingya camps soon

dailyobserver 

Published : Tuesday, 30 August, 2022 

 

In a bid to wipe out growing terror and criminal activities in Rohingya camps, the government has decided to conduct joint operation by combining Army, Police and other law enforcement agencies. In addition, army and relevant law enforcers will be deployed in the camps to deter drug smuggling.

However, on one hand we welcome the planned joint forces operation while on the other the operation has been long overdue.

Quality And Equality: Education For Rohingya Refugee Girls

Forbes

UNICEF USA
BRANDVOICE
Aug 30, 2022,

How UNICEF is helping make education more inclusive in Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. 

Rahima Akhter* would do anything to protect her children in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, where they live in a temporary dwelling tightly packed among strangers. She worries especially about her daughter's safety and dignity. Better to keep 14-year-old Nurkolima* at home, Akhter used to think, than let her go to school where she might be the target of unwanted male attention. If keeping Nurkolima safe meant sacrificing her education, then so be it.

Akhter was herself the victim of sexual harassment as a girl in Myanmar. When her parents heard about it, they considered it such a scandal, they married her off as quickly as possible. The memory, the humiliation of it all, haunts her still.

Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh are home to more than 400,000 school-age children

‘It’s a nightmare, every day’: Rohingya in India live in fear

Aljazeera
By Rifat Fareed
Published On 25 Aug 2022

Some 40,000 Rohingya refugees live in India where fears are growing as calls for deportations to Myanmar increase.

Rohingya refugees in New Delhi say they live in fear of deportation back to Myanmar [Suhail Bhat/Al Jazeera]

New Delhi, India – On the fifth anniversary of the start of military atrocities against the Rohingya in Myanmar, those of them living in India find themselves caught in a web of uncertainty and fear as the Indian government tightens restrictions on refugees in the country.

All About Rohingya Crisis

Current Affairs

piyush
Published On August 22nd, 2022

Beginning in 2017, renewed violence, including reported rape, murder, and arson, triggered an exodus of Rohingya, as Myanmar’s security forces claimed they were carrying out a campaign to reinstate.

Discriminatory policies of Myanmar’s government since the late 1970s have compelled hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya to flee their homes in the predominantly Buddhist country. Most have crossed by land into Bangladesh, while others have taken to the sea to reach India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.

Beginning in 2017, renewed violence, including reported rape, murder, and arson, triggered an exodus of Rohingya, as Myanmar’s security forces claimed they were carrying out a campaign to reinstate stability in the country’s western region. The United Nations has said that those forces showed “genocidal intent,” and international pressure on the country’s elected leaders to end the repression continues to rise.

Who Will Champion the Rohingya?

THE I DIPLOMAT
By Paul McPhun
August 22, 2022

“Failing meaningful and safe return to Myanmar, I worry what the future holds. How long can people live with so little basic protection and hope?”

I have spent nearly 30 years exposed to emergencies and humanitarian crises. Yet, standing at our “Hospital on the Hill” in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, now the world’s largest refugee camp, I was taken by the sheer scale of this makeshift setting. A jumble of humanity packed together in precarious bamboo and plastic shelters, all contained within kilometers of razor wire fencing.

As we mark five years since the brutal campaign of violence meted out at the hands of the Myanmar military, I remember a Rohingya mother of six who said, “The military were brutally killing Rohingya and burning our houses… now, we live here in the refugee camps. It is five years of living in distress…”

The plight of the Rohingya – persecuted in Myanmar, living in containment in Bangladesh, trafficked and living illegally in Malaysia and elsewhere – is fast becoming a pressure cooker that no one seems inclined to take off the stove.

Explained | What is India’s policy on the Rohingya?

THE HINDU
Vijaita Singh

AUGUST 21, 2022

80-year-old Zoora Khatoon at the Rohinya refugee settlement area in Kalindi Kunj, New Delhi on August 17, 2022. | Photo Credit: PTI

Can refugees who feel threatened in their home nation be deported? What are the government’s obligations?

The story so far: On August 17, Union Housing Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted that Rohingya refugees would be shifted to flats meant for economically weaker sections (EWS), and provided with basic amenities and police protection. The Minister said “India respects & follows the UN Refugee Convention 1951 & provides refuge to all, regardless of their race, religion or creed.” The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) under Amit Shah issued a clarification saying that no such direction had been given to provide EWS flats to “Rohingya illegal foreigners”.

Where do the Rohingya live in Delhi?

International Court of Justice Rejects Myanmar Claims, Will Hear Rohingya Genocide Case

THE I DIPLOMAT 

By Mike Corder  

July 23, 2022

  

The ICJ rejected the Myanmar government’s argument that Gambia had no standing to file the case.

Judges at the United Nations’ highest court on Friday dismissed preliminary objections by Myanmar to a case alleging the Southeast Asian nation is responsible for genocide against the Rohingya ethnic minority.

The decision establishing the International Court of Justice’s jurisdiction sets the stage for hearings airing evidence of atrocities against the Rohingya that human rights groups and a U.N. probe say breach the 1948 Genocide Convention. In March, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the violent repression of the Rohingya population in Myanmar, which formerly was known as Burma, amounts to genocide.

ရှင်သန်နေထိုင်ရေးအတွက် အသက်စွန့်နေကြတဲ့ ရိုဟင်ဂျာ တွေဘဝ

VOA
၂၉ မေ၊ ၂၀၂၂
ဆုမွန်

FILE PHOTO: Rohingya refugees continue their journey after crossing the Myanmar-Bangladesh border in Palong Khali, Bangladesh, November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo FROM THE FILES - 3RD ANNIVERSARY OF ROHINGYA MUSLIM EXODUS FROM MYANMAR

ဒီသီတင်းပတ်ထဲ ပင်လယ်ပြင်ထဲ စက်လှေမှောက်ပြီး ကလေးငယ်လေးတွေအပါအဝင် လှေစီးပြေး ရိုဟင်ဂျာ တဒါဇင်ကျော် ပင်လယ်ပြင်ထဲ အသက်ဆုံးခဲ့ရတဲ့အတွက် ဝမ်းနည်းတုန်လှုပ်ရပါကြောင်း ကုလမဟာမင်းကြီးက ထုတ်ပြန်လိုက်ပါတယ်။ ဒီလိုရိုဟင်ဂျာတွေ ပင်လယ်ထဲ အသက်ဆုံးရတဲ့ ဖြစ်ရပ်တွေ မကြာခဏကြုံရတာ ဘာကြောင့်ပါလဲ။ မျှော်လင့်ချက် အနာဂတ်မဲ့နေတဲ့ ဒုက္ခသည်စခန်းတွေနဲ့ ကန့်သတ်ချက်တွေနဲ့ နေထိုင်ရတဲ့ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံကနေ လွတ်မြောက်ရေး ပင်လယ်ပြင်အပါအဝင် နည်းလမ်းမျိုးစုံနဲ့ ထွက်ပေါက်လမ်းရှာခဲ့ကြတဲ့ ရိုဟင်ဂျာတွေရဲ့ အသက်နဲ့ရင်း ဘဝတွေပေးဆပ်ခဲ့ကြရတဲ့ အခက်အခဲ ဒုက္ခစိန်ခေါ်မှုတွေအကြောင်း ရိုဟင်ဂျာအရေး ကူညီပေးနေသူတွေ ဒုက္ခသည်တချို့ကို မဆုမွန်က ဆက်သွယ်မေးမြန်းတင်ပြထားပါတယ်။

Can Bangladesh-Myanmar military ties stabilise the region?

The Daily Star
Parvej Siddique Bhuiyan
Sun Jun 19, 2022

A power shift in Myanmar and the subsequent polarisation among major powers triggered a new geopolitical flashpoint in Bangladesh's strategic backyard, which the latter cannot afford to ignore. It seems that the US and other western countries are taking a heavy-handed approach while other big powers, such as Russia, China, India, and Japan, have started explicitly (or covertly) normalising their relations with the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military).

Myanmar always gets priority in Bangladesh's economic and security strategy. Although democratic Bangladesh has a moral dilemma in supporting the military government, it has yet to formally condemn the military coup or demand Aung San Su Kyi's release. It underscores Dhaka's careful support for the junta's "one-Myanmar government policy." So, in foreign policy circles, the immediate discussion is whether Dhaka's stance is a "well-thought-out approach or simply a premature polarisation."

Rohingya issue must be seen as global, in collective matter: Shahriar Alam

daily observer
Published : Saturday, 11 June, 2022
Observer Correspondent

The School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and the Department of Global Studies and Governance (GSG) of Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) launched the much-awaited and talked about book titled 'Global-Local Tradeoffs, Order-Disorder Consequences: 'State' No More An Island?' on Thursday (June 9, 2022) at the Multi-purpose Hall on the university campus. 

မြန်မာစစ်အစိုးရသည် ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်တွင် 'လူမျိုးတုံးသတ်ဖြတ်မှု' လုပ်ဆောင်နေ- အစီရင်ခံစာ

THE DIPLOMAT
Sebastian Strangio
ဇွန် ၀၉၊ ၂၀၂၂ 

( ဘာသာပြန် )

 ထောက်ခံအားပေးရေးအဖွဲ့ Fortify Rights ၏အဆိုအရ၊ ပြည်နယ်၏ အထောက်အထားစာရွက်စာတမ်းများကို ဆိုး ရွားစွာ အသုံးပြုခြင်းသည် လူမျိုးတုံးသတ်ဖြတ်မှု၏ အ တိတ် အပိုင်းများကို ထင်ဟပ်စေသည်။

ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်ရှိ ရိုဟင်ဂျာအသိုင်းအဝိုင်းအပေါ် လူမျိုးတုံး သတ်ဖြတ်မှု လွယ်ကူချောမွေ့စေရန်အတွက် မြန်မာစစ် အစိုးရက အထောက်အထား စာရွက်စာ တမ်းများ ကဲ့သို့ သော စီမံခန့်ခွဲရေးအစီအမံများကို အသုံးပြုနေသည်ဟု လူ့အခွင့်အရေးအဖွဲ့တစ်ဖွဲ့က ယမန်နေ့တွင် ပြောကြားခဲ့ သည်။

ရိုဟင်ဂျာများ အစီရင်ခံစာသစ်တစ်ခုတွင် အပေါ် မြန်မာ အစိုးရ၏ ပြုမူဆက်ဆံမှုသည် ၁၉၉၄ ခုနှစ် ရဝမ်ဒါ လူမျိုးတုံးသတ်ဖြတ်မှုဟု ထင်ဟပ်စေသည်ဟု ထောက်ခံ အားပေးရေးအဖွဲ့ Fortify Rights က ဆိုသည်။ ရိုဟင်ဂျာ အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းအား  လက်နက်ကိုင် တိုက်ခိုက်မှုသည် ကြီးမားစွာ ပြီးဆုံးသွားသော်လည်း “လူမျိုး တုံးသတ်ဖြတ်မှု” ကြာမြင့်နေပြီဖြစ်ပြီး ယနေ့တွင် ဆက်လက်လုပ် ဆောင်နေပါသည်” ဟု ထုတ်ပြန်ချက် နှင့်အတူ ပူးတွဲဖော်ပြချက် တစ် ခုအရ သိရသည်။

Will Rohingya repatriation ever happen?

The Daily Star
Bulbul Siddiqi
Tue Mar 29, 2022

After the inhuman ordeal that the displaced Rohingyas have suffered, they deserve a safe, dignified return to their homes in Myanmar, with their citizenship rights fully restored. File Photo: Reuters

"I can see my homeland when I gaze upon the distant hills from the top of a hill where I live in the refugee camp. I want to return to my home. Home is where I can breathe, and I can feel the smell of my country. You cannot call this a life; it's just surviving."


This is what a middle-aged Rohingya man, living at a makeshift camp in Cox's Bazar, who crossed over to Bangladesh during the 2017 exodus of Rohingyas fleeing military persecution in Rakhine, Myanmar, said when I asked him how he was. It is easy enough to see the desperation of these displaced people to return to their homeland, as well as the frustration because they are not able to. Every time I visit the Rohingya refugee camp for my research, I come across people who have not yet given up hope of returning to their home in the Rakhine state. I even met a man who, having lived in a registered camp for 35 years, has not yet lost his hope to return to his homeland. He spent most of the golden time of his life struggling to survive in Bangladesh. He would be waiting till his death to return to Rakhine.

Why Are Rohingya Refugees Returning From India To Bangladesh?

THE I DIPLOMAT 

By Rajeev Bhattacharyya
June 03, 2022

India’s plans to put them in detention centers before deporting them to Myanmar is driving the reverse exodus.

Over the past several years, Rohingya refugees have been apprehended on many occasions while crossing the border illicitly from Bangladesh to India. Last month, two batches were arrested in Assam and Tripura in India’s northeast. But their travel itinerary was different from the past.

This time around, their plan was to return to Bangladesh instead of settling in India.