Demonstrators gather along barricades during a protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar. -EPA pic
LETTER: The continued mass killing of civilians by the Myanmar security forces requires firm and quick action by the international community.
On March 14, at least 60 civilians were killed by security forces and the death tolls continue rising on March 15 too.
Martial law was declared in Hlaing Tharyar, Shwe Pyithar, South Dagon, North Dagon, Dagon Harbour and North Okkalapa Townships and violence against protesters continued in other districts in Yangon, many of them lower-income areas. At the same time the military continues to frequently block internet access in order to hide its crimes and prevent protesters from organizing.
Rohingya refugees walk on a muddy path after crossing the border in Teknaf, Bangladesh, on September 3, 2017. Photo: Reuters / Mohammad Ponir Hossain
A new report has highlighted the need for the international community to examine the ongoing oppression against the Rohingya.
Myanmar is a nation whose history is marred by the struggle between those in power and those they oppress. In recent years this has been especially true of the ethnic Rohingya in the country’s western Rakhine state. They have faced decades of oppression, culminating most recently in a military campaign against them that is now being investigated as genocide by the United Nations.
Two years on, Rohingya still in Myanmar trapped by new war
Rohingya refugees gather to mark the second anniversary of the exodus at the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh on August 25. Image Credit: REUTERS
Yangon: When Myanmar officials toured refugee camps in Bangladesh last month, inviting Rohingya Muslims who fled the country to return, they brought with them pamphlets adorned with cartoons showing hijab-wearing women passing through checkpoints and happily grasping identity cards.
They did not mention the new war being waged at home.
Refugees in Cox's Bazar question Myanmar motives amid Rakhine unrest, but some see 'breakthrough' in repatriation talks.
More than 700,00 Rohingya were forced to flee northern Rakhine in
Myanmar following a brutal military crackdown in 2017 [File:
Anadolu/Masfiqur Sohan]
Yangon, Myanmar - When a team of top Myanmar officials met Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar over the weekend, they handed out flyers aimed at persuading members of the persecuted minority to return home two years after fleeing a brutal military crackdown in 2017.
With its happy cartoon figures and its promise of a return "to normal life," the brochure paints a rosy picture for refugees who agree to be repatriated to Buddhist-majority Myanmar on the government's terms.
The UN Fact Finding Mission last week issued a statement urging the international community to financially isolate Myanmar’s military for its involvement in the genocidal campaign against the Rohingya people. It made clear that the Government of Myanmar had made no movement towards genuinely resolving the crisis.
The farmers who had been tending to cows and seeing to paddy fields didn’t stand a chance when the peaceful evening on April 3 was shattered by two military attack helicopters.
By the time the bombs had stopped falling and the pointless barrage was over, at least seven were dead and another 18 injured.
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