AP Interview: Myanmar troops said to be moving to cities

StarTribune

EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press
February 18, 2021

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. independent investigator on Myanmar said Wednesday that "hardened" troops are being deployed from a number of border areas in northern Rakhine state to some cities, raising the possibility of bloodshed and "a tragic loss of life."

Special rapporteur Tom Andrews said in an interview with The Associated Press that the initial restraint of police dealing with "robust citizen opposition to the coup" has moved on in some instances to use of rubber bullets, real ammunition being fired and use of water cannons.

He said he can now confirm "from a few sources" that some troops are moving to some populated cities from Rakhine, where the government is still fighting a Rohingya insurgency after a 2017 military crackdown that led 700,000 members of the Muslim minority to flee to Bangladesh.

"The people of Myanmar understand what the military and these generals are capable of, and so the presence of military and of troops, the escalation of a military presence, and where these troops are coming from makes me very, very nervous," Andrews said.

Nobody to claim them, 250 houses India gifted Myanmar for Rohingyas lie vacant

The Print
Nayanima Basu  
24 December, 2019


The 250 prefabricated houses were built as part of an agreement signed between India and Myanmar in 2017.

Refugees standing in a queue at a refugee camp | Commons 

New Delhi: As many as 250 houses that were built by India for displaced Rohingyas have been lying unused in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, ThePrint has learnt.

The prefabricated houses were handed over by Indian Ambassador to Myanmar Saurabh Kumar to the Myanmar government in July this year. The move was an effort to convince Rohingya refugees, who had to flee alleged ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, to return to their homeland.