THE BUSINESS STANDARD
SM Abrar Aowsaf
11 December, 2024,
As the Arakan Army gains full control of northern Rakhine, fears of renewed violence against the Rohingya mount, complicating repatriation efforts
THE BUSINESS STANDARD
SM Abrar Aowsaf
11 December, 2024,
Anadolu Agency
Edited By Nurbanu Tanrıkulu Kızıl
ISTANBUL Dec 03, 2024
The Guardian
Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent
Wed 27 Nov 2024
Min Aung Hlaing accused of crimes against humanity over deportation and persecution of Rohingya minority
The chief prosecutor of the international criminal
court (ICC) is seeking an arrest warrant for Myanmar’s military leader,
Min Aung Hlaing, for crimes against humanity over the deadly crackdowns
against the country’s Rohingya minority that drove hundreds of thousands
to flee to Bangladesh.
Karim Khan said
that “after an extensive, independent and impartial investigation” his
office had concluded there were reasonable grounds to believe that the
Myanmar junta chief “bears criminal responsibility for the crimes
against humanity of deportation and persecution of the Rohingya
committed in Myanmar and in part in Bangladesh”.
A panel of three ICC judges must now rule on the prosecutor’s request. More applications for arrest warrants will follow, the prosecutor’s office said.
Tun Khin, a prominent Rohingya activist and the president of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, welcomed the news as “huge step forward in the quest for justice”.Rohingya who fled across the border gave harrowing testimonies of mass rape, murder, and of torched homes. The events shocked the world, and for the past five years the ICC prosecutor’s office has been investigating the waves of violence that occurred during 2016 and 2017. Myanmar has denied accusations of genocide.
At the time of the killings, the western-backed politician Aung San Suu Kyi was Myanmar’s democratically elected de facto leader. She was accused by rights groups of standing by while the army committed massacres. Her supporters claimed, however, that Myanmar’s most famous politician was unable to stand up to the military.
Aung San Suu Kyi later defended her country against allegations of genocide at the UN’s top court. In 2021, she was arrested when the military took power in a coup.
Tun Khin said the news brought “a rare day of celebration for the Rohingya”. He said: “For decades the international community allowed the Myanmar military to violate international law against ethnic and religious minorities, without taking any action. This encouraged the Myanmar military to scale up abuses, including the genocide of the Rohingya. Today we have finally taken another step towards justice and accountability.”
Almost 1 million Rohingya remain in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in one of the world’s biggest and most densely populated refugee camps, which is plagued by insecurity. Rohingya who live in Myanmar continue to face persecution and violence, not only from the Myanmar military but also, activists say, from the Arakan Army, which is fighting against the military for control of Rakhine state.
Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya political activist, said the prosecutor’s application was long overdue. “We warmly welcome this move,” he said, adding that he hoped an arrest warrant would be issued promptly. “We deserve justice, we want justice, only the international court can deliver justice for us,” he said.
There is no set timeframe for the judge’s decision but it generally takes about three months to rule on issuing an arrest warrant.
Matthew Smith, a co-founder and the chief executive of Fortify Rights, a human rights group, described Min Aung Hlaing as “one of the world’s most notorious criminals”.
“He’s not only responsible for crimes against humanity against Rohingya but also for genocide and war crimes in Myanmar. He orchestrated the coup d’etat in 2021 and the subsequent mass murder, imprisonment and other atrocities against people throughout the country,” he said. “Min Aung Hlaing’s victims span Myanmar’s many ethnic groups and number in the tens of millions. He must be stopped and brought to justice.”
Link : Here
The two NGOs, the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK) and Free Rohingya Coalition (FRC), called on Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to pressure the Myanmar military junta and Arakan groups to stop the genocide of the community.
Buddhist ethnic insurgent group Arakan Army’s efforts to control region led to continued displacement, mass killings, atrocities, human rights violations, co-founder of Free Rohingya Coalition laments.
UCA News
Updated: August 30, 2024
Most of the estimated 1 million Rohingya refugees are frustrated with no visible sign of repatriation and poor camp life
DEMOCRACY NOW
StoryAugust 15, 2024
Topics
Burma
Rohingya
Bangladesh
Guests
Nay San Lwin
co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition.
Up to 200 Rohingya Muslims were killed in drone strikes last week in Burma as they attempted to flee to Bangladesh. This comes amid intensifying conflict between the military junta and the Arakan Army, a rebel armed group. Human Rights Watch says the military and the Arakan Army have both committed extrajudicial killings, unlawful recruitment for combat, and widespread arson against Rohingya civilians. “They are the enemy of each other, but when it comes to the Rohingya issue, they have the same intention,” says Nay San Lwin, co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition. Only about 600,000 Rohingya remain in Burma, down from about 1.4 million before a campaign of ethnic cleansing began in 2016, though Nay San Lwin says the Rohingya genocide goes back even further to 1978.
The Guardian
Rebecca Ratcliffe in Bangkok
Mon 12 Aug 2024
The Washinton Post
By Associated Press
June 25, 2024
The United Nations’ food agency has strongly condemned the looting of food supplies and burning of one of its warehouses in a war-torn area in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine
BYLINE TIMES
Steve Shaw
14 June 2024
The attack on Buthidaung – where thousands of Rohingya Muslims had sought refuge – has been called a “turning point” in what has been dubbed a “slow-burning genocide”
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Shaikh Azizur Rahman
Published: 6 Jun 2024
Families of Rohingya individuals in western Myanmar reportedly are struggling to reach their loved ones amidst the aftermath of recent widespread arson attacks that have displaced around 200,000 people and destroyed countless homes.
The South Asia Times
Friday, 24 May, 2024
New York: Having faced decades of discrimination and repression under successive Myanmar authorities, the situation remains dire for the Muslim minority Rohingyas who have been bearing the brunt of fighting between the military and an ethnic armed group.
CNN
By Helen Regan and Avery Schmitz,
Thu May 23, 2024
Satellite imagery provided by Planet Labs, PBC, taken on May 20, shows thermal scarring across Buthidaung, Myanmar.Planet Labs, PBC