Experts urge Rohingya-Rakhine Buddhists reconciliation

AA
Md. Kamruzzaman
DHAKA, Bangladesh
17.07.2020

Changing attitudes to Rohingya by Buddhists, media paving way for reconciliation, Rohingya rights worker says

Experts at the first Rohingya-Rakhine online seminar Thursday urged reconciliation of minority Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists to restore sustainable peace in Rakhine state in Myanmar.

“Interestingly we are seeing many Rakhine brothers and sisters, and Rakhine media changing their attitude towards us. It gives us an opportunity to start contemplating and aspiring to a Rohingya - Rakhine reconciliation,” Ro Nay San Lwin, co-founder of Free Rohingya Coalition said at the conference.

What Future for Rakhine?: End Games for the Arakanese (Rakhine, Rohingyas and Other Co-habitants)

Co-organised by SOAS, FORSEA & Free Rohingya Coalition
 

Reconciliation between Rakhine and Rohingyas is essential before repatriation: Experts

THE BUSINESS STANDARD

16 July, 2020, 

 

The discussions also addressed the status of the genocide of Rohingyas, the limitations of international law and accountability mechanisms (such as ICJ and ICC) 

 

Rohingya refugee camp in Ukhia, Cox's Bazar. File Photo: Salahuddin Ahmed/TBS 

 

Experts on Thursday said in a special online seminar there are possibilities for reconciliation between the two largest co-habiting ethnic communities of Rakhine – Rakhine and Rohingya.

They also opined that reconciliation is a must before repatriation of Rohingyas in Myanmar.

The seminar titled "What Future for Rakhine?: End Games for the Arakanese (Rakhine, Rohingyas and Other Co-habitants)" was jointly organised by Free Rohingya Coalition, Forces of Renewal Southeast Asia and SOAS School of Interdisciplinary Studies.

Covid-19 And The Rohingya: Hunger, exploitation, hate crimes and xenophobia

The Daily Star
C R Abrar
 July 14, 2020

“What these youth want is to thrive as human beings, to realise their innate potentials, not merely to survive.” Photo: Anisur Rahman 

"We are the same human being like you and need the same basic rights which you enjoy. Please don't hate us. We don't want to be a burden. Allow us to study and work, and stand by us. We will surely return home."

This was the ardent appeal of Sharifah Shakirah, who fled to Malaysia from Buthidaung township in Myanmar at the age of six. Sharifah was joined by four other Rohingya youth at an eSymposium on June 9 to share their experiences of the Covid-19 situation in their respective countries of asylum.

Covid-19 pushed Rohingyas towards hunger, malnutrition: Experts

UNB

UNB News
Dhaka
July 10, 2020,

File photo

Experts at an e-symposium on Thursday said the lockdowns and economic slowdown for Covid-19 pandemic in different countries have robbed Rohingya refugee communities further of their livelihood opportunities and pushed them into hunger and malnutrition.

They made these remarks at an e-symposium titled ‘Hunger, Exploitation, Hate Crime and Xenophobia! Rohingyas on Land and at Sea’ organised by Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) in collaboration with Free Rohingya Coalition.

Covid-19 exposed Rohingyas to hate, xenophobia: Experts

THE BUSINESS STANDARD
TBS Report
09 July, 2020

Lockdowns, economic slowdown in different countries robbed the Rohingyas of their livelihood opportunities and pushed them into an abyss of hunger 

Rohingya refugees at the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh/Reuters 

 

The Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately harmed refugees, asylum seekers and stateless people such as the Rohingyas, said speakers at an online event jointly organised by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) and Free Rohingya Coalition.

The lockdowns and economic slowdown in different countries have robbed the Rohingyas of their livelihood opportunities and pushed them into an abyss of hunger and malnutrition. It has also exposed them to exploitation, hate and xenophobia, they added.

Global economic slowdown robbed Rohingyas of livelihood: Rights activists

The Financial Express
FE Online Report
July 09, 2020

The lockdowns and economic slowdown in different countries have robbed Rohingyas of their livelihood opportunities and pushed them into an abyss of hunger and malnutrition, according to rights activists.

They came up with the opinion at a virtual symposium on Thursday, organised by Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) in collaboration of Free Rohingya Coalition.

Rohingyas facing more xenophobia amid the Covid-19 pandemic: activists

The Daily Star
July 09, 2020
Star Online Report

Rohingya refugees walk towards the Balukhali refugee camp after crossing the border in Bangladesh’s Ukhia district, on November 2, 2017. Photo: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP

Rohingya activists have urged the host countries to stop hatred against them and treat them as human beings, saying the refugees, who have fled genocidal acts in Myanmar, are now facing a higher level of xenophobia amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Stating that countries like Malaysia and Thailand had refused entry to Rohingyas who tried to go on their shores citing fears of coronavirus infection, they said it was not their choice to take such risky journeys but the grave rights violations back in Myanmar had forced them to do so.

Brands Declare Black Lives Matter, but Activists See a 'Double Standard' in Asia

VICE
Andrew Nachemson
July 2, 2020


Despite public shows of support for the movement for racial justice taking place around the world, some corporations have been complicit in racial violence in the world's most populous continent.

Arsenal's German defender Shkodran Mustafi (C) takes a knee to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement and as a protest against racism before kick off of an English Premier League football match on June 20, 2020. (Photo by Gareth Fuller / POOL / AFP) 

As countries around the world reckon with widespread protests against centuries of systemic racism, high-profile companies have found themselves scrambling to adjust to the new paradigm.

Some have scrubbed long-overlooked offensive mascots, while many others have used the platform afforded by major brand recognition to voice their support for the movement.

Malaysia Is Planning to Send a Boat Full of Rohingya Refugees Back Out to Sea

VICE
by Sammy Westfall
Jun 19 2020,

"Sending them back out to sea is just throwing them into a killing field."

A Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh. Photo courtesy of UK DFID.

Once their damaged boat is fixed, 269 Rohingya refugees now docked in Malaysia will be sent back out to sea if officials follow through with their current plan, sparking an outcry from rights groups.

Reuters, citing two security sources, reported on Thursday that Malaysia had previously asked Bangladesh to take back the refugees, who have been detained since their June 8 arrival, but Bangladeshi officials rejected the request. The sources said authorities have drawn up plans to push the refugees back out with food and water, but “no decision has been made yet.”

Stop Drug Addiction and Smuggling

Rohingya Vision
Jun 7, 2020
Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPDLr7uYXA&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3rVSgITtgHN2PesVPlObVSnEm2iPQ2RzCrw8_wL_mIpXDXHGSoog5jn_U

Activists championed by rights groups have history of anti-Rohingya messaging

Frontier

MYANMAR

ANDREW NACHEMSON and LUN MIN MANG
Sunday, May 24, 2020

Ko Zayar Lwin (centre left, with white rose) attends a court in Yangon with other Peacock Generation members on October 30, 2019. (Nyein Su Wai Kyaw Soe | Frontier)

 

Some prominent activists who say they stand for human rights and democracy have propagated hatred for the Rohingya, a double-standard that international watchdog groups weren’t fully aware of. 

 

Ko Zayar Lwin, 29, has become an icon in Myanmar’s activist community since his arrest in April 2019 for a Thangyat performance mocking the military. Zayar Lwin and four of his colleagues in the Peacock Generation troupe, who performed the traditional form of satirical theatre during the annual Thingyan festival, were charged with defamation and undermining the military, and face increasingly lengthy jail sentences. The plight of the young satirists has attracted international attention, even as the civilian government led by their idol State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has remained silent.

15,000 Rohingya under quarantine as coronavirus cases rise

Aljazeera
2May 2020


Three sections of camps in Bangladesh blocked off by authorities after confirmed infections among refugees hit

At least 15,000 Rohingya refugees are under quarantine in Bangladesh's vast camps, as the number of confirmed coronavirus infections there rose to 29.

Health experts have long warned that the virus could race through the cramped settlements, housing almost a million Rohingya who fled violence in Myanmar, and officials had restricted movement in the area in April.

ဘဂၤလားေဒ့ရွ္ ဒုကၡသည္စခန္းမွာ ရိုဟင္ဂ်ာေတြ ဆႏၵျပ

လွတ်လပ်တဲ့အာရှအသံ ( RFA )
မြန်မာဌာန | မေးမြန်းခန်း
2016-05-21

ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်နိုင်ငံ၊ ကော့ဇ် ဘဇား Cox’s Bazar ခရိုင်ရှိ Nayapara နရာပယာ ဒုက္ခသည်စခန်းမှာ မြန်မာ နိုင် ငံ ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်က သွားရောက်ခိုလှုံနေတဲ့ ရိုဟင်ဂျာမူစလင်တွေ ဒီကနေ့ ဆန္ဒပြနေကြပါတယ်။

Scope with Waqar Rizvi | Myanmar: War crimes | Brexit: EU-UK committee meeting | Ep 244 | Indus News

NewsX.tv

International News Library

May,2,2020

Watch Waqar Rizvi conferring with a panel of experts on recent International events in the SCOPE.

Topics:
1. Myanmar: War crimes against minorities
2. Brexit: UK-EU committee discuss implementation
Guests:
Nay San Lwin – (Rohingya Activist)
Nasir Zakaria – (Rohingya Activist)
Bridget Welsh – (Researcher)
Alex de Ruyter – (Brexit Expert)
Mark Brolin – (Political Analyst)

Malaysia detains hundreds of Rohingya and migrants despite health risks

The Washington Post 
Miriam Berger
May 2, 2020

Rohingya refugees stand in line to get food April 15 in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. (Shafiqur Rahman/AP) 

 

Malaysia has rounded up and detained hundreds of undocumented migrants in what authorities said was part of an effort to maintain movement restrictions in the country and contain the coronavirus outbreak.

Human rights groups, however, criticized the arrests, which have included Rohingya refugees and children, and subsequent detentions, as the coronavirus spreads easily in such places as detention centers.

Malaysia cites Covid-19 for rounding up hundreds of migrants

The Guardian
Kaamil Ahmed and agencies
Sat 2 May 2020

In move condemned by UN, refugees including Rohingya detained amid rise in xenophobia 

Rohingya refugees wearing protective masks practise distancing while waiting to receive goods from volunteers in Kuala Lumpur. Photograph: Lim Huey Teng/Reuters 

Malaysian authorities have rounded up and detained hundreds of undocumented migrants, including Rohingya refugees, as part of efforts to contain coronavirus, officials said.

Authorities said 586 undocumented migrants were arrested in a raid in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, on Friday. Armed police walked people through the city in a single file to a detention building, according to activists. The UN said the move could push vulnerable groups into hiding and prevent them from seeking treatment.

Free Rohingya Coalition decries pushing refugees back out to sea

The Daily Star

Star Online Report
April 29, 2020

A boat carrying suspected ethnic Rohingya migrants is seen detained in Malaysian territorial waters, in Langkawi, Malaysia on April 5, 2020. File Photo: Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency/Handout via Reuters

Pushing hundreds of starving and persecuted Rohingya refugees back out to the sea in the full knowledge that they have no safe place of refuge elsewhere are fundamental violations of their human rights, said Free Rohingya Coalition, a global network of Rohingya survivors and activists, today.

It said it is deeply troubled by the news reports that a number of Asian countries, specifically Malaysia, Thailand and Bangladesh, are pushing starving Rohingya refugees on boats back out to dangerous waters after refusing disembarkation on their shores.

First coronavirus case confirmed in Cox's Bazar, near world's largest refugee camp

CNN

March 25, 2020

Rebecca Wright and journalist Salman Saeed 

People cross a stream in a Rohingya refugee camp on January 23 in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Allison Joyce/Getty Images

The first case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

According to the United Nations refugee agency, a local Bangladeshi woman was confirmed to be positive on Tuesday afternoon local time.

The hospital in the town of Cox’s Bazar is around one hour’s drive from sprawling camps which are home to nearly one million Rohingya refugees.

What will the Kingdom gain from deporting them?

The Daily Star

Nay San Lwin
March 05, 2020

Rohingya refugees walk down a hillside at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar on November 27, 2017. PHOTO: AFP

If you look at the major cities around the world, from New York to London, you will find the Rohingya are there. You can be sure that wherever they are, be it in Riyadh or Vancouver, they have gone by one of three routes—seeking asylum, UN agency resettlement or entry with a counterfeit passport from a third country. And so it is, that an estimated 42,000 Rohingya are in Saudi Arabia. Worryingly, they face deportation to Bangladesh.