Rohingya Repatriation: Quader for more int’l pressure on Myanmar

The Daily Star

Bss, Dhaka
December 29, 2020 

 

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday called upon the international community to take more effective strategies for mounting pressure on Myanmar to take back its Rohingya nationals from Bangladesh.

Quader, also general secretary of Awami League, said this at a regular press conference at his official residence on parliament premises in the capital.

He said since the outset of Rohingya crisis, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been continuing diplomatic efforts seeking cooperation from the international community for a peaceful solution to the problem.

The economy and environment of Bangladesh have been affected badly for hosting around 12 lakh Rohingyas who took shelter at Ukhia and Teknaf, he added.

The minister said social environment and ecological balance of the areas are now at stake due to excessive number of people living there. It is also putting adverse impacts on the tourism industry centring the world's longest natural sea beach in Cox's Bazar, he said.

Bangladesh ‘set to move’ new group of Rohingya to remote island

Aljazeera  

27 Dec 2020 

About 1,000 Rohingya refugees will be moved to a remote, cyclone-prone island despite calls by rights groups to stop relocation. 

Rohingya refugees are transported on a naval vessel to Bhashan Char, or floating island, in the Bay of Bengal, from Chittagong, Bangladesh [File: AP Photo]

Bangladesh is set to move a second batch of Rohingya refugees to the remote island of Bhasan Char in the Bay of Bengal this month, officials say, despite calls by rights groups not to carry out further relocations.

About 1,000 Rohingya refugees, members of a Muslim minority who fled neighbouring Myanmar to escape violence, will be moved to the flood-prone island in the next few days after Bangladesh relocated more than 1,600 earlier this month, two officials with the direct knowledge of the matter said on Sunday.

 

Bhasan Char: 2nd batch of Rohingyas to be relocated by this month

The Daily Star  

Mohammad Al-Masum Molla
December 25, 2020

The second batch of Rohingya refugees are likely to be relocated to Bhasan Char at the end of this month, officials said.

"A total of 700-1000 Rohingya refugees are scheduled to be relocated on December 28 or 29 and Bhasan Char has been readied to receive them," Commodore Abdullah Al Mamun Chowdhury, director of the Ashrayan-3 Project (the official title of the Bhasan Char project), told The Daily Star yesterday.

The first batch of refugees, consisting 1,642 Rohingyas, were relocated to the char on the 4th of this month.

Bangladesh: Turkey’s key partner in Asia Anew initiative

DAILY SABAH

Nazmul Islam
Op-Ed
Dec 25, 2020

The deep-rooted relations between Turkey and Bangladesh date back to the 13th century, as incumbent Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina pointed out in a speech during the inauguration of Bangladesh's new embassy complex in the Turkish capital Ankara.

Though the two modern nation-states established formal diplomatic relations in 1974, the extensive relations between Turkey and the people of Bengal have existed since the medieval era, through the latter's Sultanate, Mughal and British periods, to modern times.

Apart from the Mughal-Ottoman relations, Bengali Muslims supported Turkey in its War of Independence in the early 20th century. The interactions and cultural exchanges throughout history have resulted in substantial influence on different aspects of cooperation.

13 Rohingya Refugees Arrested In Assam Trying To Enter India Illegally

NDTV 

Guwahati:
All India
Ratnadip Choudhury
December 24, 2020

Six of the 13 Rohingya refugees arrested by Assam Police on Tuesday were children

Thirteen Rohingya refugees, including six children, have been arrested from Assam's Karimganj district - which borders Bangladesh - police sources told NDTV on Thursday, adding that all 13 were arrested for trying to illegally cross the international border.

The refugees, who were taken into custody on Tuesday, were picked up off a bus travelling from Agartala in Tripura to Guwahati in Assam. Sources said they were arrested from the Churaibari inter-state border. The arrested group includes four men and three women.

Bangladesh PM calls for Turkey’s involvement in Rohingya repatriation to Myanmar

bdnews24.com

Staff Correspondent, bdnews24.com
Published: 24 Dec 2020 

Photo: PID

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged Turkey to get involved in the process of repatriation of the Rohingya refugees to Myanmar to ensure return to their homeland.

She made the call when visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met her at the Ganabhaban on Wednesday, her Deputy Press Secretary Hasan Jahid Tusher said at a media briefing.

Bangladesh has long been calling on the international community to pile more pressure on Myanmar to take back their displaced Rohingya nationals in a safe, dignified and sustainable repatriation.

British Banks Tied to A Military Accused of Genocide

BYLINE TIMES 

 Steve Shaw
24 December 2020

Photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA Archive/PA Images

Steve Shaw reports on the loans that connect British banks to a telecommunications firm that provides money for Myanmar’s military, which has been accused of genocide

Standard Chartered and HSBC have provided tens of millions in loans to Viettel Global Investment, a defence company owned by the Vietnamese Government and the biggest investor in Mytel, a telecommunications firm part-owned by Myanmar’s military. Along with being the biggest shareholder in Mytel, Viettel is authorised to provide Myanmar with “defence and security products”.

Japan wants start of Rohingya repatriation process next year: envoy

The Daily Star

UNB, Dhaka
December 24, 2020 

 

Photo courtesy: UNB

 

Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Ito Naoki today said they want to see the start of Rohingya repatriation process next year.

"We would like to see the start of repatriation process next year. Japan will continue to help," he told diplomatic correspondents at DCAB Talk at Jatiya Press Club.

Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) hosted the DCAB Talk with its President Angur Nahar Monty in the chair. DCAB General Secretary Touhidur Rahman also spoke.

The Japanese Ambassador said they are communicating directly with top military officials and at the government level on the Rohingya crisis.

HSBC, Standard Chartered in hot water for lending to company with links to Myanmar military

The Daily Star 

Star Online Report
December 21, 2020

 AP file photo

 

Two major UK banks face pressure for lending millions of dollars to a technology company that is partly owned and used by the Myanmar military accused of genocide against the Rohingyas.

UK-based The Observer, a sister concern of The Guardian, on Sunday reported that human rights groups are demanding that two of Britain's biggest banks explain why they have lent tens of millions of pounds to such a company.

HSBC and Standard Chartered have loaned a total of $60m (£44.5m) to Vietnamese telecom giant Viettel, which has stakes in Myanmar mobile network Mytel, in the last four years.

Over that period, the Myanmar military has been accused of committing war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

Rohingya Refugee Crisis Forces Thousands Of Families to Dangerous, Uninhabited Island

GREN MATTERS

By Lizzy Rosenberg
22nd December 2020

Source: Getty

One of the most devastating examples of ongoing genocide is currently taking place in the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar, where a marginalized group of people called the Rohingya people have been suffering from the effects of "ethnic cleaning" for many years. Now, they are being relocated to a potentially unsafe island off the coast of Chattogram, which will likely pose serious environmental and human rights risks.

Talks between Tatmadaw, Arakan Army proceed smoothly

MYANMAR TIMES

SAI WUNNA
22 DEC 2020

 

 Residents, who fled from conflict between the Myanmar army and the Arakan Army (AA), arrive at a temporary refugee camp at a monastery in Sittwe, Rakhine State on June 29. Photo: AFP

 

Talks between the Tatmadaw (military) representatives and the Arakan Army are proceeding smoothly as both sides keep their desire to reach a ceafire agreement after over two years of clashes.

Major General Zaw Min Tun, chief of Tatmadaw True News Information Term, said the negotiation between representatives of the Tatmadaw and the ethnic Rakhine armed group is progressing so the relative peace in the strife-torn state remains.

“We have to continue the negotiations so as to end the fighting and move forward the peace process in the Rakhine State,” he told the Myanmar Times on December 21. “The Tatmadaw and the AA have the view that we need to keep on negotiating because the civilians in Rakhine support the negotiations for peace.”

Concern among Muslims over halal status of COVID-19 vaccine

ARAB NEWS
AP
December 20, 2020

• Spokespeople for Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca have said that pork products are not part of their COVID-19 vaccines
• But limited supply and preexisting deals worth millions of dollars with other companies means that some countries with large Muslim populations will receive vaccines that have not yet been certified to be gelatin-free

JAKARTA: In October, Indonesian diplomats and Muslim clerics stepped off a plane in China. While the diplomats were there to finalize deals to ensure millions of doses reached Indonesian citizens, the clerics had a much different concern: Whether the COVID-19 vaccine was permissible for use under Islamic law.

As companies race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and countries scramble to secure doses, questions about the use of pork products — banned by some religious groups — has raised concerns about the possibility of disrupted immunization campaigns.

British banks under pressure over £45m loans to firm with links to Myanmar military

The Guardian

The ObserverMyanmar
Jamie Doward
Sun 20 Dec 2020

Campaigners say the deals revealed in new report are a breach of firms’ human rights responsibilities

The report says companies ‘have human-rights due-diligence responsibilities [in Myanmar] that they have breached’. Photograph: Ye Aung Thu/AFP via Getty Image 

Human rights groups are demanding that two of Britain’s biggest banks explain why they have lent tens of millions of pounds to a technology company building a telecoms network that is part-owned and used by the Myanmar military.

HSBC and Standard Chartered have loaned $60m (£44.5m) to Vietnamese telecom giant Viettel in the last four years, a period when the Myanmar military has been accused of committing war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Viettel is a major investor in Mytel, a Myanmar mobile network that, since its launch in June 2018, has grown to become the second-biggest operator in the country with over 10 million users.

Rohingya refugees are being displaced, again

Aljazeera

18 Dec 2020

Rohingya are seen inside a tent as they wait to get on board a ship as they move to Bhasan Char island in Chattogram, Bangladesh, December 4, 2020 [File: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

Bangladesh has relocated more than 1,700 Rohingya refugees from crowded camps in the country’s southeast to Bhasan Char, an island prone to flooding, and it intends to relocate thousands more.

India needs to be more open and cooperative

Prothum Alo------ 

Touhid Hossain
Updated: 18 December 2020, 

It was obvious that there would be no progress on the Teesta agreement during the talks this time. We have no alternative but to depend on India regarding the Teesta agreement. I do not expect the agreement to be signed when Narenda Modi comes to Dhaka in March next year.

Bangladesh won its independence through bloodshed and the liberation war of 1971 with the support of India. Bangladesh is grateful for this support from its close neighbour. Even after independence Bangladesh has received support and cooperation from India. We always want friendly relations with India.

More than 100 UK MPs want intervention in The Gambia’s Rohingya genocide case

The Daily Star 

Star Online Report
December 18, 2020

 

Photo: AFP/File 

More than 100 UK MPs have called on the British government to make an intervention supporting The Gambia's Rohingya genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as human rights violations against the Rohingyas continue.

"Ending impunity is essential not only to ensure justice and uphold international law, but also to deter further international crimes by the military in Myanmar," according to a letter to the UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Dominic Raab MP, issued on December 17.

US Pledges to Continue Support for Myanmar’s Democratic Transition

The Irrawaddy
By NAN LWIN
18 December 2020

YANGON — The United States has pledged to continue its support for Myanmar’s democratic transition and discussed cooperation on Rakhine State development, including creating a better environment for the Rohingya, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In a teleconference with Myanmar’s international cooperation minister, U Kyaw Tin, the outgoing deputy US secretary of state, Stephen Biegun, on Thursday, praised the Nov. 8 general election and discussed positive cooperation over Rakhine State, the ministry said.

The ministry said in a press release that U Kyaw Tin and Biegun discussed long-term cooperation in Rakhine State, including creating a better environment for refugees.

104 British MPs ask UK govt to support ICJ Rohingya case

NEWAGE

Diplomatic Correspondent  

Published: Dec 18,2020

In this picture taken on October 13, 2020, Rohingya refugee Julekha Begum, who got married through IMO, a video-call application to ‘Abdu Hamid’ (a pseudonym), a Rohingya hotel worker in Malaysia, cries at her makeshift shelter at Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp in Ukhia.– AFP photo

One hundred and four British parliamentarians from across parties have asked the UK government to formally engage at the International Court of Justice to prevent genocidal violence against the minority ethnic Rohingya people by the Myanmar government and the military by extending formal support to the case filed by the Gambia.

‘Ending impunity is essential not only to ensure justice and uphold international law, but also to deter further acts of genocide by the military and government in Myanmar,’ said the bipartisan parliamentarians in a joint memorandum to British secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs Dominic Raab on Thursday. 

Sesame Street creates Rohingya muppets for refugee children

B B C 

18 December 2020

The US children's show Sesame Street has created two new muppets to help deliver early years education to Rohingya children living in the world's largest refugee camp.

Noor and Aziz are six-year-old twins who will feature in a series of educational videos for children living in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar.

Since 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled a brutal army crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar.

National committee formed to coordinate Rohingya-related activities

The Daily Star 

BSS, Dhaka
Thursday, December 17, 2020

The government has formed a national committee to coordinate and manage overall activities, including controlling law and order, of the forcibly displaced Myanmar-nationals in the camp areas of Bangladesh.

The Cabinet Division has formed a 17-member committee for coordinating, managing and maintaining law and order of Rohingyas by publishing a gazette where the home minister has been made its convener.