As It Loses Control of Rakhine, Myanmar Junta Resorts to Stoking Religious Hatred

The Irrawaddy
by Nayt Thit
May 14, 2024

Myanmar junta soldiers are seen on Armed Forces Day in 2021.

After suffering humiliating defeats and territorial losses to the ethnic Arakan Army (AA)’s ongoing offensive in Rakhine State, the Myanmar junta is again utilizing its old tactic of fueling racial and religious tensions between Muslim and non-Muslim residents in some townships in the north of the state, according to military analysts and the ethnic rebel army.

Junta forces Rohingyas to protest ethnic rebels in Myanmar’s Rakhine state

RFA
By RFA Burmese
2024.04.22 

Those who refuse to denounce the Arakan Army are made to pay fines.

Rohingyas from Bu May and Bar Sar Ra villages of Sittwe township, Rakhine state, protest March 23, 2024. Myanmar Military

 

Junta authorities in western Myanmar forced hundreds of Rohingya Muslims to protest an ethnic rebel offensive that has the military on the ropes in Rakhine state – and fining them if they didn’t participate, residents said Monday. 

Rohingya refugees in Sri Lanka protest at planned closure of UN office

Morning Star
Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Rohingya refugees residing in Sri Lanka protest outside the UN's refugee agency office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, January 2, 2024

A GROUP of Rohingya refugees living in Sri Lanka staged a demonstration outside the office of the United Nations refugee agency today, saying they fear losing their living allowance when the office closes at the end of this year.

Rohingya in Bangladesh protest to be sent home after UN aid cut

Aljazeera
9 Jun 2023 

Tens of thousands of refugees demonstrate in Bangladesh camps to push for repatriation to Myanmar after food ration is slashed.
Rohingya wait to receive food supplies at a World Food Programme distribution centre at Balukhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh [File: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters]

Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are demanding to be repatriated to Myanmar so that they can leave the squalid camps they have lived in since fleeing a brutal military crackdown in their homeland in 2017.

More than a million Rohingya have been crammed into the camps in southeastern Bangladesh, the world’s largest refugee settlement. Most fled the crackdown by Myanmar’s military almost six years ago, although some have been there for longer.

Rohingya Refugees Protest Over Inadequate Conditions

OWP

The Organisation for World Peace
Madison Smith
June 24, 2021

An estimated 4,000 Rohingya refugees on the remote island of Bhasan Char, off the coast of Bangladesh, have protested their inadequate living conditions and desires to leave the camp during a recent United Nations visit. Protestors were upset at the lack of access to the visiting UN members, and reportedly could not speak to them without the presence of Bangladesh authorities. Local police have reported cases of unruly protestors throwing rocks and breaking glass, damaging warehouses and other properties. In turn, they resorted to using batons to disperse protestors, causing harm to even women and children. The United Nations High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) has expressed concern over injuries inflicted on these refugees, as well as dismay over inadequate conditions on the low-lying island, which is susceptible to rising sea levels.

Protests In Burma

The Hitavada

By Gwynne Dyer

Date :06-Apr-2021

‘Non-violent struggle’ is rarely non-violent on both sides, but the oppressors find it hard to use unlimited force when the other side is using none at all. Especially when the whole world is watching. That is why non-violent movements succeed so often. If the protesters turn into just another Army, then all limitations on the use of force by the big, professional, well-equipped Army are lifted, and the bad guys win.

Chinese Embassy Protest ( 31st March'2021 ) Join demonstration

CRPH Supporter UK
31st March 2021

Rohingya in Bangladesh protest killings in Myanmar

AA

Md. Kamruzzaman

DHAKA, Bangladesh 

14.10.2020 

Hundreds of Rohingya refugees in southeast Bangladesh held a protest on Wednesday against the killing and torturing of their community members in Myanmar, a Rohingya member told Anadolu Agency.

Holding banners and placards, the refugees at a camp gathered and formed a human chain, demanding an immediate end to the killings and torturing in Myanmar’s Rakhine state .

“Due to restrictions, we did not gather in huge numbers. Some 300 members of us peacefully took part in today’s demonstration just to highlight that we are still being killed in Myanmar,” Ansar Ali, a Rohingya at the camp, told Anadolu Agency.

Bangladesh: Protesting Rohingya Refugees Beaten

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

October 1, 2020

Authorities Prepare to Relocate Thousands to Dangerous Island

A man walks past buildings on Bhasan Char, or floating island, in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh on December 19, 2019. © 2019 AP Photo/Saleh Noman

(New York) – Bangladesh authorities beat refugees protesting their detention on Bhasan Char Island with sticks and tree branches, Human Rights Watch said today. Naval officers allegedly beat the refugees, including children, in retribution for their hunger strike beginning on September 21, 2020 to demand reunification with their families in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps.

Locals in Cox's Bazar demand Rohingya return to Myanmar

UCA News
Stephan Uttom, Dhaka
Bangladesh
March 6, 2019 

Anti-Rohingya protest in southeastern Bangladesh turns violent, police among the injured

Thousands of Bengalis protest at Cox's Bazar in southeastern Bangladesh on March 4 demanding the speedy repatriation of Rohingya Muslims. They also demanded that the refugee camps be properly fenced off, and that jobs be made available to local communities. (Photo by Abdul Aziz/ucanews.com)    

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Thousands of local residents in Cox's Bazar in southeastern Bangladesh took part in hours-long protests on March 4 demanding the speedy repatriation of Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar, and more jobs with aid agencies operating among the refugees.

Charges Against Aung San Statue Protesters Dropped, But Dispute Lingers.

The Irrawaddy

 20 February 2019

People opposed to a statue of Gen. Aung San in the Kayah State capital of Loikaw pose in front of the Loikaw Township Court on Wednesday. / PKPF

By ZUE ZUE 

YANGON — The Kayah State government has dropped its lawsuits against all 55 people charged over the past year for protesting against the installation of a statue of late independence hero Gen. Aung San in Loikaw, the state capital.

Khun A Than, a member of the Karenni Youth Force, a local civil society group, said the Demoso Township Court on Friday dropped its cases against those charged under Section 505 (b) and (c) of the Penal Code for defamation. He said on Wednesday the Loikaw Township Court dropped its cases against those charged under Section 19 and 20 of the Peaceful Assembly and Procession Law.