Create ‘safe zone’ for the displaced people in Rakhine

The Daily Star
DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT
Tue Oct 15, 2024 

Yunus urges UN to find ways to support them

Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus in a meeting with Thomas Andrews, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, at the former’s Tejgaon office yesterday. Photo: PID

Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus has proposed creating a "safe zone guaranteed by the UN" for the displaced people in Myanmar's Rakhine State and finding ways to support them.

"This will be the best way to get aid to them," he said when Thomas Andrews, Special Rapporteur of the UN on the situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, called on the chief adviser at his Tejgaon office yesterday.

Chief adviser seeks ‘safe zone guaranteed by UN’ for displaced people in Rakhine

prothomalo
BSS Dhaka
Published: 15 Oct 2024, 

Special rapporteur of the UN on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Thomas Andrews calls on chief adviser professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus at his Tejgaon office in Dhaka on 14 October 2024BSS

Chief adviser professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus Monday called for creating a “safe zone guaranteed by the UN” for the displaced people in Rakhine and finding ways to support them.

He made the call when Thomas Andrews, the special rapporteur of the UN on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, called on the chief adviser at his Tejgaon office in the city.

Road from Rakhine: The uncertain fate of Rohingyas

ORF ( OBSEVER RESEACH FOUNDITION )
Author : Sreeparna Banerjee
Expert Speak Raisina Debates
Published on Oct 05, 2024

The escalating violence against the Rohingya by the Arakan Army underscores the reality that, regardless of who assumes power, the future of the Rohingyas remains uncertain 

Image Source: Getty

The rise in deadly attacks on Rohingya people in Myanmar’s Rakhine State since May 2024 bears a chilling resemblance to the atrocities committed in August 2017, when the military forced Rohingyas to flee by attacking and burning down settlements. Nearly seven years later, similar scenes of Rohingya men, women, and children being slayed or escaping to neighbouring nations are unfolding, reflecting a continued erasure of Rohingya history and identity. Only this time, the preparator is an ethnic armed group.

A new genocide being committed in Rakhine

daily obsever
Md Mustakim Ahmed
Published : Monday, 9 September, 2024 

Before the memory of the '2017 Rohingya genocide' fades, the world is regrettably witnessing a new wave of genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people, one that is perhaps more vicious and brutal.

The military of Myanmar unleashed a ruthless offensive against the Rohingya people in 2017, sparking the most brutal wave of anti-Rohingya persecution. Subsequently, the head of the UN agency for human rights described the military's actions as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing," "acts of horrific barbarity," and an "acts of genocide." About a million Rohingya were compelled to escape to Bangladesh, a neighbor, as a result of the persecution.

In a study conducted in January 2018 with a total of 3,321 Rohingya refugee households in Cox's Bazar, a UN Fact-Finding Mission estimated that the military and the local Rakhine Buddhists had killed at least 25,000 Rohingya and committed gang rapes and other forms of sexual violence against 18,000 Rohingya women and girls. According to their estimates, 36,000 Rohingya were burned alive and 116,000 others were beaten, an atrocities unseen since 1994 Rwandan genocide.

“End the Impunity”: Rohingya Muslims Under Attack by Both Burmese Army and Rebel Group

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. 

Overlapping Atrocities

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
By Andrew Stroehlein
August 13, 2024 

The crisis in Rakhine State, in the west of Myanmar, rages on. Recent months have seen yet more atrocities against civilians.

Both the forces of the military junta and the opposition Arakan Army are to blame. They are both attacking civilians and using massive, widespread arson to drive people from their homes and villages, raising the specter of ethnic cleansing.

UN Human Rights Council adopts unanimous resolution calling for repatriation of Rohingyas

daily sun
Daily Sun Report, Dhaka
Publish: Wednesday, 10 July, 2024 

Over a million Myanmar nationals, popularly known as Rohingya, sheltered in Bangladesh amid military brutality in August 2017.

Photo : Collected

 

The 56th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday (10 July) unanimously adopted a resolution on repatriation of forcible displaced Rohingya population to Rakhine State in Myanmar.

Escaping inferno: Rohingya flee as violence escalates in Rakhine

BIG NEWS NETWORK
Khalid Umar Malik
16th June 2024, 

RAKHINE, Myanmar - Fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) has risen in the western province of Rakhine in recent days, putting thousands of predominantly Muslim Rohingya residents at risk.

According to discussions with Rohingya activists who spoke with witnesses in Buthidaung, there have been large fires throughout the town in recent days.

Myanmar’s Rohingya ‘trapped between hammer and anvil’ as junta, rebels sow terror in Rakhine

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Shaikh Azizur Rahman
Published: 6 Jun 2024

• Muslim minority residents ‘pushed to the wall’ as security forces and the Arakan Army target villages with arson attacks and killings 
  

A woman cooks next to destroyed houses and burned trees following fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army in a village in Rakhine state on May 21. Photo: AFP

A fierce gunfight between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army (AA) rebels in Rakhine state has thrust Rohingya Muslims into a fresh spiral of organised violence as alleged beheadings and arson attacks rattle the persecuted community.

Rohingyas bear the brunt as violence escalates in Myanmar

The South Asia Times
Friday, 24 May, 2024 

About 600,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmar, mostly in Rakhine state. (Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons) 

 

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.

Escalating conflict in Myanmar: joint statement by UK and partners

GOV.UK
From: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Published24 May 2024

 Australia, Canada, the European Union, the Republic of Korea, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States released a statement on the escalating conflict in Myanmar.

We, Australia, Canada, the European Union, the Republic of Korea, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, are deeply concerned by the escalating conflict in Myanmar and in particular the increasing harm to civilians, which are driving a worsening and devastating human rights and humanitarian crisis across the country.

Rohingya people in Myanmar’s Rakhine face renewed violence, alarms human rights groups

maktoob media
Maktoob Staff
May 20,2024 

Rohingya people remaining in Buthidaung township, northern Rakhine state, have reported being targeted with coordinated killings, large-scale arson attacks and shelling, beginning on Friday 17 May, Special Advisory Council for Myanmar, an independent human rights group said.

Thousands of Rohingyas flee to rebel territory amid clashes in Rakhine

RFA
By RFA Burmese
2024.05.13

Activists have welcomed the Arakan Army’s assistance to Rohingyas.

Rohingya people from Buthidaung township flee to Arakan Army (AA) controlled areas from armed clashes May 8, 2024. United League of Arakan 

Around 7,000 Rohingyas in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state are sheltering in rebel territory amid escalating tensions between the military and the Arakan Army, according to residents and the AA.

Fighting in Rakhine state townships displaces 40,000 Rohingyas

NewsGram
NewsGram Desk
13 May 2024, 

At least 40,000 ethnic Rohingyas have been forced to flee intense clashes between junta troops and the rebel Arakan Army in two townships in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state since the start of the week, and are now facing a humanitarian crisis, the displaced told RFA Burmese on Thursday.

Fighting in Rakhine state:- At least 40,000 ethnic Rohingyas have been forced to flee intense clashes between junta troops and the rebel Arakan Army. [RFA]

 

Fighting in Rakhine state:- At least 40,000 ethnic Rohingyas have been forced to flee intense clashes between junta troops and the rebel Arakan Army in two townships in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state since the start of the week, and are now facing a humanitarian crisis, the displaced told RFA Burmese on Thursday.

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.

Thousands of Rohingyas flee to rebel territory amid clashes in Rakhine

RFA
By RFA Burmese
2024.05.09 

They now face a humanitarian crisis. 

Rohingya people protest in Buthidaung township, Rakhine state, Myanmar, March 19, 2024. Han Nyein Oo

 

At least 40,000 ethnic Rohingyas have been forced to flee intense clashes between junta troops and the rebel Arakan Army in two townships in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state since the start of the week, and are now facing a humanitarian crisis, the displaced told RFA Burmese on Thursday.

Rakhine's tangled web worsens Rohingya plight

Dhaka Tribune
Tribune Desk
Publish : 30 Apr 2024,  

• Sensationalized narratives sideline Rohingya struggles
• Urgent advocacy is needed for their rights and peace
  

File Photo: The remains of a burned Rohingya village is seen in this aerial photograph near Maungdaw, north of Rakhine State, Myanmar on September 27, 2017. Photo: Reuters

 

The ongoing conflict in Myanmar's Rakhine state reveals a concerning reality: as the Arakan Army (AA) and the Military Junta engage in their respective battle, the Rohingya people are caught in the crossfire, often overlooked amidst sensationalized narratives and shifting alliances in the region.

Thousands of Houses Destroyed by Junta in Buthidaung

BNI
Thursday, April 25, 2024 

In Buthidaung Township, Rakhine State, thousands of houses have been destroyed and set ablaze by the Junta troops along with their trained Muslim collaborators.

Displaced by conflict in Myanmar, thousands of Rohingya gather along Bangladesh border seeking refuge

Yeni Safak
21/04/2024 Sunday

Rohingya in Myanmar's Rakhine state becoming victim of ongoing conflict between junta forces, insurgent groups, say community leaders

Thousands of Rohingya displaced due to conflict in Myanmar gathered along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border near the transboundary Naf River to seek refuge, a Rohingya leader in Bangladesh told Anadolu.

Moving Towards Understanding and Reconciliation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State

THE I DIPLOMAT
By Christopher Win
April 18, 2024

Recent comments by the commander of the Arakan Army have prompted a heated debate about history, language, and ethnic identity. 

The Sakya Man Aung pagoda in Mrauk-U, the ancient capital of Arakan, in Rakhine State, Myanmar.

In discussions of Myanmar’s intricate ethnic tapestry, the discourse around identity, particularly the term “Rohingya,” remains highly charged and complex. The controversy was reawakened last month, when the United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA), an ethnic Rakhine insurgent group fighting for autonomy from the central state, used the term “Bengali” in an official statement in lieu of the term “Rohingya.” This was then echoed in social media posts by Twan Mrat Naing, the leader of ULA/AA, sparking significant controversy among both domestic and international observers.