Myanmar’s Rakhine State Revokes Order Evicting Squatters From Rohingya Land

RADIO FREE ASIA
2020-05-26 

Structures built in Sittwe township's Seyton Su ward in Myanmar's Rakhine state are shown in a file photo.

Authorities in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state have revoked an order requiring Rakhine Buddhist families to vacate land in a former Rohingya Muslim area of Sittwe township that was razed eight years ago during a flare-up of sectarian violence.

The May 14 order was revoked on May 19, frustrating members of the Rohingya community originally displaced from their homes in Sittwe’s Seyton Su Muslim quarter, who called the rescinding of the order evicting thousands of squatters from their former land evidence of a lack of the rule of law in the conflict-torn region.

US Embassy will urge the State Government to be effective in the provision of aid to Rakhine IDPs

Narinjara

Monday, February 24, 2020

The US Embassy will urge the Rakhine State Government to be effective in aid provision to Rakhine IDPs, the Yangon based US Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission Mr George Neil Sibley has confirmed while meeting with Rakhine State Parliamentarians.

According to Deputy Speaker U Myat Than, who spoke with Narinjara, Mr George Neil Sibley said this while being received by the Rakhine Parliament Speaker U San Kyaw Hla on February 20th.

Myanmar president calls for prosecutions for Rohingya killings

THE Star ONLINE
Tuesday, 21 Jan 2020

Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi meeting Philippine diplomat Rosario Manalo, a member of the Independent Commission of Enquiry for Rakhine State, at the Presidential Palace in Naypyitaw. Myanmar's president on Tuesday (Jan 21) called for soldiers to be prosecuted for killing Rohingya civilians during a 2017 military campaign that forced more than 730,000 of the minority to flee to Bangladesh. - AP

YANGON: Myanmar's president on Tuesday (Jan 21) called for soldiers to be prosecuted for killing Rohingya civilians during a 2017 military campaign that forced more than 730,000 of the minority to flee to Bangladesh.

Asia-Pacific ministers vow to end regional rows

Bangkok Post
3 Aug 2019

newspaper section: News
writer: Thana Boonlert

 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo smiles as he stands between Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai during a family photo at the East Asia Summit meeting in Bangkok on Friday. (Reuters photo)

Foreign ministers of Asia-Pacific countries have affirmed they were committed to resolving conflicts in the South China Sea, Myanmar's Rakhine state, and the Korean Peninsula, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Singaporeans advised to avoid travelling to Myanmar's Rakhine State amid violence

 A

CNA

12 Jul 2019 

 

 A Myanmar military crackdown in Rakhine state has already sent more than 700,000 people feeling over the border into Bangladesh. (Photo: AFP/Ye Aung Thu)

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans have been advised to avoid travelling to several areas in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State and Chin State due to violent clashes there.

In a travel advisory dated Jul 1, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said Singaporeans should avoid the townships of Buthidaung, Kyauktaw, Maungdaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Ponnagyun and Rathedaung in northern Rakhine State, as well as Paletwa township in neighbouring Chin State. Advertisement

Myanmar: Military commits war crimes in latest operation in Rakhine State

29 May 2019

 Myanmar,War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity

• New abuses come after government order to “crush” armed group

• Military units responsible for past atrocities are committing war crimes, while deployment of additional units suggests involvement of senior generals

• International community is failing – ICC referral urgently needed

Following a recent investigation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, Amnesty International has gathered new evidence that the Myanmar military is committing war crimes and other human rights violations. The military operation is ongoing, raising the prospect of additional crimes being committed.

Family Members of Three Rakhine Villagers who Died in Detention Demand Investigation.

RADIO FREE ASIA  
2019-05-10

Daw Ahla, wife of Thein Tun Sein who died in detention after being arrested by Myanmar's military.

RFA

The family members of three villagers from Myanmar’s Rakhine state who died while being detained by the military are demanding justice, saying that the military’s explanation for the villagers’ deaths were lies.

Bangladesh: Chinese Envoy Rapped for Linking Rohingya Crisis to Economic Trade.

RADIO FREE ASIA  
2019-05-10

Chinese envoy to Bangladesh Zhang Zuo (center) answers questions during a news conference in Dhaka, May 8, 2019.

BenarNews

A Bangladeshi official and political observers on Friday criticized a statement by the Chinese ambassador, who suggested this week that the Rohingya refugee crisis could be solved through economic development in neighboring Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Myanmar troops kill six in Rakhine for suspected rebel links.

Aljazeera

3rd May 2019

Soldiers opened fire as a clash erupted with the detained villagers, according to member of parliament.

More recently, civilians have been caught up in clashes between the military and the Arakan Army [File:Min Kyi Thein/AP Photo]

Myanmar security forces have shot dead at least six people in the troubled western state of Rakhine after soldiers and police detained hundreds of people at a school, a military spokesperson said.

Six people killed, eight injured in Rakhine unrest.

MYANMAR TIMES

NYAN LYNN AUNG| 03 MAY 2019

Members of the Myanmar Red Cross Society carry a wounded man from a boat to Sittwe Hospital in Rakhine State on Thursday. Photo - EPA

Six people were killed and eight others injured during a disturbance at a school compound where hundreds of villagers were being detained by government forces in a village in Rathedaung township, Rakhine State, a senior spokesman of the Tatmadaw (military) said on Thursday.

Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun said the casualties happened before dawn on Thursday when some detainees crowded around the police officers guarding them, and the police fired warning shots to stop them.

Violence is returning to Burma’s Rakhine State

GLOBAL COMMENT
By Steve Shaw
Posted on May 1, 2019

 The farmers who had been tending to cows and seeing to paddy fields didn’t stand a chance when the peaceful evening on April 3 was shattered by two military attack helicopters.

By the time the bombs had stopped falling and the pointless barrage was over, at least seven were dead and another 18 injured.

Chinese Investment in Myanmar's Rakhine State Questioned

VOA

April 27, 2019
Libby Hogan 

Myanmar's defacto leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is welcoming businesses to invest in Rakhine State, more than a year and a half since a brutal military crackdown forced hundreds of thousands of minority Rohingya Muslims to flee into neighboring Bangladesh. Despite the push for investment, many residents in Rakhine State worry they will not see any of the benefits. Libby Hogan has this report from Kyaukpyu Beach in Rakhine State. 

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UN aid chief: No progress so Rohingya can return to Myanmar.

Mail online
30 April 2019
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. humanitarian chief said Monday there has been "no progress" in dealing with the reasons why more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh from western Myanmar's Rakhine state.

Overview of the February 2019 3W - Rakhine State

Northern Rakhine refugees resist relocation to Bangladesh island.

MYANMAR TIMES
KYODO | 24 APR 2019

Bangladesh is facing a dilemma over the planned transfer of thousands of Muslims from northern Rakhine State crowded into makeshift camps along the country’s border with Myanmar to an uninhabited island in the Bay of Bengal.

To ease social, economic, environmental and internal security hazards, the government plans to relocate nearly 100,000 refugees from the camps in Cox’s Bazar to Bhasan Char, which is about an hour by motor boat from the nearest shore.

Arakan Army Leader Claims Myanmar Military Systematically Planned to ‘Crush’ His Group.

RADIO FREE ASIA 
2019-04-17

Arakan Army soldiers pass through a field in western Myanmar's Rakhine state in an undated photo.

Photo courtesy of Arakan Army News and Information

The leader of the Arakan Army based in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state said Wednesday that the military had systematically planned to “crush” his group ahead of hostilities that escalated between the two sides in January, and denied official claims of its involvement in terrorism and drug trafficking.

Maj. Gen. Tun Myat Naing, commander in chief of the AA, told reporters in Wa state's Panghsang township that crack troops from Myanmar’s military received special training more than a year ahead of being deployed to Rakhine state, where they engaged with AA soldiers in early January, following AA attacks on police outposts in northern Rakhine that killed 13 officers.

Myanmar: Full Scale Civil War In Rakhine State – Analysis

eurasiareview

April 14, 2019 SAAG 0 Comments

By SAAG, By S.Chandrasekharan

A burnt down house in a Rohingya village in northern Rakhine State. File photo by Moe Zaw (VOA), Wikipedia Commons.

The situation in the ethnic front is rather grim, with a full scale civil war going on in Rakhine state where the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army are engaged in heavy fighting resulting in the civil administration coming to a stand still within two months of the ongoing conflict.

Is Bangladesh Really Interested in Justice on Rakhine Issue?

The Irrawaddy
12 April 2019
By NYEIN MAUNG

ICOE members in Maungdaw, northern Rakhine State, in August 2018. / ICOE

Bangladesh has finally allowed the Independent Commission of Enquiry (ICOE) to visit the country. According to a press release on the ICOE’s website, the Bangladeshi foreign minister has agreed in principle to meet with the commission next month. What is unclear—and frankly, this must be the crux of the issue—is whether Bangladeshi authorities will allow the ICOE to conduct evidence gathering in Cox’s Bazar. No information on this is available on the ICOE’s website.

Myanmar rebels storm police base in Rakhine state amid fresh clashes in temple town.

REUTERS
APRIL 10th, 2019

YANGON (Reuters) - Arakan Army rebels overran a police base in Rakhine state, killing two officers and one of their wives, the Myanmar government said on Wednesday, as fresh fighting broke out in a historic Buddhist temple town popular with tourists.

The Information Ministry said around 200 insurgents stormed a police headquarters in Mrauk U before being repelled, but that they abducted four women and three children as they left.

President sets up new committee on Rakhine.

MYANMAR TIMES
NYAN LYNN AUNG | 10 APR 2019

President U Win Myint has established a new committee on Rakhine State to help ensure peace and stability in the region.

Members of the Assistance Committee on Rakhine State Peace and Stability arrived in Rakhine’s capital, Sittwe, on Tuesday to meet officials and local people, according to U San Kyaw Hla, speaker of the Rakhine parliament.