Propaganda leaflets distributed by junta in Rakhine IDP camps

Narinjara
Date: 28 September 2023 

The junta authority is reportedly distributing propaganda leaflets (pamphlets) in various IDP camps in Rakhine State to motivate the refugees to return back to their villages.

"Some people came to the camp and distributed the leaflets. I did not meet them but I could read a leaflet which was found in my grandmother's room. Similar leaflets were distributed in earlier occasions too,” said a refugee in Mrauk U camp.

ARSA Spreading Through Western Myanmar

The Irrawaddy
September 4, 2023

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) has infiltrated Maungdaw Township in Rakhine State, intimidating and kidnapping residents.

Faced with a government crackdown in neighboring Bangladesh over refugee camp crime, ARSA members have been appearing in Maungdaw, said residents.

Solution caught in trilateral geopolitics

NEWAGE
by Md Zillur Rahaman
Published: Sep 03,2023 

The Rohingyas gather at Ukhiya in Bangladesh on August 25 for a rally marking the sixth anniversary of genocide day. — Agence France-Presse/Tanbir Miraj 

 

SINCE August 25, 2017, the Myanmar army began a large-scale violence against the Rohingyas in Rakhine State. Rohingya victims said that mobs joined the crackdown of the military junta, forcing more than 700,000 Rohingyas to take refuge in Bangladesh. More than 1.1 million Rohingyas now stay in 34 refugee camps at Teknaf and Ukhia in Cox’s Bazar. The Rohingyas say that the Myanmar army forced them to come to Bangladesh with indiscriminate killing, rape and arson.

Good reason to tread carefully on Rohingya crisis

THE STRAITSTIMES
Opinion.
Tan Hui Yee
Thailand Correspondent

Published 15 Dec 2016

 
Layers of hatred and distrust in Myanmar need to be picked apart with care - and gradually

 
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak broke with the spirit of Asean camaraderie by joining a recent march protesting against Myanmar's treatment of its beleaguered Rohingya, a Muslim minority group within the predominantly Buddhist country. "We want to tell Aung San Suu Kyi enough is enough!" he told the leader of the fellow Asean member, in reference to alleged atrocities some have condemned as "genocide".

 
In contrast, former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, tasked by Ms Suu Kyi with heading an advisory commission on the situation in Rakhine state where the Rohingya live, urged caution in using the word "genocide". Visiting Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, meanwhile, offered humanitarian assistance without a public rebuke.

 

Good reason to tread carefully on Rohingya crisis

Jarkata Post
Tan Hui Yee

15.12.2016

 

 In this May 12 file photo, ethnic Rohingya sit at a refugee camp north of Sittwe, western Rakhine state, Myanmar. The long-persecuted Rohingya, many of whose families arrived in Myanmar generations ago, are treated as illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh and virtually excluded from the political process. (AP/Gemunu Amarasinghe )

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak broke with the spirit of Asean camaraderie by joining a recent march protesting against Myanmar's treatment of its beleaguered Rohingya, a Muslim minority group within the predominantly Buddhist country. "We want to tell Aung San Suu Kyi enough is enough!" he told the leader of the fellow Asean member, in reference to alleged atrocities some have condemned as "genocide".

Between ifs and buts dwindles the future of the Rohingya

Asia News Network
The Daily Star
Farah Kabir
August 31, 2023 

The Rohingya living in the refugee camps of Teknaf and Ukhiya in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh are humans with the right to life, food, water, education, and dignity. PHOTO: REUTERS/THE DAILY STAR 

 

DHAKA – As we approach the six-year mark of the unprecedented 2017 influx of the Rohingya from Rakhine State in Myanmar, I cannot help but wonder if we are really doing enough for the people who sought support to be alive with safety and dignity. It was between August 24-25, 2017, in the weeks that followed escaping death and persecution, when the Rohingya sought refuge in Cox’s Bazar. They had fled to Bangladesh earlier too; numerous times over the last 50 or 60 years. However, the influx of 2017 was significantly different. The violence had been unleashed with no bars held. The genocide was being committed and it took years to get the global leadership to acknowledge this.

Justice More Important Than Ever as Rohingya Mark Bleak Anniversary

THE I DIPLOMAT
By Tun Khin
August 25, 2023

“It is high time that the world takes action to end the genocide against the Rohingya, starting with supporting the international justice efforts.” 

It was six years ago today, on August 25, 2017, that the Myanmar military poured into Rakhine State and unleashed unimaginable violence on my people, the Rohingya. Over the course of a few weeks, soldiers and their proxies killed thousands of women, men, and children, burned whole villages to the ground, and drove close to 800,000 people to flee into Bangladesh.

It is a source of shame for the world that six years later, not only do the Rohingya remain a people on the brink of extinction, but the architects of the genocide against us remain in power in Myanmar. Despite this, Rohingya and the people of Myanmar have largely been forgotten on the world stage, with other crises dominating global headlines. It is now high time that the world takes action to end the genocide against the Rohingya, starting with supporting the international justice efforts.

Scores of Rohingya refugees drown in a boat capsizing in the Bay of Bengal

VTICAN NEWS
By Edoardo Giribaldi
14-08-2023

Rohingya people in Myanmar (Reuters)

17 people died and some 30 are still missing after their boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal. The authorities report that the exact time and the causes of the incident are still unknown.

At least 17 dead as boat carrying Rohingya refugees sinks in Bay of Bengal

Aljazeera
10 Aug 2023

Eight people were rescued and 30 remain missing from the boat, which was headed for Malaysia.

Indonesian Navy personnel guard Rohingya Muslims as they arrive in Lampanah beach, Aceh province, Indonesia, on February 16, 2023 [File: Antara Foto/Ampelsa/Reuters]

At least 17 Rohingya refugees have been killed, and 30 remain missing after a boat capsized in bad weather in the Bay of Bengal earlier this week, aid workers in Myanmar said.

Bodies of 15 Rohingya from sunken boat found near coast of Rakhine’s Sittwe

mizzima
10 August 2023

Fifteen bodies of Rohingya people were found after their boat sank near Rakhine’s capital city Sittwe on 7 August.

The boat sunk near Basara Village as it was carrying at least 50 Rohingya apparently heading for Malaysia.

17 dead after Rohingya boat from Myanmar capsizes on the way to Malaysia

CNN
By Su Chay, Heather Chen and Mihir Melwani, CNN
Thu August 10, 2023

CNN- Rescue teams have found at least 17 bodies on Myanmar’s shores after a Rohingya boat capsized while on its way to Malaysia on Monday, officials told CNN.

Among the dead were 10 women and seven men – all of whom were Rohingya Muslims, said Bya Latt, a spokesperson for the Shwe Yaung Matta Foundation rescue group.

Rohingya Refugees Wary as China Develops Plan for Repatriation

VOA
Ingyin Naing
August 03, 2023 

Two Rohingya children at the sprawling Balukhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, June 9, 2023. (Noor Hossain/VOA)

Rohingya refugees living in squalid and sprawling camps in Bangladesh are casting a skeptical eye on a Chinese initiative to facilitate their return to Myanmar, where they were subjected to a campaign of murder and burning by the same military forces that now rule the country.

"We want to return home. However, under this pilot scheme, the Myanmar military will confine us in camps. They won't allow us to go back to our homes and villages," Aung Myaing, a Rohingya relief volunteer at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, told VOA by phone.

Myanmar: A New Muslim Insurgency in Rakhine State

Crisis Group
15 December 2016 

Recent attacks by an émigré-led force of trained Rohingya fighters mark a dangerous turn. To remove a main root of the violence – Rohingya despair – the government must reverse longstanding discrimination against the Muslim minority, moderate its military tactics, and reach out to Myanmar’s Muslim allies. 

Executive Summary

The deadly attacks on Border Guard Police (BGP) bases in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State on 9 October 2016 and the days following, and a serious escalation on 12 November when a senior army officer was killed, signify the emergence of a new Muslim insurgency there. The current violence is qualitatively different from anything in recent decades, seriously threatens the prospects of stability and development in the state and has serious implications for Myanmar as a whole. The government faces a huge challenge in calibrating and integrating its political, policy and security responses to ensure that violence does not escalate and intercommunal tensions are kept under control. It requires also taking due account of the grievances and fears of Rakhine Buddhists.

Failure to get this right would carry enormous risks. While the government has a clear duty to maintain security and take action against the attackers, it needs, if its response is to be effective, to make more judicious use of force and focus on a political and policy approach that addresses the sense of hopelessness and despair underlying the anger of many Muslims in Rakhine State. Complicating this is that Aung San Suu Kyi has some influence, but under the constitution no direct control over the military.

The insurgent group, which refers to itself as Harakah al-Yaqin (Faith Movement, HaY), is led by a committee of Rohingya émigrés in Saudi Arabia and is commanded on the ground by Rohingya with international training and experience in modern guerrilla war tactics. It benefits from the legitimacy provided by local and international fatwas (religious judicial opinions) in support of its cause and enjoys considerable sympathy and backing from Muslims in northern Rakhine State, including several hundred locally trained recruits.

‘They ignore us on purpose’: Cyclone deepens Rohingya suffering

Frontier Myanmar
June 15, 2023

Rohingya children stand by destroyed houses at Ohn Taw Chay camp in Sittwe on May 16, two days after Cyclone Mocha's landfall. (AFP)

 

The persecuted Muslim group made up the bulk of the death toll from Cyclone Mocha, with survivors accusing the military regime of failing to prepare adequate evacuations and issuing warnings at the last minute. 

 

When Cyclone Mocha barrelled through Rakhine State last month, Ko Tun Myint* and his family were unprepared.

“It was announced that there would be a storm, and they told us to relocate, but most of us thought Mocha wasn’t serious,” he said. “That’s why many of us stayed in the village.”

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.

Prioritise the Rohingya’s safety and well-being

The Daily Star
San Thai Shin
Tue Jun 6, 2023

The Rohingya crisis continues to leave a tragic trail of immense suffering and injustice.

The international community must ensure that any repatriation efforts are accompanied by guarantees of the Rohingya refugees' rights, security, and justice. FILE PHOTO: REUTERS

The Rohingya crisis continues to leave a tragic trail of immense suffering and injustice. As a persecuted minority group, the Rohingya people have endured decades of oppression, displacement, and violence, which have left an indelible scar on humanity. Their struggle for justice and repatriation has been marred by obstacles, false promises, and political manoeuvring, prolonging their agony and preventing a resolution to this humanitarian crisis.

The Irrawaddy
22 May 2023

A victim’s funeral near Basara refugee camp in Sittwe, Rakhine State, on May 16. / AFP

 

Those killed by Cyclone Mocha refused offers of evacuation, Myanmar’s junta boss Min Aung Hlaing has told a ceremony to accept donations for recovery operations.

Min Aung Hlaing accepted donations on Saturday, saying there had been slight property damage and few casualties because his regime had made proper preparations. He has so far refused to allow international humanitarian organizations to provide relief.

Mocha hit western Myanmar on May 14, killing hundreds of Rohingya, and causing massive property damage. Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, was hit hardest by the storm.

Cyclone Mocha Claimed 400 Lives in Myanmar

eman channel
18.05.2023

Cyclone Mocha Claims Over 400 Lives in Myanmar’s Rakhine State

Myanmar’s Rakhine state has been devastated by Cyclone Mocha, resulting in the tragic loss of more than 400 lives, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Arakan Rohingya National Alliance (RNA), a rights group. The cyclone made landfall on Sunday, hitting the coast between Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district and Myanmar’s Kyaukpyu township.

Myanmar puts death toll from Cyclone Mocha at least 145

Morning Star
Friday, May 19, 2023

THE official death toll from the powerful cyclone that struck Myanmar has reached at least 145, including 117 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority, state television reported today.

According to the report, the figure applied to the western state of Rakhine, where Cyclone Mocha did the most damage, but the TV news did not say how many storm-related deaths there had been elsewhere in the country.

UN denied access to Rohingya refugee camps after Cyclone Mocha

The Guardian
Aung Naing Soe and Kaamil Ahmed
Fri 19 May 2023

UNHCR says Myanmar government has refused to allow it to distribute health supplies in Sittwe, where an estimated 90% of Rohingya homes have been destroyed

A Rohingya woman sits by what remains of her home at Basara refugee camp in Sittwe after Cyclone Mocha hit the region. Photograph: Sai Aung Main/AFP/Getty Images

UN staff say they have been denied access to help thousands of Rohingya living in displacement camps in Myanmar who are in urgent need of food, medicine and shelter in the aftermath of Cyclone Mocha, which struck the west of the country on Sunday.