Rohingya activists call for more international pressure on Myanmar

ARAB NEWS
Updated 21 July 2023
SHEHAB SUMON

• Rohingya Muslims, other Myanmar minorities have endured decades of persecution
• Latest UN resolution calls on Myanmar to create conducive conditions for repatriation             
  

 Rohingya refugees gather at the Kutupalong Refugee Camp to mark the fifth anniversary of their fleeing from neighbouring Myanmar. (Reuters/File Photo)

 

DHAKA: Rohingya activists in Bangladesh are calling on the international community to increase pressure on Myanmar following a renewed call at the UN for safe and sustainable repatriation of the persecuted minority to their homeland.

 
Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar have endured decades of systematic discrimination and persecution, including the 2017 military crackdown that killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands from Rakhine State.

 
Earlier this month, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the human rights situation of the Rohingya and other Myanmar minorities, making it among the latest to call on the government in Naypyidaw to create “conducive conditions for the voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable” repatriation.

 
“To ensure sustainable repatriation, there should be much more pressure from different sides by the international community on the Myanmar government,” Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, a Rohingya rights activist in Cox’s Bazar, told Arab News this week.

 

Myanmar’s Civilian Government Appoints Rohingya Activist as Deputy Minister

The Irrawaddy
1 July 2023

The newly appointed deputy human rights minister U Aung Kyaw Moe. / NUG

 

Myanmar’s civilian National Unity Government has appointed the Rohingya activist U Aung Kyaw Moe as its deputy human rights minister.

U Aung Kyaw Moe has been a rights adviser to the ministry for almost two years.

“I am proud to have the opportunity to work more for the country and the people,” he posted on Facebook.

Bangladesh promises that killers of prominent Rohingya activist will be brought to justice

Morning Star
Oct'13 2021

BANGLADESH promised “stern action” against those responsible for the assassination of a Rohingya Muslim leader who was shot dead in a refugee camp on Wednesday.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen vowed today to bring the killers of 46-year-old Mohib Ullah, who was gunned down in the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, to justice.

Bangladesh arrests five over the killing of Rohingya activist

Aljazeera
3 Oct 2021

Mohibullah was a high-profile figurehead for the nearly one million-strong Muslim minority based in Bangladesh [File: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

Five Rohingya men have been arrested in connection with the killing of a prominent community leader in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, according to the police, adding that they were probing links to an armed group.

Mohibullah – a high-profile figurehead for the nearly one million-strong Muslim minority in Bangladesh – was killed by gunmen late on Wednesday in one of the sprawling camps in Cox’s Bazar district.

Bangladesh: Investigate killing of prominent Rohingya activist Mohib Ullah

Amnesty International
September 30,2021

Responding to the killing of leading Rohingya activist Mohib Ullah, who was shot dead this evening in the refugee camp in Cox’s Bazaar, Saad Hammadi, Amnesty International’s South Asia Campaigner, said:

“Mohib Ullah was a leading representative of the Rohingya community, who spoke out against violence in the camps and in support of the human rights and protection of refugees. His killing sends a chilling effect across the entire community. The onus is now on the Bangladeshi authorities to expedite an investigation into his murder and bring all those suspected of criminal responsibility to justice in fair trials.

Death threats and hate speech make Rohingya activist's Malaysia refuge a prison

the japan times

BY ROZANNA LATIFF AND EBRAHIM HARRIS
REUTERS
Apr 6, 2021


Rohingya refugee and activist Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani and his wife look out from their home in Kuala Lumpur. | REUTERS

KUALA LUMPUR – Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani, a Rohingya Muslim refugee and activist who fled persecution and ethnic strife in Myanmar, has called Malaysia home for nearly three decades.

Now, it’s more like a prison.

Zafar, 51, has not left his home on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur for nearly a year, after misinformation spread online that he had demanded Malaysian citizenship — triggering a wave of hate speech and death threats against him and his family.

“I’m still scared. For a year, I’ve not set foot outside. I’ve not seen the earth outside,” said the father of three.

Rohingya Activists Are Hoping That the Coup in Myanmar Will Be a Turning Point for Their Struggle

TIME  

Amy Gunia

February 8, 2021

   

A group of people shout slogans and hold placards during a Rohingya solidarity rally in front of the ICJ, The Hague, on December 11th, 2019.Romy Arroyo Fernandez/NurPhoto via Getty Images

In the week since the military overthrew Myanmar’s democratically elected government, exile Nay San Lwin has been inundated with dozens of messages from his compatriots offering support.

It’s a dramatic change from 2017, when the rights activist, now living in Germany, was disseminating information about the atrocities Myanmar’s military had unleashed against his community—the mostly Muslim Rohingya, who live in the west of the country. Back then, the majority of the messages he received from other Burmese consisted of death threats and abuse.

'The World Has Not Forgotten Us.' A Rohingya Activist Speaks as Myanmar Faces Genocide Case

TIME
By Wai Wai Nu
December 11, 2019 

Wai Wai Nu, human rights activist from Burma and spokes person for the country's Rohingya minority, speaks at the opening press conference of the 2017 Oslo Freedom Forum on May 22 2017 at the Intercontinental Hotel in central Oslo.Julia Reinhart—NurPhoto via Getty Images

Wai Wai Nu is a Rohingya activist, former political prisoner, and founder of the Women Peace Network in Myanmar. Since her release from prison in 2012, Nu has dedicated herself to working for democracy and human rights, particularly on behalf of marginalized women and members of her own ethnic group, the minority Rohingya population. Originally from Rakhine state, Myanmar, she was named as a TIME Next Generation Leader in 2017, and is currently studying at Columbia University as an Obama Foundation scholar. This week, Nu is present at the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s highest court, in The Hague, the Netherlands for hearings in a landmark case claiming Myanmar has violated the 1948 convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide. Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is leading the country’s defense and said Wednesday that “genocidal intent cannot be the only conclusion.”

The Rohingya Activists Facing Abduction Threats from Myanmar for Fighting for the

BYLINE TIMES

Tasnim Nazeer

9 December 2019

With Aung San Suu Kyi due to appear at the UN’s highest court tomorrow to face questions over Myanmar’s persecution of its Rohingya Muslims, Tasnim Nazeer explores why the international community must stand up against its intimidation of those fighting for justice. 

 

 

Two leading Buddhist activists of the Rohingya campaign in Europe are fearing for their lives after calls for their abduction were circulated in a video message by Aye Ne Win, the grandson of the former dictator of Myanmar.

Rohingya activist: US ban on Myanmar generals a first step

Dhaka Tribune
AFP
July 18th, 2019

Wai Wai Nu, an advocate for Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, speaks with AFP during an interview at the State Department in Washington, DC, July 17, 2019 AFP

Wai Wai Nu founded two groups promoting inter-ethnic harmony and women's rights

A formerly imprisoned Rohingya activist said Wednesday that a US ban on Myanmar's top generals was a welcome first step but urged more action to support the long-targeted minority.