Australian ambassador meets with Myanmar military chief accused of Rohingya genocide

The Guardian
Ben Doherty
@bendohertycorro
Thu 20 Feb 2020



Exclusive: Australia accused of giving legitimacy and credibility to a military accused of mass atrocities

 Australia’s ambassador to Myanmar, Andrea Faulkner, met Min Aung Hlaing on 29 January at the Bayintnaung Villa in the capital, Naypyidaw. Photograph: Supplied 

The commander-in-chief of Myanmar’s defence forces – recommended by the UN for investigation and prosecution for war crimes and genocide – has met with Australia’s ambassador and says he wants to train more of his officers in Australia.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing is the supreme commander of Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, which has been accused of genocide in its systematic persecution of the ethnic and religious minority Rohingya.

Aung San Suu Kyi to defend Myanmar against genocide charge at The Hague

The Guardian 
Michael Safi
@safimichael
Wed 20 Nov 2019

Burmese leader will lead delegation to international court of justice next month

Aung San Suu Kyi is thought to have little operational control over the Burmese military but has refused to condemn their actions. Photograph: Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters

Aung San Suu Kyi will travel to The Hague to defend Myanmar against allegations of genocide, her office has announced.

The Burmese leader, once an icon of democracy but now tainted by her association with what UN investigators have described as crimes against humanity, will lead a delegation to the international court of justice (ICJ) next month.

This month the Gambia lodged a 46-page application to the UN’s highest court alleging Myanmar had carried out mass murder, rape and destruction of communities in Rakhine state, including against Rohingya people. Public hearings in the case will be held from 10 to 12 December.

‘The land where we lived has gone' – the life story of a Rohingya refugee

The Guardian
@Gay_Alcorn
Sun 4 Aug 2019

  Habiburahman ... “I am three years old and effectively erased from existence” he writes in his book.                                                   Photograph: Sophie Ansel

As a young man Habiburahman fled oppression in his native Myanmar and lives, stateless, in Australia. Now he has written a book about his struggle – and his suffering people.

“A tyrant leant over my cradle and traced a destiny for me that will be hard to avoid: I will either be a fugitive or I won’t exist at all.” – From First, They Erased Our Name: A Rohingya Speaks, by Habiburahman.

There has been much written about the Rohingya people of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. The Muslim ethnic group has been persecuted for generations, most recently from 2017, when 800,000 picked up whatever they could carry to flee to Bangladesh. But little has been written from the point of view of a Rohingya growing up in Myanmar – the daily humiliations, the struggle for survival, the fear, the stories whispered through generations to ensure they are not lost. Habiburahman, known as Habib, was born in a village in the west of the country around 1979 – he is not quite sure of the year. He has written his life story, and through that, the story of his people.

'Treated like cattle': Angelina Jolie takes aim at Myanmar over Rohingya plight.

Hollywood star meets refugees in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district where 740,000 Rohingya have fled since August 2017

 

Angelina Jolie speaks at Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh before visiting a nearby Rohingya refugee camp. Photograph: Suman Paul/ZEPPELIN/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock

Agence France-Presse

Wed 6 Feb 2019 02.02 GMT

Angelina Jolie has shared the stories of rape survivors during a visit to Rohingya refugee camps and said the responsibility to let them return “lies squarely with the government and the authorities in Myanmar”.

Myanmar freedom of expression getting worse 'day by day', report finds

Aung San Suu Kyi criticised for failing to halt jailing of Reuters reporters Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone

Myanmar state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has failed to act on repressive regime for journalists, Human Rights Watch said. Photograph: Hein Htet/EPA

  The Guardian
Leonie Kijewski
Fri 1 Feb 2019

Myanmar’s freedom of expression has deteriorated under its new government, a new Human Rights Watch report has said.

It cited the jailing of Reuters reporters Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone, who were investigating the Rohingya crisis, saying the case “shows the military’s willingness to penalise reporters who seek information the military would rather keep hidden”.