UN Urges Bangladesh to Delay Rohingya Refugee Island Transfers

THE I DIPLOMAT
By Sebastian Strangio
April 20, 2021

The controversial island relocation plan points to the challenges facing the resolution of the refugee crisis in southeastern Bangladesh.

The United Nations refugee agency is urging Bangladesh to slow down its relocation of Rohingya refugees to an island in the Bay of Bengal until measures to protect residents from storms and flooding are fully in place, BenarNews reported on Friday.

Since December, the government has moved a total of 18,304 Rohingya from the crowded refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar district, close to the border with Myanmar, to Bhasan Char, an island lying some 34 kilometers offshore.

According to the report, a team from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) visited the Bhasan Char in mid-March and acknowledged that the government had made “extensive investments” in infrastructure and safeguards on the flood-prone island, but said further improvements were necessary

UN Urges Bangladesh to Move Rohingya to Bay of Bengal Island Gradually

Radio Free Asia
2021-04-16

Rohingya walk by houses built for them by the Bangladesh government on Bhashan Char Island in Noakhali district, March 13, 2021.

The United Nations refugee agency is urging Bangladesh to slow down its relocation of Rohingya to a low-lying island because measures to protect residents from storms and flooding are not fully in place, UNHCR in Dhaka told BenarNews on Friday.

Meanwhile, the foreign minister said, international agencies must help foot the cost of housing what could eventually be 100,000 refugees on Bhashan Char, an island in the Bay of Bengal. So far, Bangladesh’s government has covered that cost.

Rohingya relocation: UN positive about Bhasan Char

The Daily Star  

Star Digital Report
April 16, 2021

This file photo showing the aerial view of Bhasan Char shows a portion of the housing facilities that has been built on the island to relocate the Rohingyas from Cox’s Bazar. Photo: Star/File

The UN has expressed its positive attitude on the Bhasan Char project, which is meant to relocate 100,000 Rohingya from the camps in Cox's Bazar.

The UN delegation, which visited Bhasan Char on March 17-20, has already submitted a report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently.

For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.

"Overall, UN is positive about Bhasan Char," a diplomatic source told The Daily Star today.

UN: 'refer conflict-related sexual violence to ICC'

MEM

MIDDLE EAST MONITOR

Published in: Africa, ICC, International Organisations, Iraq, Libya, Middle East, News, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, UN, Yemen
April 16, 2021

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has recommended the Security Council to refer cases of conflict-related sexual violence in a number of countries to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The countries in question include six members of the Arab League: Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and Somalia.

Why Myanmar’s massacres shame the world

ZAWYA

SECURITY|
By Yossi Mekelberg, Arab News
03 APRIL, 2021

To a large extent we have arrived at this point due to the past failures of the international community to hold Myanmar’s military accountable for their crimes

Members of the armed forces stand guard during a protest against the military coup, in Yangon, Myanmar March 27, 2021.REUTERS/Stringer

When representatives of all UN member states met in 2005 for the World Summit, billed at the time as the “largest gathering of world leaders in history,” and passed a resolution that set out the parameters for the Responsibility to Protect populations (R2P) from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, there was an air of togetherness and optimism that the journey toward eradicating these horrific phenomena had begun.

Why Britain should champion UN action on Myanmar

politics.co.uk

Yasmine Ahmed
Friday 2 Apr 2021

Myanmar police enforcing the military junta’s crackdown on protesters stopped an ambulance in March, dragged four paramedics out of the vehicle, and beat at least three of them bloody, then hauled them off to jail.

The shocking attack on paramedics is just one example we have seen of the junta’s brutality as it struggles to crush protests against the military’s February 1 coup and subsequent jailing of the country’s democratically elected leaders. Everyday Myanmar security forces arbitrarily arrest, beat, and kill more protesters and political opponents; and violence by the authorities is on the rise. On March 27 alone, security forces killed at least 114 people, among them children.

Myanmar: UN chief condemns killing of civilians during brutal crackdown on protestors

UN News
27 March 2021
Peace and Security

Unsplash/Zinko Hein.Young man lights a candle during a night vigil in Yangon, Myanmar.

The UN chief condemned in the strongest terms, the killing of dozens of civilians, including children and young people, by security forces in Myanmar on Saturday.

In a statement issued by Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq, Secretary-General António Guterres said, “the continuing military crackdown…is unacceptable and demands a firm, unified and resolute international response”. 

As Myanmar’s military celebrated Armed Forces Day with a parade in the country’s capital, Naypyitaw, soldiers and police suppressed protesters during what has resulted in the highest daily death toll since demonstrations began last month.

“The military celebrated Armed Forces Day by committing mass murder against the people it should be defending”, tweeted Tom Andrews, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar.

He added that the Civil Disobedience Movement is responding with “powerful weapons of peace” and called for the world “to respond in kind with and for the people of Myanmar”.

UN body urges action over Myanmar military crackdown

Bangkok Post

PUBLISHED : 24 MAR 2021

Family members grieve over the body of teenage bystander Tun Tun Aung at a cemetery in Mandalay on Tuesday, a day after he was shot dead in front of his home by security forces during a crackdown on demonstrations against the military coup. (AFP photo)

 

The UN Human Rights Council voiced alarm Wednesday at the "disproportionate use of force" in Myanmar since last month's coup and pushed for a UN rights office in the country.

The Council's 47 members adopted a resolution reiterating the call for Myanmar's military to restore civilian rule following its Feb 1 coup and immediately release deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

UN releases US$14 million for Rohingya refugees left homeless by camp fire

CERF

Central Emergency Response Fund

News and Press Release
Source :OCHA

25 Mar 2021

(New York, 24 March 2021): UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock today released US$14 million from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to provide urgent shelter and other assistance to tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees after a devastating fire tore through the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh — the world’s largest refugee camp — on 22 March.

Estimates indicate that the fire displaced more than 45,000 mostly Rohingya refugees, originally from neighbouring Myanmar, with many more affected. A hospital and other critical health, nutrition and education structures were destroyed.

Inside Myanmar, calls for UN intervention grow louder

The World
Patrick Winn

March 18, 2021 

A brutal military coup has some protesters calling for armed intervention — but is this a real possibility?

People walk along a deserted road blocked with improvised barricades build by anti-coup protesters to secure a neighborhood in Yangon, Myanmar, March 18, 2021.

Credit:AP

Myanmar is in the grips of a sickening cycle.

Nearly every day, unarmed protesters are gunned down by soldiers or riot cops. Social media inside the country is a churn of violent images: maimed bodies and young lives cut short.

Six weeks have passed since the military seized total power and instantly sparked a mass uprising — one powered by huge rallies and a general strike, which is grinding the economy to a crawl.

UN: Killings of Peaceful Protesters by Myanmar Junta Soaring

VOA

By Lisa Schlein
March 16, 2021 

People carry a wreath as they attend the funeral of Khant Nyar Hein, a medical student who was shot and killed during the security force crackdown on anti-coup protesters in Yangon, Myanmar, March 16, 2021.

GENEVA - Human rights officials are expressing alarm at the soaring death toll in Myanmar as the military junta’s security forces intensify their brutal crackdown on protesters.

The past week has been particularly deadly. The U.N. human rights office says 11 people were killed on Monday and 57 over the weekend by security forces that used live ammunition against peaceful protesters.

Diplomats: UN to condemn violence against Myanmar protesters

INDEPENDENT

Via AP news wire

10th March 2021

U.N. Security Council diplomats say members have approved a statement calling for a reversal of the military coup in Myanmar and strongly condemning the violence against peaceful protesters and urging “utmost restraint” by the military.

Myanmar(Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

U.N. Security Council members approved a statement Wednesday calling for a reversal of the military coup in Myanmar and strongly condemning the violence against peaceful protesters and calling for “utmost restraint" by the military, three council diplomats said.

The diplomats, who said the presidential statement had been approved by all 15 council members including Myanmar’s neighbor and friend China spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of its official adoption at a council meeting expected later Wednesday. A presidential statement is a step below a resolution but becomes part of the official record of the U.N.’s most powerful body.

Myanmar: 38 Died on Deadliest Day Yet for Military Coup Opposition, Says UN

LATEST LY

Agency News PTI

Mar 04, 2021

Myanmar security forces were seen firing slingshots at protesters, chasing them down and even brutally beating an ambulance crew in video showing a dramatic escalation of violence against opponents of last month's military coup.

Yangon, March 4: Myanmar security forces were seen firing slingshots at protesters, chasing them down and even brutally beating an ambulance crew in video showing a dramatic escalation of violence against opponents of last month's military coup.

A UN official speaking from Switzerland said 38 people had been killed Wednesday, a figure consistent with other reports though accounts are difficult to confirm inside the country. The increasingly deadly violence could galvanise the international community, which has responded fitfully so far. 

Myanmar Shuts Down All Passenger Flights in Country Amid Political Crisis. 

“Today it was the bloodiest day since the coup happened on February 1. We have today — only today — 38 people died. We have now more than over 50 people died since the coup started" and more have been wounded, the U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, told reporters at UN headquarters on Wednesday. 

UN: Boat with Rohingya refugees adrift without food, water

ARAB NEWS

AP
February 24, 2021

A group of Rohingya refugees is adrift in a boat in the Andaman Sea without food or water, the UN said. (File/Reuters)

• The UN and rights groups have said many of the refugees were ill and suffering from acute dehydration
• Reports said about 90 refugees, including some children, started the journey to seek better lives

DHAKA: A group of Rohingya refugees is adrift in a boat in the Andaman Sea without food or water, the United Nations said Wednesday, as their families worried that many may have already died.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, said it understands that some of the refugees died after the boat left southern Bangladesh about two weeks ago. It said it does not know the boat’s exact current location.

A fight is brewing over Myanmar's seat at the United Nations

CNN
Richard Roth and Caitlin Hu, CNN

March 3, 2021

Video Here

(CNN)The fight for control of Myanmar has now officially arrived at the United Nations.

In a letter seen by CNN, Myanmar's UN Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun has told the international body that he still represents Myanmar, after making an impassioned speech last week rejecting the country's military takeover.

Meanwhile, a deputy ambassador to the UN from Myanmar will claim that he is now the man the military authorities want to represent the country.

Both sides have sent the UN letters to make their case on official letterhead.

Indipendent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar

the ambassador to the UN dismissed from his post

Saxon

February 28, 2021

The junta in Burma on Saturday dismissed its ambassador to the United Nations, the day after its spectacular break with military power which intensified the repression of demonstrators in the country.

On Saturday evening, state television MRTV announced that Kyaw Moe Tun was no longer Burma’s ambassador to the UN. He “did not follow the orders and direction of the state, and betrayed the country“, she announced.”Therefore, he is dismissed from his post as of today“.

Secretary-General condemns deadly violence against protestors in Myanmar

UNITED NATION

Political and Peacebuilding Affairs

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned the lethal use of force against peaceful protestors in Myanmar, where demonstrations against the military takeover of the Government have been growing.

At least two people were killed on Saturday in protests in Mandalay, the nation's second largest city, according to media reports.

“I condemn the use of deadly violence in Myanmar,” the UN chief said in a post on his official Twitter account later that day.

“The use of lethal force, intimidation & harassment against peaceful demonstrators is unacceptable. Everyone has a right to peaceful assembly. I call on all parties to respect election results and return to civilian rule.”

Protests growing steadily

UN appeals for rescue of Rohingya adrift in Andaman Sea

Aljazeera

22 Feb 2021

Refugee agency says the refugees have run out of food and water and a number of people have already died.

Rohingya take to sea in overcrowded wooden boats to try and get to Malaysia and Indonesia. The UNHCR says it has received reports of a boat adrift in the Andaman Sea and is urging governments to mount a rescue mission [File: Antara Foto/Rahmad/via Reuters]

The UN refugee agency is calling for the immediate rescue of a group of Rohingya refugees after their boat broke down in the Andaman Sea leaving them adrift for days without food or water.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or UNHCR says it received reports of an “unconfirmed number of Rohingya refugees aboard a vessel in distress as of the evening of Saturday 20th February”.

Myanmar faces European push at U.N. to condemn coup

REUTERS

Stephanie Nebehay
APAC
FEBRUARY 10, 2021

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations’ top human rights body is to consider a resolution on Friday drafted by Britain and the European Union that would condemn Myanmar’s military coup and demand urgent access for monitors, a text seen by Reuters shows.

Myanmar citizens hold placards as they take part in a protest against the military coup in Myanmar at Bangkok's shopping district, Thailand, February 10, 2021. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

However, diplomats said Human Rights Council members China and Russia - who both have ties to Myanmar’s armed forces - are expected to raise objections or try to weaken the text.

Procedural wrangling began on Monday, with Beijing and Moscow raising objections over virtual voting as officials met to plan both the council’s four-week session from Feb. 22 and Friday’s special session on Myanmar.

The U.N. Security Council last week called for the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others detained by the military but stopped short of condemning the coup.