Putin has a history of atrocities. Just how far will Russian forces go in Ukraine?

THE GUARDIAN
Kenneth Roth
Thu 3 Mar 2022
Kenneth Roth is executive director of Human Rights Watch


We have already seen indiscriminate use of cluster munitions, and the firing of ballistic missiles and rocket artillery

 

What can be done to stop a worsening spiral of indiscriminate warfare that would endanger countless Ukrainian civilians?’ People shelter from Russian attacks in a Kyiv underground station on Wednesday. Photograph: Roman Pilipey/EPA


As Russian forces invading Ukraine confront stronger and more effective resistance than the Kremlin probably anticipated, the big question is: what comes next. The Russian military has a history of meeting such resistance with serious violations of the laws of war, including deliberately targeting civilians and subjecting them to indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks.

ပူတင်ဟာ ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်တဲ့ သမိုင်းကြောင်းရှိတယ်။ ယူကရိန်းမှာ ရုရှားတပ်တွေ ဘယ်လောက်အထိ ရောက် သွားမလဲ။

THE GURDIAN
Kenneth Roth
Thu 3 Mar 2022

Kenneth Roth သည် Human Rights Watch ၏ အမှုဆောင်ဒါရိုက်တာဖြစ်သည်။

အစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် ခဲယမ်းများကို ခွဲခြားမှုမရှိစွာ အသုံးပြုခြင်းနှင့် ပဲ့ထိန်းဒုံးကျည်များနှင့် ရော့ကက်အမြောက်များဖြင့် ပစ်ခတ်ခြင်းတို့ကို ကျွန်ုပ်တို့ တွေ့မြင်ပြီးဖြစ်သည်။  

မရေမတွက်နိုင်သော ယူကရိန်းအရပ်သားများကို အန္တရာယ်ဖြစ်စေမည့် ခွဲခြားမှုမရှိသော စစ်ပွဲများ၏ ပိုဆိုး လာ ခြင်းကို ရပ်တန့်ရန် အဘယ်အရာလုပ်ဆောင်နိုင်မည်နည်း။' ကိယက်ဗ် မြေအောက် ဘူတာရုံတစ်ခုတွင် ရုရှားတို့ ၏ တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများကြောင့် လူများ ခိုလှုံနေကြကြောင်း သိရသည်။ ဓာတ်ပုံ- Roman Pilipey/EPA

 

မျှော်လင့်ထားတာထက် ပိုအားကောင်းပြီး ထိရောက်တဲ့ ခုခံမှုကို ထိပ်တိုက်ရင်ဆိုင်ဖို့၊ ကြီးမားတဲ့ မေးခွန်းကတော့ နောက်ဘာဖြစ်လာမလဲ ။ ရုရှားစစ်တပ်သည် အရပ်သားများကို တမင်တကာ ပစ်မှတ်ထားပြီး အချိုးမညီဘဲ အချိုး အ စားမမျှသော တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများ အပါအဝင် စစ်ဥပဒေများကို ပြင်းထန်စွာ ချိုးဖောက်မှုများဖြင့် ခုခံတိုက်ခိုက်သည့် သမိုင်းကြောင်းရှိသည်။

2015 ခုနှစ်မှ 2016 ခုနှစ်အတွင်း ရုရှားနှင့် ဆီးရီးယားတို့၏ ဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက်မှုများ သည် နိုင်ငံ၏လူဦးရေအများ ဆုံးမြို့ဖြစ်သည့် Aleppo အရှေ့ပိုင်းရှိ အတိုက်အခံများ ထိန်းချုပ်ထားသော အစိတ်အပိုင်းများကို အကြီးအကျယ် ပျက်စီးစေခဲ့သည်။ အောက်တွင် နေထိုင်သူများ ပိတ်ဆို့ဒဏ်ခတ်မှု အပြင် အစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် စည်ဗုံးများ ၊ လောင်မီးလက်နက်များနှင့် ပြင်းထန်သော ပေါက်ကွဲစေတတ်သော ဗုံးများဖြင့် အတိုက်အခံအင်အားစုများက နောက် ဆုံးတွင် လက်နက်ချအညံ့ခံခဲ့သည်။

 

Serbia Sold Arms to Myanmar Junta After Coup

The Irrawaddy

25 February 2022

NORA A 152mm howitzers manufactured by Jugoimport-SDPR, which were viewed by coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing during his visit to Serbia in 2015

Serbia has continued to supply arms to the Myanmar military since the coup, despite the fact that those weapons are being used to attack and kill civilians, including children.

Tom Andrews, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, identified Serbia, along with China and Russia, as UN member states that are continuing to sell arms to the junta in a report issued on Tuesday.

On the same day, the independent rights group Myanmar Witness also issued its own report revealing that air-launched rockets were exported by Serbia to Myanmar after the February 1, 2021 coup.

ICJ’s fresh hearings into Rohingya case bring fresh hope

The Daily Star
Wednesday, February 23, 2022

The world must come together for the Rohingya cause

File photo of a court proceeding in a case filed by the Gambia against Myanmar over allegations of genocide against the Rohingya at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Netherlands, on January 23, 2020. Photo: Reuters/Eva Plevier

We welcome the International Court of Justice's initiative to start a fresh round of hearings into the Rohingya genocide case filed by the Gambia over two years ago. The hearings will be held in two rounds starting from today. The Gambia, on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), filed the case in November 2019 with an aim to bring Myanmar to account for its genocidal actions against the Rohingya. The court, after holding a preliminary hearing, found the claims to be substantial and ordered Myanmar to take provisional measures to prevent further acts of genocide in the Rakhine State. Two years have passed since then, but Myanmar has not taken any such measures yet. It has not taken any initiative to grant citizenship or ensure other basic rights of the Rohingya.

"အာဏာလုထားတဲ့ စစ်တပ်က မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရဲ့ အစိုးရမဟုတ် ဘူး" - DVB ICJ Talkshow

DVB TV
၂၀ ရက် ဖေဖေါ်ဝါရီလ ၂၂ ရက်။

"စစ်ကောင်စီထိန်းချုပ်ထားတဲ့ မြန်မာသံရုံးကနေ ICJ တရားရုံးက ဆက်သွယ်ဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့လို့ စစ်ကောင် စီ ကိုယ် စားလှယ်အဖွဲ့က လာရောက်ဖြေရှင်းခွင့်ရခဲ့တာ။ တရားရုံးအနေနဲ့အခုလိုဆောင်ရွက်လိုက်တာဟာ မှန်ကန်တဲ့ ဆောင် ရွက်ချက်မဟုတ်ဘူး။ ICJ တရားရုံးက နိုင်ငံကိုယ်စားပြုအစိုးရဆိုပြီး ဆုံးဖြတ်ပိုင်ခွင့်မရှိဘူး။UN ရဲ့တာဝန် မဲ့မှုတွေကြောင့် အခုလိုတွေဖြစ်လာတာ။သံအမတ်ကြီး ဦးကျော်မိုးထွန်းသည် NUG အစိုးရရဲ့ သံအမတ်ဖြစ်တည် လို့ တိတိကျကျ ဆုံးဖြတ်ခဲ့ရင် ဒီပြဿနာဖြစ်လာမှာ
မဟုတ်ဘူး။ UN မှာ ရှိနေတဲ့ ဝန်ထမ်း တွေသည် ကမ္ဘာနိုင် ငံ  တွေက ပြည်သူတွေဆီက အခွန်အခတွေနဲ့ လစာတွေယူပြီး တာဝန်တွေေ ကြအောင် မလုပ်ဘူး။ သမ္မတကိုဖမ်းပြီး နိုင်ငံအာဏာလုထားတဲ့ စစ်တပ်က မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရဲ့ အစိုးရမဟုတ်ဘူး။ပြည်သူလူ ထုကရွေးချယ်ထားတဲ့ NUG ကပဲ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအစိုးရဖြစ်တယ်"

အောင်သူ (ဒီမိုကရတစ်မြန်မာ့အသံ)
ကိုနေဆန်းလွင် (ရိုဟင်ဂျာ လွတ်မြောက်ရေး ညွန့်ပေါင်းအဖွဲ့ပူးပေါင်းတည်ထောင်သူ)
မခင်ဥမ္မာ (ရှေ့ပြေးအသံအဖွဲ့တည်ထောင်သူ)
#DVBTV #Rohingya #ICJ #Talkshow #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

UN and US condemn Myanmar military after protest reportedly turns deadly in Yangon

CNN

By Pierre Meilhan and Cape Diamond,
December 6, 2021

Protesters walk down the street to protest against the military coup and demand the release of deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

(CNN)At least five people were killed in Myanmar when a vehicle plowed into anti-junta protesters this weekend, according to local media. The attack took place in a Yangon township, news outlet Myanmar Now reported Sunday, citing protesters and eyewitnesses. 

One reporter who witnessed the incident told CNN that it was a military vehicle that rammed demonstrators. 

Addressing root causes of Rohingya crisis critical, BD envoy tells UN

Dhaka Tribune

UNB
November 10th, 2021

File photo: Ambassador Rabab Fatima of Bangladesh Permanent Mission at the UN speaks at the UN headquarters UNB

The open debate discusses possible role of Security Council in addressing inequalities, exclusion and conflict

Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations Ambassador Rabab Fatima has said the social and political exclusion of Rohingya minorities in Myanmar has blown into a crisis with serious humanitarian and security ramifications for the region.

U.N deal offers no guarantees of free movement for Rohingya on island - leaked agreement

REUTER
Poppy Mcpherson and Ruma Paul
October 15, 2021

A view of sheds and concrete structures built for thousands of displaced Rohingya from Myanmar on Bhasan Char island in Bangladesh, December 29, 2020. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File Photo

Oct 15 (Reuters) - A deal for the United Nations to start work on a remote Bangladeshi island where the government has sent thousands of Rohingya refugees offers no guarantee they will be allowed to move freely to the mainland, according to a copy of the agreement.

The Bangladesh government has moved nearly 19,000 Rohingya refugees, members of a persecuted mostly Muslim minority from Myanmar, to Bhasan Char island from border camps, despite protests by refugees and opposition from rights groups, who have likened it to an island jail and said some relocations were involuntary.

UN's failure to put pressure on Myanmar cause delay in Rohingya repatriation: Experts

AA

Md. Kamruzzaman
DHAKA, Bangladesh
18.10.2021

The UN’s failure to pressure Myanmar to take back its Rohingya nationals while providing them with humanitarian assistance on the remote Bangladeshi island of Bhasan Char may delay their much-awaited repatriation process, according to experts.

UN, Bangladesh sign deal to aid Rohingya relocated to island

Aljazeera
11 Oct 2021

Authorities said another 81,000 refugees would be relocated to the remote Bhasan Char island over next three months. 

Rohingya refugees prepare to board a ship as they move to Bhasan Char island, near Chattogram, Bangladesh [File: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

 

The United Nations and Bangladesh’s government have signed an agreement to work together to help Rohingya refugees on an island in the Bay of Bengal where thousands have been relocated from crammed camps near the Myanmar border.

More than 19,000 Rohingya have already been moved to Bhasan Char island by the government, and the UN said one of the key reasons to sign the agreement was to start serving that population. 

Bangladesh urges UN again to resolve Rohingya crisis

rising bd.com
Dhaka,
Chhabed Sathee, Staff Reporter, USA || risingbd.com
Published: 5 October 2021

Ambassador Rabab Fatima

Ambassador Rabab Fatima, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, said, “The international community and regional countries must continue their efforts to resolve the Rohingya crisis. Creating conducive environment in the Rakhine State and ensuring accountability for the horrendous crimes committed against them are critical in this regard.”

Ambassador Rabab Fatima said this while delivering her statement at the 3rd committee general debate held at the UN headquarters on Monday (October 4).

UN Seeks Investigation Into Killing of Rohingya Rights Defender

VOA
Lisa Schlein
October 02, 2021 

FILE - Rohingya activist Mohib Ullah speaks with Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, April 7, 2019. Unidentified gunmen shot and killed Ullah at Kutupalong refugee camp, also in Cox's Bazar, Sept. 29, 2021.

GENEVA —

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is calling on Bangladeshi authorities to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation into the killing of Rohingya activist Mohib Ullah while he was visiting a Cox’s Bazaar refugee camp in Bangladesh earlier this week.

Bachelet paid tribute to the prominent human rights defender, who she said spent his life fighting to end decades of discrimination against the Rohingya people. She said Ullah lost his life while seeking to restore his people’s basic rights in Myanmar, including their rights to nationality, land, health, and education.

Bangladesh arrests members of Rohingya insurgent group after refugee leader’s murder

South China Morning Post
dpa
Published: 3 Oct, 2021

• Mohib Ullah, who was killed on Wednesday, had met former US president Donald Trump and joined a UN Human Rights Council session in 2019
• Three suspects with links to an armed insurgent group were detained and are being interrogated, officials said.

Bangladesh police officials stand guard near the crime scene after the Mohib Ullah a top Rohingya community leader, was shot dead in Cox’s Bazaar. Photo: EPA-EFE

Police inBangladesh arrested three suspects believed to have links to an armed insurgent group among Rohingya refugees, as officials promised justice for the killers of a prominent Rohingya rights activist.

“The killers will certainly be brought to justice. None will be spared,” Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said on Saturday, three days after the murder of Mohib Ullah, the head of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH).

Another Rohingya man detained over Mohib Ullah killing

bdnews24.com
Cox’s Bazar Correspondent,
Published: 03 Oct 2021

Mohib Ullah, a Rohingya Muslim leader from the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, poses for a potrait at his office in Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhiya, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, April 19, 2018. Picture taken April 19, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

The Armed Police Battalion (APBn) has detained another Rohingya man in connection with the killing of Rohingya community leader Mohammad Mohib Ullah in Cox’s Bazar’s Ukhiya.

Thirty-five-year-old Mohammad Ilias was taken into custody around noon on Sunday, said APBn Captain and Superintendent of Police Mohammad Naimul Haq.

The detainee will be questioned, he said.

Law enforcers have detained a total of five suspects over Mohib Ullah’s death.

A group of unidentified gunmen killed the 48-year-old Mohib Ullah at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar's Ukhiya on Sept 30.

Myanmar’s Junta Tries – and Fails – to Appoint a New UN Ambassador

THE I DIPLOMAT

Sebastian Strangio

July 21, 2021

But the military’s takeover has trapped foreign governments between dueling moral and diplomatic imperatives.

Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that Myanmar’s military junta has attempted – unsuccessfully – to replace the country’s ambassador to the United Nations, foreshadowing a looming battle over diplomatic recognition at the world body.

In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres dated May 12, a copy of which was obtained by the news agency, the junta’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin said he had appointed the former military commander Aung Thurein as Myanmar’s U.N. ambassador.

Wunna Maung Lwin said in an accompanying letter that Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmar’s currently recognized U.N. ambassador, “has been terminated on Feb. 27, 2021, due to abuses of his assigned duty and mandate.”

Myanmar government slams UN on Rohingya resolution

CNA
15 Jul 2021

Members of the internally displaced Rohingya Muslim community are seen on Jun 5, 2021 at the Thet Kay Pyin camp in Sittwe, Rakhine state, Myanmar. (Photo: AFP/STR)

YANGON: Myanmar's government rejected on Wednesday (Jul 14) a UN Human Rights Council resolution calling for reconciliation with the persecuted Rohingya minority, slamming "one-sided allegations" over its treatment of the stateless community.

The country has been in turmoil since the government of Aung San Suu Kyi was ousted in a February coup, sparking huge pro-democracy protests and a bloody military crackdown.

ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 21 A

Lankaweb
KAMALIKA PIERIS
July 8th, 2021

The word genocide” was first coined by Polish lawyer Raphäel Lemkin in 1944 for the killing of Jews in World War II. Genocide was first recognized as a crime under international law in 1946 by the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/96-I). It was codified as an independent crime in the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 1948. Sri Lanka signed the Convention in 1950. .The International Criminal Court (est. 2002) which is specifically mandated to judge crimes of Genocide uses the definition given in the UN Convention.

The international legal definition of the crime of Genocide is found in Articles II and III of the 1948 Convention. There must be a proven intent on the part of perpetrators to physically destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Also action must be taken to carry out the intent. A crime must include elements, intent and action, to be called “genocide.” If the government is to be blamed, it must be a part of state policy.

Why Myanmar may be heading for a full-scale civil war

THE WEEK
JOE EVANS
6 JUL 2021

Civilian death toll rises as military battles anti-coup resistance groups

Resistance fighter with improvised weapon in the southern city of Yangon
Stringer/Getty Images

Myanmar’s security forces have killed at least 25 people in clashes with opponents of the military junta in a township in the central Sagaing region.

Local people in Depayin say the violence erupted after “four military trucks dropped soldiers at the village early on Friday”, Reuters reports.

The alleged raid is the latest in a series of clashes as civilians “increasingly take up arms against the generals who seized power in a coup five months ago”, says Al Jazeera.

Could Japan draw Myanmar's military junta chief to a UN peace initiative?

THE HILL

BY CHARLES CRABTREE,
OPINION CONTRIBUTOR
06/24/21

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

© Getty Images

What should the Japanese government do about Myanmar? Since the military junta under commander in chief Min Aung Hlaing ousted democratically-elected government leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, violence has erupted across the Southeast Asian nation. The new Tatmadaw regime has killed over 800 people, reportedly arrested more than 80 journalists, and detained thousands more politicians, pro-democracy protesters and human rights defenders without due process. In response to this and other abuses, mass protests have erupted across the country, often inciting further violence by state security forces.

The UN’s refugee data shame, and what needs to be done

The Citizen
Oped

By ZARA RAHMAN
THURSDAY JUNE 24 2021

A Rohingya refugee holds ID cards, in Shamlapur refugee camp, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh on 25 March, 2018. PHOTO | FILE

I saw this coming, and I wish I had been wrong.

Back in 2017, I wrote of the risks of the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, collecting biometric registration data from Rohingya refugees, noting that the data could be used to drive unwilling repatriation; that collecting such data may make refugees believe their access to aid depends upon providing such data; and that – once collected or shared – such biometric data is virtually impossible to get rid of.

Nearly four years later, a report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) says these worst-case scenarios have come true: A detailed database of the Rohingya refugee population has been handed over to Myanmar’s government, which drove them across the border into Bangladesh almost four years ago. The same millitary that conducted the (most recent) genocide against the Rohingya now holds the biometric data of the population it has tried to eradicate.