Rohingya tell of death at sea: Hundreds still adrift

REUTERS
Posted May 4, 2020
COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh/BANGKOK (Reuters) - Rohingya refugee Shahab Uddin thought the wooden trawler he boarded in February would be his ticket out of a camp in Bangladesh to a better life in Malaysia.

 Rohingya refugee Shahab Uddin thought the wooden trawler he boarded in February would be his ticket out of a camp in Bangladesh to a better life in Malaysia.Instead, the voyage nearly killed him. Libby Hogan reports.

Instead, the voyage nearly killed him.

The 20-year-old was among almost 400 survivors pulled from the water, starving, emaciated and traumatized after the boat failed to reach Malaysia and spent weeks adrift before returning to Bangladesh in mid-April.

Deaths of 16 Rohingya at sea raises fears trafficking ring has been revived

The Guardian
Kaamil Ahmed
Wed 12 Feb 2020


Smugglers responsible for mass atrocities in Thailand may be linked to capsized boat carrying refugees from Bangladesh to Malaysia.

 The overloaded boat was carrying about 138 people when it capsized.
Photograph: Joynal Abedin/AP 

 

Activists fear a dangerous transnational trafficking network is being revived after at least 16 Rohingya refugees drowned in the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday morning.

Bangladeshi officials said a wooden fishing boat carrying about 138 people capsized near Bangladesh’s St Martin’s island in the early hours.

Rights Groups Hit Myanmar Military Over Mounting Rakhine Deaths in Custody

Radio Free Asia
2019-07-03

Thein Nu Sein, mother of deceased civilian Zaw Win Hlaing, squats next to her son’s coffin following his death from injuries he sustained while in the Myanmar military’s custody in Mrauk-U township, western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, July 2, 2019.  

Rights experts are again criticizing the Myanmar military for possible international law violations after reports that another civilian died in custody amid fighting between national forces and the Arakan Army (AA) in western Myanmar’s Rakhine and Chin states.

According to RFA’s reporting, at least 14 persons died of injuries they received while in military or police custody or detention between March and July during the ongoing armed conflict. Seven were from Rathedaung township, six were from Mrauk-U township, and one was from Kyauktaw township.

Villager Dies in Military Custody in N. Rakhine

The Irrawaddy 
By Min Aung Khine
26 June 2019

Family members retrieve the body of a man who died during military detention from Kyauktaw Township Hospital. / Ko Kyaw Hla Myin

SITTWE—A resident of the village of Pauk Taw Pyin in Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township died while being taken to a hospital by the Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) on Tuesday, four days after soldiers arrested him.

Family members said they only became aware of the man’s death after his body arrived at Kyauktaw Township Hospital.

Myanmar: Deaths in Army Custody Need Independent Inquiry

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

May 6, 2019

Killing of 6 Villagers in Rakhine State Should Be Fully, Credibly Investigated

 

Maj. Gen. Nyi Nyi Tun and Maj. Gen. Soe Naing Oo of the Myanmar military’s information team announce the Arakan Army’s classification as a terrorist organization at a press conference in Naypyidaw, January 18, 2019. © 2019 AP Photo 

(New York) – Myanmar authorities should independently investigate the killing of detainees held by the military in Rakhine State, Human Rights Watch said today. On May 2, 2019, army soldiers shot and killed at least six villagers from among several hundred who had been detained in Kyauk Tan, Rathedaung township, for suspected links to the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine armed group.

Outcry mounts over deaths in custody in Myanmar's Rakhine State

Aljazeera 
26th April 2019

Military's Myawady newspaper blames 'heart failure' for deaths of men taken away by soldiers.

The Arakan Army is fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in a state infamous for the 2017 military crackdown against its Muslim-majority Rohingya [File: Min Kyi Thein/AP]

The deaths of three ethnic Rakhine men in Myanmar military custody and the secret cremation of their bodies has provoked outrage, as fears over military impunity increase in the intensifying conflict with Rakhine rebels.

The Arakan Army (AA) is fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in a state already infamous for the 2017 military crackdown against its Rohingya ethnic minority.