Rohingya genocide case at ICJ: Myanmar military regime organises new legal team

The Daily Star

Digital Report
June 26, 2021

Armed police confront protesters on the streets of Naypyitaw, Myanmar’s capital, on Monday, February 8. Photo: AP

The Myanmar military regime has organised a new legal team led by its foreign minister, U Wunna Maung Lwin, to present the defense in the Rohingya genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The regime's order restructuring the committee, which was previously led by detained State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, was announced in a bulletin published by the Myanmar Gazette on Thursday.

Myanmar’s Democratic Vision Depends on Including Rohingya, Other Ethnic Minorities “We will never be free until all of us are free.”

THE I DIPLOMAT

Wai Wai Nu
June 25, 2021

“We will never be free until all of us are free.”

Since the February 1 coup in Myanmar, the military has unfurled a brutal nationwide crackdown targeting protesters and civilians who oppose their unlawful rule. Indeed, last week’s stinging rebuke of the military coup by the United Nations General Assembly — only the fourth such resolution since the end of the Cold War — offers a stark reminder of what’s at stake.

KIA Attack Checkpoint On Bridge Linking Myitkyina to Waingmaw

KACHIN NEWS GROUP

Kachin News Group

Friday, June 25, 2021

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) attacked a police checkpoint on an important bridge linking Kachin State capital, Myitkyina, to Waingmaw.

At press time, it was unclear if there were any casualties from the attack on Bala Min Htin Bridge at about 7:45 pm, June 23.

A woman who requested for her name not to be published heard two police officers were injured. The officers fought back, firing small and heavy weapons at the KIA.

One on One - Myanmar's UN Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun

TRT WORLD
Jun 26, 2021

The United Nations General Assembly has called for an arms embargo on Myanmar in response to the February coup by the military junta. In a rare act of defiance, Myanmar's UN ambassador also condemned the coup. TRT World's Frank Ucciardo sat down with Kyaw Moe Tun to talk about Myanmar's future and whether his county will ever return to democracy.

#Myanmar #UN #KyawMoeTun

Link : Here

Challenging Rakhine, military narratives

NEWAGE

Habib Siddiqui
Jun 26,2021

Warpait village, Rakhine, October 14, 2016… The Myanmar military’s campaign against the Rohingyas left hundreds of villages a smouldering pile of debris. — The Conversation/Ye Aung

OPPRESSION, marginalisation, violence and propaganda — none of it is new. What is new however is the mere scale, frequency and omnipresence of disinformation, especially when it is propagated by a powerful group that runs at the state level with the goal to eliminate a small minority that is different from the dominant group’s identity by race, ethnicity, language, religion, customs and culture. Nowhere in our time is this issue perhaps more acute than in Myanmar where the Rohingyas are victims of a carefully crafted genocidal programme that has become a national project there, enjoying full support from top to bottom of every rung and corner of the Buddhist society — from a military man in uniform to a monk in a saffron robe, from a peasant in the paddy field to a politician wearing a longyi.

Amid This ‘Great Depression’, Myanmar’s People Will Never Give Up

The Irrawaddy

NAING KHIT 

26 June 2021

Anti-coup graffiti in downtown Yangon in February. / The Irrawaddy

Myanmar has entered a Great Depression. It must be spelled with a capital G and D, reflecting the real mood of the people of this country.

This Great Depression began with the coup staged by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on Feb. 1, which in turn triggered political, social and economic upheavals that continue to this day. This Myanmar version of the Great Depression differs from the severe worldwide economic depression of the 1930s, though.

Beijing to act as bridge to facilitate early results in Rohingya repatriation: Li Jiming

The Daily Star

UNB, Dhaka

June 25, 2021

Chinese Ambassador Li Jiming. Photo: Collected

Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming has said China will continue to serve as a "bridge of communication and try its best to facilitate early results" as Bangladesh seeks early repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar.

"We fully understand the keenness of Bangladesh to start repatriation, and our determination to help the two friendly neighbours resolve this long-standing issue will never change," he said while speaking at an online symposium hosted by the Cosmos Foundation.

Australian Parliamentary Committee Urges Harder Line on Myanmar Junta

THE I DIPLOMAT

By Sebastian Strangio

June 25, 2021

The cross-party committee called for the government to consider harsher sanctions, and a pathway to residency for Myanmar citizens in Australia.

Australian lawmakers have pressed their government to step up its pressure against Myanmar’s military government, by considering the imposition of fresh sanctions on leading commanders and military enterprises.

The report by the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade, which includes members of Australia’s two major parties, also called on the government to explore how it could offer permanent residency to Myanmar citizens living in Australia who fear returning home.

Rohingya repatriation: Beijing to act as bridge for early results

Dhaka Tribune
UNB
June 25th, 2021

File Photo: Nearly one million Rohingyas are living in Bangladesh now since fleeing a military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state in 2017 Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

Myanmar coup caught everyone by surprise, says the Chinese envoy in Dhaka

Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming has said China will continue to serve as a “bridge of communication” and try its best to facilitate early results as Bangladesh seeks swift repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar.

“We fully understand the keenness of Bangladesh to start repatriation, and our determination to help the two friendly neighbours resolve this long-standing issue will never change,” he said while speaking at an online symposium hosted by the Cosmos Foundation.

Myanmar Junta Reorganizes Legal Team for ICJ Rohingya Genocide Case

The Irrawaddy
24 June 2021

Regime Foreign Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin

The Myanmar military regime has organized a new legal team led by its foreign minister, U Wunna Maung Lwin, to present the defense in the Rohingya genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

The regime’s order restructuring the committee, which was previously led by detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was announced in a bulletin published by the Myanmar Gazette on Thursday.

The panel has eight members. Among them are two former military officers—U Wunna Maung Lwin, who will serve as chairman; and the regime’s planning, finance and industry minister, U Win Shein—and two serving lieutenant generals: Yar Pyae and Adjutant General Myo Zaw Thein.

Junta forms new legal team to face Rohingya genocide allegations at ICJ

Coconuts Yangon

Jun 25, 2021 

Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin at the UN Assembly’s 70th annual General Debate. Photo: UN News

Myanmar junta’s military council has set up a legal team to defend itself against allegations of genocide of Rohingya Muslims at the International Criminal Court (ICJ) on July 23.

Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, appointed by the military council, chaired the meeting. Attorney General of the Union Daw Thida Oo has been appointed as the Vice-Chairperson.

Facebook Tried to Ban Myanmar’s Military. But Its Own Algorithm Kept Promoting Pages Supporting Them, Report Says

TIMES

BY BILLY PERRIGO
JUNE 24, 2021 

YANGON, MYANMAR - 2021/03/06: Myanmar military with military trucks seen during a demonstration against the military coup. Myanmar police attacked protesters with rubber bullets, live ammunition, tear gas and stun bombs in response to anti military coup protesters on Saturday. Myanmar's military detained State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi on February 01, 2021 and declared a state of emergency while seizing the power in the country for a year after losing the election against the National League for Democracy (NLD). (Photo by Santosh Krl/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett—© 2021 SOPA Images

Facebook promoted pages that shared pro-military propaganda in Myanmar, even after it banned accounts linked to the military from the platform due to human rights abuses and the risk of violence, according to a report by the human rights group Global Witness.

Myanmar’s armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, overthrew the country’s civilian government in February, claiming that elections in November 2020 had been rigged. Later that month, Facebook said it had decided to ban the Tatmadaw from its platform, citing the military’s history of human rights abuses, record of spreading misinformation and the increased risk of violence after the coup.

Confident in Its Impunity, the Myanmar Junta Ignores Diplomacy

The New York Times
By Richard C. Paddock and Rick Gladstone
June 24, 2021

The generals who seized power five months ago have shown no inclination to heed international pleas to reverse themselves, even as Myanmar slides into a failed state.

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the commander of Myanmar’s military, during a parade on Armed Forces Day in Naypyidaw, the capital, in March.Credit...EPA, via Shutterstock

Western powers have imposed sanctions. Neighboring countries have implored the military to restore democracy. More than 200 human rights groups have called for an arms embargo. And last week, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a blunt rebuke aimed at isolating the generals.

The diplomatic pressure has done little to change the situation in Myanmar.

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.

UN says some 230,000 people displaced by fighting in coup-hit Myanmar

PRESS TV
Thursday, 24 June 2021

Children and elders line up for food distribution in the eastern town of Namlan, Myanmar, on May 25, 2021, after being displaced from fighting between the military troops and ethnic forces. (Photo by AFP)

The United Nations says an estimated 230,000 people have been displaced by fighting in Myanmar and need humanitarian assistance, several months after the military took power and plunged the Southeast Asian country into chaos.

Turmoil has gripped Myanmar since de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) were ousted on February 1 through a military coup, with near-daily protests and a nationwide civil disobedience movement.

Protesters are demanding the restoration of civilian rule and the release of Suu Kyi and her associates, who have been under arrest ever since.

Rohingya Refugees Protest Over Inadequate Conditions

OWP

The Organisation for World Peace
Madison Smith
June 24, 2021

An estimated 4,000 Rohingya refugees on the remote island of Bhasan Char, off the coast of Bangladesh, have protested their inadequate living conditions and desires to leave the camp during a recent United Nations visit. Protestors were upset at the lack of access to the visiting UN members, and reportedly could not speak to them without the presence of Bangladesh authorities. Local police have reported cases of unruly protestors throwing rocks and breaking glass, damaging warehouses and other properties. In turn, they resorted to using batons to disperse protestors, causing harm to even women and children. The United Nations High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) has expressed concern over injuries inflicted on these refugees, as well as dismay over inadequate conditions on the low-lying island, which is susceptible to rising sea levels.

Armed rebels have declared war on the Myanmar junta, and the country is gearing up for all-out urban warfare

INSIDER

Cheryl Teh
Jun 23, 2021,

A man holds a torch as he stands behind a barricade during a protest against the military coup, in Yangon, Myanmar March 28, 2021. Stringer/Reuters

• A Myanmar militia declared war on the military junta, pushing the country closer to war.
• Firefights between junta soldiers and the People's Defense Force broke out on the streets of Mandalay.
• This is the first time gunfights between rebels and troops broke out in Myanmar's cities since the February 1 coup.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

A formal declaration of war has been made on Myanmar's military junta by an armed militia group.

Adani Ports to abandon Myanmar project if US classifies it as 'sanctioned country'

Business Today

BusinessToday.In
June 23, 2021

Adani Ports, which is India's largest port operator, has been facing criticism from various international investors over its plan to construct a container terminal in Yangon, Myanmar, on land leased from a Myanmar military-owned conglomerate.

Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited has said it'll abandon its project in Myanmar and write-down its investments in full if the country is classified as a sanctioned country by the US. Adani Ports' statement comes following reports that Norwegian pension fund KLP is divesting its stake in the company as its links with Myanmar military breaches the fund's responsible investment policy.

With Aung San Suu Kyi facing prison, Myanmar’s opposition is leaderless, desperate and ready to fight

THE CONVERSATION
Adam Simpson,Senior Lecturer, University of South Australia
Nicholas Farrelly,Professor and Head of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania
Laura Hood,Politics Editor, Assistant Edito

June 23, 2021

Soldiers from the People’s Defence Force taking part in training at an undisclosed location in Myanmar. National Unity Government handout/EPA

As Aung San Suu Kyi finally faced court last week to defend herself against a litany of politically motivated charges, Myanmar is continuing its downward spiral into state failure.

Suu Kyi was arrested following the February 1 coup by the military and charged with alleged corruption, inciting public unrest and other offences. If she is found guilty, which is a near certainty, she may well be imprisoned for the rest of her life.

The popularity of Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party have been consistently underestimated by a range of domestic and international analysts, and even by the Myanmar military itself. But her role will now change as her case takes a stop-start journey through the tightly held and persistently manipulated judicial process.