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.

IOM Bangladesh Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis Response - Monthly Situation Report (June 2021)

Situation Report
Source : IOM
14 Jul 2021 Link : Here

China, Myanmar named in US genocide report

UCA News

UCA News reporter
Published: July 14, 2021

Report highlights China's treatment of Uyghurs and Myanmar military's ethnic cleansing and post-coup atrocities

Protesters gather outside the Belgian parliament in Brussels on July 8 as MPs vote on a resolution to recognize China's policies towards Uyghurs as genocide. (Photo: AFP)

China, which has been accused of ill treatment of its Uyghur minority, and its neighbor and ally Myanmar, which faces allegations of ethnic cleansing, have been named in a new US genocide report.

The State Department’s annual report to Congress on countries where there is risk of atrocities being committed named China and Myanmar along with Eritrea, Syria and South Sudan.

Fighting Ensues Between Military And KNPP in Loikaw Township

Kantarawaddy Times

Thursday, July 15, 2021

The Karenni Army (KA), the armed wing of the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), came under fire this Monday during its third clash with the Burma Army this month.

According to a Karenni soldier, KA Battalion 3, under Tactical Command 1, fought with Burma Army LIB-530, LID-66 and People’s Militia Force (PMF) all day in Loilen Lay, a sub-township of Loikaw Township.

The soldier said the conflict started at 8 am with LIB-530 and PMF between Ner Kwe and Teelon villages. KA exchanged gunfire with LID-66 near Kon Ner and Wam Khine villages at 1:40 pm. By the late afternoon until about 6 pm, Karenni soldiers were battling Burma Army near Dawta Hey village.

Blinken urges ASEAN to take ‘immediate action’ on Myanmar

Aljazeera

14 Jul 2021

In first meeting with ASEAN, US secretary of state calls for action on Myanmar and rejects China’s claims in South China Sea.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed US's commitment to ASEAN centrality during Wednesday's video conference [Jim Watson/Pool via Reuters]

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has expressed “deep concerns” about the military coup in Myanmar and called on Southeast Asian nations to take action to end violence and restore democracy in the country.

UN resolution calls for reconciliation in Myanmar

Frontier
MYANMAR
AFP
JULY 13, 2021

The UN Human Rights Council on Monday adopted a resolution condemning human rights violations by Myanmar’s military against the Rohingya and other minorities, and called for a process of reconciliation.

The resolution, brought forward by Pakistan on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, was approved without a vote in the Geneva-based council.

China, one of the 47 council members, said it could not join the consensus but nonetheless did not insist on bringing the text to a vote.

UNHRC adopts resolution emphasising justice and repatriation of Rohingyas back to Myanmar

The Daily Star

Star Digital Report
Mon Jul 12, 2021

UN Human Rights Council unanimously adopted a resolution on the "Human Rights Situation of Rohingya Muslims and other Minorities in Myanmar" today, calling on the international community to continue providing humanitarian assistance until they return to Myanmar.

The resolution also emphasized bringing all responsible for torture, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against Rohingyas to justice, while also acknowledging the ongoing criminal proceedings in the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.

U.S. Repeats 'Genocide' Accusations Against China

Radio Free Europe
Radio Liberty
RFE/RL

July 12, 2021

Uyghurs and others pray in the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar in western China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region during a government-organized trip for foreign journalists in April.

The United States has repeated genocide allegations against China over its treatment of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of Xinjiang's other indigenous, mostly Muslim, ethnic groups.

The message came alongside additional sanctions warnings against Burma, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and South Sudan over ethnic cleansing in their respective conflicts.

All were contained in materials sent by the Biden administration as part of the State Department's annual report to Congress on the prevention of genocides and atrocities.

Torture in Myanmar: Don’t Let the Junta Normalize Cruelty

THE I DIPLOMAT 

By Tomas Max Martin, Ergun Cakal, and Hannah Russell
JULY 13, 2021

Torture – and the fear that it engenders – has been central to the military junta’s efforts to quell popular resistance.

On June 26, CNN reported the story of American-Burmese journalist Nathan Maung, who was released by the Myanmar military after three months of detention, during which time he experienced severe torture. On June 22, Human Rights Watch published the account of a 17-year-old boy, who endured repeated beatings with a bamboo stick filled with cement, blows to the head with the butt of a rifle, and burial up to his neck in a mock execution.

Media freedom in Bangladesh under “pressure”, political freedom “restricted”: UK

UNB

UNB NEWS
DHAKA
JULY 08, 202

The United Kingdom (UK) has said media freedom in Bangladesh is under “pressure” while political freedom “remained restricted”.

In its latest report titled "Human Rights and Democracy Report 2020", the UK said there was no overall improvement in the human rights situation in Bangladesh in 2020.

The UK government said it will continue to address governance and human rights concerns in Bangladesh through diplomatic engagement and development programming.

China is not happy about Myanmar’s coup

The Economist

Banyan
Jul 10th 2021

Yet it is betting that the generals will prevail

Almost as soon as the tanks rolled into Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital, in February, rumours began circulating on social media about how China would respond. It is a sign of its influence: China is probably the only country that could coax Myanmar’s generals to the negotiating table. The speculation was laid to rest only in June, when the Chinese embassy referred to Min Aung Hlaing, the Burmese commander-in-chief, as Myanmar’s “leader”. The next day, China convened a meeting of foreign ministers from asean, a club of South-East Asian nations, and included the military government’s representative. With their putsch, the generals are trying to wind the clock back to 2010, when they still ran the show. China appears to be adjusting its calendar.

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.

Analysis: Myanmar turmoil deepens as clashes spread

REUTERS
July 7, 2021

  

July 7 (Reuters) - The farming town of Depayin joined Myanmar's list of shattered communities when the army moved in to crush a local anti-junta militia armed with makeshift weapons.

When army trucks arrived at Depayin around dawn last Friday, local youths assembled to fight back but were quickly overwhelmed, six residents told Reuters by telephone. Dozens of people were killed afterwards by the soldiers and thousands have since fled with whatever they could carry, the residents said.

UN rights expert urges sanctions on Myanmar's oil, gas sectors

REUTERS
July 7, 2021

Summary:

• UN rights expert calls for sanctions on oil and gas sector
• Bachelet urges ASEAN to foster dialogue to resolve crisis
• Nearly 900 killed since Feb. 1 coup, 5,200 detained

GENEVA, July 7 (Reuters) - A United Nations human rights investigator called on countries on Wednesday to impose economic sanctions on Myanmar's oil and gas sector to cripple the junta that took power five months ago.

Myanmar has been in crisis since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government on Feb. 1, unleashing nationwide anger that quickly turned into protests and strikes brutally suppressed by security forces, with nearly 900 killed.

WFP, Korea working together to help Rohingyas in Myanmar, Bangladesh

Dhaka Tribune

Tribune Desk
July 7th, 2021

File photo of a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

Korean contribution to help WFP provide assistance for over 860,000 Rohingyas living at Cox’s Bazar camps

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has received a contribution of $800,000 from the government of the Republic of Korea to support operations in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Inside the Myanmar mountain camp where rebels train to fight for freedom from the junta

CNN
Exclusive by Sam Kiley,
July 8, 2021

Camp Victoria, Myanmar (CNN)Full-throated they belt out songs of victory, their boots adding the drumbeat as ranks of new recruits jog in formation through their jungle training camp.

There's no doubting the shining eyes of these young people united by an ideal -- freedom from the junta that's smothered democracy in Myanmar.

Nor, perhaps, hiding from the dark tragedy that may await them.

EDUCATION CANNOT WAIT ANNOUNCES US$250,000 IN EMERGENCY GRANT FUNDING IN RESPONSE TO DEVASTATING FIRES AT ROHINGYA REFUGEE CAMP IN BANGLADESH

 EDUCATION CANNOT WAIT

Photo: UNICEF/UN0431936/Saeed

With new funding, local non-profit BRAC and partners will rebuild learning centers, provide mental health services for vulnerable children and youth, and build back better

6 July 2021, New York – The massive March fires in the Cox’s Bazaar refugee camp in Bangladesh took 15 lives and affected more than 61,000 Rohingya refugees. In response to the devastating fires, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) announced today a US$250,000 first emergency response grant that will support non-profit BRAC and other local partners in rebuilding learning centers, and building back better from the tragic disaster that continues to put vulnerable refugee children and youth at risk.

While many major international non-profits and UN organizations have already stepped up their response to the fires, smaller organizations like BRAC lack the funds to fully rebuild.

In Myanmar, the military declares war on medical workers

Los Angeles Times

KRISTEN GELINEAU AND VICTORIA MILKO

ASSOCIATED PRESS

JULY 7, 2021

JAKARTA, Indonesia —

In this Feb. 28 image from video provided by Dakkhina Insight, medics attend to a man who appears to have a chest wound in Dawei, Myanmar.

(Dakkhina Insight via Associated Press)

The clandestine clinic was under fire, and the medics inside were in tears.

Hidden away in a Myanmar monastery, this haven had sprung up for those injured while protesting the military’s overthrow of the government. But now security forces had discovered its location.

A bullet struck a young man in the throat as he defended the door, and the medical staff tried frantically to stop the hemorrhaging. The floor was slick with blood.

In Myanmar, the military has declared war on healthcare — and on doctors themselves, who were early and fierce opponents of the takeover in February. Security forces are arresting, attacking and killing medical workers, dubbing them enemies of the state. With medics driven underground amid a global pandemic, the country’s already fragile healthcare system is crumbling.

Amid Coup Crisis, COVID-19 Hits New Daily Highs in Myanmar

THE I DIPLOMAT

By Sebastian Strangio
July 07, 2021

With health workers on strike and much of the public in open rebellion, a new wave of infections could prove devastating.

The coronavirus is rapidly spreading in crisis-hit Myanmar, with the country recording another record number of daily COVID-19 cases, suggesting that the political situation here is on the verge of being compounded by a grave public health emergency.

The regime’s health ministry reported records of 2,318 cases on Sunday and 2,969 cases on Monday, bringing the total number of infections since the start of the pandemic to 168,374, with 3,461 deaths.

Given the country’s unstable political situation, which has prompted sharp disruptions to COVID-19 testing and containment efforts, it is almost certain that these are underestimates. Yesterday, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that hundreds of people have died of COVID-19 over the past 30 days in a single township in northwestern Myanmar.

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.