U.S. issues sanctions on alleged arms dealers for Myanmar junta

REUTERS
Simon Lewis, Chris Gallagher
March 25, 2022

WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) - The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on alleged arms dealers and companies it said were involved in procuring weapons for Myanmar's junta, coordinating with similar measures from Canada and Britain.

The U.S. measures targeted three alleged arms dealers and two companies linked to them, as well as a conglomerate operating in the defense sector owned by alleged arms dealer Tay Za, who was already under U.S. sanctions, the U.S. Treasury said.

58 people, mostly Rohingya, rescued from sea while being trafficked to Malaysia

The Daily Star
Star Digital Report

Fri Mar 25, 2022 

Members of Rapid Action Battalion rescued fifty-eight people off Teknaf coast in Cox's Bazar while they were being trafficked to Malaysia by a trawler through the Bay of Bengal.

Lt Col Khairul Islam Sarker, commander of Rab-15, confirmed the matter to our Cox's Bazar staff correspondent.

Rab also arrested two members of human trafficking gang and seized the trawler around 4:30am during their operation, he added.

Secretary Antony J. Blinken on the Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity in Burma

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
Holocaust Memorial Museum
Washington, D.C.
March 21, 2022

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone.  Stu, thank you for those very kind words, but also thank you for so many decades of extraordinary service to this country and to its ideals.

This is something of a sacred place for me.  Every time I walk through these doors, it has the same impact.  And so I’m grateful to Sara and her leadership of this institution; Naomi, who walked us through the extraordinary exhibit on the story, the plight of the Rohingya that we’ll be talking about today.  I urge everyone:  Come, see this.  Experience this.  It will speak incredibly powerful to you.

The US has declared a Rohingya genocide. Does it matter?

RFA
Radio Free Asia
Commentary by Zachary Abuza
2022.03.23

The determination has no immediate legal impact, but it has important implications, Zachary Abuza says.

Unidentified men carry knives and slingshots as they walk past a burning house in Gawdu Tharya village near Maungdaw in Rakhine state in northern Myanmar, Sept. 7, 2017.AFP

On 21 March 2022, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken made a formal determination that Myanmar’s military committed genocide against the Rohingya population in 2017. He described the attacks as “widespread and systematic”, “with a clear and premeditated intention to destroy the Rohingya population.” This went beyond the U.S. government’s previous findings that the military had committed ethnic cleansing in the process of driving over 740,000 Rohingya across the border into neighboring Bangladesh.

 

India, China and the Rohingya issue

ASIA TIMES
by Pema Tseten
March 24, 2018 

Rohingya refugees stretch their hands to receive aid distributed by local organizations at Balukhali makeshift refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 14, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Danish Siddiqui

Myanmar occupies a pivotal position in India’s strategic calculus as New Delhi establishes a connection with Southeast Asia through its “Look East” or “Act East” policy. The region has received the highest level of patronage under different Indian administrations. This was  intensified under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his “Neighborhood First” policy with an active focus on improving ties with India’s immediate neighbors.

China and India's game on Rohingya

the Independent

Md. Tareq Hasan
1 March, 2021

The biggest thing is that the Rohingyas were forced to flee from Myanmar 3 years ago, but Aung San Suu Kyi could not take any initiative to talk to the Bangladeshi authorities and take them back.

A military coup in Myanmar on February 1 could hamper the repatriation and resettlement of Myanmar's Rohingya population. The international community and world leaders are currently keeping a close eye on the situation in Myanmar and the Rohingya, but China and India, Myanmar's trusted allies, have a key role to play in this issue. But neither China nor India has yet commented on the Myanmar coup. What kind of impact the military coup in Myanmar could have on the Rohingya has given rise to a surprising question.

Wa an early winner of Myanmar’s post-coup war

ASIA TIMES

by Anthony Davis
February 22, 2022

UWSA consolidating a new Wa state that will bring Chinese influence near Thailand and set a self-rule model for other ethnic rebels  

UWSA special force snipers participate in a military parade in the Wa State's Panghsang, April 17, 2019. Photo: AFP / Ye Aung Thu

BANGKOK – The anniversary of the Myanmar military’s February 2021 coup has briefly refocused the fickle attentions of the international media with a flurry of “one year on” reporting on popular resistance and its prospects for success or failure.

Overshadowed by this central drama, meanwhile, another major power shift has been unfolding in the remote hills of northeastern Shan state with repercussions that may prove to be no less profound.

Opinion: At long last, the U.S. recognizes what the Rohingya already knew

The Washinton Post

By Wai Wai Nu
2022-03-22

Rohingya refugees walk through a shallow canal after crossing the Naf River as they flee violence in Myanmar to reach Bangladesh in Palongkhali near Ukhia on Oct. 16, 2017. (Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images) 

Wai Wai Nu is a human rights and democracy activist, a former political prisoner, a visiting senior research fellow at the Human Rights Center at the University of California in Berkeley’s School of Law, and the founder and executive director of the Women’s Peace Network in Myanmar.

On Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken officially declared that the U.S. government defines the crimes perpetrated by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya people as a genocide.

For me and many other Rohingya, this is an epochal moment. For too long, we have felt abandoned by the world. For years, we pleaded for help — but our calls went unanswered. The violence and suffering we endured were compounded by the realization that so much of the world preferred to look away. This collective memory has further traumatized us. How could no one care when they burned down our homes and slaughtered our people? How could the international community close its eyes when hundreds of thousands of us were forced to flee our country?

Myanmar Junta Hits Back at U.S.’s Rohingya Genocide Declaration

Bloomberg
Khine Lin Kyaw
22 March 2022,

• Foreign Ministry says ‘never engaged in any genocidal actions’
• Shadow government urges U.S. to refer situation to ICC

Rohingya refugees wait for food distribution at the refugee camp of Balukhali in Bangladesh in Sept. 2017.Photographer: Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images

Myanmar’s military government on Tuesday rejected U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s declaration that the Min Aung Hlaing-led military committed genocide against the Rohingya minority in 2016 and 2017.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement that “Myanmar has never engaged in any genocidal actions” and harbors no “genocidal intent” for any group. Blinken’s remarks were “politically motivated and tantamount to interfering in the internal affairs of a sovereign state.”

Rohingya refugees welcome US decision to call Myanmar atrocities a genocide

THE GUARDIAN
Alex Hern and agencies
@alexhern
Tue 22 Mar 2022

Refugees ‘very happy’ with declaration, while experts say ‘concrete steps’ must follow

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have welcomed the US move to designate atrocities committed by Myanmar’s military a genocide. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have welcomed the announcement by the US that it considers the violent repression of their largely Muslim ethnic group in Myanmar a genocide.

“We are very happy on the declaration of the genocide; many many thanks,” said 60-year-old Sala Uddin, who lives at Kutupalong camp, one of the many in Cox’s Bazar district that are now home to about 1 million Rohingya.

‘Kill more’: Facebook fails to detect hate against Rohingya

NEW YORK POST
Associated Press
March 22, 2022 

Rights group Global Witness submitted eight paid ads for approval to Facebook, each including different versions of hate speech against Rohingya, which were all approved for publishing. AP 

 JAKARTA, Indonesia — A new report has found that Facebook failed to detect blatant hate speech and calls to violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority years after such behavior was found to have played a determining role in the genocide against them.

The report shared exclusively with The Associated Press showed the rights group Global Witness submitted eight paid ads for approval to Facebook, each including different versions of hate speech against Rohingya. All eight ads were approved by Facebook to be published.

 

The US Says Myanmar Committed Genocide in Assaults on Rohingya

THE I DIPLOMAT
Sebastian Strangio
March 21, 2022

The declaration is long overdue, but accountability for Myanmar’s military remains a long way off.

Yesterday, Reuters published an exclusive report claiming that the United States is intending to declare that Myanmar’s brutal treatment of the Rohingya Muslim population is a “genocide.” According to the article, which cited Biden administration officials with knowledge of the matter, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will make the long-anticipated designation today at an event at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where there is currently an exhibit detailing the plight of the Rohingya.

 

Blinken declares Myanmar's military committed genocide against Rohingya

CNN  

Jennifer Hansler,
March 21, 2022

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference in Brussels, on March 4, 2022.

Washington (CNN)US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday he has determined that the military of Myanmar committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the country's minority Rohingya population in 2016 and 2017.

 
The formal declaration, announced at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, is a significant step and comes after the Trump administration declined to classify the atrocities -- including mass killings, rape, and torture -- as genocide or crimes against humanity. 

 

Facebook's 'Double Standard' On Hate Speech Against Russians

Market Screener
03/21/2022

Meta's decision to allow hate speech against Russians is troubling and can impact other conflict areas, say experts

Facebook's decision to allow hate speech against Russians due to the war in Ukraine breaks its own rules on incitement, and shows a "double standard" that could hurt users caught in other conflicts, digital rights experts and activists said.

Facebook owner Meta Platforms will temporarily allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, Reuters reported last week.

It will also allow praise for a right-wing battalion "strictly in the context of defending Ukraine", in a decision that experts say demonstrates the platform's bias.

The move represents a "glaring" double standard when set against Meta's failure to curb hate speech in other war zones, said Marwa Fatafta at digital rights group Access Now.

US Declares Myanmar’s 2017 Atrocities Against Rohingya A ‘Genocide’

BenarNews

March 22, 2022
By Shailaja Neelakantan

Displaced Rohingya in Myanmar. Photo Credit: Tasnim News Agency

The United States has declared as a genocide the Myanmar military’s 2017 deadly crackdown against the Rohingya Muslim minority that killed thousands and forced an exodus to neighboring Bangladesh, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday.

Human rights activists welcomed the move as overdue and essential for stepping up pressure on the military, and making it accountable for crimes against humanity. According to American investigators, the military was responsible for atrocities including mass killings, gang rapes, mutilations, crucifixions, and the burning and drowning of children.

Facebook failed to detect calls for violence against Rohingya after it played role in genocide, report finds

Morning Star
Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Rohingya Muslim children who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, wait squashed against each other to receive food handouts distributed to children and women by a Turkish aid agency at Thaingkhali refugee camp, Bangladesh, Saturday, October 21, 2017

FACEBOOK failed to detect dangerous hate speech and calls to violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya people, years after such posts were found to have played a determining role in the genocide against the Muslim minority, a report has found.

Reports: US to declare Myanmar’s 2017 atrocities against Rohingya a ‘genocide’

RFA

By Shailaja Neelakantan for BenarNews
2022.03.20

The move will bring greater scrutiny on the Myanmar military, says a Rohingya activist.

Ten Rohingya men with their hands bound kneel as members of the Myanmar security forces stand guard in Inn Din village of Rakhine State, Myanmar, Sept. 2, 2017.

The United States is set on Monday to declare as a genocide the Myanmar military’s 2017 deadly crackdown against the Rohingya Muslim minority that killed thousands and forced an exodus to neighboring Bangladesh, news agencies reported.

Human rights activists and a U.S. lawmaker Sunday welcomed the move as overdue and essential for stepping up pressure on the military, and making it accountable for crimes against humanity. According to U.S. investigators, the military was responsible for atrocities including mass killings, gang rapes, mutilations, crucifixions, and the burning and drowning of children.

Why America Just Said Myanmar Carried Out a Genocide

The Atlantic

By Timothy McLaughlin

America finally used the word human rights activists had long argued applied to the campaign against Rohingya Muslims.

Four years ago, the State Department began an investigation into the Myanmar military’s brutal operation against the country’s Rohingya Muslims the prior year, which had resulted in scores of deaths and hundreds of thousands of Rohingya being pushed into Bangladesh. The report, spanning thousands of pages, was finalized when Mike Pompeo was still Secretary of State, and he ultimately opted to call the armed forces’ actions “ethnic cleansing,” a descriptive term not defined by international law.

Myanmar Rohingya violence is genocide, US to say Published

 B B C

2022-03-21

Rohingya Muslims are continuing to flee Myanmar

The Biden administration is to declare that Myanmar's military has committed genocide against the Rohingya minority, US officials have said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to make the announcement when he visits the Holocaust Museum in Washington later on Monday.


Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar since the military crackdown that began in 2017.

More than 6,000 people were killed in the first month of the onslaught.

Biden administration formally determines Myanmar's military committed genocide

CNN

By Jennifer Hansler,
Sun March 20, 2022

Rohingya refugees gather near a fence during a government organized media tour, to a no-man's land between Myanmar and Bangladesh, near Taungpyolatyar village, Maung Daw, northern Rakhine State, Myanmar, June 29, 2018.

(CNN)The Biden administration has formally determined that Myanmar's military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya, a US official told CNN on Sunday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will publicly announce the determination, which human rights groups have been advocating for years, at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, on Monday.

Reuters first reported on the administration's recognition of genocide.