Demining starts along Ann-Sittwe road and at Rathedaung Twsp villages

DMG

Development Media Group

Wednesday, February 17, 2021 

The Tatmadaw began landmin

e clearance operations on February 15 along the Ann-Sittwe road and around Angumaw and Khamaung Seik villages in Rathedaung Township, Arakan State, according to the Arakan State Administration Council.

“We mainly do demining along the Pyidaungsu [Union] road. We will come and clear landmines in Sittwe and Ann townships. We will do it from morning to evening. If villages ask for help, we will come and do demining,” said Colonel Min Than, a member of the Arakan State Administration Council, the local governing body established by Myanmar’s military regime.

Blinken, Indonesian Foreign Minister Share 'Deep Concern' On Myanmar - US State Dept.

UrduPoint
Muhammad Irfan
Tue 16th February 2021 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi shared a "deep concern" over the military coup in Myanmar and discussed Jakarta's efforts to bring peace in Afghanistan, Department of State spokesperson Ned Price said in a readout of the conversation on Tuesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th February, 2021) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi shared a "deep concern" over the military coup in Myanmar and discussed Jakarta's efforts to bring peace in Afghanistan, Department of State spokesperson Ned price said in a readout of the conversation on Tuesday.

Arakan’s ANP facing pressure over cooperation with military’s State Administration Council

ထြန္းခိုင္ (နိရဥၥရာ)
Wednesday, February 17, 2021

The Arakan National Party (ANP) will monitor the inclusion of Daw Aye Nu Sein, a top leader of the ANP as a member of the State Administration Council, for a certain period of time, said U Tha Tun Hla, Chair of the ANP.

The decision was arrived at the CEC meeting of the ANP held in MraukU Township of Arakan State from February 12 to 14.

The party had a thorough discussion on her inclusion in the State Administration Council.The party faces criticism due to the inclusion in the State Administration Council.The CEC meeting was attended by more than 80 party members. The party laid down three-point decision.

“Three-point decision arrived at the meeting are:

ALP opposes military dictatorship and commits to building up the federal union

DGM

မင္းထြန္း 
Tuesday, February 16, 2021 

The Arakan Liberation Party (ALP) issued a statement on February 14th, opposing military dictatorship and pledging the continued efforts for building up the federal union.

Saw Mya Yazar Lin, Spokesperson of the ALP declared “No one will view the military coup as a good thing. We don’t want the situation of a coup. Now the unrest has erupted nationwide. It may hamper the country’s development, resulting in great losses to the citizens.”

She added “The ALP has been constantly working for the emergence of a genuine democratic federal union, national equality and autonomy, for more than three decades.”

1,000 more Rohingyas relocated to Bhashan Char

Dhaka Tribune

Anwar Hussain, Chittagong
February 16th, 2021

File photo of Rohingyas board one of the ships at Chittagong Boat Club to travel to Bhashan Char on Friday, December 4, 2020 Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan/Dhaka Tribune

On Monday, some 2,010 Rohingyas reached the island in the fourth phase of relocation process 

Some 1,009 more Rohingyas have arrived at Bhashan Char in Noakhali from the camps in Cox's Bazar on the second day in the fourth phase of the relocation process.

The persecuted Myanmar citizens reached the island in the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday afternoon, after travelling from Chittagong.

Earlier, three ships of the Bangladesh Navy carrying the Rohingyas left the Chittagong Boat Club jetty in the port city's Patenga area around 11:15am, Additional Commissioner for Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission (RRRC) Mohammad Shamsud Douza told the Dhaka Tribune.

မွတ်ဆလင်ဒုက္ခသည်ဝှက်ဖဲကို ထုတ်သုံးလာသည့် မြန်မာ စစ်တပ်၏ ကစားပွဲ

DMG
February 17,2021

 စောသန္တာအေး မြန်မာပြန်ဆိုသည်။

 ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ ၁ ရက်နေ့တွင် အာဏာရယူလိုက်ပြီးနောက် လူထု၏ ကန့်ကွက်ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်မှုများ နှင့်အတူ အမေရိကန်၊ အီးယူနှင့် ကုလသမဂ္ဂတို့၏ ပြစ်တင်ရှုတ်ချမှုများ ရင်ဆိုင်နေရသည့် မြန်မာစစ်တပ်အတွက် အနိုင် ရရန် ထုတ်သုံးနိုင်သည့် ဝှက်ဖဲမှာ မရှိသလောက်နည်းပုံ ပေါ်သည်။

Myanmar dispatches: updates and analysis from our law student correspondents in Myanmar

JURIST

JURIST Staff

February 15, 2021

JURIST EXCLUSIVE – Our law student correspondents in Myanmar continue to send reports of the latest developments on the ground, along with their perspectives and analysis of the legal issues presented by the February 1 military coup. These are excerpts from the first extensive report to JURIST received late last night after the Myanmar military’s internet blackout was lifted Monday morning Myanmar time:


Internet is back at 9 am.

Last night, one person died in Myit Kyi Narr, Kachin State. 5 reporters were arrested there last night but they’re released this morning, just now.

ASSK [Aung San Suu Kyi] and the president will be brought to the court on 17 Feb to decide whether this case should be brought to the Court (Although they detained them on 1 Feb, they issued the allegations on 2 Feb. 15 days of detention will be completed on 17 Feb). Will they release them now?? Or will they make another accusations to keep them in jail like before?

‘We Can Bring Down the Regime’: Myanmar’s Protesting Workers Are Unbowed

The New York Times

Richard C. Paddock
Feb. 16, 2021

Two weeks after the military took power in a coup, growing work stoppages are undermining the ruling generals’ attempt to assert authority over an angry population.


Thousands of protesters gathered in Yangon, Myanmar, on Monday.Credit...The New York Times

Myanmar’s coup leaders have called on hundreds of thousands of government employees — doctors, garbage collectors, electricity workers — to set their “emotion” aside, abandon their protests against the military and return to work.

But on Monday, even after the army had put armored vehicles in the street in a nighttime show of power, the workers displayed little interest in returning to their jobs.

The work stoppages, which appear to be growing, are undermining the ruling generals as they try to assert their authority over the population after seizing power two weeks ago.

Why did the Myanmar military overthrow the NLD government?

The Daily Star

Mohammad Abdur Razzak
February 16, 2021

File photo of Min Aung Hlaing with Aung San Suu Kyi. Photo: AP

Myanmar started its democratic journey in 2011 with a quasi-civilian government headed by the retired General U Thein Sein. Before becoming President, he worked as a member in the military junta's State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) in 1997. Later, he was made the Prime Minister in General Than Shwe's cabinet (2007 to 2011). Ahead of the general elections in 2010, General U Thein Sein, along with 22 other military officials, were sent on retirement from the Army to form and lead the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). USDP won the majority in a controversially contested election in 2010. General U Thein Sein was sworn in as the 8th President of Myanmar on March 30, 2011.

Word-of-mouth recommendation drawing them: 2,010 Rohingyas reach Bhasan Char

The Daily Star 

Star Digital Report
February 15, 2021

Photo: Rajib Raihan 

 

Mohammed Hossen (60), a Rohingya man from Cox's Bazar's Kutupalong camp, never thought that he would shift to Bhasan Char. However, well-made accommodation and better facilities than Ukhia Rohingya camp changed his mind.

"I never thought I would go to Bhasan Char. But I changed my mind when I came to know about good accommodation, more facilities there from one of my younger brothers who shifted in first batch," Hossen told The Daily Star at Patenga Boat Club in Chattogram, before they set out for Bhasan Char. 

Huge rallies in Myanmar for ninth day as army steps up arrests

Aljazeera
14 Feb 2021

Tens of thousands take to streets as the military hunts protest backers and steps up arrests.

Protesters hold up signs supporting the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) at a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on February 14, 2021 [Ye Aung Thu/ AFP]

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Myanmar’s big cities for a ninth day of anti-coup demonstrations, as the country’s new military rulers rolled back laws protecting freedom and stepped up the arrests of politicians and activists.

Appearance of military vehicles in Myanmar's major cities sparks warning from US Embassy

THE HILL
JOSEPH CHOI 

02/14/21

Getty Images

The U.S. Embassy in Myanmar on Sunday warned American citizens in that country to “shelter in place” as armored vehicles began rolling through major cities.

Reuters reported armored vehicles appeared in the cities of Yangon, Myitkyina and Sittwe. The news service noted this is the first large-scale rollout of such vehicles to occur in the country since the military on Feb. 1 overthrew the democratically elected government.

Alert: U.S. Embassy Rangoon, Burma, February 15, 2021

U.S.Embassy in Burma
Alert: U.S. Embassy Rangoon, Burma, February 15, 2021

Location: Burma

Event: Authorized Voluntary Departure of Non-Emergency U.S. Government Employees and Their Family Members from U.S. Embassy Rangoon

On February 14, the U.S. Department of State authorized the voluntary departure of non-emergency U.S. government employees and their family members from Burma. The U.S. Embassy in Burma reminds all U.S. citizens of the heightened potential for violence, continued telecommunications restrictions, and limited flights out of Burma. The U.S. Embassy in Rangoon remains open.

Bangladesh takes another 3,000 Rohingya to remote islet

Anadolu Agency

SM Najmus Sakib
DHAKA, Bangladesh
14-02-2021

7,000 refugees already shifted from Cox's Bazar camps amid opposition from UN, rights groups

Bangladesh on Sunday began relocating another 3,000 Rohingya refugees to a remote island, despite opposition from the UN and rights groups.

It is hosting more than a million Rohingya Muslims at cramped makeshift camps in Cox’s Bazar, which is considered the world’s largest refugee settlement. Most have fled violence following a military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state in 2017.

Myanmar's Military Coup: How We Got Here

npr

Heard on Morning Edition
JULIE MCCARTHY
February 15, 2021

Myanmar is slipping deeper into danger as the newly installed military junta asserts control. But police raids against opposition figures and critics have done little to deter ongoing protests.

Transcript:

NOEL KING, HOST:

Myanmar's military says the country's civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will remain in custody for another two days. The military staged a coup on February 1, and people have been protesting it. But the big questions right now are why did the coup happen when it did, and what happens next? Here's NPR's Julie McCarthy.

JULIE MCCARTHY, BYLINE: By the hundreds of thousands, citizens armed only with indignation march daily against the military takeover.

People of Rakhine Community: Their numbers shrinking in Teknaf

The Daily Star
Sanjoy Kumar Barua
February 15, 2021

Threats of criminals, influentials blamed

Ma Ching Rakhine, along with her family members, was forced to leave their ancestral home in Teknaf upazila of Cox's Bazar around 10 years ago in the face of threats from Rohingya criminals.

With a Rohingya refugee camp set up on their ancestral land in Dadundagya Rakhine Para, they are now living a tough life in Chowdhury Para Beri Badh area of Teknaf. They live in houses made of plastic sheets with no proper toilet facilities. They do not have safe drinking water either.

Rohingya Refugee Response - Bangladesh Factsheet - Protection (December 2020)

Statement by Ambassadors to Myanmar

U.S. Embassy in Burma

 

Update: Australia and New Zealand joined this Joint Statement from Ambassadors, issued on February 14.

PRESS STATEMENT
AMBASSADORS TO MYANMAR
FEBRUARY 14, 2021

We call on security forces to refrain from violence against demonstrators and civilians, who are protesting the overthrow of their legitimate government.

We unequivocally condemn the detention and ongoing arrests of political leaders, civil society activists, and civil servants, as well as the harassment of journalists.

We also denounce the military’s interruption of communications, as well as the restriction of the Myanmar people’s fundamental rights and basic legal protections.

We support the people of Myanmar in their quest for democracy, freedom, peace, and prosperity. The world is watching.

Signed by the Ambassadors to Myanmar from Australia, Canada; the Delegation of the EU and European Union Member States with presence in Myanmar: Denmark, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden; New Zealand; Norway; Switzerland; the United Kingdom; and the United States.

By U.S. Mission Burma | 15 February, 2021 | Topics: Ambassador, News, Press Releases

Link : Here

UNHCR cardholders and Rohingya won't be sent home, says Immigration DG

The Star

JUSTIN ZACK

NATION

Monday, 15 Feb 2021

PETALING JAYA: No holders of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cards or those from the Rohingya ethnic group will be sent home in the upcoming repatriation programme, says Immigration director-general, Datuk Khairul Dzaimee Daud.

"The Immigration Department refers to various media reports regarding the repatriation programme on Feb 23 using Myanmar Navy boats.

"No holders of UNHCR cards or Rohingya will be involved in this programme. This is a part of the regular repatriation exercises carried out by Immigration depots," he said in a statement on Monday (Feb 15). 

He added that those being sent back had offences such as not having identification documents, overstaying, and improper use of travel passes.

US calls military acts in Myanmar a coup, UN Security Council takes no action

ARAB NEWS

AGENCIES
February 02, 2021

Myanmar’s police officers stand guard at the entrance of parliament members residence at the congress compound in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Feb. 2, 2021. (Reuters)

• Biden has threatened new sanctions against the generals who seized power in Myanmar
• UN envoy urges Security Council to ‘send clear signal’ to support Myanmar democracy

WASHINGTON/UNITED NATIONS: The US State Department will conduct a review of its foreign assistance to Myanmar after determining that the military takeover in the Asian country this week constituted a coup, senior officials said on Tuesday.

US President Joe Biden has threatened new sanctions against the generals who seized power in Myanmar and detained elected leaders including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi early on Monday.