The Muslims of Myanmar: Has the UN failed the Rohingya?

[rhony]

Enough of the dance by neighboring countries. A few selfish crooks with sticks and stones killed Burmese police and the entire Rohingyas are suffering. I've seen reports where a little girl was kicked out of school in BD after they found she was a Rohingya.

It's about a million people in question. India, Pakistan, the big brother China, Srilanka, Malaysia, and Bangladesh need to take in 150k each and resettle them in their countries. The Chinese already have an infrastructure and experience with Uighurs. It will be tough for other countries but it needs to be done so there are no terrorists born out of this crisis.

 

[rhony]

Rohingyas need to be smart as well. What's religion when the life is at stake. Accept christianity and there could be a ticket to some of the western countries. Accept buddhism and embrace the Lankans. Whatever it takes so they can survive

 

[cricketjoshila]

Enough of the dance by neighboring countries. A few selfish crooks with sticks and stones killed Burmese police and the entire Rohingyas are suffering. I've seen reports where a little girl was kicked out of school in BD after they found she was a Rohingya.

It's about a million people in question. India, Pakistan, the big brother China, Srilanka, Malaysia, and Bangladesh need to take in 150k each and resettle them in their countries. The Chinese already have an infrastructure and experience with Uighurs. It will be tough for other countries but it needs to be done so there are no terrorists born out of this crisis.

No thank you. Rather we are in the process of deporting the illegal Rohingyas who have entered India.

 

[YousafTheBeast]

No thank you. Rather we are in the process of deporting the illegal Rohingyas who have entered India.

Sir whilst you’re at it I request you sir to take back the Indians that are trying to illegally enter the US through the Mexican border sir.

 

[cricketjoshila]

Sir whilst you’re at it I request you sir to take back the Indians that are trying to illegally enter the US through the Mexican border sir.

Let the US government take it up with India.

 

[OMB]

The Rohingya refugees trapped on a remote island miles from land

When Dilara set off from the Bangladeshi coast, she dreamed of a new life in Malaysia.

But she and hundreds of others who had crammed into the boat ended up being rescued, having spent days floating at sea, after being turned away at the border.

Yet they were not returned to the mainland and the families they had left behind.

Instead, their rescuers left the group on an island created out of silt in the middle of the Bay of Bengal, with no hope of escape.

"I don't know how long I will be here. I have no way out," the unmarried young woman, who fears leaving her room after dark, told the BBC.

"I will grow old and die here alone."

Dilara was among the first of a planned 100,000 Rohingya refugees to arrive on Bhasan Char, a piece of land measuring 40sq km (15 sq mi) in size which had only previously been used as a brief stop-off point for fishermen.

Bangladeshi authorities have heralded it as part of the solution to the overcrowded refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, home to almost a million Rohingya refugees who arrived in recent years. Most of them fled a military offensive by Myanmar's army in 2017, which the United Nations later described as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing". Some had fled earlier violence.

But the refugee camps where the Rohingya have now made their homes have become, authorities say, hotbeds of crime. The new $350m (£246m) development on Bhasan Char - an island which emerged 15 years ago from the sea - is touted as a fresh start.

But refugees the BBC spoke to by phone on this small island of Himalayan silt say differently. They describe a place where there is no work, few facilities and little hope of a better future.

Those who try to flee, they say, are caught and beaten, while refugees are turning on each other as frustrations rise. Worse, at just 2m (6ft ) above sea level, they fear one big storm could wash them away.

Bangladesh says it has spent $350m on building new living quarters on the island
Despite the BBC being granted a tour of the island last year, it is hard to say what is happening there. No journalists, aid agencies or human rights groups have been given free access to Bhasan Char, which is 60km (37.5 miles) from the mainland.

These are the voices of a few residents, and their names have been changed to protect their identities.

'Such a desolate place'
"I wondered how we would survive here," Halima said, recalling the December night she arrived, heavily pregnant, with her family.

"It was such a desolate place. Apart from us, nobody lived here."

The island is believed to have been formed from Himalayan silt, washed down through the river systems into the sea
Their isolation became all too clear the next day when she went into labour, with no possibility of finding a doctor or nurse.

"I had experienced childbirth before, but this time it was the worst. I can't tell you how painful it was."

Her husband, Enayet, rushed to get a Rohingya woman living in the same block, who had some experience and training as a midwife.

"God helped me," says Halima. She had a girl and named her Fathima.

Enayet had signed them up for a new life on the island without telling his family.

"They [Bangladesh officials] promised us many things like a plot of land for each family, cows, buffaloes and loans to start a business," he told the BBC.

The reality has been very different, although Halima says she is happy with the running water, bunk beds, gas stove and shared toilet in her accommodation.

The biggest problem is they can't afford anything more than very basic food.

Families in Bhasan Char are provided with staples like rice, lentils and cooking oil. But the refugees need to buy other items like vegetables, fish and meat. There is no market, but some Bangladeshis run shops on the island. Travel to the mainland is impossible: no ferry service exists, and the navy - which runs the facility - only transports the refugees one way.

"We are poor people," Halima says, "We don't have any income to buy food and other stuff."

It was food which sparked the island's first protest back in February. Video seen by the BBC shows Rohingya women and men running with sticks and shouting.

Officials downplayed the event.

Stranded at sea - survivors' stories

"It was not a protest," says Shah Rezwan Hayat, the head of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission (RRRC), which manages Bangladesh's refugee camps.

But refugees say desperation is growing and some are risking their lives to leave Bhasan Char.

"Many people tried to flee from the island. As far as I know, at least 30 people have left the island," said one resident, Salam.

"I have heard about an incident, where about five people were caught while trying to flee from the island. They were taken to the police camp and beaten up by police."

It is not the only allegation of violence by authorities towards the refugees. Human Rights Watch has said children were punished for moving out of their designated areas.

"On 12 April, a Bangladesh sailor allegedly beat four children with a PVC pipe for leaving their quarters to play with refugee children in another area," the report from last month said.

Enayet says he had heard about these two incidents from others in the camp.

"I have heard children were beaten up for going to a different cluster. And several people, who were detained while trying to escape, were tortured."

Salam says the frustration among refugees is giving way to anger.

"There are daily fights in the camps between refugees. If you keep some chickens in a coop, and don't feed them, then what happens? They start fighting each other."

The navy, which is in charge of constructing the shelters in the camp, denies allegations of torture and abuse.

The United Nations say it has been unable to independently verify the allegations, which it is investigating. However, it wants the camp to be transferred from the navy to civilians and managed in an "inclusive and consultative manner".

Meanwhile, the government has promised schemes to provide income will soon be rolled out to help the 18,400 refugees now living in the camp, and the many others who will soon join them.

It is currently considering applications from more than 40 local NGOs.

'A big prison'
Back in her accommodation, Halima is tired of waiting for things to get better. She has given up on returning to Myanmar, where Rohingyas have faced decades of discrimination.

But neither does she want to live on Bhasan Char.

"I have never lived in a place like this, surrounded by the sea. We are trapped here. We can't go anywhere."

Dilara - the young refugee woman who tried to reach Malaysia - says she is scared and alone. But one thing she doesn't want to do is reach out to her parents, still in a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar.

Dilara doesn't want them to suffer as she has.

In fact, all the refugees who spoke to the BBC said they would go back to the mainland, if given the chance. Enayet sums it up.

"If you want to live in a big prison with your family," he says, "this island is the place."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56347139

 

[James]

From Aljazeera

<b>At least 13 civilians shot dead by army in India’s Nagaland state.</b>

<I>Protests after soldiers opened fire on villagers thinking they were ‘militants’ in India’s remote northeast region.</I>

Protesters have burned army vehicles after more than a dozen villagers were shot and killed by soldiers, who thought the villagers were “militants”, in India’s Nagaland state.

Indian security forces opened fire on civilians late on Saturday in India’s remote northeast region, which borders Myanmar, according to local media reports.

Nagaland’s chief minister Neiphiu Rio told Reuters news agency a probe will be conducted and punishment meted out to guilty parties in the incident, which he ascribed to intelligence failure.

“The unfortunate incident leading to the killing of civilians at Oting is highly condemnable,” he tweeted.

The incident took place in and around Oting village in Mon district during a counterinsurgency operation conducted by members of the Assam Rifles, a part of Indian security forces deployment in the state, a senior police official based in Nagaland said.

Firing began when a truck carrying 30 or more coal-mine labourers was passing the Assam Rifles camp area, officials told Reuters and The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

“The troopers had intelligence inputs about some militant movement in the area and on seeing the truck they mistook the miners to be rebels and opened fire killing six labourers,” the senior police official told Reuters.

“After the news of firing spread in the village, hundreds of tribal people surrounded the camp. They burned Assam Rifles vehicles and clashed with the troopers using crude weapons,” he said.

Members of the Assam Rifles retaliated, and in the second attack eight more civilians and a security member were among those killed, the official said.

Government forces are battling dozens of ethnic armed groups in India’s remote northeast whose demands range from independent homelands to maximum autonomy within India.

Locals in Nagaland have frequently accused forces of wrongly targeting innocent residents in their counterinsurgency operations against rebel groups.

 

[MenInG]

Dozens of Rohingya refugees in the UK and US have sued Facebook, accusing the social media giant of allowing hate speech against them to spread.

They are demanding more than $150bn (£113bn) in compensation, claiming Facebook's platforms promoted violence against the persecuted minority.

An estimated 10,000 Rohingya Muslims were killed during a military crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in 2017.

Facebook, now called Meta, did not immediately respond to the allegations.

The company is accused of allowing "the dissemination of hateful and dangerous misinformation to continue for years".

In the UK, a British law firm representing some of the refugees has written a letter to Facebook, seen by the BBC, alleging:

The company failed to take down posts or delete accounts that incited violence against Rohingya
It failed to "take appropriate and timely action", despite warnings from charities and the media

In the US, lawyers filed a legal complaint against Facebook in San Francisco, accusing it of being "willing to trade the lives of the Rohingya people for better market penetration in a small country in Southeast Asia."

They cite Facebook posts that appeared in an investigation by the Reuters news agency, including one in 2013 stating: "We must fight them the way Hitler did the Jews."

Another post said: "Pour fuel and set fire so that they can meet Allah faster."

Facebook has more than 20 million users in Myanmar. For many, the social media site is their main or only way of getting and sharing news.

Facebook admitted in 2018 that it had not done enough to prevent the incitement of violence and hate speech against the Rohingya.

This followed an independent report, commissioned by Facebook, that said the platform had created an "enabling environment" for the proliferation of human rights abuse.

BBC

 

[MenInG]

The Myanmar military carried out a series of mass killings of civilians in July that resulted in the deaths of at least 40 men, a BBC investigation has found.

Eyewitnesses and survivors said that soldiers, some as young as 17, rounded up villagers before separating the men and killing them. Video footage and images from the incidents appear to show most of those killed were tortured first and buried in shallow graves.

The killings took place in July, in four separate incidents in Kani Township - an opposition stronghold in Sagaing District in Central Myanmar.

It's thought the killings were a collective punishment for attacks by militia groups demanding a return to democracy following a military coup in February. A spokesman for the military government did not deny the allegations.

The military has faced resistance from civilians since it seized control of the country, which is also called Burma, deposing a democratically-elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

The BBC spoke to 11 witnesses in Kani and compared their accounts with mobile phone footage and photographs collected by Myanmar Witness, a UK-based NGO that investigates human rights abuses in the country.

The largest killing took place in Yin village, where at least 14 men were tortured or beaten to death and their bodies thrown in a forested gully.

The witnesses in Yin - whose names we have withheld to protect their identities - told the BBC the men were tied up with ropes and beaten before they were killed.

"We couldn't stand to watch it so we kept our heads down, crying," said one woman, whose brother, nephew and brother-in-law were killed.

"We begged them not to do it. They didn't care. They asked the women, 'Are your husbands among them? If they are, do your last rites'."

A man who managed to escape the killings said that soldiers inflicted horrifying abuse on the men for hours before they died.

"They were tied up, beaten with stones and rifle butts and tortured all day," the survivor said.

"Some soldiers looked young, maybe 17 or 18, but some were really old. There was also a woman with them."

In nearby Zee Bin Dwin village, in late July, 12 mutilated bodies were found buried in shallow mass graves, including a small body, possibly a child, and the body of a disabled person. Some were mutilated.

The body of a man in his sixties was found tied to a plum tree nearby. Footage of his corpse, reviewed by the BBC, showed clear signs of torture. His family said that his son and grandchild had fled when the military entered the village, but he had stayed, believing his age would protect him from harm.

The killings appeared to be a collective punishment for attacks on the military by civilian militia groups in the area, who are demanding that democracy is restored. Fighting between the military and the local branches of the People's Defence Force - a collective name for civilian militia groups - had intensified in the area in the months before the mass killings, including clashes near Zee Bin Dwin.

It is clear from the visual evidence and testimony gathered by the BBC that men were specifically targeted, fitting with a pattern observed across Myanmar in recent months of male villagers facing collective punishment for clashes between the People's Defence Forces and the military.

The families of those killed insisted that the men were not involved in attacks on the military. A woman who lost her brother in the Yin village massacre said she pleaded with the soldiers, telling them her brother "could not even handle a catapult".

She said a soldier replied, "Don't say anything. We are tired. We will kill you."

Foreign journalists have been barred from reporting in Myanmar since the coup, and most non-state media outlets have been shut down, making on-the-ground reporting all but impossible.

The BBC put the allegations raised in this story to Myanmar's Deputy Minister for Information and military spokesperson, General Zaw Min Tun. He did not deny soldiers had carried out the mass killings.

"It can happen," he said. "When they treat us as enemies, we have the right to defend ourselves."

The United Nations is currently investigating alleged human rights abuses carried out by the Myanmar military.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59699556

 

[MenInG]

More than 30 people, including children, have been shot dead and their bodies burnt by government forces in Myanmar, according to a local human rights group and media reports.

The Karenni Human Rights Group said they discovered the charred bodies near Mo So village in the Hpruso township in the eastern state of Kayah on Christmas Day.

Save The Children, which was established in the UK, has said two of its staff were "caught up in the incident" and remain missing.

They had been travelling home for the holidays after conducting humanitarian work in a nearby community, the charity said.

Purported images of the aftermath of the killings, said to have happened on Christmas Eve, went viral on social media, fuelling public outrage at Myanmar's ruling military junta, which seized power in a coup in February.

The accounts have not been independently verified, but the pictures showed the charred remains of at least 30 people inside burned-out trucks.

A villager who went to the scene told the Associated Press news agency that the victims had been fleeing fighting between Myanmar's military and local militia groups when they were arrested and killed by soldiers.

The witness said medical supplies and food as well as items belonging to women and children were found at the scene.

"The bodies were tied with ropes before being set on fire," he said.

Independent local media reported on Friday that 10 villagers from Mo So, including children, had been arrested by government soldiers.

The witness who spoke to the Associated Press said he believed some of the people killed in the massacre were those arrested by Tatmadaw troops the day before, although he did not see the killings himself.

Banyar Khun Aung, director of the Karenni Human Rights Group, said: "It's a heinous crime and the worst incident during Christmas. We strongly condemn that massacre as a crime against humanity."

Myanmar's military has not commented on the allegations, but a state-run media outlet said that fighting near Mo So village erupted on Friday when members of guerrilla forces drove in "suspicious" vehicles and attacked security forces after refusing to stop.

The report said that seven vehicles carrying new recruits for armed groups operating in the region were destroyed in a fire.

It gave no further information about the individuals allegedly killed.

SKY

 

[Last Monetarist]

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/fire-tears-through-rohingya-refugee-camp-bangladesh-2022-01-09/

A fire swept through a Rohingya refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday, destroying hundreds of homes, according to officials and witnesses, though there were no immediate reports of casualties.

The blaze hit Camp 16 in Cox's Bazar, a border district where than a million Rohingya refugees live, with most having fled a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.

Mohammed Shamsud Douza, a Bangladesh government official in charge of refugees, said emergency workers had brought the fire under control. The cause of the blaze has not been established, he added.

"Everything is gone. Many are without homes," said Abu Taher, a Rohingya refugee.

Another blaze tore through a COVID-19 treatment centre for refugees in another refugee camp in the district last Sunday, causing no casualties.

A devastating fire last March swept through the world’s biggest refugee settlement in Cox's Bazar, killing at least 15 refugees and burned down more than 10,000 shanties.

 

[MenInG]

Thousands of people were left homeless after a fire gutted parts of a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, police said on Sunday.

About 850,000 of the persecuted Muslim minority -- many of whom escaped a 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar that UN investigators concluded was executed with "genocidal intent" -- live in a network of camps in Bangladesh's border district of Cox's Bazar.

"About 1,200 houses were burnt in the fire," said Kamran Hossain, a spokesman for the Armed Police Battalion, which heads security in the camp.

The fire started at Camp 16 and raced through shelters made of bamboo and tarpaulin, leaving more than 5,000 people homeless, he said.

"The fire started at 4:40 pm (1040 GMT) and was brought under control at around 6:30 pm," he told AFP.

Abdur Rashid, 22, said the fire was so big that he ran for safety as his house and furniture were engulfed by the blaze.

"Everything in my house was burnt. My baby and wife were out. There were a lot of things in the house," he said.

Also read: Bangladesh vows ‘stern action’ against killers of Rohingya leader

"I saved 30,000 taka (350 dollars) from working as a day labourer The money was burnt in the fire.

"I am now under open sky. I lost my dream."

In March last year, 15 people died and about 50,000 were left homeless in Bangladesh after a huge fire destroyed Rohingya homes in the world's biggest refugee settlement.

Mohammad Yasin, 29, bemoaned the lack of fire safety equipment in the camps.

"Fire occurs here frequently. There was no way we could put out the fire. There was no water. My home is burnt. Many documents, which I brought from Myanmar, are also burnt. And it is cold here," he said.

Bangladesh has been praised for taking in refugees who poured across the border from Myanmar, but has had little success finding them permanent homes.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/233790...RCMHZFeS1HVnpTSTdlOXdJV19VSmJRbzRROVktUFZYUlI

 

[MenInG]

The Biden administration has declared that Myanmar's military has committed genocide against the Rohingya minority.

The US has seen evidence pointing to a clear intent to destroy the Rohingya, with reports of killings, mass rape and arson, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said 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.

Speaking at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, Mr Blinken called the attacks against Rohingya "widespread and systematic".

He said said the administration's determination was based on a review by the US state department that included documents gathered by organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as independent research by the US.

Mr Blinken announced the US would provide $1m (£758,000) in new funding for the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, which continues to examine atrocities.

A case against Myanmar, also called Burma, was opened at the International Court of Justice in 2019.

"The day will come when those responsible for these appalling acts will have to answer for them," Mr Blinken said.

A civilian government was in charge when the military launched its campaign, but in 2021 the military took power in a coup. Mr Blinken said that since the coup, the military continues to use the same tactics.

"For those who did not realise it before the coup, the brutal violence unleashed by the military since February 2021 has made clear that no one in Burma will be safe from atrocities so long as it is in power," he said.

The Rohingya, who numbered about one million in Myanmar before the attacks on them, are one of the many ethnic minorities in the country.

Rohingya Muslims represent the largest percentage of Muslims in Myanmar, with the majority living in Rakhine state.

But the government of Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country, denies the Rohingya citizenship and even excluded them from the 2014 census, refusing to recognise them as a people.

When US President Joe Biden took office 14 months ago, Mr Blinken pledged to conduct a fresh review of the issue.

Two previous US investigations failed to reach a conclusion.

A ruling of genocide does not automatically lead to punitive action by the US, but it is hoped it will put pressure on the Myanmar military.

"It's going to make it harder for them to commit further abuses," a senior State Department official told Reuters.

There has so far been no comment from the military authorities in Myanmar.

BBC

 

[MenInG]

Dozens of Rohingya refugees - all men - have drifted on to a beach in western Indonesia in a wooden boat with a broken engine, local officials say.

They are described as hungry and weak after spending a month at sea. At least three men were taken to hospital.

It is not clear if they are part of a group of at least 150 Rohingya who became stranded at sea weeks ago.

The Rohingya are a persecuted ethnic minority in their original home in Myanmar (Burma).

The wooden boat with 57 men on board landed on Sunday morning in Aceh province, local police spokesman Winardy told AFP news agency.

BBC

 

[MenInG]

Dozens of Rohingya refugees have been found on a beach in Indonesia after weeks at sea in a rickety boat.

At least 180 other Rohingya who left Bangladesh last month are feared to have died at sea, the UN refugee agency said.

Their deaths would make 2022 one of the deadliest years for members of the Muslim minority ethnic group, who face persecution in Myanmar and miserable conditions in Bangladeshi refugee camps.

SKYNEWS

 

[daytrader]

Bangladesh probes refugee camp blaze that has left 12,000 homeless

Bangladesh authorities are investigating the cause of a massive fire in a Rohingya refugee camp which has left 12,000 people without shelter.

No casualties have been reported. But the blaze razed 2,000 shelters after spreading quickly through gas cylinders in kitchens, officials said.

Police are investigating if the fire was an act of sabotage. One man has been detained, local media reported.

The camp in the south-east is believed to be the world's largest refugee camp.

Most of its residents, Rohingya refugees, had fled persecution in neighbouring Myanmar.

On Monday, hundreds had returned to the Cox's Bazar area to see what they could salvage from the ruins.

The blaze had started at about 14:45 local time Sunday (08:45 GMT) and quickly tore through the bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters, an official said.

"Some 2,000 shelters have been burnt, leaving about 12,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals shelterless," Mijanur Rahman, Bangladesh's refugee commissioner, told AFP news agency.

...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64858932