Rakhine Statement by Malala Yousafszai Met With Ire

par | Sep 6, 2017 | Rohingyas

A tweet by Pakistani female education activist and Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafszai in support of Myanmar’s self-identifying Rohingya Muslim population has attracted criticism from some in Myanmar.
The 20-year-old winner of the Nobel Peace Prize called on Myanmar’s State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to condemn the treatment of Rakhine’s Muslim minority in a tweet labeled “My statement on the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar.”
“Over the last several years, I have repeatedly condemned this tragic and shameful treatment. I am still waiting for my fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to do the same,” Malala Yousafszai said in a statement
She called for the end of violence, for self-identified Rohingya to be given citizenship, and for other countries, such as Bangladesh, to give food, shelter and education to refugees.
After militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) launched a series of attacks on 30 police outposts on Aug. 25—killing 13 members of the security forces.
Subsequent violence has left 28 civilians dead, displaced 27,000 Arakanese, Arakanese sub-ethnicities, and Hindus internally, and sent 146,000 mainly Muslim refugees fleeing to Bangladesh, according to the most recent UN figures available at the time of reporting.
The statement—which had garnered nearly 25,000 retweets and 19,000 replies by Wednesday evening—was widely commented on by international media and netizens; among the latter were also critical responses.

… / …

Many claimed to previously support Malala Yousafszai for her courage in confronting the Taliban on female education issues, for which she was shot in the face, but accused her of ignoring the plight of ethnic Arakanese and Hindu affected by the violence and failing to denounce ARSA for their violent attacks on security forces and civilians.
Legal expert U Khin Maung Myint told The Irrawaddy the young activist had riled the population by failing to condemn militant attacks.
“[The situation] is not about racial and religious discrimination, it became about terrorists’ attacks on civilians including Arakanese, Hindus, Muslims and other. It is important and she missed it,” he told The Irrawaddy.
“I strongly condemn Malala’s one-sided comments, [she does not] understand the real situation of Myanmar,” Shwe Cin Ei, a Facebook user, posted.
A Twitter account by the name of Thant Zin Oo retweeted the statement, commenting: “I really appreciate what you have done especially fighting against some unpractical social norms for girls’ education. Therefore, I think you have huge a responsibility for your actions and your words. Regarding the crisis in Myanmar, of course our hearts are also broken whenever we see pictures, videos and news about people dying regardless of who they are. However, I am wondering if you have even seen some pictures or videos of local people being killed very brutally by extremist terrorists.”

By San Yamin Aung 6 September 2017 – YANGON

Rohingya Flee as More Than 2,600 Houses Burned in Rakhine

par | Sep 2, 2017 | Rohingyas

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh — More than 2,600 houses have been burned down in Rohingya-majority areas of Myanmar’s northwest in the last week, the government said on Saturday, in one of the deadliest bouts of violence involving the Muslim minority in decades.
About 58,600 Rohingya have fled into neighboring Bangladesh from Myanmar, according to UN refugee agency UNHCR, as aid workers there struggle to cope.
Myanmar officials blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for the burning of the homes.
The group claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks on security posts last week that prompted clashes and a large army counter-offensive.
But Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh say a campaign of arson and killings by the Myanmar Army is aimed at trying to force them out.
The treatment of Myanmar’s roughly 1.1 million Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the Muslim minority that has long complained of persecution.
The clashes and army crackdown have killed nearly 400 people and more than 11,700 “ethnic residents” have been evacuated from the area, the government said, referring to the non-Muslim residents.
It marks a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since October, when a smaller Rohingya attack on security posts prompted a military response dogged by allegations of rights abuses.
“A total of 2,625 houses from Kotankauk, Myinlut and Kyikanpyin villages and two wards in Maungtaw were burned down by the ARSA extremist terrorists,” the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said. The group has been declared a terrorist organization by the government.
But Human Rights Watch, which analyzed satellite imagery and accounts from Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, said the Myanmar security forces deliberately set the fires.
“New satellite imagery shows the total destruction of a Muslim village, and prompts serious concerns that the level of devastation in northern Rakhine State may be far worse than originally thought,” said the group’s deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson.

… / …

Full Capacity

Near the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh, new arrivals in Bangladesh carrying their belongings in sacks set up crude tents or tried to squeeze into available shelters or homes of locals.
“The existing camps are near full capacity and numbers are swelling fast. In the coming days there needs to be more space,” said UNHCR regional spokeswoman Vivian Tan, adding more refugees were expected.
The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and regarded as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots that date back centuries.
Bangladesh is also growing increasingly hostile to Rohingya, more than 400,000 of whom live in the poor South Asian country after fleeing Myanmar since the early 1990s.
Jalal Ahmed, 60, who arrived in Bangladesh on Friday with a group of about 3,000 after walking from Kyikanpyin for almost a week, said he believed the Rohingya were being pushed out of Myanmar.
“The military came with 200 people to the village and started fires…All the houses in my village are already destroyed. If we go back there and the army sees us, they will shoot,” he said.
Reuters could not independently verify these accounts as access for independent journalists to northern Rakhine has been restricted since security forces locked down the area in October.
Speaking to soldiers, government staff and Rakhine Buddhists affected by the conflict on Friday, army chief Min Aung Hlaing said there is no “oppression or intimidation” against the Muslim minority and “everything is within the framework of the law.”
“The Bengali problem was a long-standing one which has become an unfinished job,” he said, using a term used by many in Myanmar to refer to the Rohingya that suggests they come from Bangladesh.
Many aid programs running in northern Rakhine prior to the outbreak of violence, including life-saving food assistance by the World Food Programme (WFP), have been suspended since the fighting broke out.
“Food security indicators and child malnutrition rates in Maungdaw were already above emergency thresholds before the violence broke out, and it is likely that they will now deteriorate even further,” said Pierre Peron, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar.
More than 80,000 children may need treatment for malnutrition in northern Rakhine and many of them reported “extreme” food insecurity, WFP said in July.
In Bangladesh, Tan of UNHCR said more shelters and medical care were needed. “There’s a lot of pregnant women and lactating mothers and really young children, some of them born during the flight. They all need medical attention,” she said.
Among new arrivals, 22-year-old Tahara Begum gave birth to her second child in a forest on the way to Bangladesh.
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” she said.

By Reuters 2 September 2017

3 000 Rohingya ont fui la Birmanie pour le Bangladesh

3 000 Rohingya ont fui la Birmanie pour le Bangladesh

par | Sep 1, 2017 | Rohingyas

Cette communauté paria tente d’échapper à une flambée de violence qui secoue le pays depuis vendredi.

Au moins 3 000 membres de la minorité musulmane rohingya sont passés au Bangladesh ces trois derniers jours pour fuir une nouvelle vague de violences en Birmanie, ont annoncé, lundi 28 août, les Nations unies. « Nombre de ces nouveaux arrivants sont des femmes et des enfants », a précisé Joseph Tripura, porte-parole du Haut-Commissariat aux réfugiés (HCR). 

Le Bangladesh estime à plusieurs milliers le nombre de personnes de cette communauté paria qui se trouvent à proximité de sa frontière avec la Birmanie, où les Rohingya sont persécutés de longue date : plus de 400 000 réfugiés se trouvent déjà dans le pays.

L’exode d’un grand nombre de musulmans et de civils bouddhistes vivant dans l’Etat d’Arakan, dans le nord de la République de l’union du Myanmar, a été provoqué par des attaques lancées, vendredi, par des insurgés rohingya, armés de matraques, de poignards ou de bombes artisanales, contre une trentaine de postes de police et une base de l’armée.

Lire aussi :   En Birmanie, la guérilla des Rohingya passe à l’offensive

Une centaine de morts

Une centaine de personnes ont péri dans ces affrontements. Le secrétaire général de l’ONU, Antonio Guterres, s’est dit « profondément préoccupé » par des informations faisant état de la mort de civils lors d’opérations sécuritaires dans l’Etat Rakhine, dans l’Ouest birman, selon M. Tripura. Il ajoute que les autorités birmanes doivent « assurer la sécurité de ceux qui en ont besoin et leur fournir de l’aide ».

Le sort réservé au quelque 1,1 million de Rohingya dans un pays à prédominance bouddhiste est devenu l’un des plus gros défis lancés à Aung San Suu Kyi, qui exerce de facto les fonctions de chef du gouvernement depuis près d’un an et demi. Les membres de cette communauté musulmane établis dans l’Etat d’Arakan ne peuvent obtenir la nationalité birmane et leurs déplacements sont soumis à de sévères restrictions.

Lire aussi :   En Birmanie, une haine contre les Rohingya qui remonte à l’époque coloniale

Nombre de bouddhistes les considèrent comme des immigrants illégaux venus du Bangladesh. Ils n’ont pas accès au marché du travail, aux écoles, aux hôpitaux, et la montée du nationalisme ces dernières années a attisé l’hostilité à leur encontre.

Le Haut-Commissariat de l’ONU aux droits de l’homme a d’ailleurs déclaré mardi que les décennies de violation « systématique » des droits des musulmans rohingya étaient à l’origine de la flambée de violences en Birmanie, et que les autorités auraient pu les empêcher.

Lire aussi :   La Birmanie rongée par l’intolérance religieuse

Le pape se rendra en Birmanie

Le Vatican avait par ailleurs annoncé, lundi, une visite du pape François en Birmanie et au Bangladesh à la fin de novembre, un déplacement au cours duquel le souverain pontife devrait évoquer le sort des Rohingya, dont il prend régulièrement la défense.

Il s’agit là d’une visite inédite du pape François sur ces terres bouddhistes. Le pape se rendra en Birmanie du 27 au 30 novembre puis au Bangladesh voisin du 30 novembre au 2 décembre, selon un communiqué du Saint-Siège. Il devrait rencontrer lors de sa visite Aung San Suu Kyi, très critiquée à l’étranger pour sa gestion de ce dossier.

Le Monde.fr avec AFP et Reuters | 29.08.2017 à 02h25 • Mis à jour le 29.08.2017 à 17h08

Myanmar Rakhine: Thousands flee to Bangladesh

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Thousands of Rohingya, mainly women and children, have fled to Bangladesh since Friday.
More than 18,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state have entered Bangladesh in less than a week, aid workers say.
The crisis erupted after Rohingya insurgents attacked 30 police stations last Friday, triggering a military response.
Aid workers giving emergency shelter and food say about a dozen of the new arrivals have recent bullet wounds.
Thousands more are waiting at the border, local sources say.
Many are thought to be trapped in an unoccupied zone between the countries.
At least 100 people, mostly insurgents, have been reported killed in the latest violence in Rakhine. Independent confirmation from the state is almost impossible as few journalists are given access.

What’s the situation at the border?

The International Organisation for Migration said on Wednesday that about 18,500 Rohingya – mostly women and children – had crossed into Bangladesh since last Friday’s attacks.
Media captionRohingya Muslim women have been weeping on the Bangladesh border.
Peppi Siddiq, a spokesperson for the IOM, told the BBC: « There are still thousands of people in no-man’s land and we have no access to that area.
« Some new arrivals have clothes with them, some even have kitchen utensils, but most leave everything behind. They need immediate shelter and food assistance. »
More than 100,000 Rohingya refugees have now entered Bangladesh since last October, accusing the Myanmar authorities of ethnic persecution.

The authorities in Bangladesh have been turning many Rohingyas from Myanmar back – both countries say the Rohingya are not their citizens.
« The situation is very terrifying, houses are burning, all the people ran away from their homes, parents and children were divided, some were lost, some are dead, » Abdullah, a young Rohingya man who had made it to Bangladesh, told Reuters.

How bad is the crisis?
Jill McGivering, BBC News

Aid workers say this latest tidal wave of refugees is so intense that their only focus at the moment is the immediate task of saving lives. They haven’t yet had time to interview the new arrivals and hear their stories.
Some women have given birth in the camps. Some manage to carry possessions – clothes or even cooking utensils – but most arrive with nothing.
Crossing the border is hazardous. In places, it runs alongside a road where Bangladeshi border guards routinely patrol, enforcing the government’s official policy of refusing entry. But many refugees make it across elsewhere, often through dense jungle.
Myanmar accuses Bangladesh of harbouring Rohingya militants whom it views as Bengalis. Bangladesh denies this – and seems keen to show its determination to address terrorism in all forms.
This week, it apparently suggested joint border patrols but there’s no sign of that offer being accepted.
In the meantime, the violence in Rakhine state and the flood of refugees continue – leading aid workers to call this one of the world’s forgotten crises.
Who are the militants?
A group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) says it carried out Friday’s attacks. The group first emerged in October 2016, when it carried out similar assaults on police posts, killing nine police officers.
It says its primary aim is to protect the Rohingya Muslim minority from state repression in Myanmar.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Villages have been burned in Rakhine, reports say, amid violence following Friday’s attacks.
The government says Arsa is a terrorist group whose leaders have been trained abroad. Its leader is Ata Ullah, a Rohingya born in Pakistan who was raised in Saudi Arabia, according to the International Crisis Group.
But a spokesman for the group told Asia Times that it had no links to jihadi groups and that its members were young Rohingya men angered by events since communal violence in 2012.
What is life like for Rohingya?
Rakhine, the poorest region in Myanmar (also called Burma), is home to more than a million Rohingya.
They face severe restrictions inside mainly Buddhist Myanmar, where tensions with the majority population have been rumbling for years.
This is the most significant outbreak of violence in Rakhine since October 2016, when nine policemen died in similar attacks on border posts. The government said they were carried out by a previously unknown Rohingya militant group.
The attacks triggered a military crackdown that led to widespread allegations of killings, rape and torture of Rohingya, and an exodus of Rohingya into Bangladesh.

The UN is currently investigating alleged human rights abuses by the security forces, who deny wrongdoing.

  • 30/08/2017 –  From the section Asia

Des femmes rohingya refoulées à la frontière entre la Birmanie et le Bangladesh, à Cox’s Bazar, le 28 août.

Villages have been burned in Rakhine, reports say, amid violence following Friday's attacks

Maungdaw - Rakhine - Burma

A police officer stands guard near a house that was burned down in Maungdaw, northern Rakhine State,

Kofi Annan at the final Rakhine Advisory Commission report launch in Yangon just hours before the attacks in Rakhine began.

Hindu families take refuge at a government school in Maungdaw after fleeing their homes amid ARSA’s attacks.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army appeals for international assistance in the ongoing situation in Rakhine State in a video posted online.

Bangladesh ramps up border patrols to deter fresh Rohingya inflow

par | Août 17, 2017 | Rohingyas

Bangladesh has stepped up patrols on its border with Myanmar, following reports that about 1,000 Rohingya Muslims crossed into the country in the past two weeks, amid fresh tension in its neighbor’s northwestern Rakhine state.

Security forces in Buddhist-majority Myanmar launched a massive crackdown in the state after Rohingya insurgents killed nine police in October, but the flow of refugees into Bangladesh had slowed until hundreds more soldiers were deployed recently.

« Security forces are patrolling the villages daily, » said Rahim, a teacher from Dar Gyi Zar village in Myanmar who fled to Bangladesh last year, but remains in touch with family members.

« My mother is 73 and is panicking there, but she won’t be able to flee, » said Rahim, who uses one name, like many Rohingya.

« No one will be allowed to illegally cross into our country, » Manuzurul Hasan Khan, a senior Bangladesh border guard official, told Reuters, adding that the two countries were jointly patrolling frontier areas.

There had been no major influx recently, he said, adding that the border was peaceful, with more joint patrols scheduled for this week.

However, Rahim and a Rohingya leader in Bangladesh put the total of new refugees at more than 1,000.

There had been a constant « slow movement of people across the border, » a senior U.N. official in Bangladesh said.

About 1,000 households had crossed each month in April, May and June, estimated the official, who declined to be identified in the absence of authorization to talk to the media.

The figure rose to 1,300 households in July, the official said, adding that the border area was « definitely seeing more new arrivals » in August.

About 500 of the newly arrived Rohingya live near an unofficial refugee camp in Leda, near the Naf river separating Bangladesh from Myanmar, said Zayed, a Rohingya leader.
The rest have moved elsewhere in the border district of Cox’s Bazar.
Before the latest inflow, about 75,000 Rohinhya had fled to Bangladesh since October, joining tens of thousands already there and straining resources.
Some families were packing up to leave, fearing another violent crackdown, a Rohingya resident of Maungdaw in Myanmar told Reuters.
« People here are feeling depressed and getting so scared, hearing that more troops are coming to do area clearance again, » the resident said on Saturday, seeking anonymity for fear of repercussions.
« We have no one to protect us here. »
The resident and a human rights monitor with sources in northern Rakhine said security forces had run intensive searches and arrested some Rohingya men.
Kyaw Swar Tun, an administrator in the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe, said security had been stepped up in the state’s north, but denied that Muslims were fleeing across the border.
« I don’t hear anything of Bengali people leaving or entering the country during these days, » he said, using a derogatory term for the Rohingya to imply they are interlopers from Bangladesh.
The treatment of the roughly one million Rohingya in Myanmar has emerged as the country’s most contentious human rights issue as it transitions from decades of harsh military rule.
Myanmar denies citizenship to the Rohingya and classifies them as illegal immigrants, though they claim roots there dating back centuries.
Myanmar security forces continue to harass Rohingya in Rakhine, said Noor Bashar, 26, who fled to Cox’s Bazar last week.
« Many more are still waiting to enter Bangladesh but it’s difficult, due to the increased patrolling, » she told Reuters.

Reuters Staff – COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh/YANGON (Reuters)

USDP-Led Coalition Calls on Govt to Reject Rohingya Ethnicity

par | Août 15, 2017 | Rohingyas

A coalition of 20 political parties led by the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) called on the Myanmar government to declare to the international community that there is “no Rohingya ethnicity” in the country.
Party representatives—largely from minor groups currently unrepresented in Parliament, including the Democratic Party Myanmar, National Democratic Force, and the National Development Party—discussed issues in northern Rakhine State on Monday at the USDP head office in Yangon. After the talks, they signed the statement, which contained four demands: improve general security in the region, provide increased security for government staff, enforce the 2014 counter-terrorism law, and reject the term “Rohingya” to describe a population of more than 1 million Muslims.
The self-identifying Rohingya are widely labeled throughout Myanmar as “Bengali,” implying that they are immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, rather than belonging to Rakhine State.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated in May that 168,000 Rohingya had fled violence and persecution Myanmar in the last five years, mostly seeking refuge in Bangladesh and Malaysia. Most recently, following militant attacks on police outposts in October 2016, Myanmar security forces carried out clearance operations in Rakhine State, displacing nearly 70,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh.
Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticized for not speaking out on behalf of the group, and has previously labeled both the terms “Rohingya” and “Bengali” as “emotive.” She told UN Special Envoy for Human Rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee in June 2016 that these “controversial terms should be avoided.”

… /…

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, USDP central executive committee member U Hla Thein chastised the international community for “complaining about human rights violations to the government” while “ethnic Rakhine and members of the security forces are being killed by militant terrorists.”
In early August, seven ethnic Mro—a sub-ethnicity of the Buddhist Arakanese in the region—were found dead of gunshot and machete wounds in the Mayu mountains of Maungdaw Township in northern Rakhine State. While no one has been arrested for the murders, local sources have said they suspect militants active in the borderlands of committing the murders.
Hundreds of troops were deployed to Rakhine State last week after a meeting between military commander-in-chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing and a seven-member delegation from the Arakan National Party (ANP) in Naypyitaw.
The Irrawaddy reported on Monday that the Myanmar military gave a verbal order to villagers in the state’s northern townships to avoid entering the Mayu mountains for any reason, in order to “avoid fatalities” while they conduct clearance operations in the area.
U Hla Thein told The Irrawaddy that the recent mission “was not enough, if further attacks potentially happen in the area.”

                                                                                                          By Thu Thu Aung 15 August 2017 – YANGON

Thu Thu Aung The Irrawaddy

 

3 000 Rohingya ont fui la Birmanie pour le Bangladesh

OIC Tells Myanmar to Protect Rights of Rohingya Minority

par | Août 3, 2017 | Rohingyas

A Rohingya refugee girl reacts to the camera while carry a child at the Kutupalang Makeshift Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh on July 8, 2017. / Mohammad Ponir Hossain / Reuters

A Rohingya refugee girl reacts to the camera while carry a child at the Kutupalang Makeshift Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh on July 8, 2017. / Mohammad Ponir Hossain / Reuters

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Myanmar must protect the rights of its Rohingya Muslim minority, the chief of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said on Thursday, urging the southeast Asian nation to join hands with Muslim-majority neighbors in tackling a refugee crisis.
A group known as Harakah al-Yaqin attacked Myanmar border guard posts on Oct. 9, killing nine policemen and igniting the biggest crisis yet to face Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s fledgling administration.
About 75,000 people fled to Bangladesh during the ensuing military crackdown, which was beset by allegations of rape, torture and extrajudicial killings by security forces.
Suu Kyi’s government has denied most of the allegations and is refusing access to a United Nations panel of experts, saying its mission will aggravate the situation on the ground in the western state of Rakhine.
“Myanmar should sit with Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia to find a roadmap for the solution of the crisis,” said Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen of the OIC, which represents 57 states and acts as the collective voice of the Muslim world.
“We call on the Myanmar government to ensure human rights for the Rohingyas,” Othaimeen told reporters during a four-day visit to the Bangladeshi capital.
“Myanmar can’t deny the human rights of Rohingyas. We also call on the Myanmar government to ensure citizenship for the Rohingyas.”
Othaimeen is also expected to visit Rakhine Muslims in the Kutupalong camp and surrounding areas in the southern resort town of Cox’s Bazar on Friday, Bangladesh foreign ministry officials said.
Thousands of Rohingya live in Bangladesh without being officially recognized as refugees, but police rarely file immigration charges against them. Still, their presence is a source of tension between the two countries.
Many in Myanmar see the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, although about 1.1 million of them live in Rakhine state and say their roots go back generations.

By Reuters 3 August 2017