By Kyaw Ye Lynn

Anadolu Agency

May 18, 2017

After being smuggled from crackdown in Rakhine state, the men could face two years in prison for 'illegal intrusion'

YANGON, Myanmar -- Myanmar authorities have arrested 11 Rohingya Muslims who were smuggled from the troubled western Rakhine state to the country’s biggest city Yangon, an official said Thursday.

Win Naing, an officer at the Yangon Police Force, told Anadolu Agency that they were arrested by a police patrol at the Aung Mingalar Highway bus station in Yangon’s North Okalapa Township.

“These Bengalis are waiting for traffickers who will smuggle them first to the Myanmar-Thai border, then to Malaysia over land,” he said by phone on Thursday, referring to the stateless minority group with a term that suggests that they are interlopers from neighboring Bangladesh.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya -- described by the United Nations as among the most persecuted minority groups worldwide -- have fled their homes in Rakhine since October, when Myanmar's military launched a crackdown that has attracted severe international criticism of its brutality.

Security forces have been accused of gang-rape, killings, beatings, disappearances and burning villages in the Maungdaw area of northern Rakhine since October.

Win Naing added that the men were smuggled by traffickers who were ethnic Rakhines from the Rakhine state to Yangon over land, and that they are searching for the traffickers in cooperation with the Rakhine Police Force.

The 11 middle-age Rohingya men will be charged for “illegal intrusion” under the Residents of Burma Registration Act (1949) and Myanmar’s Penal Code, he said.

Last October, after being arrested in Yangon, 18 trafficked Rohingya men were sentenced to two years in prison on the same charges, while four underage Rohingya were ordered to spend two years at a training school for boys.

Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar in droves since mid-2012 after communal violence broke out in Rakhine between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya.

The violence left around 57 Muslims and 31 Buddhists dead, some 100,000 people displaced in camps, and more than 2,500 houses razed -- most of which belonged to Rohingya.

For years, members of the minority have been using Thailand as a transit point to enter Muslim Malaysia and beyond.

A law passed in Myanmar in 1982 denied Rohingya -- many of whom have lived in Myanmar for generations -- citizenship, making them stateless, removing their freedom of movement, access to education and services, and allowing for arbitrary confiscation of their property.​

By Anadolu Agency

March 30, 2017

YANGON, Myanmar: A delegation of 10 EU officials arrived in a part of Myanmar wracked by alleged atrocities committed by security forces against Rohingya Muslims in recent months.

The ten-strong group, led by Colin Steinbach, political head of the EU office in Yangon, arrived in Maungdaw, a town in Rahkine state bordering Bangladesh, for a three-day visit.

State government spokesman Tin Maung Swe said the officials would meet figures from the state authorities, political parties and local communities.

“They arrived in Maungdaw today and will be back in state capital Sittwe on Friday,” he told Anadolu Agency by telephone.

The group arrived in Sittwe on Tuesday, where they met senior officials and the deputy speaker of regional parliament.

Tens of thousands of people have fled Rakhine since the military began a clearance operation last October following the deaths of nine police officers in attacks on border posts.

During the operation, the UN and rights groups have documented widespread abuses by security forces such as killings -- including of children and babies -- gang rapes, brutal beatings, the burning of villages and disappearances.

The government has said at least 106 people were killed during the operation but Rohingya groups have said around 400 Rohingya were killed.

The UN Human Rights Council decided last week to send a fact-finding mission to Myanmar to investigate alleged violations.

However, the government rebuffed the UN decision, claiming the mission would inflame the situation.

A group of 20 local and foreign journalists is also visiting Maungtaw, state-run newspapers said Wednesday. The district had been off-limits to journalists and rights activists during the crackdown.

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

Anadolu Agency

February 25, 2017

YANGON, Myanmar -- Humanitarian aid from Malaysia will soon be distributed to displaced people in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, authorities said Thursday.

A Myanmar military ship loaded with Malaysian aid for Rohingya Muslims in the Maungdaw area of northern Rakhine arrived in state capital Sittwe on Wednesday, according to state-run newspapers.

The Maungdaw area has been under military lockdown since early October when a gang killed nine officers in raids on police stations near the country’s western border with Bangladesh.

At least 93,000 people have been displaced -- with 69,000 fleeing to Bangladesh -- amid the military operation, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

Security forces have been accused of committing abuses such as mass gang-rape and killings, brutal beatings, the burning of villages and disappearances.

The reports Thursday said the aid would be distributed to 190 villages as well as camps for internally displaced people in Rakhine.

Tin Maung Swe, a regional government spokesman, told Anadolu Agency that the supplies would be provided to displaced people from both communities -- Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists -- by Saturday.

“We will distribute most of the aid to people in Sittwe and Maungdaw,” he said by phone Thursday.

Of the 24,000 people who remain internally displaced, 272 are ethnic Rakhine as well as Myo, according to the UNOCHA’s weekly report. ​

Earlier this month, a Malaysian ship had dropped hundreds of tons of food and other necessities at Thilawa Port in Myanmar’s former capital Yangon.

With its remaining supplies, it then headed for Bangladesh.

The crackdown has been the subject of severe international criticism over abuses committed against the Rohingya.

Following growing local and international pressure, Myanmar’s government announced last week the end of military operations in the area.

By Halil Ibrahim Baser

Anadolu Agency

February 20, 2017

ISTANBUL -- Turkey’s Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) said Monday that it had delivered food to 18,500 displaced Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar this month.

The aid -- including rice, oil, beans, salt and spices -- was distributed in Sittwe and Buthidaung in Rakhine state.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled their homes in Rakhine since October, when Myanmar's military launched a crackdown that has attracted severe international criticism of its brutality.

Around 100,000 people had been displaced due to oppression and the military violence, IHH Southeast Asia Desk's Mucahit Demir said in a statement. “Over 75,000 people had to settle in and around Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh’s Cox Bazar region, which is also known as the worst camp in the world.

“Nearly 30,000 people had to relocate within Rakhine due to oppression and villages being burnt down. Hundreds of thousands of our Rohingya brothers and sisters have become needy since then.

“As IHH, we care especially about the distribution of food and basic necessities that we initiate as emergency aid and plan to continue aid with support from donors,” Demir said.

Rohingya have fled Rakhine -- one of the poorest states in Myanmar -- in droves for decades, with a new wave of migrations occurring since mid-2012 after communal violence broke out between ethnic Buddhists and the Muslim minority -- described by the UN as one of the world's most persecuted groups.

Security forces have been accused of gang-rape, killings, beatings, disappearances and burning villages in the Maungdaw area of northern Rakhine since October.

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

Anadolu Agency

January 15, 2017

Cancelation of event marks second time this month that Buddhist hardliners impeded a Muslim gathering

YANGON, Myanmar -- A Muslim gathering in a small Myanmar town has been canceled due to a protest from a Buddhist nationalist group -- the second such disturbance in the country this month.

The event due to be held in the town of Pyay in Bago region, around 440 kilometers northwest of Myanmar’s former capital Yangon, was canceled last minute after a Yangon-based nationalist group pressured local authorities and Muslim residents, the Irrawaddy online magazine reported. 

The report said authorities had permitted the ceremony -- scheduled to be held for at least three hours Sunday -- to last 30 minutes after negotiations Saturday with the nationalist group and Muslim residents. 

The hardline Buddhist nationalists, however, later demanded that the ceremony be called off entirely.

“We have had the ceremony every year peacefully,” Kyaw Naing, a member of the festival organizing committee, was quoted by the magazine as saying.

He underlined that the Muslim community agreed to cancel their ceremony over the protest to demonstrate that Islam is a religion of peace for the people of Myanmar as well as across the world.

“Authority actually already granted permission to us for the ceremony,” he said.

The incident marked the second time this month that Buddhist hardliners impeded a Muslim gathering.

On Jan. 8, a crowd including hardline Buddhist monks -- who many blame for a rise in persecution of Muslims in Myanmar -- disturbed a religious service in Yangon’s Botataung Township, accusing the worshipers of holding it without the approval of local authorities.

Security personnel had to be deployed to guard the gathering, and Muslim residents later complained that some nationalists had behaved badly as they tried to pray.

Hardline nationalist monks -- such as the Organization for the Protection of Race and Religion (Ma Ba Tha) -- rose to prominence in Myanmar on the back of communal violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in western Rakhine State in mid-2012.

Anti-Muslim rhetoric from the group has been seen as deliberately stoking the flames of religious hatred in the predominantly Buddhist country.

By Satuk Bugra Kutlugun

Anadolu Agency

January 7, 2017

ANKARA -- The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar is to make her fifth "information-gathering visit" to the country at the end of January, with the situation in the western state of Rakhine continuing to raise international ire.

In a statement released Friday, Yanghee Lee said the Jan. 9-20 trip will see her visit to the troubled Rohingya areas of Buthidaung and Maungdaw, along with areas of northern Kachin State where ethnic rebels recently launched an offensive.

“The events of the last few months have shown that the international community must remain vigilant in monitoring the human rights situation,” Lee said.

“Apart from what is happening in Rakhine, the escalation in fighting in Kachin and Shan, with its inevitable negative impact on the situation of civilians, is causing some disquiet regarding the direction that the new government is taking in its first year of administration."

Since the deaths of nine border police officials in northern Rakhine on Oct. 9, aid agencies and independent journalists have been denied access to areas predominantly inhabited by the Rohingya Muslim community, and at least 101 people -- 17 police and soldiers, eight Muslim men working closely with the local authority, and 76 alleged "attackers" (including six who reportedly died during interrogation) -- have now been killed.

More than 600 people have also been detained for alleged involvement in the attacks.

Rohingya advocacy groups, however, claim around 400 Rohingya -- described by the United Nations as among the most persecuted groups worldwide -- were killed in the military operations, women were raped and more than 1,000 Rohingya villages torched.

During Lee's 12-day visit -- which the statement underlined was at the invitation of Aung San Suu Kyi's government -- the special rapporteur is expected to address a broad range of human rights issues with the authorities and various stakeholders.

The government has heavily criticized media and rights groups coverage of the situation in Rakhine, and the area was placed under military curfew during recent army operations -- acts that have led to further allegations that the government is attempting to cover up abuses in the area.

The statement said that in line with her mandate from the UN Human Rights Council, Lee has proposed benchmarks to the government ahead of her visit to help monitor and assess progress in the situation of human rights in the country.

It added that by the end of the trip, she hopes to arrive at mutually agreed benchmarks, which will include priority areas for technical assistance and capacity building.

“My main objective, as Special Rapporteur, has always been to work closely with the authorities and people of Myanmar, for the promotion and protection of human rights in the country,” Lee noted.

“I look forward to the good cooperation which the Government has always extended to my mandate. I especially hope for the constructive and frank exchange of views which always take place during my visits to lead to real and meaningful change for the people of Myanmar."

Lee is then scheduled to present a report to the Rights Council in March 2017.

By Canberk Yuksel

Anadolu Agency

December 24, 2016

Special advisor to Myanmar tells Anadolu Agency gov't needs to build assurance in Rakhine before situation degenerates

NEW YORK -- A top United Nations official is warning that the ongoing violence in Myanmar's west is in danger of “getting out of hand", and is asking the country's leaders to be more assertive in resolving historic problems faced by the area's Muslim and Buddhist communities.

In an exclusive interview earlier this week, the UN secretary-general’s special advisor on Myanmar, Vijay Nambiar, told Anadolu Agency that deadly Oct. 9 attacks on police stations in Rakhine State were condemnable, but laid bare “a deep-seated malaise in the place itself”.

He outlined a rising desperation felt by Rohingya Muslims in the area, saying that the government hadn’t done enough to address the “anxiety and insecurity” they felt.

“For almost three years, there hasn’t been any major outbreak of violence in Rakhine, even though the 2012 events were a pointer,” Nambiar said, referring to inter-communal violence in Rakhine in which more than 100 people -- mostly Muslims -- died and over 100,000 were displaced.

“We had been bringing this to the notice of the government and telling them that unless some action was taken to address some of the root causes, it was likely that this would erupt once again."

Since Oct. 9, Myanmar has said that at least 94 people -- 17 police and soldiers and 77 alleged "attackers" (including six who reportedly died during interrogation) -- have been killed and some 600 suspects have been detained for alleged involvement in attacks on police stations and during a subsequent military crackdown.

The government said Monday that the arrests were continuing, and a further "Muslim man" had been shot dead "as he attacked police".

Rohingya advocacy groups, however, claim around 400 Rohingya -- described by the UN as among the most persecuted groups worldwide -- were killed in the military operations in an area which has been closed to aid agencies and independent journalists.

Nambiar said that the operations had seen houses burnt, villages kept under lockdown, while at least 21,000 Rohingya are reported to have fled across the border into neighboring Bangladesh.

The security apparatus has been “defensive rather than proactive”, he underlined. 

On Monday, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi thanked Myanmar's neighbors at a regional meeting for their offers of help in resolving the "complex and long-standing" issues at the heart of disturbances in Rakhine.

Myanmar has highlighted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)'s non-interference principle in its response to countries accusing it of human rights atrocities in its treatment of Rohingya, stressing fellow member Indonesia's “positive and constructive" approach while criticizing Malaysia, whose prime minister has referred to Myanmar's treatment of the ethnic minority as "genocide” or “ethnic cleansing".

On its western border, however, is non-ASEAN member Bangladesh, from where Myanmar originally accused many of the attackers of entering and which has also had to cope with a wave of Rohingya fleeing the military clampdown.

Nambiar told Anadolu Agency that in talks with representatives in Bangladesh, he had learnt that the country had been "very constructive" in its cooperation with the Myanmar government.

“In fact, they even handed over some of the people who they felt were attackers to the Myanmar authorities, and they also asked that the situation be addressed very seriously so that the threat of a large exodus of population from northern Rakhine to Bangladesh could be averted.”

Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar for decades, with a new wave of migrations occurring since mid-2012 after communal violence broke out in Rakhine between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya.

The violence left more than 100 people dead, over 100,000 (primarily Rohingya) displaced in camps and more than 2,500 houses razed -- most of which belonged to Rohingya.

Members of the minority were also not allowed to stand or vote in Myanmar's 2015 elections, which Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi's party won in a landslide, as Myanmar does not see them as nationals.

Despite being accused of indifference to the Rohingya and their suffering, Suu Kyi has long said that the situation in Rakhine is economic, not political, as she strives to balance calls for intervention from the international community with anti-Muslim cries from nationalists -- many of whom voted for her party -- back home.

Talking to Anadolu Agency, Nambiar underlined that he too sees economic development -- along with human rights -- as a solution to the problems in the region, but primarily the government needed to find ways to convince the community that it would protect them.

“An element of reassurance has to come to the local community,” he said.

“For a variety of reasons, the local communities are very, very highly agitated, and see [military operations] as a threat to their existence, so as long as this sense of either you or me, this kind of zero-sum game, continues, it will be very difficult to see that kind of harmony building.”

He stressed, however, that the situation has not been helped by a “somewhat knee-jerk” reaction from the army and local authorities to communal violence.

“Whenever they face this threat, they automatically want to close the entire situation, seal up the situation and deal with the threat and the problem. That in the past has resulted in the problem actually festering."

Nambiar called on the new government -- the country's first fully democratic body in more than 50 years -- to work closely with its old foe, the military.

“[Suu Kyi] has to work with the army and the army has to work with her. She needs to be a little more assertive in taking action to reassure both the local population and international community and I have confidence that she will do that," he said.

“I do feel and I am convinced that her intentions are to actually solve the larger problems.”

Nambiar said that the initial step is to reassure the communities that they are safe and in good hands, and then the government needs to restore citizenship rights to the presently stateless Rohingya.

Many nationalists refer to Rohingya as "Bengali", which suggests they are interlopers from neighboring Bangladesh and fuels the notion that they don't belong in Myanmar.

“During the [2014] census process, the minister for population said that he had no doubt that the overwhelming majority of... what he called the Bengalis... would be entitled to citizenship. He in fact told me this,” Nambiar said.

He underlined that the situation in Rakhine is far more complex than it at first seems, and that everyone involved needed to ignore knee-jerk reactions and see the situation for what it is.

“This is a very complex problem. It is a long-standing problem and the cure for this is to address the substantive issues and the root causes,” he said.

Nambiar spoke of his fears that the situation could now get out of hand.

“But I think the government is aware of it. By and large, they recognize the seriousness of this issue,” he said.

- Vijay Nambiar is a seasoned career diplomat from India. A former Ambassador to the United Nations, he held several high-ranking positions in the global body, including Chef de Cabinet and Under-Secretary-General. He has been Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Myanmar since 2010.

By P Prem Kumar

Anadolu Agency

December 17, 2016

KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia's foreign ministry said Saturday that it will express strong condemnation during an upcoming regional meeting organized by Myanmar to discuss recent violence in troubled Rakhine State.

Myanmar has invited foreign ministers from Southeast Asian nations for Dec. 19 talks in an effort to reduce regional concerns over a situation in northern Rakhine in which anything from 76 to 400 Rohingya Muslims have died.

A military crackdown in Rakhine that followed fatal Oct. 9 attacks on police stations has raised concerns among ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries, especially in predominantly Muslim Malaysia and Indonesia.

On Saturday, Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said the gathering would be used as platform to express ASEAN member countries' firm stance against any form of violence or discrimination against the Rohingya.

"This 19 December meeting will give me the opportunity to unequivocally state Malaysia’s strong position on this issue," he said in a statement, stressing that Malaysia has consistently condemned the escalation of violence in northern Rakhine since Oct. 9.

"The loss of innocent lives and the displacement of people is unacceptable, and Malaysia will further call on all parties involved to refrain from taking any actions that would aggravate the situation further," the minister underlined. 

Myanmar has said that at least 93 people -- 17 police and soldiers and 76 alleged "attackers" (including six who reportedly died during interrogation) -- were killed and some 575 suspects detained in the Oct. 9 attacks and a subsequent military crackdown.

Rohingya advocacy groups, however, claim around 400 Rohingya -- described by the United Nations as among the most persecuted groups worldwide -- were killed in the military operations, women were raped and Rohingya villages torched.

Malaysia has heavily criticized Myanmar’s government and military over the violence, with Prime Minister Najib Razak and his cabinet referring to it as "genocide” or “ethnic cleansing".

After Malaysia’s government organized a Razak-led protest against the violence, Myanmar accused Malaysia of meddling in its internal affairs.

On Dec. 8, the deputy director general at Myanmar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs highlighted to Anadolu Agency that a pledge by Indonesia's foreign minister, Rento Marsudi, to help Myanmar resolve all conflicts between the Buddhist and Muslim communities in Rakhine was both “positive and constructive”. 

“Unlike Malaysia, Indonesia shows respect to Myanmar and regional principles,” Aye Aye Soe said by phone, referring to ASEAN's non-interference principle.

Aman underlined Saturday that Malaysia's position to assist Myanmar in finding a “just, expeditious and durable” solution to the protracted conflict in Rakhine. 

He said Malaysia is “fully cognizant” of ASEAN’s non-interference principle, but also upholds that ASEAN member states are bound by international principles on human rights.

By P Prem Kumar

Anadolu Agency

December 15, 2016

Says concerned that if crisis in western Myanmar not addressed urgently it will impact security and stability of region

KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia has dismissed claims that it is being "un-ASEAN-like" in its response to violence in Myanmar's west in which between 76 and 400 Rohingya have been killed, saying in a strongly worded statement that the issue is no longer domestic, but of regional concern.

Myanmar has highlighted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)'s non-interference principle in its response to countries accusing it of human rights atrocities in its treatment of Rohingya, highlighting fellow member Indonesia's “positive and constructive" approach while criticizing Malaysia's.

In its statement Thursday, Malaysia's ministry of foreign affairs underlined that it had always followed developments in the region, "including Myanmar".

"In this regard, Malaysia is gravely concerned with the recent developments in the northern Rakhine State, which has resulted in the loss of innocent lives and the displacement of people."

Malaysia's raised its concerns following a military crackdown in Rakhine that followed Oct. 9 attacks on police stations in which nine officers died in Maungdaw district near Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh.

Myanmar has said that at least 93 people -- 17 soldiers and 76 alleged "attackers" (including six who reportedly died during interrogation) -- were killed and some 575 suspects detained in the attacks and a subsequent military crackdown.

Rohingya advocacy groups, however, claim around 400 Rohingya -- described by the United Nations as among the most persecuted groups worldwide -- were killed in the military operations, women were raped and Rohingya villages torched.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak subsequently led a Kuala Lumpur rally -- attended by thousands of Rohingya, many of them refugees -- to tell Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi "that enough is enough".

"I asked my foreign minister to immediately meet her to find a resolution to the issue but she rejected it immediately,” said Razak, who -- along with his cabinet -- has referred to Myanmar's treatment of Rohingya as "genocide” or “ethnic cleansing".

On Dec. 8, the deputy director general at Myanmar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Aye Aye Soe, highlighted to Anadolu Agency that a pledge by Indonesia's foreign minister, Rento Marsudi, to help Myanmar resolve all conflicts between the Buddhist and Muslim communities in Rakhine was both “positive and constructive”.

“Indonesia's government understands what Myanmar is facing regarding the situation in Rakhine,” Aye Aye Soe said by phone.

“Unlike Malaysia, Indonesia shows respect to Myanmar and regional principles,” he said, referring to ASEAN's non-interference principle.

On Wednesday, Malaysia underlined the reasons for its criticism, saying that it is concerned that if the crisis in northern Rakhine is not urgently addressed it will impact the security and stability of the region, including Malaysia.

"The exodus of more refugees to neighboring countries, including Malaysia, would witness a repeat of the 2015 boat people crisis," it said, adding that its push for a regional meeting led to a resolution of the crisis and saved innocent lives.

The outcome of the meeting saw Malaysia and Indonesia agree to provide humanitarian assistance and temporary shelter for around 7,000 boat people -- Rohingya and Bangladeshis -- stranded along the countries' maritime borders while awaiting resettlement or repatriation.

"That is why Malaysia views the current situation in the northern Rakhine State as no longer an ‘internal affair’ but one of regional consequence,” it stated.

"ASEAN Member States as a community of nations has a responsibility to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of peoples in accordance with the ASEAN Charter and the Charter of the United Nations, as well as the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration.

"It is in this context that Malaysia, as an ASEAN Member State, is taking a strong position on the issue. Malaysia needs to speak out on issues regarding gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms as it is the right thing to do."

Suu Kyi -- also Myanmar's foreign minister -- has now invited regional foreign ministers from Southeast Asian nations for talks in the country’s largest city Yangon on Dec. 19. to discuss the situation in northern Rakhine.

On Thursday, Malaysia said that with regard to the claim that its recent actions were “un-ASEAN-like” and may jeopardize any further possibility of it playing a credible role towards a long-term solution in Rakhine, it saw its vocal position on the issue as directly leading to the meeting.

"Myanmar’s willingness to address the criticism head-on is a change of tact for the country, as was the change in Malaysia's tone in dealing with Myanmar," it stated.

"We welcome this positive development and... Anifah Aman [Malaysia's foreign minister] is prepared to discuss with his Myanmar counterpart, Aung San Suu Kyi on how Malaysia can assist Myanmar in finding a just, expeditious and durable solution to the protracted issue in the northern Rakhine State."

By Ahmed al-Masri

Anadolu Agency

December 9, 2016

DOHA, Qatar -- The Qatar-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) has called on Muslims worldwide to stage a "Friday of rage" Dec. 9 to show solidarity with Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.

In a statement released late Thursday, the IUMS said it was "following the unfortunate circumstances faced by the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar".

The union went on to criticize the "silence of the Islamic world and the international community regarding the campaign of extermination being waged against them [Rohingya]".

It also urged Arab and Muslim governments to adopt harder diplomatic stances with Myanmar regarding the persecution, and called on Islamic, Arab and international relief organizations to provide immediate assistance to Rohingya.

Rohingya advocacy groups claim some 400 Rohingya have been killed in military operations in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State since Oct. 9.

The Myanmar government, for its part, says 74 alleged "attackers" (including four who reportedly died during interrogation) have been killed over the same period.

A law passed in Myanmar in 1982 denies Rohingya -- many of whom have lived in Myanmar for generations -- citizenship, making them stateless.

The law denies Rohingya the right to carry Myanmar nationality; curtails their freedom of movement, access to education and public services; and allows for the arbitrary confiscation of their property.

Myanmar nationalists have since taken to referring to the Rohingya -- which the UN calls one of the most persecuted people in the world -- as Bengali, suggesting they are not Myanmar nationals but interlopers from neighboring Bangladesh.

Rohingya have fled Myanmar in droves for decades, with a fresh wave of migration beginning in mid-2012 following an episode of communal violence in Rakhine between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya.

Reporting by Ahmed al-Masri; Writing by Mahmoud Barakat

LONDON -- A U.K.-based pressure group has delivered a thousands-strong petition to Myanmar’s London embassy calling on the country’s government to confront the crisis plaguing the Rohingya minority. 

Burma Campaign U.K. said Tuesday it delivered 3,164 signatures on a petition calling on Myanmar’s NLD-led government to tackle hate speech, lift humanitarian aid restrictions, repeal a 1982 citizenship law and support United Nations efforts to investigate the situation. 

Mark Farmaner, the group’s director, said Myanmar’s military was using the ruling party leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, as “a human shield against criticism and action from the international community over the human rights violations they are committing. 

“A new military crackdown on the Rohingya since attacks on border guard posts on 9th October has left hundreds of Rohingya dead, and at least 30,000 displaced. Restrictions on humanitarian aid, which were already causing deaths and suffering, have been significantly increased,” Farmaner said in a statement. 

He added: “The international community continues treating the Rohingya as expendable in their efforts to present the situation in Burma as one of a successful transition requiring just technical assistance. 

“The human rights situation for the Rohingya is getting worse, not better, and it is time their approach matched that reality.” 

Rohingya Muslims -- described by the UN as among the most persecuted minority groups worldwide -- have for years been fleeing conflict in western Myanmar, with many using Thailand as a transit point to enter Muslim Malaysia and beyond. 

The camps in which many live was recently described by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as “prison-like”, while satellite images of Rohingya villages in Myanmar's western Rakhine State showed 820 newly-identified structures had been destroyed in the space of eight days. 

Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar in droves since mid-2012 after communal violence broke out in Rakhine between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya -- described by the United Nations as among the most persecuted minority groups worldwide.

The violence left around 57 Muslims and 31 Buddhists dead, some 100,000 people displaced in camps and more than 2,500 houses razed -- most of which belonged to Rohingya.

17 Rohingya from initial group of 102 begin slow process of being transferred from temporary shelters in Aceh to US

74 suspects held on remand face several charges under Counter-Terrorism Laws and Penal Code, which carry the death penalty