By Trevor Marshallsea 

Associated Press 

March 18, 2018

SYDNEY — Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Saturday that the displacement of Rohingya Muslims was no longer solely a domestic issue for Myanmar, as Southeast Asian nations signed a counterterrorism cooperation agreement at a regional leaders’ conference.

Najib made his comments at a meeting of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, being hosted by Australia. The summit has been marked by protests against the regimes of Myanmar and Cambodia.

In a pointed and rare departure from the grouping’s policy of non-interference in the affairs of fellow member nations, Najib said Rohingya refugees fleeing from alleged persecution by Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s government were a prime target for radicalization from the Islamic State group.

“Because of the suffering of the Rohingya people and their displacement around the region, the situation in Rakhine state in Myanmar can no longer be considered to be a purely domestic matter,” Najib said in closing comments before the signing of the counterterrorism agreement. “In addition, the problem should not be looked at through the humanitarian prism only, because it has the potential of developing into a serious security threat to the region.”

“Rakhine, with thousands of despairing and dejected people who see no hope in the future, will be a fertile ground for radicalization and recruitment” by the Islamic State and affiliated groups, he added.

Before resuming his seat on a leaders’ panel beside Suu Kyi, Najib said Malaysia was “ready to assist and find a just and durable solution,” as it had with fellow ASEAN nations Thailand and the Philippines on terrorism-related issues.

Myanmar staunchly denies that its security forces have targeted civilians in its “clearance operations” in Rakhine state on Myanmar’s west coast. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate, has bristled at the international criticism. But Myanmar’s denials have appeared increasingly tenuous as horrific accounts from refugees have accumulated.

The Associated Press last month documented through video and witness accounts at least five mass graves of Rohingya civilians. Witnesses reported that the military used acid to erase the identity of victims. The government denied it, maintaining that only “terrorists” were killed and then “carefully buried.”

Malaysia has a large Rohingya population who are considered by the government to be illegal immigrants rather than refugees.

A few hundred meters (yards) from the conference, around 1,000 protesters demonstrated against alleged human rights abuses against Rohingya people, brandishing anti-Suu Kyi placards. More than 600,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar in recent years. A second, smaller protest was held to condemn human rights abuses in Cambodia attributed to its leader, Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Protesters also targeted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for hosting the conference. Australia is not a full member of ASEAN, but is an active dialogue partner.

“We would very much like to remind the prime minister that many of the hands he’s shaking yesterday, today and tomorrow are hands full of blood,” protest leader Hong Lim, a member of Victoria state’s parliament, said outside Sydney’s Town Hall.

Turnbull hailed as a major breakthrough the signing of the memorandum of understanding on counterterrorism, at a time of increased risk to the region due to militants fleeing Islamic State losses in the Middle East.

The measures include cracking down on the movement of terrorists between ASEAN nations, tightening policing on the cross-border movement of money to fund terrorism, and targeting on-line methods of radicalization and instruction on how to commit terrorist acts.

“We know that ISIL’s operational and ideological influence in our region is growing,” Turnbull said, referring to the Islamic State group. “More fighters will seek to return to our region, and they will return battle-hardened and trained.”

“Our ASEAN friends and neighbors share our interest in regional peace and they share our commitment to respecting international law and that rules-based order which underpins our way of live, secures our prosperity and safety,” he added.

Turnbull said the memorandum of understanding addressed more innovative methods being used to support and fund terrorism, such as moving money through digital currencies and crowd-funding platforms that made it harder to detect terrorism funding.

Internet-based communications, such as encrypted online messaging systems, also make it easier for extremists to instruct converts abroad.

“Those who seek to do us harm use technology as innovatively as any of us can,” Turnbull said. “And they are able to adapt and move in a very agile way. We have to be as fast and as quick as them.”

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib called on ASEAN members to “step up and intensify cooperation in preventing the spread of terrorist ideologies and to hone even more effective approaches to counter the threats of radicalization and violent extremism in the Asia-Pacific area.”

___

Associated Press writer Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed to this report.

Reuters

March 16, 2018

Myanmar’s Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs Ministry Myint Thu speaks to journalists during a press conference about the situation of Rakhine State at Information Ministry in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Myanmar’s authorities on Tuesday said it is an appropriate time to invite the United Nations refugee and the development agencies to involve in the repatriation of Rohingya refugees who had fled to Bangladesh from violence in Myanmar. (Aung Shine Oo/Associated Press)

By Associated Press

March 13, 2018

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar — Senior officials in Myanmar announced Wednesday that they have begun talks with U.N. agencies to see how they could assist with the repatriation of Rohingya refugees who fled to Bangladesh to escape violence against them.

Foreign Ministry Permanent Secretary Myint Thu said the offices of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the U.N. Development Program responded last week with a proposal and concept paper to the government’s invitation for U.N. involvement, which the government is now studying.

“We considered that the time is now appropriate to invite UNHCR and UNDP to be involved in the repatriation and resettlement process, as well as in carrying out activities supporting the livelihoods and development for all communities in Rakhine state,” Myint Thu said.

Human rights experts believe safety cannot yet be guaranteed for about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled the western state of Rakhine to Bangladesh after security forces carried out brutal crackdowns in response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents last August.

Antagonism between Rakhine’s Buddhist community and Rohingya Muslims led to communal violence in 2012, forcing at least 140,000 Rohingya from their homes into squalid camps for internally displaced people. Most Rohingya are treated as stateless persons with limited rights, and the insurgents drew support from the discontented as prejudice against their community grew in overwhelming Buddhist Myanmar.

Stanislav Saling, a U.N. spokesman in Myanmar, confirmed that in response to Myanmar’s initiative, the U.N. agencies submitted a note proposing how they could help create conditions “for the safe, dignified and voluntary return for refugees, in line with international principles.”

Neither the U.N. nor the government made public details of the proposal.

The international community has accused Myanmar’s military of atrocities against the Rohingya that could amount to ethnic cleansing, but the government and military deny any organized human rights violations.

Myanmar’s civilian government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has pledged to start the gradual repatriation of the Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh.

Myanmar’s government says 374 refugees out of more than 8,000 whom Bangladesh has verified as qualified to return are free to return at their convenience.

“We have handed the list of 374 people to the Bangladesh Embassy so that they can immediately start their repatriation,” Myint Thu said. “These 374 people can be the first repatriation batch.”

By Mike Lillis 

The Hill

March 11, 2018

Some Democrats are wondering whether Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese human rights advocate and Nobel laureate, should be stripped of her Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Congress voted unanimously in 2008 to present Suu Kyi with the award. A decade later, lawmakers are questioning whether the honor should be revoked over Suu Kyi's reticent response to Myanmar's brutal campaign against the Rohingya, a minority Muslim group targeted by the country's military.

Suu Kyi, now Myanmar's democratically elected civilian leader, has faced intense international backlash over the violence, which the United Nations has deemed “acts of genocide.” Just this week the Smithsonian’s Holocaust Museum in Washington rescinded a prestigious award named after another Nobel Peace laureate, Elie Wiesel. 

“Whether it’s that she’s been complicit, or that she’s just been silent, what she hasn’t done is be vocal enough. So it’s been very, very disappointing, because I had great admiration for her,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, a liberal California Democrat who said he’s hearing concerns from a number of constituents with roots in the region. 

The Myanmar leader's silence in the face of the violence runs in stark contrast to the persona she built over the course of decades as a pro-democracy advocate and human rights champion who spent 15 years under house arrest at the hands of the nation’s repressive military junta.

It’s also led some lawmakers on Capitol Hill to weigh the merits of rescinding Suu Kyi’s Gold Medal award, presented just over five years ago, in an effort to compel her to voice an aggressive public rebuke of the military attacks against the Rohingya.

Khanna said he’s “open” to the notion of revoking Suu Kyi’s Congressional Gold Medal, suggesting the issue should be explored by a bipartisan caucus founded by the late Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.). 

“Maybe that’s something to explored to the Lantos Human Rights Commission, and to have a hearing on it, and to have a hearing on her role,” Khanna said.

Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), a physician and member of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said he’s also amenable to stripping Suu Kyi of the congressional award if she doesn’t take a stand.

“If that’s what it takes to get there,” Bera said. “As a Nobel Peace Prize winner, she should be speaking out much more against the atrocities that are taking place right now. I mean, she does have the bully pulpit."

“We’ve got to send her the message that she ought to be speaking out and trying to moderate the government and military response here.”

To be sure, there seems to be no concerted push in Congress to revoke Suu Kyi’s Gold Medal. And a number of lawmakers were quick to note the difficult political position she’s in, straddling efforts to manage a civilian government and steer the country toward a more robust democracy without sparking a revolt from the formidable military elite who still yield outsized authority over public policy — and who could potentially knock her from power.

“There’s great tension — that could easily break into something else — between the military and the civilian government she’s trying to shepherd, so this is a very delicate balance. None of that excuses silence. But it does put it in context,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who has visited the region. “It’s a very, very tenuous and delicate balance. And she’s at the heart of it.”

Still, the frustration in Suu Kyi’s diffident reaction to the Rohingya crisis, even among her most ardent congressional supporters, is mounting to a point of exasperation.

Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), who sponsored the 2008 bill granting Suu Kyi the Gold Medal, said he’s “desperately sad” about the Rohingya’s plight, urging Suu Kyi to find her critical voice in the name of “moral clarity.” Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) — wondering aloud “what happened to our hero?” — said the Suu Kyi’s failure to confront the violence has eroded her revered reputation around the globe. 

“That can take power from you, too,” Eshoo warned.

And Connolly emphasized that even the tough political constraints on Suu Kyi have their limits in the face of systemic dislocation and mass killings. 

“You’ve got to call out genocide. If you’re a human rights activist, you can’t have carve-outs,” said Connolly. “There hasn’t been talk of revoking [the Gold Medal], but it would be very useful to remind her of how she got it.”

The comments are a far cry from the ones coming from lawmakers just a few years ago. In 2012, when Suu Kyi was officially awarded the Gold Medal in a moving ceremony beneath the Capitol Rotunda, congressional leaders from both parties turned out with words of glowing admiration. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), now the majority leader, praised her "hidden, luminous heroism.” House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi(Calif.) hailed the Nobel laureate’s “unwavering commitment to peace.” And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was imprisoned himself during the Vietnam War, lauded Suu Kyi’s "implacable resistance" during her lengthy house arrest.

“Aung San Suu Kyi didn't scare worth a damn,” he said at the time.

The Rohingya crisis has changed the tone of the debate and the views of her prestige. In October, as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees were streaming into Bangladesh, Suu Kyi addressed the crisis by condemning the “unlawful violence,” but also downplaying her government’s culpability. Myanmar, she said, “does not fear international scrutiny.”

The global outcry was far-reaching, and a number of institutions around the globe have already penalized Suu Kyi’s reaction by rescinding humanitarian honors they’ve granted her in years past.

Irish lawmakers, for instance, pressured by the rock bank U2, voted in December to revoke Suu Kyi’s Freedom of the City of Dublin award. And this week, the Holocaust Museum followed suit, rescinding its Elie Wiesel Award.

While Congress may not be at the point of publicly rebuking her by revoking the congressional medal, a growing number of lawmakers appear sympathetic to the gesture.

“I’m not unmindful of the challenge for her, but you’ve got 700,000 or 800,000 Rohingya who are at enormous risk,” said Connolly. “And you cannot be silent given your profile internationally.”

By Stephanie Nebehay

Reuters

March 9, 2018

GENEVA - The top United Nations human rights official called on Friday for the U.N. General Assembly to refer alleged atrocities committed against the Muslim Rohingya minority in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for prosecution.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, also urged Myanmar’s government to allow monitors into northern Rakhine state to investigate what he called suspected “acts of genocide” against the Muslim minority. 

“We are saying there are strong suspicions that, yes, acts of genocide may have taken place. But only a court can confirm this,” Zeid told a news conference in Geneva. 

Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Tom Miles

By The Nation

March 8, 2018

The United Nations human rights body said acts of genocide may have taken place in Myanmar’s Rakhine state since August when the recent Rohingya crisis erupted, while asking the UN General Assembly to prepare to bring the case to court. 

“I am not surprised by reports that Rohingya villages, which were attacked in recent years, and the alleged mass graves of the victims, are being bulldozed,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement at the 37th session of Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday.

“This appears to be a deliberate attempt by the authorities to destroy potential evidence of international crimes,” he said.

More than 700,000 people have fled from Rakhine state since an attack on Myanmar security outposts on August 25, prompting a brutal crackdown by the Tatmadaw, as Myanmar’s military is known.

While Myanmar authorities have said the situation is calm, the UN and Rohingya community have stated that violence is ongoing in Rakhine.

The township of Maungdaw has been essentially emptied of its Rohingya community and people continue to flee to Bangladesh because of systematic persecution and violence in other towns and villages, although at a lower intensity than previously, Zeid said.

“Victims have reported killings, rape, torture and abductions by the security forces and local militia, as well as apparently deliberate attempts to force the Rohingya to leave the area through starvation, with officials blocking their access to crops and food supplies,” he said.

“I have also received reports of the appropriation of land inhabited by Rohingya and their replacement by members of other ethnic groups.”

A recent announcement that seven soldiers and three police officers will be brought to justice for the alleged extra-judicial killing of 10 Rohingya men was “grossly insufficient”, he added.

The UN demanded the government in Nay Pyi Taw take steps towards accountability for violations, and must fully respect the rights of the Rohingya, including to citizenship.

“While awaiting the final report of the fact-finding mission, I again recommend that this council ask the General Assembly to establish a new independent and impartial mechanism to prepare and expedite criminal proceedings in courts against those responsible,” Zeid said.

The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee said last month that Aung San Suu Kyi could be complicit in the systematic persecution of the Rohingya people, in violence that “bears the hallmarks of genocide”.

By Ashraf Khalil 

Associated Press

March 7, 2018

WASHINGTON — The United States Holocaust Museum is revoking a major human rights award given to Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s civilian leader, saying she has failed to respond adequately to the mass killings of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority.

The museum announced Wednesday that the Elie Wiesel Award given to Suu Kyi in 2012 would be rescinded. The move is just the latest in a series of blows to Suu Kyi’s international reputation, which has plummeted over the Rohingya massacres.

Suu Kyi was a Mandela-like figure in Myanmar who spent years under house arrest for opposing the country’s military dictatorship. She became an international rallying point and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. Her party won a landslide victory in 2015 and she assumed the newly created post of state counselor, although the military still retains significant political and economic power.

Hopes had been high for Suu Kyi to make the transition from revered opposition figure to reformist political leader, given her long campaign for democracy. 

Instead, human rights advocates consider her a disappointment, particularly in her response to the Rohingya killings.

The Holocaust Museum has embraced the plight of the Rohingya in recent years, and published a report in November that concluded there was “mounting evidence of genocide” committed by both the military and armed Buddhist extremists.

In a letter to Suu Kyi released Wednesday, the museum accused her government of obstructing United Nations investigators and promoting “hateful rhetoric” against the Rohingya community, even as it acknowledged she has little influence over the military.

The museum had hoped Suu Kyi “would have done something to condemn and stop the military’s brutal campaign and to express solidarity with the targeted Rohingya population,” the letter stated. “The severity of the atrocities in recent months demand that you use your moral authority to address this situation.”

Suu Kyi does not oversee her country’s military or its security operations that set off the exodus of Rohingya refugees, but three former fellow Nobel Peace laureates last month accused her and the army of committing genocide in northern Rakhine state. They said that as the country’s leader she cannot avoid responsibility. Her government has defended the military operation in the north and has embraced the prosecution of journalists along with other attempts to suppress and discredit the media.

Calls to Myanmar’s embassy for comment were not immediately returned.

By Stephanie Nebehay

Reuters

March 7, 2018

GENEVA -- The United Nations human rights chief said on Wednesday that he strongly suspected that “acts of genocide” may have taken place against Muslim Rohingyas in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state since August.

Reports of bulldozing of alleged mass graves showed a “deliberate attempt by the authorities to destroy evidence of potential international crimes, including possible crimes against humanity,” Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein added in a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council. 

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine into Bangladesh since insurgent attacks sparked a security crackdown in August, joining 200,000 refugees from a previous exodus. 

Zeid noted that his office said on Tuesday that it believes ethnic cleansing is still underway in Rakhine.

Rohingya are still fleeing because of “systematic” if lower-intensity persecution and violence there, he said. 

“Victims have reported killings, rape, torture and abductions by the security forces and local militia, as well as apparently deliberate attempts to force the Rohingya to leave the area through starvation, with officials blocking their access to crops and food supplies,” Zeid told the Geneva forum. 

“This Council is aware that my office has strong suspicions that acts of genocide may have taken place in Rakhine State since August,” he added. 

There was no immediate comment by the Myanmar government. In the Council, its delegation is allowed to respond on Thursday. 

His office had received reports of land inhabited by Rohingya being appropriated and members of other ethnic groups replacing them. 

“A recent announcement that seven soldiers and three police officers will be brought to justice for the alleged extra-judicial killing of ten Rohingya men is grossly insufficient,” he added. 

Myanmar’s government must take steps to provide real accountability for violations and respect the rights of Rohingya, including to citizenship, Zeid said. 

A fact-finding mission set up by the Council, headed by former Indonesian Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman, is due to report on its initial findings on Monday after interviewing victims and survivors in Bangladesh and other countries. 

Pending their final report, the U.N. General Assembly should establish a new independent mechanism to expedite criminal proceedings in courts against those responsible, Zeid said. 

Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Tom Miles, William Maclean

By The Daily Star

March 5, 2018

Cox's Bazar: After a three-day interval, Myanmar Army again took position along Tambruborder in Naikkhonchhari upazila of Bandarban district today, creating panic among the Rohingyas who have taken shelter on no man's land.

Confirming the incident, Lt Col Manjurul Hasan of Border Guard Bangladesh 34 Battalion said, "The situation along the Tambru border point is now calm and the BGB members, deployed in the border area, are on alert. There's nothing to be panicked and the BGB is ready to tackle any situation."

AKM Jahangir Aziz, chairman of Ghumdhum union, said members of Myanmar's Border Guard Police (BGP) were seen patrolling the area since Monday morning.

On Saturday, Myanmar removed its Army from the Tambru border following a flag meeting with BGB on Friday.

Myanmar Army took position with heavy troops and artillery along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border from Thursday morning.

A good number of Rohingyas gathered near the zero point of the border in the last one month where the members of BGP along with Myanmar Army were seen conducting various activities like installing barbed-wire fences and setting up advance technological surveillance equipment.

Bangladesh authorities say deployment of additional troops on border by Myanmar violates norms

By Mutasim Billah

Anadolu Agency

March 1, 2018

DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Bangladesh on Thursday summoned Myanmar's ambassador and handed him a protest note over deployment of additional forces at its border where thousands of Rohingya refugees are camped, local media reported.

Khurshed Alam, acting foreign secretary, summoned Ambassador U Lwin Oo at the Foreign Ministry on Thursday afternoon, local Daily Star reported.

He told the ambassador that such a move was not good for bilateral relations, the report added.

A top official of the Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB) said during a news conference in capital Dhaka that the deployment of additional troops violated border norms.

Brig. Gen. Mujibur Rahman, the deputy director for BGB, said they had asked Myanmar authorities the "reasons which prompted them to mobilize their troops," local news agency UNB reported.

More than 750,000 refugees, mostly children and women, have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh since August 25, 2017, when Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community, according to the Amnesty International.

Another 6,500 refugees are living in a buffer zone between the two countries, also dubbed as 'no man's land'.

At least 9,000 Rohingya were killed in Rakhine state from Aug. 25 to Sept. 24, according to Doctors Without Borders.

In a report published on December 12, 2017, the global humanitarian organization said the deaths of 71.7 percent or 6,700 Rohingya were caused by violence. They include 730 children below the age of five.

Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a repatriation deal for the refugees earlier this year, but authorities in Myanmar have refused to allow any international body including the UN to oversee the process.

By Robin Emmott

Reuters

February 22, 2018

BRUSSELS -- The European Union will start preparing sanctions against Myanmar generals over killings of Rohingya Muslims by formally calling on the bloc’s foreign policy chief next week to draw up a list of possible names, two diplomats said.

Any new travel bans and asset freezes would be the EU’s toughest measures yet to try to hold the military accountable for the abuses, likely joining U.S. and Canadian sanctions already in place. 

“Ministers will call on (Federica) Mogherini to propose restrictive measures on senior members of the Myanmar military for systematic human rights abuses, without delay,” one diplomat said on Thursday, referring to EU sanctions. 

Foreign ministers will also ask Mogherini and the EU’s foreign service, the EEAS, on Monday to look at ways to strengthen the bloc’s 1990s-era arms embargo on the Southeast Asian country that remains in place. 

In a statement expected to be released on Monday at a regular gathering of EU foreign ministers, the bloc is also expected to reiterate its call for the release of Reuters reporters detained on Dec. 12 over accusations that they violated Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act. 

The two had been working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men who were buried in a mass grave in Rakhine state after being hacked to death or shot by ethnic Rakhine Buddhist neighbors and soldiers. 

No names of generals to be targeted for sanctions have been yet discussed, the diplomats said, but the United States said in December it was sanctioning Major General Maung Maung Soe, who is accused of a crackdown on the Rohingya minority in Rakhine. 

EU sanctions lists are often coordinated with Washington. 

The EU’s decision to consider sanctions reflects resistance to such measures in the U.N. Security Council, where veto-wielding powers Russia and China said this month they believe the situation in Rakhine was stable and under control. 

The United States, as well as United Nations, have described the military crackdown in Myanmar as “ethnic cleansing”. About 655,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine for shelter over the border in Bangladesh, according to the United Nations. 

Reporting by Robin Emmott; editing by Robert-Jan Bartunek and Mark Heinrich

By AFP

February 16, 2018

Bangladesh Friday handed over a list of more than 8,000 Rohingya to Myanmar as it moves to kick-start their repatriation weeks after the process was halted due to lack of preparation.

Dhaka's home minister Asaduzzaman Khan formally gave the list to his Myanmar counterpart Lieutenant General Kyaw Swe after officials of the two nations held a meeting in the Bangladeshi capital.

"We've today handed over a list of 8,032 people from 1,673 families to them. The (Myanmar) delegation received it very cordially and told us they would start processing their repatriation," Khan told reporters.

Bangladesh reached a deal with Myanmar late last year to repatriate nearly 700,000 Rohingya who have fled across the border since August to escape a brutal military crackdown.

That was meant to start last month, but was delayed by a lack of preparation and protests by Rohingya refugees, most of whom say they do not wish to return without guarantees of safety.

Khan said more than one million Rohingya now live in squalid camps in Bangladesh's southeast and Dhaka hoped all of them would be repatriated to Myanmar.

"We discussed how would they repatriate these people. The Myanmar delegation was very cordial about it and said they will take them back gradually," he said.

Bangladesh's refugee commissioner Abul Kalam told AFP Dhaka had already started construction of a transit camp and would start building another next week to facilitate the return of the Rohingya.

This week Bangladesh's junior foreign minister said they had signed a deal to involve the United Nations in the process of returning Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

He said the government was involving the UN refugee agency so that it could not be accused of sending anyone from the stateless Muslim minority back against their will.

He gave few details, but said refugees would be asked to fill out repatriation forms in the presence of UN officials.

But Rohingya refugees are still entering Bangladesh with claims of rights abuses by Buddhist mobs and the military in their native Rakhine state.

Home minister Khan acknowledged people were still crossing the border.

"The (Myanmar) delegation has admitted it and told us they will try their best to stop it as soon as possible," he said

Many Rohingya have lost their homes to arson attacks in their villages, where witnesses and rights groups say entire Rohingya settlements have been burned to the ground.

New arrivals have brought harrowing tales of rape, murder and torture.

The Rohingya also want guarantees of citizenship before returning to Myanmar, which views them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh even though many have been there for generations.

Khan said there was no specific timeframe to start the repatriation but he hoped it would start soon.

"No specific date came for repatriation but they showed sincerity and are taking preparations to take their nationals back," he said

He urged Myanmar to ensure the refugees' return was "sustainable", adding the Rohingya "may face difficulties in resettling back into their land".

The two sides also discussed the fate of some 6,000 Rohingya refugees who have been stranded in no man's land on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border since September.

"They said they have started processing repatriation of those refugees living on the (border's) zero line," Khan said, adding Myanmar has "requested" a joint meeting on their repatriation on February 20.

Last week a Myanmar government minister told refugees stranded on the border that they should take up a government offer to return, warning they will face "consequences" if they stay where they are.

A video circulated on social media apparently shows Myanmar's Deputy Minister for Home Affairs Aung Soe addressing a group of refugees through a barbed wire fence last Friday.

Radio Canada International

February 16, 2018

Rohingya refugees Mohamed Heron, 6, and his brother Mohamed Akter, 4, pose for a portrait to show burns on their bodies at Kutupalong refugee camp, near Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, October 14, 2017. Boys’ uncle Mohamed Inus said burns resulted from Myanmar’s armed forces firing rockets at their village. Two of their siblings, one seven years old and the other a 10-month-old infant, died in the attack, according to the uncle. Their father was held by the military and has not been heard of since. (Jorge Silva/File/ REUTERS)

The Guardian

February 11, 2018

Foreign secretary tells de facto Myanmar leader refugees must return under UN supervision

Boris Johnson has told Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi the UN refugee agency must be allowed to supervise the return of Rohingya refugees, saying it was clear many were terrified to return home.

The UK’s foreign secretary told reporters the charred homes of devastated Rohingya villages were like nothing he had seen before in his life, after visiting refugee camps in Bangladesh and northern Rakhine state in Myanmar.

In his meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s state counsellor, Johnson said he stressed that refugees must feel safe returning home and must be supervised by UNHCR. 

It is understood Johnson also raised the case of two Reuters journalists who have been detained for investigating a massacre in Rakhine. 

The foreign secretary described seeing burnt-out homes and abandoned possessions, including a child’s bicycle, which he said had moved him greatly during his three-hour helicopter tour. 

He said he had met terrified villagers who had refused to say who had burnt down their homes, but rejected Myanmar’s claims that the destruction was self-inflicted.

Johnson said the purpose-built reception centre he was escorted to see had received no returning refugees, despite being in place for months, and that it was surrounded by 10ft high barbed-wife fences. Those who wish to return to Myanmar have to undergo biometric logging before being housed in the centre.

The foreign secretary said he did not believe officials’ claims that no refugees had returned because the Bangladesh authorities had refused to return them. More than 1.1m Rohingya refugees are believed to have fled over the border to escape violence by Myanmar’s military.

“I saw real apprehension both in camps in Bangladesh and amongst the remaining villagers. There’s a lot of fear and that fear needs to be overcome,” he said. “The Burmese authorities need to work very hard with the international agencies to overcome that real alarm that people feel about coming back to Burma.

“I’ve seen nothing like it in my life. Hundreds and hundreds of villages torched. It’s absolutely clear that what is needed now is some leadership, some calm leadership working with the UN agencies to get these people back home.”

The FCO said Johnson’s hour-long meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi had been positive and constructive. A Nobel peace prize winner and former democracy activist, she has come under intense international criticism for her response to the violence against Rohingya. 

She has said she believes reports of the violence to be exaggerated and has accused those who have raised concern of having an agenda. She and Johnson did not appear to reach agreement in their talks about the cause of the conflict, but a government source said they still hoped the UK could work with her on a solution.

Johnson said they had discussed the range of challenges facing the country. “I spoke to her about my own experience witnessing the terrible conditions of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and my deep concern about their future,” he said. “I encouraged her efforts to broker a nationwide peace settlement to put to an end 70 years of conflict in her homeland.”

Burmese authorities should carry out a full and independent investigation into the violence in Rakhine and create conditions that could make it a safe place for the Rohingya refugees to return, he said. They should be able to return “free from fear, and in the knowledge that their basic rights will be respected and upheld”.

By Matthew Pennington

Associated Press

February 8, 2018

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are demanding Myanmar’s exclusion from U.S.-led military exercises in neighboring Thailand next week amid pressure for more American sanctions in response to atrocities against Rohingya Muslims.

Myanmar’s planned participation in the Cobra Gold exercise, which starts Feb. 13, comes as its security forces are accused of killing hundreds if not thousands of civilians and burning down villages after Rohingya militant attacks last summer. More than 680,000 Rohingya — loathed in majority Buddhist Myanmar and denied citizenship — have fled to Bangladesh, joining hundreds of thousands more already sheltering there. They are unlikely to return any time soon.

That makes the country’s involvement in Cobra Gold, America’s largest, annual multi-nation drills in the Asia-Pacific, all the more controversial, although Myanmar has taken part before. Up to three officers from Myanmar are being invited to observe the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief portion of the drills, Pentagon spokesman Marine Lt. Col. Christopher Logan said. He said the identity and ranks of the officers participating is still under discussion.

“Simply put, militaries engaged in ethnic cleansing should not be honing their skills alongside U.S. troops,” Sen. John McCain, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Associated Press.

The criticism by Democrats and Republicans in Congress reflects the souring view of the Southeast Asian nation’s transformation from decades of army rule to democracy as evidence of widespread abuses has mounted. Myanmar’s siege-like denial it’s done anything wrong has only furthered its estrangement from much of the world. Before last year’s crackdown, McCain was advocating more U.S.-Myanmar military ties, not less. Now he’s one of the sponsors of a new sanctions bill.

The Trump administration already has imposed sanctions on the chief of Myanmar’s western military command and says it’s considering blacklisting others. It maintains restrictions on visas and assistance to Myanmar’s military.

But the Senate’s bipartisan bill, approved Wednesday by the Foreign Relations Committee, would turn the screw by pushing for more targeted sanctions and by reinforcing restrictions on military engagement with Myanmar, also known as Burma. A partner bill has been introduced in the House.

“We need to bridge the impunity gap that protects Burma’s military,” said Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has described the attacks on Rohingya as “ethnic cleansing.” U.N.-appointed investigator Yanghee Lee has gone further, saying it “bears the hallmarks of a genocide,” which the world body defines as acts committed with intent to destroy a national, ethnic or religious group. Unlike ethnic cleansing, genocide is a crime under international law.

Rep. Ed Royce, the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Republican chairman, and Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, architect of a law prohibiting U.S. assistance to foreign military units implicated in serious human rights abuses, also said Myanmar had no business taking part in the drills in Thailand. They include 29 nations. About 20 are observers.

“We should not be rewarding those who flagrantly violate international law with impunity,” Leahy said.

The plight of the Rohingya has highlighted the Myanmar military’s unchallenged authority over security operations despite ceding power to a civilian government after 2015 elections.

Myanmar staunchly denies that its security forces have targeted civilians in its “clearance operations” in Rakhine State on Myanmar’s west coast. Even civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate, has bristled at the international criticism. But Myanmar’s denials have appeared increasingly tenuous as horrific accounts from refugees have accumulated.

The Associated Press last week documented through video and witness accounts at least five mass graves of Rohingya civilians. Witnesses reported the military used acid to erase the identity of victims. The government denied it, maintaining that only “terrorists” were killed and then “carefully buried.”

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis added his voice to the U.S. criticism. Visiting Asia late last month, he said the Rohingya have suffered “a tragedy that’s worse than anything” the media have been able to portray.

And yet the Pentagon sees benefits in sustaining lower-level ties with Myanmar’s military. Although the U.S. primarily engages Myanmar’s civilian leaders, it still hopes to shape the attitudes of military officers and help counter China’s strategic influence, said Murray Hiebert, a Southeast Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Katina Adams, a State Department spokeswoman for East Asia, said the Cobra Gold invite reflected a U.S. effort to “save lives” by improving regional coordination for disasters like Cyclone Nargis. The storm killed more than 100,000 Burmese in 2008.

Thailand extended the invite, Pentagon spokesman Logan said.

“That’s a dodge,” retorted John Sifton of Human Rights Watch, who wants Myanmar treated as a pariah again. “If the U.S. had strongly objected to their participation, they wouldn’t have been invited. Everyone knows that.”

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Associated Press writer Richard Lardner contributed to this report.

By Associated Press

February 1, 2018

SEOUL, South Korea — The U.N. special envoy on human rights in Myanmar said Thursday that the Myanmar military’s violent operations against Rohingya Muslims bear “the hallmarks of a genocide.”

Yanghee Lee told reporters in Seoul, where she is based, that she couldn’t make a definitive declaration about genocide until a credible international tribunal or court had weighed the evidence, but “we are seeing signs and it is building up to that.”

Her briefing described her recent visit to refugee camps in Bangladesh and other areas in the region to discuss the Rohingya, a percecuted Muslim minority in Myanmar. Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled their villages into Bangladesh since the Myanmar military’s crackdown following Aug. 25 attacks by Rohingya insurgents. The government of Myanmar has refused her entrance to the country.

Responding to a question about an Associated Press report Thursday that details a massacre and at least five mass graves in the Myanmar village of Gu Dar Pyin, Lee said that while she didn’t have specific details on the village, “you can see it’s a pattern” that has emerged with the Rohingya.

She said such reports must be investigated, “and this is why we’ve called for a fact finding mission ... and access for international media to” the areas in northern Rakhine state where the Rohingya live.

Lee said that Myanmar’s actions were “amounting to crimes against humanity.”

“These are part of the hallmarks of a genocide,” she said.

“I think Myanmar needs to get rid of this baggage of ‘did you or did you not,’ and if proven that they did, then there has to be responsibility and accountability. No stones must be left unturned because the people, the victims, the families of the victims definitely deserve an answer,” she said.

By Thu Thu Aung, Yimou Lee

Reuters

February 1, 2018

YANGON -- A court in Myanmar declined to grant bail on Thursday for two Reuters journalists accused of violating the country’s Official Secrets Act, although their defense lawyer said information in documents at the center of the case was publicly available.

Lawyer Than Zaw Aung said a police witness had accepted during court proceedings that details in documents found in the possession of the reporters when they were arrested had already been published in newspaper reports. 

Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, had worked on Reuters coverage of a crisis in Rakhine state, where an army crackdown on insurgents that started on Aug. 25 has triggered the flight of nearly 690,000 Rohingya Muslims to neighboring Bangladesh, according to the United Nations. 

The reporters were detained on Dec. 12 after they had been invited to meet police officers over dinner in Yangon. They have told relatives they were arrested almost immediately after being handed some documents at a restaurant by two officers they had not met before. 

Police Major Min Thant, who said he led the team of arresting officers, on Thursday submitted what he said were secret documents seized from the two reporters to the district court in Yangon. 

Police have previously said the documents contained information on the disposition and operations of security forces in Rakhine’s Maungdaw district. 

In response, defense attorney Than Zaw Aung submitted copies of several newspaper articles that he said showed the information in the documents was already in the public domain. 

“After Aug. 25, the government explained to the media and diplomats about what happened in Maungdaw,” Than Zaw Aung said. 

(GRAPHIC: Arrested Reuters Reporters - here) 

He said afterwards that Major Min Thant had acknowledged that when cross-examined. 

“The witness admitted that the content of the documents they obtained from them is the information that the public already knew. He said the contents are same,” Than Zaw Aung told Reuters. 

CALLS FOR RELEASE 

At the end of the day’s proceedings, the court rejected the defense’s application for bail. Reading from the Official Secrets Act, Judge Ye Lwin said the alleged offense was “non-bailable”, without elaborating further. 

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the international community “to do whatever it can” to secure the release of two Reuters journalists detained in Myanmar and ensure press freedom in the country, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday. 

Reuters President and Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler expressed disappointment at the decision and called for the journalists’ prompt release. 

“It has now been more than fifty days since they were arrested, and they should have the opportunity to be with their families as the hearings continue,” he said in a statement.

“We believe the court proceedings will demonstrate their innocence and Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo will be able to return to their jobs reporting on events in Myanmar.” 

Relatives of the two reporters were distraught after the decision was announced. 

“I cleaned my house with the hope that he might get bail, just in case,” Pan Ei Mon, Wa Lone’s wife, said, sobbing. “I knew that he wouldn’t get bail but still I cannot handle this.” 

Kyaw Soe Oo’s wife, Chit Su Win, held on to him in tears, kissing him as he was being taken back to prison. 

In the morning, the two journalists had been smiling and appeared in good spirits as they were brought handcuffed to the court from Yangon’s notorious Insein prison. Wa Lone gave the “thumbs up” sign and Kyaw Soe Oo hugged his young daughter.

The courtroom was packed with reporters and diplomats from the U.S., British, Canadian, Norwegian, Swedish, French and Danish embassies as well as United Nations and European Union officials. 

DIFFERENT LOCATIONS 

Under cross-examination, police witness Min Thant also said he had updated the paperwork recording Kyaw Soe Oo’s arrest and search to show he was detained outside the restaurant where the reporters say they had a meal with police officers. 

Kyaw Soe Oo had refused to sign a form stating he was arrested at an intersection in northern Yangon where police say they had a checkpoint, the officer said. 

The two journalists said afterwards that Min Thant was not among the officers who arrested them. 

“We have never seen that police officer before,” Wa Lone told reporters outside the courtroom. “We were arrested by plainclothes police.” 

In his testimony, Min Thant said he led the team that arrested the reporters and that he was in uniform at the time. 

The court hearing is to determine whether Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo will face charges under the Official Secrets Act. 

The act dates back to 1923 - when Myanmar, then known as Burma, was under British rule - and carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. 

The reporters have been accused under Section 3.1 (c), which covers entering prohibited places, and taking images or obtaining secret official documents that “might be or is intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy”. 

The next hearing will be on Feb. 6. 

Reporting by Myanmar bureau; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Alex Richardson