By Emanuel Stoakes

The Diplomat

December 6, 2016

Roughly a year ago, remarkable scenes were broadcast around the world from the streets of Yangon as citizens gathered to participate in, and celebrate, Myanmar’s general election.

The intense atmosphere of hope that accompanied the poll, the first openly contested one if its kind for decades, was an inspiration to behold; at the time, unfamiliar observers could be forgiven for thinking that the country was on the verge of making a clean break with its troubled past.

Twelve months on and harder political realities have come to the fore. It has taken the sternest test yet of the new government to show how far Aung San Suu Kyi, the state counselor and de facto civilian leader, will go to express solidarity with the armed forces, an autonomous state-within-a-state, which retains the constitutional right to run key ministries and set its own budgets.

It is perhaps out of a desire to avoid a confrontation between competing parts of state power that Suu Kyi has opted to take this stance while neglecting to do more to help those affected by the present crisis, in which thousands of children have been needlessly placed at risk of starvation and death.

This urgent humanitarian situation is just one of the outcomes of a drama currently taking place in Rakhine state, western Myanmar, involving one of the most unwanted and hopeless minorities in the world: the Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim group of roughly one million people.

The minority, who are almost entirely stateless, have been persecuted in Myanmar for decades, enduring policies designed to make their lives miserable, including limitations on freedom of movement, access to healthcare, education, and other basic rights. Crimes such as rape, extrajudicial killings and extortion have occurred with impunity.

In October, a group of militants committed the first known act of armed aggression by the minority in decades, eliciting a severe crackdown by state forces and setting into motion a series of events that have had dire consequences.

“Distraught and Disgusted”

It is in this context that the lives of thousands of minors have been imperiled. Humanitarian aid to parts of northern Rakhine state was suspended following the declaration of a “military operations area” in which the army has been conducting counter-insurgency sweeps. Allegations of rapes, killings, and arson leaked out of the locked-down zone, only to be met with fervent denials from various parts of the Burmese state; verification has been close to impossible given that independent media have been denied access to the affected areas.

Email updates provided to humanitarian groups by the United Nations acknowledge that roughly 3,000 children in parts of Northern Rakhine State are suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition — a condition affecting infants and children produced by prolonged periods without access to adequate food and drink. The internal message observes that those minors reliant on specialized care for SAM “have not been able to receive their regular treatment” due to government-sanctioned blocks on humanitarian aid deliveries, which have lasted for weeks. “Without appropriate treatment,” the author of the email adds, “30-50 percent of SAM children may die.”

Pierre Peron, spokesperson for the Office of the Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) the UN’s key humanitarian agency confirmed the numbers cited above, and echoed its grim conclusions, noting that without access to the care they had been receiving, “many children with SAM are at risk of dying.”

While the time frame of risk to the children was not clearly stated in the emails, one humanitarian official speaking on condition of anonymity told me that those deprived of access to the treatments administered at therapeutic feeding centers are classed as going back to “square one” in terms of their condition — and therefore at greatly heightened risk of death — after three weeks. Aid has been severely restricted for roughly a month and a half.

Asked what the general reaction was to the blockade among staff working in the humanitarian community, he replied that he and his colleagues were “distraught and disgusted.”

Rights groups were similarly condemnatory about the restrictions on aid. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, told me that many Rohingya were “facing a crisis of survival” as a result of the restrictions. Referring to the blockade, he indicated that the decision to limit the humanitarian presence in the area may be attributable to the most cynical of motives.

“What’s clear is that the Myanmar government doesn’t want any outside eyes and ears seeing what the security forces are doing in this area, and that means keeping the humanitarians out regardless of the suffering that this causes to the Rohingya people dependent on international assistance,” he said.

Matthew Smith, executive director of Bangkok-based NGO Fortify Rights, was terser in his analysis, saying “the authorities have no defensible reason to block aid. It’s inhumane, pure and simple.”

A State of Denial — and Complicity

Against the backdrop of deteriorating humanitarian conditions and alleged atrocities, Suu Kyi, known in the past for her panegyrics to human rights, has signed off on an increasingly absurd campaign of denial delivered by parts of the government under her control. Saying little on the matter herself, the message from her subordinates has been one of total support for the military.

While the decision not to alienate the armed forces may be shrewd, and certain efforts to do good may be taking place “behind closed doors,” the consequences of this political theater have been deadly serious.

It has eased pressure on the military-controlled parts of the state that are playing a key role in blocking aid, despite the fact that the move to suspend access amounts to a form of collective punishment for communities in the area. With every week that passes more people — beyond the 3,000 children — are at risk of sickness and even death.

That is not all. The language issuing from officials and appointees dealing with the situation, particularly when referring to the Rohingya as a group, has been dangerous and even dehumanizing.

Perhaps the most grotesque example of this was provided by the man picked to head the initial investigation into the violence, Member of Parliament U Aung Win. In an interview with the BBC, laughing as he spoke, he refuted allegations of rape by the military on the grounds that no soldier would deign to violate Rohingya women as they are “very dirty.”

More denialist effluvia was emitted recently by senior government spokesman Zaw Htay in a press conference posted on a Facebook page controlled by Suu Kyi’s office. The spin doctor took aim at the most concrete evidence yet of criminality by government forces — satellite imagery circulated by Human Rights Watch demonstrating obvious destruction of hundreds of Rohingya homes — fallaciously claiming that he had refuted “wrong accusations” made by the organization. At the same presser it was asserted, to the amazement of journalists, that the timing of the violence was part of a conspiracy involving groups that lobby for Rohingya rights.

While these lines have not taken been seriously by the international community, they are received with more credulity by the Burmese public. The idea that the Rohingya, who are the subject of widespread prejudice throughout Myanmar, are involved in conspiracies with international groups has long been by promoted by popular demagogues in the country. Advancing such a narrative to deflect criticism from the army and government is not only deeply cynical but genuinely dangerous.

Elsewhere, commentary in state outlets drifted into the language of outright dehumanization. The Global Light of Myanmar, a mouthpiece newspaper controlled by the Suu Kyi-run Ministry of Information, ran a self-explanatory piece titled “The Thorn Needs Removing If It Pierces,” implicitly supporting the actions of the armed forces, while remaining ambiguous on whether or not the “thorn” was a symbol for all Rohingya or just the insurgents. In the same manner a more recent op-ed warned of the danger posed by “detestable human fleas… trying to combine with each other to amass their force.”

“Burnt Alive in Their Homes”

In contrast to the government’s position, allegations of atrocities were treated as highly credible by The Arakan Project, an independent monitoring group that provides briefings to the United Nations.

“According to our information, the claims about rapes, arson attacks, and killings are accurate. More than 100 civilians have been killed, including women and children, and hundreds have been arrested. The military have shot people on sight, while they were fleeing,” Chris Lewa, director of the group, told me.

“In some cases people were burnt alive in their homes,” she added.

Rights groups have likewise treated claims of abuse seriously, while one senior UN official asserted that the purpose of the current military crackdown was “ethnic cleansing.” OHCHR, the UN’s dedicated human rights agency, added to the crescendo, stating recently that the crackdown may have involved crimes against humanity.

To date, the government has resisted calls for an international investigation of the violence, most recently announcing a second, entirely domestic probe into the situation. Suu Kyi herself, in her first sit-down interview with foreign media on the issue, opted to blame the international community for “concentrating on the negative side of the situation.”

The new investigation has drawn controversy given that it will be headed by a retired general once blacklisted by the United States, known for his role in suppressing popular protests in 2007. While this development is unlikely to assuage critics, the inquiry looks set to be an improvement on the one headed by Aung Win.

There have been other small glimmers of hope: a recent Reuters report cited diplomats who claimed that, after long weeks of waiting, the state counselor was far more willing to pressure the military on the aid situation.

At the time of writing, rumors are adrift that there may be some movement on the issue when Kofi Annan, head of the broader commission on Rakhine state set up prior to the violence, completes his visit to parts of the region.

Such an intervention could not come soon enough; yet crucial questions remain — will this be yet more theater, accompanied only by minimal change on the ground? If so, how much worse does it have to get before more meaningful steps are taken?

Emanuel Stoakes is a journalist specializing in rights-related stories. He has produced two major documentaries on the Rohingya minority in Myanmar and written for The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Vice, Al Jazeera, and The Diplomat, among others.

Myanmar's Rohingya refugees, seen at a camp in Teknaf, Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, on November 26, 2016. MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP

By AFP
December 6, 2016

DHAKA - Around 21,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh in recent weeks to escape violence in neighbouring Myanmar, an official of the International Organisation for Migration said Tuesday (Dec 6).

Bangladesh has stepped up patrols on the border to try to stem the tide of refugees fleeing a bloody crackdown by Myanmar's army in the western state of Rakhine since early October.

But Sanjukta Sahany, head of the IOM office in Bangladesh's south-eastern district of Cox's Bazar bordering Rakhine, said around 21,000 members of the stateless ethnic minority had crossed over in the past two months.

The vast majority of those who arrived took refuge in makeshift settlements, official refugee camps and villages, said Sahany.

"An estimated 21,000 Rohingya have arrived in Cox's Bazar district between October 9 and December 2," she told AFP by phone.

"It is based on the figures collected by UN agencies and international NGOs."

Those interviewed by AFP inside Bangladesh told horrifying stories of gang-rape, torture and murder at the hands of Myanmar's security forces.

Analysis of satellite images by Human Rights Watch found hundreds of buildings in the Rohingya villages have been razed.

Myanmar has denied allegations of abuse but has banned foreign journalists and independent investigators from accessing the area.

Myanmar's Nobel peace laureate and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has faced a growing international backlash for what a United Nations official has said amounts to a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya, a Muslim group loathed by many of Myanmar's Buddhist majority.

Last week she vowed to work for "peace and national reconciliation", saying her country faced many challenges, but did not mention the violence in Rakhine state.

Bangladesh has reinforced its border posts and deployed coastguard ships to try to prevent a fresh influx of refugees.

In the past two months Bangladeshi border guards have prevented hundreds of boats packed with Rohingya women and children from entering the country.

The Bangladesh government has been under pressure from Muslim groups and the opposition to open its border to the fleeing Rohingya.

On Tuesday police stopped thousands of hardline Muslims from marching to the Myanmar embassy in Dhaka to protest at the ongoing "genocide" of the Rohingya.

Shiblee Noman, an assistant commissioner of Dhaka police, told AFP about 10,000 Muslims joined the march, which was halted at central Dhaka's Nightingale Crossing.

"They were peaceful," he said.

Sahany said the UN agencies and international charities were providing aid to the newly arrived Rohingya.

More than 230,000 Rohingya are already living in Bangladesh, most of them illegally, although around 32,000 are formally registered as refugees.

Violence in Rakhine has surged in the last month after security forces poured into the area.

It followed a series of deadly attacks on police posts blamed on local militants.

By Reuters

December 6, 2016

Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan on Tuesday urged Myanmar security forces to act within the rule of law in the country's northwest, where an army crackdown has killed at least 86 people and sent 10,000 fleeing over the border to Bangladesh. 

The violence is the biggest challenge faced by Aung San Suu Kyi's eight-month-old government and has prompted calls for the Nobel Peace laureate to do more to help the Rohingya minority, who are denied citizenship and access to basic services.

Security operations must not compromise citizens' civil rights, said Annan, who heads a government-appointed panel tasked with finding solutions to the conflict between Myanmar's Buddhists and the Muslim Rohingyas.

"There is no trade-off between security and civil liberties," he told reporters in Yangon, the commercial capital, after meeting state counselor Suu Kyi and commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing on his second visit to the country.

"Wherever security operations might be necessary, civilians must be protected at all times and I urge the security services to act in full compliance with the rule of law." 

The committee was "deeply concerned by reports of alleged human rights abuses," Annan said. 

Myanmar authorities have rejected allegations by residents and rights groups that soldiers raped Rohingya women, burnt homes and killed civilians during a crackdown in response to coordinated attacks on three border posts along the frontier with Bangladesh. 

Suu Kyi appointed the nine-member panel before the current fighting erupted to advise on the restive state, where ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslims have lived separately since clashes in 2012 that killed more than 100 people.

Protesters across Southeast Asia have turned out for demonstrations against the violence, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia, which have predominantly Muslim populations.

In Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, more than 10,000 people took to the streets on Tuesday to protest outside the Myanmar embassy against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims, a city police official told Reuters.

More than 10,000 people had fled to Bangladesh in recent weeks, United Nations officials said last week. 

(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Wa Lone in YANGON; Additional reporting by Serajul Quadir in DHAKA)

By Radio Free Asia

December 6, 2016

Members of Myanmar’s Rakhine Advisory Commission met with President Htin Kyaw and five lawmakers in Naypyidaw on Monday to discuss the unstable situation in the western state where a security crackdown has sparked allegations of genocide of the Rohingya Muslims who live there.

Led by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, the nine-member commission met with three lawmakers from the lower house of parliament, and two from the upper house following a visit to the northwestern part of Rakhine State.

Myanmar security forces are alleged to have carried out extrajudicial killings, rapes and arson there during their search for “Rohingya militants” responsible for deadly attacks on border guard posts nearly two months ago.

Though the commission had requested a meeting with all lawmakers in Rakhine state, the five parliamentarians were the only ones who agreed to meet with it because of widespread opposition among ethnic Rakhine residents and members of the state legislature’s dominant Arakan National Party (ANP).

“They [members of the commission] have now visited Rakhine three times, and they said cooperation from the Rakhine side was minimal, while that from the Muslim side was very active,” said Soe Win, an upper house lawmaker from the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party who attended the meeting.

“What they want is for both sides to come and talk about their feelings, hardships, and problems, so they can prepare a report based on those findings,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

The commission, appointed in late August by State Counselor Aung Sang Suu Kyi, must submit a report on its findings to the government within a year. The body is looking into conflict resolution, humanitarian assistance, and development issues in the divided and impoverished state.

A commission member told local media that the body will submit an interim report to the government in the next two months, according to state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar.

“But now that only the Muslims are active, that means there will be very few facts about problems that the ethnic Rakhine people are facing,” said Soe Win. “They are not happy about that, so they want to hear suggestions for possible solutions from us.”

With previous governments failing to effectively deal with the religious divisiveness and related issues in Rakhine state, Aung San Suu Kyi is trying to find a solution that will in turn help the multiethnic country achieve her goal of lasting peace.

But ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and ANP members oppose the appointment of three foreigners, including Annan, to the commission, believing that they will side with the Rohingya.

Rakhine civil society organizations refused to meet with commission members, who instead were greeted by protesters during the weekend when they arrived in Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Mrauk-U, and Myebon townships.

‘Let them leave’

More than 1.1 million stateless Rohingya Muslims, whom the Burmese call “Bengalis” because they consider them illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, live in troubled Rakhine state. Myanmar’s Buddhist majority has long subjected them to persecution and attacks and denied them basic rights, including citizenship.

About 120,000 live in displaced persons camps where they were placed following communal violence with Rakhine Buddhists that left more than 200 dead and tens of thousands homeless.

The recent security crackdown has forced tens of thousands of Rohingya to flee their villages and attempt to enter neighboring Bangladesh.

“Among the Muslims in Rakhine state, citizenship should be given to those who really deserve it in accordance with existing laws … and action should be taken against those who don’t meet the requirements,” Soe Win said.

“Remove the barriers that stop Muslims in Rakhine state from going to other parts of the country,” he said. “If there are those who want to go abroad, let them leave. Those were my suggestions.”

ANP lawmaker Htu May cautioned that the commission should not make judgments based only on recent events in Rakhine incidents.

“They need to know the entire history,” she told RFA. “The latest incidents are very different from the previous ones. It should have a separate report.”

“The voices of the ethnic Rakhine people have not been heard in the media for so long,” she said. “The commission should know what we Rakhines have to say about what [people] are going through. That’s why I explained some of these things to the commission on their behalf.”

A statement issued by Htin Kyaw’s office said the parties discussed the importance of humanitarian aid for both communities, the need to promote interaction between the two groups, the need to release news to discount rumors and fake reports, the country’s 1982 Citizenship Rights Act, and economic development to improve living standards in Rakhine.

Annan also met with Aung San Suu Kyi and military commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw.

He will hold a press conference in the commercial capital Yangon on Tuesday, according to Global New Light of Myanmar.

Pressure from Malaysia

Meanwhile Myanmar continues to take heat for the crisis in Rakhine from Muslim-majority Malaysia where members of the local Rohingya community have held public protests against Aung San Suu Kyi’s failure to stop what they call “genocide.”

Following protests last week by Muslims in Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh, Kyaw on Nov. 3 formed an investigative commission on Rakhine to examine the situation that led to the border guard station attacks and subsequent violence, as well as to verify allegations of rights abuses during security operations.

But on Sunday, Prime Minister Najib Razak and members of his cabinet joined another protest in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, sparking a nationalist counterdemonstration in Yangon where nearly 100 monks and laypeople denounced him, the Myanmar Times reported.

Myanmar’s military chief Min Aung Hlaing told his Malaysian counterpart General Haji Zulkifeli Bin Mohd Zain on Monday that the armed forces had not committed any human rights violations in Rakhine,

He told Haji that investigations are under way to determine the truth of the allegations of executions, rape, and arson, and said that some local Rohingya Muslims have failed to abide by the regulations laid down in accordance with existing laws, according to a post on the Facebook page of Malaysia’s defense services office.

The two generals also agreed to exchange information between their military forces to fight terrorism, it said.

Ye Htut, former presidential spokesman and information minister under the previous Myanmar government’s administration, said Aung San Suu Kyi should use her influence and power with the international community to counter accusations that the military has committed human rights abuses against the Rohingya in Rakhine.

He issued a post on his Facebook page on Monday advising her to interact more with countries that belong to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to engender more understanding of the realities that Myanmar faces in Rakhine.

He also accused Najib Razak of using the Rohingya issue to increase his political standing and support among conservative Malaysian Muslims as he fends off corruption allegations of involvement in taking billions of dollars of public money from a state investment fund.

The demonstrations prompted Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, to summon the Malaysia ambassador in Yangon, though he has yet to respond, said Aye Soe, the ministry’s deputy director general on Monday.

She said the ministry would issue a statement after meeting with the envoy.

Reported by Win Ko Ko Latt and Waiyan Moe Myint for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

By Matthew Smith

CNN

December 6, 2016

Four years ago, I was in Myanmar's Rakhine State soon after deadly violence erupted between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and stateless Rohingya Muslims. It was a horrendous scene. And it's happening again.

Back then, Buddhist civilians and state security forces unleashed coordinated attacks against Rohingya and other Muslims. I documented pre-dawn raids and cold-blooded massacres.

In a small village in Mrauk-U Township on October 23, 2012, 70 Rohingya were killed, including 28 children -- 13 under the age of 5. Children were hacked to death. Some were thrown into fires.

Entire villages were razed; smoke billowed from homes and mosques in 13 of 17 townships statewide and bodies were disposed in mass graves, none of which have been exhumed for forensic purposes. I personally documented four separate mass gravesites.

At the time, an unpublished United Nations investigation obtained by Al Jazeera's investigative unit, found more than 100 Rohingya women and girls were raped. The authorities then corralled more than 130,000 Rohingya into more than 40 squalid interment camps, where they remain confined today.

This all happened under former President Thein Sein, a longtime military general lauded by the West as a reformer.

Now Nobel-laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is State Counselor, the de facto head of state --and the same atrocities are happening again.

The recent violence

On October 9, a group of Rohingya men and boys allegedly attacked three police outposts in Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships, killing nine police. This was highly unusual. Despite unending persecution, Rohingya militancy hasn't been seen for decades.

The Myanmar military commenced a full-on offensive that's ongoing in northern Rakhine State -- a veritable black zone sealed off from aid workers and international observers.

We've documented unlawful killings of unarmed Rohingya men, and we've steadily received allegations of mass rape of Rohingya women and girls by army soldiers. 

Helicopter gunners opened fire from the sky and entire villages have burned, evidenced by high-resolution satellite imagery obtained by Human Rights Watch.

Meantime, the civilian government and military continue to block all access to affected areas. Pre-existing aid programs, which were keeping thousands of Rohingya alive, have been suspended for eight weeks.

According to the UN, the authorities are denying at least 130,000 men, women and children access to humanitarian aid -- food, nutrition and health care. Thirty thousand are likely displaced in the blackout zone. An estimated 3,000 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition.

Without urgent aid, they will likely die.

Nearly all of the international aid workers in Maungdaw Township have left as the government has not renewed their travel authorizations. Independent monitors and media are still barred.

State-run media has claimed international journalists and human rights groups are working "hand in glove" with terrorists. It has alluded to Rohingya as a "thorn" that "has to be removed," and as "detestable human fleas."

Make no mistake: this is genocide talk. And it is happening with Aung San Suu Kyi's imprimatur.

Suu Kyi's culpability

The dominant narrative suggests Suu Kyi's hands are tied and that she has no control over the military. This is a half-truth.

By law, the military controls the ministries of Defense, Home Affairs and Border Affairs. These are instrumental ministries with respect to abuses in northern Rakhine State and Suu Kyi doesn't control them.

But in military lockstep, the State Counselor's office has flatly denied any abuses may have taken place since October 9. And she's since doubled down, accusing the international community of "always drumming up cause for bigger fires of resentment.

Her office has demanded apologies from the BBC and the UN's refugee agency after the latter alleged "ethnic cleansing" was taking place.

Moreover, Suu Kyi does control the ministries of Information, Foreign Affairs and others, and she could swiftly renew travel authorizations for aid workers. But she isn't.

No one in the country has as much moral authority to change public opinion and counteract hate speech as Suu Kyi.

So UN officials and governments are rightly sounding alarms. 

The UN Special Advisor on genocide prevention last week called for urgent action while the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights alleged again that crimes against humanity may be taking place. The US government called for a "credible and independent investigation," a call echoed by various Asian parliaments in recent weeks.

But this is not enough. 

Left to its own devices, Myanmar will continue to destroy this ethnic and religious minority. We can't let that happen.

What can be done

In his final days in office, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon should travel to Myanmar and personally ensure the authorities provide immediate and unfettered access to all populations in need in Rakhine State. Any failure to end this despicable aid blockade will result in significant loss of life -- indeed, it likely already has.

In addition, UN member states should push for a UN Commission of Inquiry into what is happening in Rakhine State.

In August, Aung San Suu Kyi appointed an "Advisory Commission" on Rakhine State, which is led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Fortify Rights welcomed the move, but Annan himself has said the commission does not intend to focus on human rights. It's unclear if that directive comes from him or the State Counselor, but regardless, for the Rohingya, it's a problem.

Annan is expected to address the press this afternoon following a three-day guided tour of Rakhine State. We don't expect him to address ongoing human rights violations, but he should. At this point, it's a moral imperative.

His commission isn't the only one expected to abandon human rights. Last week, Suu Kyi's government appointed yet another body to look into the situation in Rakhine State since since October 9. It has all the markings of a whitewash -- it's led by retired army general Myint Swe, a man formerly blacklisted by the US government -- and doesn't include a single Muslim commissioner.

Now is the time for independent UN-mandated Commission of Inquiry to address the totality of the human rights situation in Rakhine State, including grievances from the Rakhine Buddhist communities.

Such an investigation would provide much-needed credibility and could cooperate with Kofi Annan's team while also delving deep to establish the facts, identify perpetrators and make recommendations to end, once and for all, the cycle of atrocity crimes against Rohingya -- before it's too late.

Aung San Suu Kyi appears to be watching a possible genocide unfold. The international community must not.

By AFP

December 5, 2016

Boat packed with at least 31 people reportedly chased by a Myanmar army speedboat as it tried to reach Bangladesh.

Dozens have been reported missing, feared drowned, after a boat packed with Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar and trying to reach Bangladesh sank in a border river, according to the AFP news agency.

A Bangladeshi fisherman told AFP that he had rescued on Monday one woman, who told him that the "overcrowded" boat had sunk in the Naf river, after it was chased by a Myanmar army speedboat.

"We heard a woman's desperate cry for help in the morning while we were fishing in the Naf. We quickly paddled to the spot and saw she was fighting to stay afloat," fisherman Suman Das said by phone.

"The woman told us that their boat was overcrowded with Rohingya villagers who tried to cross the river to enter Bangladesh."

The woman did not know what had happened to the others, and Das could not say how many people were on the boat.

But the private UNB news agency, quoting a Bangladeshi village councillor, said there were at least 31 Rohingya on board.

A Rohingya source told AFP by phone that the bodies of 13 women and children, two of whom had bullet wounds, had washed ashore in his village on Myanmar's side of the Naf.

This could not be independently confirmed, however, and Bangladesh police and border guards said they were not aware of the incident.

An estimated 30,000 Rohingya have been forced to leave their homes since a bloody October crackdown by the Myanmar army in the western Rakhine state, where many of them live.

At least 10,000 have arrived in Bangladesh, the United Nations said last week, although Bangladesh said it has prevented large numbers from entering.

Myanmar has denied allegations of abuse, but has also banned foreign journalists and independent investigators from accessing the area to investigate.

By Julhas Alam 

Associated Press

December 5, 2016

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh -- The Myanmar soldiers came in the morning, the young mother says. They set fire to the concrete-and-thatch homes, forcing the villagers to cluster together. When some of her neighbors tried to escape into the fields, they were shot. After that, she says, most people stopped running away.

"They drove us out of our houses, men and women in separate lines, ordering us to keep our hands folded on the back of our heads," says 20-year-old Mohsena Begum, her voice choking as she described what happened to the little village of Caira Fara, which had long been home to hundreds of members of Myanmar's minority Rohingya community. She said that when about 50 people had been gathered together, the soldiers, along with a group of local men, pulled four village leaders from the crowd and slit their throats.

Muslims in an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, the Rohingya have long faced persecution in Myanmar, where most are denied citizenship. The latest outbreak of violence was triggered by October attacks on guard posts near the Bangladesh border that killed nine police officers. While the attackers' identities and motives are unclear, the government launched a massive counter-insurgency sweep through Rohingya areas in western Rakhine state. Most Rohingya live in Rakhine, which borders Bangladesh.

The government, which has implied the attacks were carried out by Rohingya sympathizers, has acknowledged using helicopter gunships in support of ground troops in the sweep. While survivors and human rights groups have tracked waves of anti-Rohingya violence in recent weeks, the Myanmar government insists that stories like Begum's are exaggerations.

Myanmar's leader, the Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has accused the international community of stoking unrest.

"It doesn't help if everybody is just concentrating on the negative side of the situation, in spite of the fact that there were attacks on police outposts," she said in a recent interview on Singapore's Channel News Asia.

Suu Kyi, whose party took power in March after decades of military-backed rule, has been accused of not acting strongly enough to curb the violence against the more than 1 million Rohingya believed to be in the country. Although many have lived in Rakhine for generations, they are widely seen as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

"It helps if people recognize the difficulty and are more focused on resolving these difficulties rather than exaggerating them, so that everything seems worse than it really is," she said in the interview.

But Begum says she has no need to exaggerate what happened in Caira Fara.

She said that after the four leaders were killed, violence churned through the village in chaotic scenes of horror. Begum's husband, a poor, illiterate farm laborer, was beaten and then murdered by having his throat slit, along with an unknown number of other villagers, she said. Their bodies were eventually driven away in a truck.

She said attackers knocked her young son knocked from her grasp, then raped her.

Finally, when the soldiers weren't paying attention, she grabbed her son and ran into the nearby hills. After hiding for two days, her brother gave her enough money - about $38 - to pay smugglers to get her and her son into Bangladesh.

When Bangladeshi border guards stopped them, she began to weep.

"I told them I have no one to protect me there," she says, and told them: "'Look at my baby! He will die if I go back there.'" After that, they let her pass.

Much of Rakhine has been closed to outsiders, including journalists, since the violence began. However, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, leader of a commission formed to investigate the situation in Rakhine state, was allowed to visit in recent days. He is expected to hold a press conference Tuesday in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city.

Along the banks of the Naf River, which marks the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar, it's not difficult to find people who can talk about what is happening.

Some 15,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh over past month, often brought in by smugglers, according to police and intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the government refuses to release numbers publicly. They have joined up to 500,000 undocumented Rohingya who have been living in Bangladesh after arriving from Myanmar in waves since the 1970s. Some 33,000 registered Rohingya refugees live the Cox's Bazar district. Bangladesh does not welcome Rohingya - its maritime patrols sometimes turn back refugee boats full of them - but it is seen as a haven compared to Myanmar.

The U.N. says up 30,000 Rohingya Muslims have abandoned their homes amid the recent violence. Satellite images analyzed by the rights group Human Rights Watch show 1,250 structures destroyed in November in Rohingya villages.

Osman Gani, a thin, fast-talking Arabic teacher, fled after his village, Gouzo Bil, was attacked Nov. 11.

"They came and killed mercilessly. They burned our homes," says Gani, standing near the Naf River over the weekend. "No one was there to save us."

He hid with his family for about a week near the village. But when searches intensified, and with soldiers targeting men, he was forced to leave Myanmar without his family.

"I had no other choice but to leave them behind. I came to the bank of the river and started swimming," he says. His family was able to join him in Bangladesh a few days later.

As he fled north, he used his mobile phone to film destruction in other Rohingya villages he passed through. In some, the blackened remains of what appear to be children can be seen amid the wreckage of homes. Gani's voice can be heard in some of the videos but The Associated Press could not confirm their authenticity.

"I have shot videos!" he says, holding out his mobile phone to a reporter. "Don't you see the charred bodies?"

While he was initially in hiding after the attack, Osmani said he also managed to slip back into his village and film what remained of his home.

As he walks through the village, a child can be heard talking to him.

"Where are you coming from?" the boy asks.

Gani doesn't answer, instead asking, "Where's my cow?"

Then he pans through the ashes and broken concrete. "This is my land, my home," he says. "This is Puitta's. This is Uncle Yunus."

---

AP writer Tim Sullivan contributed to this report from New Delhi.

Joint Statement 

5th December 2016

Rohingya Thank Malaysia – Request to Promote UN Inquiry Next

On behalf of Rohingya people worldwide, we, the undersigned Rohingya organizations, strongly express many thanks to the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak for standing with us and showing solidarity to stop "Genocide of Rohingyas in Myanmar". We would like to extend our thanks to the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) President Abdul Hadi Awang, other top leaders from both Malay Muslim-based parties and all the Malaysian People. 

We Rohingya people feel a great moral encouragement. Prime Minister Najib Razak has become the first head of state to speak up for the justice of Rohingya since the latest crisis began. 

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak led a protest rally on Sunday against what he called a "genocide" of Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority, as he urged Asian neighbors and the world to step up the pressure to stop the violence.

We also very pleased that Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has urged the International Criminal Court to take action against the Myanmar army for atrocities committed against Rohingya in Rakhine State.

Meanwhile, as the situation worsens day by day, we are receiving information that Rohingyas are being killed, including children and women.

We request the Malaysian government to take the following practical steps to stop the genocide of our people:

· Support the establishment of a UN Commission of Inquiry into the totality of the situation in Rakhine State, including violence and human rights violations since 2012.

· Call an emergency meeting of ASEAN Foreign Ministers to request Myanmar/Burma end human rights violations, abides by international law and lifts all restrictions on aid.

· Work with members of the Organization For Islamic Co-operation, securing the support of the OIC for a UN Commission of Inquiry.

· Work internationally for the establishment of a UN Commission of Inquiry to be included in the next Human Rights Council Resolution on Burma in early 2017.

· Work with other countries to ensure that as long as human rights violations continue, the UN General Assembly Resolution on Burma will once again be tabled every year.

Signatories;

1. Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK

2. Bradford Rohingya Community in UK

3. Burmese Rohingya Community in Denmark

4. Burmese Rohingya Association Japan 

5. Burmese Rohingya Community Australia

6. Rohingya Community in Germany

7. Rohingya Community in Switzerland

8. Rohingya Organisation Norway

9. Rohingya Community in Finland

10. Rohingya Community in Italy

11. Rohingya Community in Sweden

12. Rohingya Society Netherlands

13. Rohingya Society Malaysia

14. Rohingya Arakanese Refugee Committee 

For more information, please contact:

Tun Khin: Mobile +44 7888714866

Nay San Lwin:Mobile +49 69 26022349

December 4, 2016

The Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Dr. Yousef A. Al-Othaimeen, stated that in view of the worsening crisis in Rakhine state, Myanmar that has resulted in the loss of innocent life and displaced tens of thousands of Rohingya people, it is imperative that the Myanmar government takes clear and decisive steps to stem the violence and restore calm to the region.

The Secretary General expressed his support for the recent statements issued by OIC Member States, which highlighted concern over the violence and the deteriorating humanitarian situation facing the Rohingya. The Secretary General emphasized that it is a charter obligation of OIC Member States to “safeguard the rights, dignity and religious and cultural identity of Muslim communities and minorities in non-Member-states”.

He further called upon Member States to raise the plight of the Rohingya with the Myanmar Government at every opportunity and to remain seized with the issue.

The Secretary General reiterated the OIC’s call upon the Myanmar authorities to ensure that the security services act in full compliance with the rule of law and allow humanitarian aid agencies access to the affected region to provide needed relief to the victims.

Original here.

The Star Online

December 4, 2016

By Reuters

December 4, 2016

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak called for foreign intervention to stop the "genocide" of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar on Sunday, as he joined thousands of Rohingya protesters in Kuala Lumpur.

Muslim-Majority Malaysia has been increasingly critical of Myanmar's handling of violence and allegations of state abuses in northern Rakhine state, which has driven hundreds of ethnic Rohingya to flee across the borders to Bangladesh.

It described the violence as "ethnic cleansing" on Saturday.

Najib called on the United Nations, the International Criminal Court and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to intervene. 

"The world cannot just sit by and watch genocide taking place," he told the crowd.

Najib's attendance came despite warnings from Myanmar that Malaysia risked violating the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) principle of non-interference in other members' internal affairs. 

In response, Najib said ASEAN, which agreed to declare itself a single community last year, had also pledged in its charter to uphold basic human rights. 

He also accused Myanmar leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi of inaction, saying that she had declared the Rohingya issue off-limits during bilateral discussions. 

"How can this be? We should be allowed to discuss everything," he said. 

The gathering, organised by Najib's ruling United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, attracted around 10,000 people, mostly Rohingya. 

Malaysia summoned Myanmar's ambassador last week to express concern over the crackdown on Rohingya. It also cancelled the national soccer team's friendly under-22 matches with Myanmar in protest.

Rohingya Society in Malaysia president Faisal Islam Muhammad Kassim said he appreciated Malaysia's efforts to find a solution to the crisis. 

"We want the Malaysian government to (send a) message to the Muslim world and the Western countries, to pressure the Myanmar government to solve this Rohingya issue," he said.

The violence in Myanmar is the most serious bloodshed in Rakhine since communal clashes in 2012 that killed hundreds.

Persecution and poverty led thousands of Rohingya to flee Myanmar following the violence between Buddhists and Muslims there four years ago. Many of them were smuggled or trafficked to neighbouring countries, mostly to Thailand and Malaysia.

Najib, who has been buffeted by graft allegations he denies, vowed on Thursday to fight to the end for Malays and Islam, as he called on UMNO to prepare for elections that are "coming soon".

Media Statement for Immediate Release 

4th December 2016

MYANMAR MUST OWE UP TO ITS RESPONSIBILITIES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW – CENTHRA

The Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy (CENTHRA) deplores the recent protest by Buddhist monks against Malaysia ahead of the Solidarity March scheduled to be held here in Kuala Lumpur today in solidarity with the Rohingya people in Myanmar.

We also condemn in the strongest terms the recent warning by the Myanmar government spokesperson, U Zaw Htay, against the Malaysian government for alleged ‘interference’ by the latter into the former’s internal affairs contrary to the ASEAN principle of non-interference. 

CENTHRA fully supports the stand of the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its reply thereto that the Rohingya in Myanmar are suffering from ethnic cleansing and are being driven out of Myanmar into neighbouring states, including Malaysia, thereby making the same an international concern.

CENTHRA remind Myanmar that quite apart from the ASEAN Charter, which binds members of ASEAN to international principles of human rights, in particular the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), ASEAN also has its own declaration on human rights, namely the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD). 

Article 4 of the Declaration states that the rights of vulnerable and marginalised groups, which includes the Rohingya, are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of human rights and fundamental freedoms while Article 9 of the same states that the principles of impartiality, objectivity, non-selectivity, non-discrimination, non-confrontation and avoidance of double standards and politicisation should always be upheld.

Clearly, the unwarranted warning by the Myanmar government as well as the protest by radical Buddhist monks against Malaysia are an attempt at denying the Rohingya their human rights on the basis of the ethnicity amounting to partiality, non-objectivity, discrimination, confrontation, affirmation of double standards as well as politicisation contrary to the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration as well as and is thus deplorable and unacceptable. 

Myanmar must not scapegoat Malaysia, but owe up to its responsibilities under international law lest it stand accused of committing what can only be described as genocide and crimes against humanity.

CENTHRA calls upon the Myanmar government to implement, on an immediate basis, its responsibilities under the UDHR, ICCPR, ICESCR, the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration as well as the Geneva Conventions towards the Rohingya people, and cease immediately its highly disproportionate response to the Maungdaw border incident last October by imposing and continuing to impose what can only be described as collective punishment of a barbaric magnitude against Rohingyas.

Press Statement by Azril Mohd Amin, lawyer and Chief Executive of CENTHRA

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

Press release

3 December 2016

ARNO Rejects Government’s Investigation Commission

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) is strongly opposed to the government’s pretension and lack of honesty, and rejects the 13-member investigation commission formed on 1 December, inter alia, for the following reasons:

1. The military and police crackdown on innocent Rohingya civilian population in Northern Arakan since 9 October is state sponsored. It has been carried out with manifest intention of destroying the Rohingya minority community. Not only Myanmar military top brass but also the State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi is morally, officially and wickedly responsible for it.

2. The investigation commission is headed by Vice-President 1 U Myint Swe, who was much feared former Chief of Military Security Affairs. No Rohingya or Muslim is taken in the commission and it fully represents the perpetrators and their interest. It cannot be taken as impartial and independent. 

3. The Myanmar security forces are still indulging in violent killings, rapes and arson attacks in Rohingya villages even when the former UN Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Annan, the head of the Advisory Commission on Arakan, is on his observation tour to Maungdaw District from 2 December.

4. So far, more than 500 innocent Rohingya civilians were killed, many hundreds of women raped, about 3500 houses were burned down, unknown number of people arrested and involuntarily disappeared, and at least 40,000 internally displaced, in addition to systematic destruction of rice, paddy and food products. About 10,000 people fled to Bangladesh. In fact, this level of indescribable criminal atrocities is aimed at forcing the entire community to flee their ancestral homeland of Arakan and make them to wander from place to place with ultimate aims of perishing them.

5. By all legal definition, the Myanmar government is committing genocide and crimes against humanity, including ethnic cleansing, against the Rohingya people. They are international crimes with international jurisdiction. Thus the Rohingya issue is an international issue and it cannot be pleaded as internal affairs of Myanmar.

6. Like all other previously formed inquiry commissions on Rohingya issue, the newly formed Investigation Commission is just for show and impression. It is not trustworthy and we REJECT it totally. 

7. We therefore demand an urgent UN sponsored international commission to investigate into genocide and crimes against humanity and bring the perpetrators to justice.

For more details, please contact: 

U.K.: Ronnie +44-7783118354 

Japan: Zaw Min Htut +81-8030835327

Australia: Dr. Hla Myint +61-423381904

USA: Dr. Mohammed Habib Ullah +1-4438158609

Canada: Nur Hasim +1 (519) 572-5359

Bangladesh: Ko Ko Linn: +880-1726068413

Email: info@rohingya.org

www.rohingya.org

RB News 

December 3, 2016 

Maungdaw, Arakan – Rohingya men who spoke to the Kofi Annan Commission were reportedly detained afterwards. Women and children were reportedly beaten indiscriminately on the same day in Kyet Yoe Pyin village tract in northern Maungdaw Township. 

On the morning of December 3rd 2016, officials from Maungdaw Township came to Kyet Yoe Pyin village and were reported to have forced many villagers to leave or flee. 

At around 11:30am the delegation led by Kofi Annan arrived in the village. Some Rohingya men, women and children were able to meet and talk with them. While there were soldiers escorting the delegation other groups of soldiers were stationed through the village and some were waiting in the mountains of a nearby village. 

Once the delegation’s cars left the village soldiers in the village moved in and began arresting men in the village and beating women and children indiscriminately, according to a local villager. The villager said three of the village elders were detained at this time. 

While the soldiers were beating the women and children a villager ran to catch up to the delegation’s cars and was able to catch up to them near Ngan Chaung village. He reported the incident to a member of the Rakhine State Advisory Commission. A member of the Commission assured him that Commission will inform the authorities and that things would be stable. 

The detainees were released a few hours later. 

In the morning, the soldiers threatened and forced villagers to leave their homes by shooting their guns in the air at Dar Gyi Sar, Yay Khae Chaung Khwa Sone, Myaw Taung and Kyar Gaung Taung villagers, according to locals.