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5.6.2018

Maungdaw, Arakan State -- The Myanmar government is building flat houses for (Rohingya) Hindus on the farm lands owned by (Rohingya) Muslims in northern Maungdaw, according to reliable sources.

About fifty 24×18 flat houses are now being constructed for the Hindus on the lands confiscated from the Muslims. A source from the Hindu community has added that these flat houses are financially sponsored by the Indian Government.

A human rights activist based in Maungdaw said "Rohingya Muslims and Rohingya Hindus share no history of conflicts. But I see this arbitrary action by the government to build flats for the Hindus on the farm lands owned by the Muslims as opening up a new front of conflict in Arakan State on the religious line. Naturally, some owners of the lands may view the Hindus as encroachers which will result in hatred.

"And this will create the violence in Arakan state more complex in the future. But the more the conflicts in the state, the longer the military can keep the control over the region."

There are Hindu villages in the downtown and the outskirts of Maungdaw. These villages didn't come under attack as the Myanmar armed forces carried out violence against Rohingya Muslims on 25th August 2017 and afterwards. However, the Myanmar Government shifted the Hindus to Sittwe (Akyab) and some others to the 'Maungdaw High School (1)' at 'Myoma Kayindan' village making them pretend as 'Displaced People.'

After they were shifted away from their homes, the Myanmar military and Border Guard Police (BGP); and the Rakhine extremists jointly burned down some Hindu homes nearby 'Dael Fara', a Muslim hamlet at 'Myoma Kayindan' village, which was also burnt down (by the same military and BGP; and the Rakhine extremists). After that, the government has placed some Hindus temporarily on their burned home-ground by erecting make-shift camps. In September last year, the Myanmar government dressed up some of them as Muslims and staged a fake event to portray that 'Muslims are torching their own homes'. Then, the Myanmar Government Spokeperson, Zaw Htay, took to social media to spread propaganda which was exposed later.


"Now, India is sponsoring flat houses for the Hindus and the Myanmar government is building them on the Rohingya farm lands. However, the remaining Rohingya in Myanmar feel hopeless and helpless as they are not getting any help despite that thousands of them have been killed and hundreds of their villages burnt down. On top of that, their lands are being confiscated," said a Rohingya Muslim in Maungdaw asking not to be identified.

[Report by MYARF; Edited by M.S. Anwar]

Please email to: editor@rohingyablogger.com to send your reports and feedback.

An aerial view shows burned down villages once inhabited by the Rohingya seen from the Myanmar military helicopters that carried the U.N. envoys to northern Rakhine state, Myanmar, May 1, 2018. Picture taken on May 1, 2018. REUTERS/Michelle Nichols

By Stephanie van den Berg
May 31, 2018

THE HAGUE -- Hundreds of Rohingya victims have appealed to judges at the International Criminal Court to grant prosecutors jurisdiction to investigate deportations from Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh, an ICC official said on Thursday.

The world’s first permanent war crimes court does not have automatic jurisdiction in Myanmar because it is not a member state, but the prosecutor in April asked the court to look into the Rohingya crisis and a possible prosecution through Bangladesh, which is a member. 

Since August, nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled a military crackdown in mainly Buddhist Myanmar, the United Nations and aid agencies have said. 

Refugees have reported killings, rape and arson on a large scale; some countries compared the situation to the widespread ethnic cleansing seen during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. 

“We are of Rohingya identity and we want justice,” the group said in a letter, demanding that the court take action. “We have been raped, tortured and killed.” 

It was signed with fingerprints of the victims, mostly illiterate women from rural communities. 

A submission on behalf of 400 victims was handed to the court on Wednesday, backing the earlier request from the ICC prosecutor for jurisdiction, spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said. 

The families asked the court to examine allegations not only of deportation but persecution and what they called genocide by the Myanmar military against the Muslim Rohingya minority. 

Myanmar has rejected the efforts to establish international jurisdiction over the matter. 

Lawyers representing a group called Shanti Molhila, or Peace Women, said the court should hear the case because some of the crimes were committed across the border in Bangladesh. 

In her request to judges, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda argued that the ICC had jurisdiction over the deportations because of the cross-border nature of the offence. 

Editing by Anthony Deutsch and Mark Heinrich



By Nadia MASSIH
May 31, 2018

We speak to Maung Zarni, a human rights campaigner, academic and co-author of "The Slow-Burning Genocide of Myanmar's Rohingya". He joins us on set a week after Amnesty International published a report detailing a massacre carried out by Rohingya militants last August in Myanmar's Rakhine state, where nearly 100 Hindus were killed. Zarni vocally criticises Amnesty, saying the report whips up anti-Rohingya sentiment, not just in Myanmar but across Southeast Asia.





30 May 2018
PRESS RELEASE

Protect the Rohingya calls for the end of the Rohingya genocide! Join the movement by wearing BLACK in solidarity on Wednesday, 13 June 2018 and remember to tweet your photos and messages of solidarity to us: @ProtectRohingya using the Hashtag: #Black4Rohingya

The Rohingya have been described as the world’s most persecuted minority by the United Nations. They live in Arakan State, Myanmar where they have been denied citizenship, freedom of movement, access to education and health services. They have been subject inter alia to land confiscations, arbitrary arrests, forced sterilisation, extortion, torture, rape and collective punishment. Their citizenship was revoked by the state in 1982.

Since 2012 the brutality against them has only been exacerbated by the state’s unwillingness to punish right-wing nationalists who spew hatred against them, address its apartheid policies and keep its security forces in check. 

Myanmar military clearance operations have forced more than 680 000 Rohingya to flee over the border to Bangladesh since August of 2017. Stories of murder, rape , arson attacks and extra-judicial killings by the military are the order of the day. With the monsoon season arriving in recent months the Rohingya’s situation has only worsened. 

The Myanmar government disputes the allegations, characterising the actions of its forces as anti-terrorism. It also claims that eyewitness accounts have been fabricated (while denying outside observers, including foreign journalists and even a United Nations observers, meaningful access to the region.

The international community has failed to take any real action to stop the violence against the Rohingya and few countries are offering practical assistance and resettlement programs to Rohingya refugees.

As South African’s having lived through a racist and brutal oppressive regime it is our duty to stand against apartheid wherever it exists. Burma should NOT be allowed to continue its genocide of the Rohingya population. 

We urge people of conscience the world over to join our campaign and spread the word about the 13th of June 2018.

#Black4Rohingya is a Protect the Rohingya initiative, initially held on 5 July 2013 and was then moved to 13 June from 2014 onwards in order to commemorate those Rohingya who were massacred in Arakan State in the second week of June 2012. 


Twitter: @ProtectRohingya
Instagram: @protecttherohingya
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/308153155947556/
Contact: +2772 1786 102



By TRT Newsmaker
May 28, 2018

Despite its big name, Amnesty under fire for its latest report on Rohingyas: shoddy research, flimsy evidence on which questionable findings are presented as 'facts".






Media Release from Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK

For Immediate Release 22nd May 2018


International Development Committee report must spur UK to act on Rohingya atrocities


Today’s report by the International Development Committee of the UK Parliament shines a light on ongoing ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people in Burma and must lead to the UK government taking concrete action, said the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK.

The report calls for a “dramatic change” in the UK’s engagement with Burma, in the light of recent ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people. The Committee also cites violations in other ethnic conflicts and shrinking space for freedom of the media and civil society as evidence of Burma’s deteriorating human rights situation. 

“This very welcome report must spur the UK government into action. The report clearly spells out that the ethnic cleansing against Rohingya in Burma means the UK cannot continue engaging with the Burmese government as if nothing has changed,” said Tun Khin, President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK).

“The continued refusal of the UK government and the international community as a whole to take serious action against the Burmese military is sending a dangerous signal that atrocities will be accepted. There is no question that the genocidal policies of the Burmese military are still continuing. The worst of the violence may be over, but our people are still being driven from our homes through forced starvation and systemic discrimination.”

In February, a delegation from the International Development Committee was refused visas to enter Burma at the last minute. Burma has also denied access to other international observers, notably members of the UN Fact-Finding Mission, which was established in 2017 by the Human Rights Council (HRC) to "establish the facts and circumstances" of alleged security force violations

The UK must push for justice

In August 2017, the Myanmar military launched an operation in Rakhine State that was characterised by human rights violations that amounted to crimes against humanity. Thousands of people were killed, hundreds of homes burned down and at least 693,000 people were forced to flee across the border into neighbouring Bangladesh.

So far, the Burmese authorities – both the military and the civilian government headed by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi – have refused to commit to providing justice and hold those responsible for violations to account. BROUK has urged the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Burma to the International Criminal Court. Since Burma is not a party to the ICC and has not accepted the court's jurisdiction, only the Security Council can refer the situation to the Court.

“We urge the UK government to do everything it can to ensure that the UN Security Council refers the situation in Burma to the International Criminal Court. There must be justice for the crimes against the Rohingya people to break this cycle of abuse. The Burmese military and civilian government are both unable and unwilling to hold perpetrators to account – the hope for accountability now lies with the international community,” said Tun Khin.

For more information, please contact Tun Khin +44 7888714866.



ERC demands Australian government to do a thorough investigation on the death a Rohingya refugee in PNG island


May 22, 2018

The European Rohingya Council (ERC) is shocked by the preventable and premature death of a 52-year old Rohingya Salim, who was sent to and kept in a remote Papua New Guinea island by Australian authority. According the report, he died after jumping from a moving bus near a refugee transition center. It is also reported that he had suffered from a medical problem for a long time. ERC believes that Mr. Salim took his life due to unbearable condition of such a long time detention in the island and died of medical negligence. ERC also believes that his death could be prevented if Australian authority addressed his suffering and treated his medical condition timely. 

Therefore, ERC demands Australian government to do a proper investigation and release the details report on the death of Mr. Salim. ERC also urges to grant asylum to all of the Rohingya kept in detention center for a long time or resettle them into third countries in order to avoid such horrible, and unnecessary loss of human lives. ERC wants to assure the Australian government that Rohingya are forced to flee their ancestral homeland by Myanmar’s genocidal persecution. 


Contact: Dr. Hla Kyaw, Chairman, European Rohingya Council - +31 6 52358202




    • Rohingya Exodus