By Paul Gregoire

Sydney Criminal Lawyers

July 7, 2017

At around 3.30pm on June 26, a group of seven people were arrested by Myanmar authorities at a military checkpoint in the country’s conflict-ridden northern Shan state. Three local journalists were among the group who were detained in Namhsan township in the north of the region.

Democratic Voice of Burma reporters Aye Nai and Pyae Phone Naing were arrested, along with the Irrawaddy’s Thein Zaw, also known as Lawi Weng. The journalists were returning from a drug burning ceremony marking the United Nations International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

The event had been organised by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), one of more than a dozen armed ethnic minority groups that have been in conflict with the Tatmadaw – Myanmar’s armed forces – for decades now.

The TNLA were not one of the eight armed groups that were a signatory to the October 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement. However, the group did attend the second round of the Panglong Peace Conference held in the Myanmar capital Naypyidaw in May this year.

Modern laws silenced by relics of the past

After initially being held at an undisclosed location for three days, the journalists are now being detained in Hsipaw prison and have since been charged under colonial-era security laws, that the Myanmar government still routinely uses, despite international pressure to cease doing so.

Section 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act provides that anyone who’s a member of an unlawful association, or takes part in meetings with or contributes to such an association, “shall be punished with imprisonment for a term” of up to three years.

The arrest of the reporters seems at odds with Myanmar’s News Media Law, according to Human Rights Watch. Enacted in June 2015, section 7(a) of the law provides that a journalist “shall be exempt from being detained” by security forces “where wars break out and conflicts… take place.”

Volatile border regions

Conflict has been escalating over recent years in the north of Shan state. The fighting involves a myriad of ethnic minority groups and government security forces.

All of the armed groups are involved in the profitable local drug trade. Along with being a major opium producer, Myanmar is the largest producer of methamphetamine in the world.

Meth pills are widely produced in the northern border regions of the country. These drugs are relatively cheap and readily available across Asia. The pills – popularly known as yaba – contain a concoction of crystal meth and caffeine.

Research carried out by Amnesty International outlines that since late 2016 the Myanmar security forces have been carrying out torture and extrajudicial killings in the region. While groups like the TNLA have been documented abducting civilians and imposing “taxes” on villages.

Amnesty International Australia’s Crisis Campaign Coordinator Diana Sayed has called on the Australian government to demand that Myanmar authorities end restrictions on humanitarian access into these areas, and bring a halt to the ongoing human rights violations in the region.

A crackdown on reporters

The three journalists currently being detained are not the first to have been silenced over recent months. In late October last year, journalist Fiona MacGregor was sacked by the English-language Myanmar Times for reporting on alleged rapes perpetrated by government security forces.

An article by MacGregor was published on October 27 about the alleged rapes of up to 30 Rohinygawomen in the north eastern state of Rakhine. At that time, the region was in lockdown, as Myanmar armed forces were carrying out a counterinsurgency operation in Maungdaw township.

The journalist said the paper had informed her that she’d “breached company policy by damaging national reconciliation.” And some of the senior staff at the paper led her to believe that the government had put the pressure on to dismiss her.

The silent Nobel laureate

Press freedoms in Myanmar are still uncertain after the nation recently emerged from decades of military rule. Despite the National League for Democracy party winning the country’s first free elections in 25 years in November 2015, the military still maintain key government positions.

Aung San Suu Kyi is now Myanmar state counsellor, which is the de facto head of state. However, the Nobel Peace Prize winner has been criticised for her slow approach to condemn the current detention of the three journalists, as well as a number of other infringements on media freedom.

Ms Suu Kyi has also come under widespread international criticism for her initial lack of response, and then for her approach, to the escalating violence that was unravelling in the state of Rakhine in October last year.

A question of genocide

Sectarian riots broke out in Rakhine state in June 2012, as extreme factions of the Rakhine Buddhist population began violently attacking and burning down villages of the Rohingya Muslim minority. This drove an estimated 120,000 Rohingya into internally displaced people camps that line the Bay of Bengal.

In October last year, Myanmar forces launched sweeps in the north of the state, after members of an alleged militant group known as Harakah al-Yaqin attacked three police posts along the Bangladeshi border, killing nine officers.

Ms Suu Kyi said in April that the ongoing violence and persecution of the stateless Rohingya was not ethnic cleansing. And last week, the state counsellor again rejected a decision by the UN to send a fact-finding mission into the region, ordering that visas not be issued to delegates.

A stateless people

There’s an estimated 1.3 million Rohingya people living in Rakhine, making up about a third of the state’s population. However, the Myanmar government doesn’t recognise them as citizens. It refers to them as Bengalis, and classes them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The recent unrest in the state has led more than 75,000 Rohingyas to flee across the border to Bangladesh, while another 23,000 have become internally displaced within the state. And reports of systematic rape and human rights abuses carried out by the Myanmar military continue to emerge today.

Rohingya rights activist Aung Win lives in the state capital of Sittwe. He told Sydney Criminal Lawyerslast November that at time the government couldn’t find any terrorists, so they were arbitrarily “arresting people and burning houses.”

But if the authorities continue on causing the Rohingya people so much “frustration and depression,” Mr Win warned, it could actually lead to the establishment of some form of militant group.

By UN News Centre

July 7, 2017

Concluding his first visit to Myanmar, the United Nations refugee chief today appealed for inclusive and sustainable solutions to protracted displacement and statelessness. 

“These are complex issues but they are not intractable,” said High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in a press release issued by his office (UNHCR).

In Kachin and Rakhine states, some 100,000 and 120,000 people, respectively, have remained displaced for more than five years following the eruption of inter-communal conflict between Buddhists and minority Muslim Rohingya. 

In Rakhine state, Mr. Grandi met with displaced Muslims in Sittwe’s Dar Paing camp who expressed their strong desire to return home. He also reached out to Rakhine and Muslim communities north of Maungdaw and listened to their safety and livelihood concerns. 

He also met with high-ranking officials in the South-east Asian nation to discuss humanitarian access in Kachin and Rakhine states.

“A crucial first step is to pursue freedom of movement and access to services and livelihoods for all. Accelerated pathways to citizenship are also part of the solution, as are efforts to tackle exclusion and poverty,” Mr. Grandi said, alluding to the country’s denial of citizenship for the Rohingya.

Among the officials he met with were State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi; the Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, Min Myat Aye; the Minister of Labour, Immigration and Population, U Thein Swe; and the Minister of Border Affairs, Lt. Gen Ye Aung.

“I was very happy to hear the State Counsellor saying that refugees are welcome back from Thailand,” said Mr. Grandi. “We agreed that returns must be voluntary and sustainable. Refugees should not come back to a situation of dependency but of self-reliance.”

He highlighted that the recommendations of the Advisory Commission of Rakhine State provide an important roadmap for the way forward. 

The High Commissioner will next visit Thailand before concluding his regional trip in Bangladesh next week.

MEDIA STATEMENT 7 JULY 2017

CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS RESEARCH & ADVOCACY (CENTHRA)

UN and Myanmar smoke and mirrors on Rohingya plight means no UN resolution in sight

The Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy (CENTHRA) notes that recently in March 2017, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a report prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in investigating allegations of mass killings taking place in Myanmar since late 2016, when some 75,000 ethnic Rohingya, already suffering from systematic state sponsored persecution for decades, fled violence by a military hell bent on blaming them for a minor border incident on 9 September the same year.

The report included accounts of mass killings and gang rapes by troops in north-western Myanmar in recent months in what it has described as a calculated policy of terror, which most probably constituted crimes against humanity. The Government of Myanmar led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi had rejected the findings of the report outright despite promising to ‘investigate’ its contents.

Despite all the evidence already cited in support of the report’s findings, and indeed the findings of countless previous reports, the United Nations has decided to send a further fact finding team to Myanmar to focus on allegations of killings, rape and torture by security forces against Rohingyas. In response to this, the Government of Myanmar has stated that it will deny visas to this United Nations team of human rights investigators.

CENTHRA is of the firm opinion that contrary to the general view that the decision by Aung San Suu Kyi to deny visas to this UN team indicates friction between the UN and the regime in Myanmar; it is in fact indicative of their implicit partnership. While the regime in Myanmar continues to terrorise and kill innocent members of an ethnic minority, the UN continuously finds ways and means to avoid imposing much needed and much demanded tangible economic and political sanctions against this regime, unlike as is the case with Iran and North Korea, for example.

Indeed, recently leaked internal UN documents reveal that the organization has failed miserably to protect the Rohingya while over-emphasizing development investment as the solution to Myanmar’s problems. By banning an investigative mission, the regime is essentially providing the UN with a rebuttal against the charges of incompetence; implying that UN investigations are meaningful and effective; while UN staff themselves secretly acknowledge that they are, in fact, useless. 

By postponing the fact-finding mission, Aung San Suu Kyi has clearly deflected growing discontent with UN inaction, allowing UN officials to demand nothing more than the right to pursue the course they themselves know is ineffectual; ineffectual, that is, except insofar as it furthers the interests of foreign investors and their globalist cohorts. She has, in short, done the UN a favour. And the UN officials have thanked her for this favour behind the scenes.

CENTHRA believes that there is, in effect, a game of smoke and mirrors being played by both the United Nations and the Myanmar regime into which the international community has been drawn as an unaware and unwilling participant.

The role of the United Nations in this game is to use its mandate to divert, not impose, pressure on the regime; delaying any calls for active intervention to halt the genocide, and the regime is cooperating with this agenda quite consciously. The reason this is being done is because both sides are anxious to ensure that investment opportunities within Myanmar, especially those made available to globalist corporations and their cronies in governments around the world, will not be lost, hindered or be subject to restricted access on account of ensuring regime accountability for its genocidal actions against the ethnic Rohingya within its territory. 

As such, it seems clear now that no meaningful solution to the catastrophe that has and still is befalling the Rohingya people is going to come via the United Nations. The matter must be taken up directly with the globalist investors and corporations whose interests the UN is serving, and it must be taken up by the consumers in the constituencies of those multinational companies whether in Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia or the entire ASEAN region, and indeed, around the world. CENTHRA accordingly calls on the relevant parties to do the necessary in this regard.

This Medias Statement has been issued by Azril Mohd Amin, Chief Executive of the Centre for Human Rights and Advocacy (CENTHRA).

RB News 

July 4, 2017 

Sittwe (Akyab) -- One Rohingya man was killed and eight others wounded during an attack by a group of Rakhine extremists in Sittwe (Akyab) this afternoon (Jul 4). 

The victims were from 'Dar Paing' IDP (Internally Displaced People) Camps in the township and hired by a retired policeman, U Hla Myint @ Nuru, to dismantle an old and out-of-service motor-boat which he had bought from a Rakhine lawyer. 

While they were checking around the boat nearby the 'Yaung Ni Oo' jetty at 'Yaw Gyi Myauk' village, a group of Rakhine extremists popped up; and attacked and hacked them, killing one of them and injuring 8 others. 

"Normally, displaced Rohingyas from the camps dare not go to the downtown of Sittwe as the Security Forces often stop them and also Rakhine extremists pose danger. However, this time, they went there as hired workers for a retired policeman and also with some police escorts yesterday. But some Rakhine extremists might have spotted them there and made plots to launch attacks since yesterday. 

When they were working to dismantle the boat, the Rakhine extremists attacked them. One worker was killed and eight others were wounded", said an eyewitness asking not to be named. 

The eight people injured are currently taking treatments in Sittwe General Hospital. The local police are said to have been investigating the incident. 

The person killed was U Monu (60), s/o Abdu Shukkor. And the remaining 8 people wounded are: 

1) Abu Alam (65), s/o Abul Hussain 

2) Abdul Malik (38), s/o Sayed Hussain 

3) Futiya (35), s/o Khala Meah 

4) Abdul Hamid (32), s/o Abdul Mabud 

5) U Hla Myint @ Nuru (60) (the retired policeman) 

6) One of U Hla Myint's son 

7) Mohammed Hussain (25), s/o ??? 

[Reported by Saed Arakani & Mohammed Islam; Edited by M.S. Anwar] 

Please email to editor@rohingyablogger.com for inquiries and to send feedbacks.

By Syed Zainul Abedin

Dhaka Tribune

July 3, 2017

Rohingya repatriation is expected to be a key issue in Myanmar National Security Adviser U Thaung Tun's meetings here

Myanmar’s National Security Adviser U Thaung Tun arrived in Dhaka around 12pm on Sunday in a three-day official visit.

Director General of South-east Asia wing at the foreign ministry Manjurul Karim and Bangladesh Ambassador to Myanmar Shafiur Rahman received him at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

U Thaung Tun is scheduled to hold meetings with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali at the state guest house Padma at 7pm.

A Foreign Ministry official, requesting anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that several issues including security and Rohingya crisis will be highlighted at the discussion.

Bangladesh will offer a proposal for repatriation of the Rohingya people to Myanmar, the official added.

Thaung will also hold meetings with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Home Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.

U Thaung Tun is a career diplomat who has served as Myanmar’s ambassador to various countries and the European Union in his 40 years of service.

The position of national security adviser was created by the Myanmar government in January and is seen as a response to the various ethnic conflicts in its border states.

Hundreds of thousands of undocumented Rohingyas are believed to be living in Bangladesh, outside the two designated refugee camps. As many as 75,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh to escape persecution in Myanmar after its military launched a crackdown in October last year.

About a million Rohingya Muslims live in apartheid-like conditions in squalid camps in northwestern Rakhine state, where they are denied citizenship and basic rights. Many in the Buddhist-majority country regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

By Asian Correspondent

July 3, 2017

MALAYSIA says it will look into taking action against Burma (Myanmar) over the latter’s refusal to allow investigators from the United Nations to investigate alleged abuse of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority group.

The Star quoted Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as saying the government will seek consultation with its foreign ministry on options for diplomatic action against Burma, which is part of the Asean regional intergovernmental organisation.

“I will discuss with Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman. We will look into the latest report of the ongoings in Myanmar (Burma),” he told reporters on Sunday.

Late last week, the Burmese government refused entry to the UN team planning to conduct a fact-finding mission in Rakhine state, home to the majority of the country’s estimated one million stateless Rohingya.

Kyaw Zeya, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the capital, Naypyitaw, on Friday said the government had “no reason” to allow the investigators to come. He explained that Burma would not issue visas to the UN mission’s appointees or staff.

“Our missions worldwide are advised accordingly,” he said.

In October, the Burmese government launched a crackdown in the restive region after militants attacked a security outpost in a incident that killed nine police officers. Since then, the UN and human rights watchdogs have seen a spike in the number of allegations of killings, rape, and torture by Burmese security forces against the Rohingya.

Some 75,000 Rohingya have fled northwestern Rakhine state to Bangladesh following the crackdown which had left at least 100 people dead.

Ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslims have lived separately in Rakhine State since clashes in 2012. The government has refused to recognise the Rohingya as citizens, insisting they are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Violence in Rakhine State has become the biggest challenge facing Suu Kyi’s government and has sparked international criticism that the Nobel Peace Prize winner has done too little to help the Muslim minority.

The treatment of Rohingya in Burma has also strained ties with its Asean counterparts, especially Muslim majority Malaysia and Indonesia.

Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta have been vocal in calling for an end to the alleged abuses with both governments using its Asean channels to warn Burma of a refugee crisis and regional instability. Malaysia has also asked Asean member states to review Burma’s membership in the grouping.

The Asean grouping comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

By Carbonated.TV Editorial

July 3, 2017

If Myanmar has nothing to hide, why isn't the country's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is a Nobel Peace Prize winner, allowing U.N. investigators to visit the country?

When Myanmar transitioned from military rule to civilian democracy, many hoped the new government would make efforts to resolve the Rohingya Muslim crisis that began in 2012.

Many believed the de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is a former Nobel Peace Prize winner, would fight for the rights of the ethnic Muslim community, which is considered an outcast in its own country, despite living there for centuries.

However, all hopes of peace were dashed after Suu Kyi, in the very first 100 days of her rule, banned the usage of the term "Rohingya" to appease Buddhist extremists, who wield considerable influence in Burmese politics.

Suu Kyi, a woman who spent nearly 15 years under house arrest for her human rights advocacy, made it very clear that she was not going to alienate the Buddhist majority for the sake of an unrecognized minority.

In fact, as per latest reports emerging from the region, she appears to be wholly complicit in the discrimination against Rohingya Muslims.

As minister of foreign affairs, Suu Kyi recently refused entry to members of a United Nations investigation focusing on widely reported allegations of killings, rape and torture by security forces against Rohingya Muslims.

“If they are going to send someone with regards to the fact-finding mission, then there’s no reason for us to let them come,” said Kyaw Zeya, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Our missions worldwide are advised accordingly,” he added.

The U.N. mission was announced in the wake of the controversial military crackdown against Rohingya Muslims in October in the Rakhine State.

Scores have been killed while hundreds of others, around 75,000, have fled the country into neighboring countries for refuge in what human rights watchdogs believe is part of a systematic ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim community.

The Burmese army has also been accused of burning down Rohingya Muslim villages and raping the women belonging to the embattled group.

Despite numerous reports citing the aforementioned abuses against Rohingya Muslims, Suu Kyi remains reluctant to let U.N. investigators into the country, arguing it “would have created greater hostility between the different communities." (But does withholding information about the crisis help in resolving it? Of course not.)

If Myanmar has nothing to hide, why isn't Aung San Suu Kyi allowing U.N. investigators to visit the country?

The lies of the State Counsellor Office's Information Committee revealed significant 

On 26 of June, 2017, Hafiz Mohamed Sadek, an Islamic student from Baggonna (Thet Oo Chaung), Sourthern Maungdaw was tortured to death by Border Guard Police. And it has been found that the State Counsellor Office released the news it was a normal death as heart-failure.

(The news released by State Counsellor Office;

https://www.facebook.com/MyanmarSCOInfoCom/photos/a.639477959558647.1073741828.639456206227489/755106691329106/?type=3&theater)

(The denying letter to the State Counsellor Office by digging out the truth of Hafiz Mohamed Sadek's death--

goo.gl/Wjkk2J)

These are the questions the State Counsellor Office should answer;

(1) The State Counsellor Office released "Hafiz Mohamed Sadek told he was suffering chest-indrawing and felt down from sitting. He was taken to Maungdaw hospital and died at night 11:15 pm during receiving the treatment. The deceased had been suffering heart-failure since the last ten years and died suddenly by heart-attack according to Doctor's testifying." So, the question is, why are there so many injuries throughout Mohamed Sadek's body if he dies by heart-attack? (The proof--- this is the dead body of Hafiz Mohamed Sadek)

(2) According to our investigation, Hafiz Mohamed Sadek was not a heart-patient. He was a strong healthy man. (See--- This is the picture of Hafiz Mohamed Sadek before he was arrested;

(3) How can you regard as a heart-patient to such a strong healthy man? Why was his family forced to sign up to certify that he is a heart-patient? Is not that well enough for you with Doctor's testifying? Is not that just to lie? Now, it is the time of the State Counsellor Office to answer; 

(4) In fact, the two pieces of Hafiz Mohamed Sadek's bollocks were cut off, tortured brutally throughout his legs with rods, the two sides of his thighs were sliced down and so on the inhumane brutalities he had faced and was killed. 

(5) It is the shame of the State Counsellor Office lying the truth of the event and protecting the criminal BGP who tortured to death an innocent civilian accusing illegally. Is the Ministry of State Counsellor Office only for lying to people?

(6) Regarding the issue, U Zaw Htay, the spokesman of the President Office also stands on the side of the State Counsellor Office's lying during the interview with VOA. It seems like a big drama of lying they all have been participating. Is not the country ruling just with lies? 

In short, by the event the lies of the State Counsellor Office revealed so significant. Thus, we will keep our eagle-eyes looking to how the State Counsellor Office is going to take action to BGP who killed Hafiz Mohamed Sadek brutally. 

This is to inform to the State Counsellor Office's responsible that all the photos, proofs and documents of the real event of killing an innocent person by BGP that the State Counsellor Office lying shamelessly, already sent to the relevant international Human Rights organizations. 

(Human Rights Monitoring Group of Northern Rakhine State)

By David Baulk

Al Jazeera

June 30, 2017

Impunity for military abuses in Myanmar must come to an end.

Last month, Myanmar's de-facto leader and former human-rights icon Aung San Suu Kyi convened a conference to try to end the many wars that have wracked the country for more than half a century. Leaders of the military and ethnic armed groups, politicians, and civil society activists descended on Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw with the stated aim of achieving what Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party promised when it came to power in April 2016 - "national reconciliation". But an end to Myanmar's decades-long conflicts remains as distant as ever.

As the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar military spoke at last month's conference of his "burning desire" to bring peace to the country, video footage of Myanmar army soldiers torturing ethnic men dressed in civilian clothes emerged. The clip shows soldiers beating, kicking and threatening with death several bound men. As the commanding officer repeatedly bludgeons one man, he says, "I'm going to break all your teeth and cut out your tongue."

This is the kind of brutality the Myanmar military continues to use against ethnic communities, and it is nothing new - in December, footage surfaced online showing state security forces in Rakhine State beating ethnic Rohingya men in a similar fashion. Yet Aung San Suu Kyi's government has announced they will block a United Nations fact-finding mission aimed at holding those responsible to account. If Myanmar's leaders are serious about ending civil war and the culture of impunity in the country, they should do everything in their power to cooperate with the UN mission.

On March 24, the UN Human Rights Council passed a landmark resolution mandating a fact-finding mission to Myanmar to "establish the facts and circumstances of the alleged recent human rights violations by military and security forces … with a view to ensuring full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims."

Rather than welcome it, last week Aung San Suu Kyi told a press conference with Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven that the fact-finding mission was not "in keeping with the needs of the region in which we are trying to establish harmony and understanding". She had previously announced that the government of Myanmar "disassociated" itself from the resolution because it is "not in keeping with what is actually happening on the ground".

Aung San Suu Kyi's thinly veiled defence of Myanmar's security forces is the latest example of her failure to promote and protect human rights and a feeble justification for precluding the fact-finding mission. Her resistance is particularly problematic given that her unparalleled standing in the country could swing public opinion to push for justice and accountability.

However, her heretofore failure to cooperate should not obscure the real reason for the government's apparent opposition to the fact-finding mission. Behind the scenes, Myanmar's military leaders are doing everything they can to frustrate Aung San Suu Kyi's administration and keep international eyes away from their crimes, particularly in the country's north and the west.

The failure of the government to acknowledge and properly investigate recent atrocities by the Myanmar army against Rohingya Muslim civilians in Rakhine State prompted the UN to establish the mission. However, its mandate is broad and is not limited to investigating human rights violations in Rakhine State. This is a good thing for Myanmar - and there is no better time than now for the fact-finding mission to do its work.

Fighting in northern Myanmar has only escalated under Aung San Suu Kyi's administration. An estimated 100,000 people have fled fighting in the north since the conflict between the Myanmar military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) resumed in June 2011. Local civil society and my colleagues and I at Fortify Rights have documented extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, forced labour, and other indiscriminate attacks by the Myanmar army in the course of the conflict. Life-saving aid to the displaced has been severely restricted. Thousands of people do not have adequate food, healthcare or shelter.

In Rakhine State, the Myanmar military conducted "clearance operations" in several villages following an October attack by Rohingya fighters on border guard posts. Since December, Fortify Rights documented cases of Myanmar security forces raping Rohingya women and girls, slitting men's throats, and burning people alive - in some cases killing children and infants. Our findings are consistent with those of a UN report published in February, which concluded that Myanmar's security forces were committing crimes against humanity in Rakhine State.

Aung San Suu Kyi and her civilian government are in a delicate spot. Under the 2008 constitution, the military can declare a state of emergency and suspend the elected government. However, there is little likelihood of this happening and such a dark prospect would still not justify wholesale denials of atrocity crimes and active obstruction of justice. Moreover, domestic support for the UN mission is growing: Scores of organisations throughout the country have pressured the government to fully cooperate with the fact-finding Mission.

The footage of the Myanmar army's brutality surfaced as peace conference delegates parted ways and returned home to their respective areas of conflict. A conference billed as a step towards "national reconciliation" instead served to remind us of the biggest obstacle that stands in its way - impunity for the Myanmar army's crimes. Allowing the UN fact-finding mission unfettered access to investigate human rights violations by military and security forces would help bring that impunity to an end, prevent further violations, and earn much-needed trust from Myanmar's long-suffering minorities.

David Baulk is a Myanmar Human Rights Specialist with Fortify Rights. He is the author of a forthcoming report on avoidable deprivations in aid to war-affected communities in Myanmar. Follow him on Twitter @davidbaulk

By Simon Lewis

Reuters

June 30, 2017

YANGON -- Myanmar will refuse entry to members of a United Nations probe focusing on allegations of killings, rape and torture by security forces against Rohingya Muslims, an official said on Friday.

The government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi had already said it would not cooperate with a mission set up after a Human Rights Council resolution was adopted in March.

"If they are going to send someone with regards to the fact-finding mission, then there's no reason for us to let them come," said Kyaw Zeya, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the capital, Naypyitaw. 

"Our missions worldwide are advised accordingly," he said, explaining that visas to enter Myanmar would not be issued to the mission's appointees or staff.

Suu Kyi, who came to power last year amid a transition from military rule, leads Myanmar through the specially created position of "State Counsellor", but is also minister of foreign affairs.

Although she does not oversee the military, Suu Kyi has been criticized for failing to stand up for the more than 1 million stateless Rohingya Muslims in the western state of Rakhine.

She said during a trip to Sweden this month the UN mission "would have created greater hostility between the different communities". The majority in Rakhine are ethnic Rakhine Buddhists who, like many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, see the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Some 75,000 Rohingya fled northwestern Rakhine state to Bangladesh late last year after the Myanmar army carried out a security operation in response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents that killed nine border police.

A U.N. report in February, based on interviews with some of the Rohingya refugees, said the response involved mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya, and "very likely" amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar, along with neighbors China and India, dissociated itself from the March resolution brought by the European Union, which called for a mission to look into the allegations in Rakhine as well as reports of abuses in ethnic conflicts in the north of the country.

Indira Jaising, an advocate from the Supreme Court of India, was appointed to lead the mission in May. The other two members are Harvard-trained Sri Lankan lawyer Radhika Coomaraswamy and Australian consultant Christopher Dominic.

Myanmar insists that a domestic investigation - headed by former lieutenant general and Vice President Myint Swe - is sufficient to look into the allegations in Rakhine.

"Why do they try to use unwarranted pressure when the domestic mechanisms have not been exhausted?" said Kyaw Zeya.

"It will not contribute to our efforts to solve the issues in a holistic manner," he said.

An advisory panel headed by former UN chief Kofi Annan is set to propose solutions for the broader issues in Rakhine but has not been asked to investigate human rights abuses.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis; Editing by Paul Tait)

By Radio Free Asia

June 30, 2017

Myanmar doubled down Thursday on its refusal to cooperate with United Nations' efforts to investigate reported army atrocities in the strife-ridden western state of Rakhine, with the foreign ministry saying it has ordered the country's embassies not to issue visas to U.N. investigators.

The United Nation Human Rights Council issued a resolution in March calling for the dispatch of an independent, international fact-finding mission to investigate the alleged recent human rights violations by security forces in Rohingya Muslim communities in the northern part of the state.

In May, the council appointed three legal experts and rights advocates as members of a fact-finding mission to investigate the human rights situation in Myanmar, especially in Rakhine state. The mission was tasked with producing a draft report by September.

On Thursday, however, Kyaw Tin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affair, told parliament Myanmar's embassies were ordered not to grant visas to U.N. fact finding mission members.

"Daw [honorific] Aung San Suu Kyi said we would not coordinate with the U.N. fact-finding mission as we have disassociated ourselves from the resolution because we do not think that the resolution is in keeping with what is actually happening on the ground," he said during questioning in parliament.

"We will order Myanmar embassies not to grant any visa to U.N. fact finding mission members. But this mission will travel to Myanmar’s neighboring countries and will ask in these countries what they want to know and submit its report to U.N.," Kyaw Tin added.

Myanmar soldiers carried out a four-month crackdown in parts of Rakhine state following a deadly raid on border guard posts in October 2016, which officials blamed on Rohingya militants in the country’s impoverished and religiously and ethnically divided westernmost area.

The U.N. previously said that reports of atrocities committed during the crackdown that killed an estimated 1,000 people and displaced about 90,000 Rohingya, most of whom fled to neighboring Bangladesh where they are living in refugee camps, may amount to genocide or ethnic cleansing.

'Less than helpful'

On April 11, a top-level Myanmar government official briefing foreign diplomats, U.N. agency personnel, and reporters called the U.N. resolution "less than helpful," saying that Myanmar has made progress in dealing with the situation in Rakhine.

He noted that the government is complying with most of the 30 recommendations made by a Rakhine advisory committee headed by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan by opening restricted areas to news media, allowing increased humanitarian access, and agreeing to close down three internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in three Rakhine towns.

Two weeks later, an open letter sent by 23 rights groups and other international organizations is calling on world governments to urge Myanmar’s cooperation with the U.N. fact-finding mission saying the country would be better off allowing reports of sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, torture, and the destruction of homes by security forces in Rakhine state to be openly and honestly addressed.

The foreign ministry's stance was supported by members of parliament at the hearing.

"This issue can harm our country’s sovereignty. I was thinking that the government must do something effective to protect it," said lawmaker Hla Htay Win.

Another member of parliament, Oo Hla Saw, weighed in, urging a tough line.

"Sending a fact-finding mission to our country is cavalier. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should declare our attitude toward this," he said.

Reported by Win Naung Toe and Thiri Min Zin for RFA's Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Paul Eckert.

RB News

June 29, 2017

Northern Maungdaw -- A Rohingya fisherman was killed and his friend was seriously injured during a chase by the Myanmar military in northern Maungdaw Tuesday (June 27) afternoon, according to a reliable source. 

The fisherman shot dead by the military is identified as Mustaq Ahmed (25), s/o Hala Meah; and another man tortured and injured was Abu Syed (27), s/o Rashid Ahmed. Both are from the village of ‘Shil Hali’ officially known as ‘Kyauk Chaung’ in northern Maungdaw.

"The two fishermen set out for fishing in the Naff River with a peddle-boat around 10am on began propelling back to the river-bank seeing an approaching military motor gun-boat. The gun-boat quickly approached the fishing-boat however. And a fisherman jumped off from their boat in fear and another attempted to flee with the boat.

"The military began shooting at the fleeing man and being hit by bullets, he fell off from the boat and got drown. Another man who had jumped off was arrested by the military and was taken to the ‘Phruma Border Guard Police Camp (BGP) camp’ in northern Maungdaw.

"On Tuesday night, the military released him after an extortion of Kyat 1 Million ransom and the dead body of the other man was also recovered yesterday", said an elderly village man in northern Maungdaw.

Since June 24, the joint Myanmar military and Border Guard Police (BGP) forces have been sporadically conducting raids on the village plundering homes, attacking, arresting and killing people and harassing women. Apparently, the Myanmar armed forces have attempting to fan another 2012-style violence by pitting the Rakhine people against the Rohingyas.

Read earlier reports:

VIOLENCE Looms over Northern Maungdaw ahead of Eid Festival

Myanmar State's Security Forces Flare up VIOLENCE in Northern Maungdaw

Three Rakhine Men Arrested after Explosives Seized in Northern Maungdaw

[RB News Correspondent Report; Edited by M.S. Anwar]

Please email to editor@rohingyablogger.com if you have to send your queries, feedbacks and reports.
______________________

Abu Syed (27), s/o Rashid Ahmed was tortured by the Myanmar military

Mustaq Ahmed (25), so Hala Meah was shot dead by the military

Robert J. Burrowes

RB Article

June 28, 2017

It is a tragic measure of the depravity of human existence that genocide is a continuing and prevalent manifestation of violence in the international system, despite the effort following World War II to abolish it through negotiation, and then adoption and ratification of the 1948 Genocide Convention. https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/unts/volume%2078/volume-78-i-1021-english.pdf

According to the Genocide Convention, genocide is any act committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group by killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group and/or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

While this definition is contested because, for example, it excludes killing of political groups, and words such as ‘democide’ (the murder or intentionally reckless and depraved disregard for the life of any person or people by their government,) and ‘politicide’ (the murder of any person or people because of their political or ideological beliefs) have been suggested as complementary terms, in fact atrocities that have been characterized as ‘genocide’ by various authors include mass killings, mass deportations, politicides, democides, withholding of food and/or other necessities of life, death by deliberate exposure to invasive infectious disease agents or combinations of these. See ‘Genocides in history’. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history

While genocide and attempts at genocide were prevalent enough both before World War II (just ask the world’s indigenous peoples) and then during World War II itself, which is why the issue attracted serious international attention in the war’s aftermath, it cannot be claimed that the outlawing of genocide did much to end the practice, as the record clearly demonstrates.

Moreover, given that the United Nations and national governments, out of supposed ‘deference’ to ‘state sovereignty’, have been notoriously unwilling and slow to meaningfully respond to genocides, as was the case in Rwanda in 1994 and has been the case with the Rohingya in Myanmar (Burma) for four decades – as carefully documented in ‘The Slow-Burning Genocide of Myanmar’s Rohingya’ https://digital.lib.washington.edu/dspace-law/handle/1773.1/1377 – there is little evidence to suggest that major actors in the international system have any significant commitment to ending the practice, either in individual cases or in general. For example, as official bodies of the world watch, solicit reports and debate whether or not the Rohingya are actually victims of genocide, this minority Muslim population clearly suffers from what many organizations and any decent human being have long labeled as such. For a sample of the vast literature on this subject, see ‘The 8 Stages of Genocide Against Burma’s Rohingya’ https://www.undispatch.com/the-8-stages-of-genocide-against-burmas-rohingya/ and ‘Countdown to Annihilation: Genocide in Myanmar’. http://statecrime.org/data/2015/10/ISCI-Rohingya-Report-PUBLISHED-VERSION.pdf

Of course, it is not difficult to understand institutional inaction. Despite its fine rhetoric and even legal provisions, the United Nations, acting in response to the political and corporate elites that control it, routinely fails to act to prevent or halt wars (despite a UN Charter and treaties, such as the Kellogg-Briand Pact, that empower and require it to do so), routinely fails to defend refugees, routinely fails to act decisively on issues (such as nuclear weapons and the climate catastrophe) that constitute global imperatives for human survival, and turns the other way when peoples under military occupation (such as those of Tibet, West Papua, Western Sahara and Palestine) seek their support.

Why then should those under genocidal assault expect supportive action from the UN or international community in general? The factors which drive these manifestations of violence serve a diverse range of geopolitical interests in each case, and are usually highly profitable into the bargain. What hope justice or even decency in such circumstances?

Moreover, the deep psychological imperatives that drive the phenomenal violence in the international system are readily nominated: in essence, phenomenal fear, self-hatred and powerlessness. These psychological characteristics, together with the others that drive the behaviour of perpetrators of violence, have been identified and explained – see ‘Why Violence?’ http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence and ‘Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice’ http://anitamckone.wordpress.com/articles-2/fearless-and-fearful-psychology/ – but it is the way these (unconsciously and deeply-suppressed) emotions are projected that is critical to understanding the violent (and insane) behavioural outcomes in our world. For brief explanations see, for example, ‘Understanding Self-Hatred in World Affairs’ https://www.popularresistance.org/understanding-self-hatred-in-world-affairs/ and ‘The Global Elite is Insane’. http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/06-02-2014/126767-global_elite-0/

Given the deep psychological imperatives that drive the violence of global geopolitics and corporate exploitation (as well as national, subnational and individual acts of violence), we cannot expect a compassionate and effective institutional response to genocide in the prevailing institutional order, as the record demonstrates. So, is there anything a targeted population can do to resist a genocidal assault?

Fortunately, there is a great deal that a targeted population can do. The most effective response is to develop and implement a comprehensive nonviolent strategy to either prevent a genocidal assault in the first place or to halt it once it has begun. This is done most effectively by using a sound strategic framework that guides the comprehensive planning of the strategy. Obviously, there is no point designing a strategy that is incomplete or cannot be successful.

A sound strategic framework enables us to think and plan strategically so that once our strategy has been elaborated, it can be widely shared and clearly understood by everyone involved. It also means that nonviolent actions can then be implemented because they are known to have strategic utility and that precise utility is understood in advance. There is little point taking action at random, especially if our opponent is powerful and committed (even if that ‘commitment’ is insane which, as briefly noted above, is invariably the case).

There is a simple diagram presenting a 12-point strategic framework illustrated here in the form of the ‘Nonviolent Strategy Wheel’. https://nonviolentliberationstrategy.wordpress.com/strategywheel/

In order to think strategically about nonviolently defending against a genocidal assault, a clearly defined political purpose is needed; that is, a simple summary statement of ‘what you want’. In general terms, this might be stated thus: To defend the [nominated group] against the genocidal assault and establish the conditions for the group to live in peace, free of violence and exploitation.

Once the political purpose has been defined, the two strategic aims (‘how you get what you want’) of the strategy acquire their meaning. These two strategic aims (which are always the same whatever the political purpose) are as follows: 1. To increase support for the struggle to defeat the genocidal assault by developing a network of groups who can assist you. 2. To alter the will and undermine the power of those groups inciting, facilitating, organizing and conducting the genocide.

While the two strategic aims are always the same, they are achieved via a series of intermediate strategic goals which are always specific to each struggle. I have identified a generalized set of 48 strategic goals that would be appropriate in the context of ending any genocide here. https://nonviolentliberationstrategy.wordpress.com/strategywheel/strategic-aims/ These strategic goals can be readily modified to the circumstances of each particular instance of genocide.

Many of these strategic goals would usually be tackled by action groups working in solidarity with the affected population campaigning in third-party countries. Of course, individual activist groups would usually accept responsibility for focusing their work on achieving just one or a few of the strategic goals (which is why any single campaign within the overall strategy is readily manageable).

As I hope is apparent, the two strategic aims are achieved via a series of intermediate strategic goals.

Not all of the strategic goals will need to be achieved for the strategy to be successful but each goal is focused in such a way that its achievement will functionally undermine the power of those conducting the genocide.

It is the responsibility of the struggle’s strategic leadership to ensure that each of the strategic goals, which should be identified and prioritized according to their precise understanding of the circumstances in the country where the genocide is occurring, is being addressed (or to prioritize if resource limitations require this).

I wish to emphasize that I have only briefly discussed two aspects of a comprehensive strategy for ending a genocide: its political purpose and its two strategic aims (with its many subsidiary strategic goals). For the strategy to be effective, all twelve components of the strategy should be planned (and then implemented). See Nonviolent Defense/Liberation Strategy. https://nonviolentliberationstrategy.wordpress.com/

This will require, for example, that tactics that will achieve the strategic goals must be carefully chosen and implemented bearing in mind the vital distinction between the political objective and strategic goal of any such tactic. See ‘The Political Objective and Strategic Goal of Nonviolent Actions’. https://nonviolentliberationstrategy.wordpress.com/articles/political-objective-strategic-goal/

It is not difficult to nonviolently defend a targeted population against genocide. Vitally, however, it requires a leadership that can develop a sound strategy so that people are mobilized and deployed effectively.

Robert J. Burrowes has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of ‘Why Violence?’ http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence His email address is flametree@riseup.net and his website is here. http://robertjburrowes.wordpress.com

RB News

June 28, 2017

Northern Maungdaw -- Three Rakhine men have been arrested in Northern Maungdaw after explosives and weapons were found inside their car by the Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP), according to an eyewitness report.

The police searched the car on suspicion while the Rakhine men stopped at the market of the village of 'Thaman Thar' (locally called Shaab Bazaar) to fix the flat tire of the car at around 1:00pm (on June 27).

After seizures of the explosive materials and three guns found in the car, the Police seized the car; and arrested and took the Rakhine men to the Border Guard Police Post in the Region 2, northern Maungdaw. 

After the fighting between four Rakhine men -- who were later identified as military personnel in civil dress -- and some unidentified Rohingya men nearby the village of 'Kyun Pauk Pyu Zuu' in Northern Maungdaw on June 24, the joint forces of the Myanmar military and Border Guard Police along with scores of Rakhine extremists armed with swords and machetes have been sporadically conducting raids on the village plundering homes, killing and attacking people, and harassing women alleging that the Rohingya men indulged in the fighting were from the village. Apparently, the Myanmar State is now attempting to fan a 2012-style violence pitting the Rakhine people against the Rohingyas. 

As the situation in northern Maungdaw is deliberately being intensified by the Myanmar armed forces, the local Rohingyas express their fear that Rakhine extremist groups and rebel groups are reportedly supplying weapons to the local Rakhine people who are also backed by the State.

Read earlier reports:

VIOLENCE Looms over Northern Maungdaw ahead of Eid Festival

Myanmar State's Security Forces Flare up VIOLENCE in Northern Maungdaw

[Reported by Rohingya Eye; Edited by M.S. Anwar]

Myo Naing

RB News

June 27, 2017

Southern Maungdaw -- The Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) tortured a Rohingya Man to death in Southern Maungdaw last night (on June 26).

This morning, the Police arrived at his home in the village of Baggona and took a forced confession that he died suffering from diseases.

The victim was trapped and arrested by the Police when he visited the village's market on the Ocassion of Islamic Eid Festival.

The victim is identified as 'Hafiz Mohammed Sadek' S/o 'Mv Nazir Ahmed', 35, and was a student of religious studies.

"He was Hafiz, who knew the Holy Quran by heart. He was arrested by the Border Guard Police from 'Maggyi Chaung' Camp at the village's market yesterday. He was tortured the whole night.

In the morning when he died due to the extreme tortures, the Police came to his wife and FORCED her to give a statement that he was suffering from multiple diseases and hence died in the Police lock-up", said a said an elderly man in Southern Maungdaw asking not to be identified.

His dead-body was sent to the Maungdaw Hospital for autopsy and hasn't been handed over to his family (as of 11 AM Myanmar Time).

Another village man, Mohammed Toyub (son of) Nazir, a magician by profession, was arbitrarily arrested by the Border Guard Police in Baggona village on June 25. He has been incommunicado since then.