Latest Highlight

Rohingya refugee Mohamed Jabair, 21, poses for a photograph to show burns on his bodies, which he said he sustained when his house was set on fire in Myanmar, at Kutupalang refugee camp, near Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

By Jorge Silva
November 17, 2017

COX‘S BAZAR, Bangladesh -- The two Rohingya Muslim brothers, six-year-old Mohamed Heron and four-year-old Akhter, held each other as they showed burns on their arms and torsos that their uncle says resulted from Myanmar’s armed forces firing rockets at their village.

Two of their siblings, one seven years old and the other a 10-month-old infant, died in the attack, according to their uncle, Mohamed Inus. Their father was held by the military and has not been heard of since. 

“These two children survived when our village was fired on with rockets,” Inus told Reuters at Kutupalong refugee camp, near Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. 

They were among a number of Rohingya who showed their wounds to a Reuters photographer who visited Kutupalong and the nearby camps at Balukhali, Leda and Nayapara. 

(Click reut.rs/2hBZZoK to view the photo essay) 

Fleeing along with other villagers who abandoned their scorched homes, the boys reached Bangladesh after a three-day trek. At Kutupalong, they were treated for three weeks for their burns at a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) clinic. 

Since the ethnic violence erupted in late August, thousands of Rohingya have crossed the border each week, often travelling for days and even weeks, trekking through forests and over mountains, with many making a hazardous river or sea crossing on the last leg of their flight to fellow-Muslim Bangladesh. 

Bangladeshi hospitals and international aid agencies are struggling to provide medical care for all the refugees, many of whom have suffered horrific injuries and psychological trauma. 

Since the crisis began, Chittagong Medical College Hospital has received 261 casualties suffering wounds from gunshots or explosions, according to its director, Brigadier General Jalal Uddin. 

Sixteen have died from their wounds and some have been crippled. 

“We have had to amputate the limbs of some patients,” Jalal Uddin said. 

Sadar Hospital in Cox’s Bazar had treated 1,467 Rohingya since the exodus began for injuries including bullet wounds, broken bones, and cuts inflicted by knives or machetes, residential medical officer Shaheen Abdur Rahman Chowdhury said. 

More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Myanmar’s military launched what it described as “clearance operations” following a series of attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts in Rakhine state in late August. 

Rights monitors and fleeing Rohingya say the army and Rakhine Buddhist vigilantes have mounted a campaign of arson aimed at driving out the Muslim population. 

The U.N. rights agency said it was “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. Myanmar, an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, rejects the charge, saying its forces targeted insurgents of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, whom it has accused of setting fires and attacking civilians. 

At the camps in Bangladesh, other Rohingya victims of the violence recounted the horrors they had lived through.

ANWARA BEGUM 

Anwara Begum, 36, said she woke to find her home in Maungdaw township, in the northernmost part of Rakhine state, in flames. Before she could get out the burning roof caved in on her and her nylon clothes melted onto her arms. 

Her husband carried her for eight days to reach the Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh. 

“I thought I was going to die. I tried to stay alive for my children,” she said, adding she was still waiting for treatment for her burns. 

IMAM HOSSAIN 

His right arm swathed in bandages from the knuckles of his hand to well above the elbow, Imam Hossain, 42, lay exhausted on the roadside near the Kutupalong camp. 

He was returning home after teaching at a madrassa in his village when three men attacked him with knives. 

The next day, he made his wife and two children leave with other villagers fleeing to Bangladesh. He reached Cox’s Bazar later. He was still searching for his family. 

“I want to ask the Myanmar government why they are harming the Rohingya,” he said. “Why do Buddhists hate us? Why do you torture us? What is wrong with us?” 

MOHAMED JABAIR 

Suffering burns to his limbs and torso, Mohamed Jabair, 21, had feared that he had also lost his sight in an explosion that ripped through his village home. 

Knocked unconscious and badly burned, Jabair was carried by his brother and others for four days to Cox’s Bazar. 

“I was blind for many weeks and admitted to a government hospital in Cox’s Bazar for 23 days. I was frightened that I would be blind forever,” he said. 

Jabair said money sent by relatives in Malaysia had run out and he could no longer afford treatment.

Rohingya refugee Imam Hossain, 42, sleeps on the ground at Kutupalang refugee camp, near Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, October 14, 2017. . REUTERS/Jorge Silva


NUR KAMAL 

Bowing to show deep cuts arcing across his scalp, 17-year-old Nur Kamal described how soldiers assaulted him after they found the young shopkeeper hiding in his home in Kan Hpu village in Maungdaw. 

“They hit me with a rifle butt on my head first and then with a knife,” Kamal said. 

His uncle found him unconscious in a pool of blood. It took them two weeks to get to Bangladesh. 

“We want justice,” Kamal said. “We want the international community to help us obtain justice.” 

KALABAROW 

Her husband, daughter and one son were killed when soldiers fired on Kalabarow’s village in Maungdaw. The 50-year-old woman was hit in her right foot. For several hours, she lay where she fell, pretending to be dead, before a grandson found her. 

During their 11-day journey to Bangladesh, a village doctor amputated her infected foot and four men carried her on a stretcher made of bamboo and a bedsheet. 

“As we walked through the forest, we saw burnt villages and dead bodies. I thought we would never be safe,” she said. 

ABDUR RAHAMAN

Abdur Rahaman, a 73-year-old merchant from Maungdaw, was ambushed while walking on a mountain path with other refugees. 

A machete thrown at his feet severed three toes as he ran from his attackers. With his foot bleeding through a tourniquet made from his longyi, or sarong, Rahaman walked for two more hours, before his nephew and friends carried him across the border. 

“Our future is not good,” he said. “Allah must help us. The international community has to do something.” 

ANSAR ALLAH 

Curled up in a ball, 11-year-old Ansar Allah shows a large, livid scar on his right thigh - the result of a gunshot wound. 

“They sprayed us with bullets, as our house was burning,” his mother Samara said. 

“It was a bullet half the size of my index finger,” she said, before adding, “I can’t stop thinking, why did God put us in that dangerous situation?” 

SETARA BEGUM 

Setara Begum, 12, was among nine siblings in their home in Maungdaw when it was hit by a rocket. 

“I saved eight of my nine children from the burning house, but Setara was trapped inside,” said her mother, Arafa. 

“I could see her crying in the middle of the fire, but it was difficult to save her. By the time we could reach her, she was badly burned,” Arafa said. 

Setara’s father carried her for two days to Bangladesh. 

The young girl received no treatment for the severe burns to her feet. Her feet healed. But she has no toes. 

The trauma has scarred her psychologically. 

“She has been mute from that day, and doesn’t speak to anyone,” her mother said. “She only cries silently.” 

MOMTAZ BEGUM 

Her face heavily bandaged, Momtaz Begum told how soldiers came to her village demanding valuables. 

“I told them I was poor and had nothing. One of them started beating me saying, ‘If you have no money, then we will kill you’.” 

After beating her, they locked her in her home and set fire to the roof. She escaped to find her three sons dead and her daughter beaten and bleeding. 

Momtaz fled to Bangladesh, where she spent 20 days at the MSF clinic being treated for burns to her face and body. 

“What can I say about the future, if now we have no food, no house, no family. We cannot think about the future. They have killed that as well.” 

Additional reporting by Serajul Quadir, Nurul Islam and Nazimuddin Shyamol; Writing by Karishma Singh; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Simon Cameron-Moore

A Rohingya Muslim, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh recently, sleeps on his belongings as he waits for permission to proceed towards a refugee camp near Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh, Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar's Rakhine state since late August, when the military launched what they called "clearance operations" in response to insurgent attacks. The refugees say soldiers and Buddhist mobs attacked them and burned their villages to force them to flee. (AP Photo/ A.M. Ahad)

November 16, 2017

United Nations -- A key U.N. committee has overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on Myanmar's authorities to end military operations against Rohingya Muslims, ensure their voluntary return from Bangladesh and grant them "full citizenship rights."

The General Assembly's human rights committee approved the resolution sponsored by the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation by a vote of 135-10 with 26 abstentions on Thursday.

Those voting "no" included Myanmar's close neighbor, China, as well as Russia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Laos.

The resolution now goes to the 193-member General Assembly for a final vote in December where its approval is virtually certain.

Saudi Arabia's U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi spoke on behalf of the OIC and said "another inhumane scene" of religious hatred is unfolding in Myanmar, forcing nearly 620,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.

By Ruma Paul
November 16, 2017

DHAKA -- Filmstar Angelina Jolie has condemned sexual violence inflicted on Rohingya women in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, where a military counter-insurgency operation has sent hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees across the border to Bangladesh.

More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar since late August, driven out by the military’s actions that a top United Nations official has described as a classic case of “ethnic cleansing”.

Jolie, a special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a Bangladesh delegation in the Canadian city of Vancouver that she planned to visit the Rohingya victims of sexual violence.

“Later she mentioned accordingly in her keynote speech about the sexual violence faced by almost each female Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh and condemned the armed conflict in Myanmar,” Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday. 

It gave no details of Jolie’s proposed trip.

21st Annual Hollywood Film Awards – Arrivals - Beverly Hills, California, U.S., 05/11/2017 - Actress Angelina Jolie. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

On Thursday, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused Myanmar security forces of committing widespread rape against women and girls as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing. 

The allegation echoes an accusation this week by Pramila Patten, the U.N. special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, who said sexual violence was “being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar.” 

Myanmar’s army released a report on Monday denying all allegations of rape and killings by security forces, days after replacing the general in charge of the operation. 

In parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh would overcome obstacles to resolve the Rohingya crisis, with the help of the international community.

“I strongly believe we will find a peaceful solution to the unprecedented crisis with the help of the international community, despite various obstacles,” she said. 

There were already about 300,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh before the most recent exodus. 

Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Clarence Fernandez



November 16, 2017

Soldiers Commit Gang Rape, Murder Children

New York – Burmese security forces have committed widespread rape against women and girls as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Burma’s Rakhine State, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 37-page report, “‘All of My Body Was Pain’: Sexual Violence Against Rohingya Women and Girls in Burma,” documents the Burmese military’s gang rape of Rohingya women and girls and further acts of violence, cruelty, and humiliation. Many women described witnessing the murders of their young children, spouses, and parents. Rape survivors reported days of agony walking with swollen and torn genitals while fleeing to Bangladesh.

“Rape has been a prominent and devastating feature of the Burmese military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya,” said Skye Wheeler, women’s rights emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “The Burmese military’s barbaric acts of violence have left countless women and girls brutally harmed and traumatized.” 

Rohingya women refugees who crossed the Naf River from Burma into Bangladesh continue inland toward refugee camps. Tek Naf, Cox's Bazar district, Bangladesh. © 2017 Anastasia Taylor-Lind

Since August 25, 2017, the Burmese military has committed killings, rapes, arbitrary arrests, and mass arson of homes in hundreds of predominantly Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine State, forcing more than 600,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. Human Rights Watch has found that these abuses amount to crimes against humanity under international law. The military operations were sparked by attacks by the armed group the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on 30 security force outposts and an army base that killed 11 Burmese security personnel.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 52 Rohingya women and girls who had fled to Bangladesh, including 29 rape survivors, 3 of them girls under 18, as well as 19 representatives of humanitarian organizations, United Nations agencies, and the Bangladeshi government. The rape survivors came from 19 villages in Rakhine State.

Burmese soldiers raped women and girls both during major attacks on villages and in the weeks prior to these attacks after repeated harassment, Human Rights Watch found. In every case described to Human Rights Watch, the rapists were uniformed members of Burmese security forces, almost all military personnel. Ethnic Rakhine villagers, acting in apparent coordination with Burmese military, sexually harassed Rohingya women and girls, often in connection with looting.

Fifteen-year-old Hala Sadak, from Hathi Para village in Maungdaw Township, said soldiers had stripped her naked and then dragged her from her home to a nearby tree where, she estimates, about 10 men raped her from behind. She said, “They left me where I was…when my brother and sister came to get me, I was lying there on the ground, they thought I was dead.”

All but one of the rapes reported to Human Rights Watch were gang rapes. In six reported cases of “mass rape,” survivors said that soldiers gathered Rohingya women and girls into groups and then gang raped or raped them. Many of those interviewed also said that witnessing soldiers killing their family members was the most traumatic part of the attacks. They described soldiers bashing the heads of their young children against trees, throwing children and elderly parents into burning houses, and shooting their husbands.

Humanitarian organizations working with refugees in Bangladesh have reported hundreds of rape cases. These most likely only represent a small proportion of the actual number because of the significant number of reported cases of rape victims being killed and the deep stigma that makes victims reluctant to report sexual violence, especially in crowded emergency health clinics with little privacy. Two-thirds of rape survivors interviewed had not reported their rape to authorities or humanitarian organizations.

Many reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, and untreated injuries, including vaginal tears and bleeding, and infections.

“One tragic dimension of this horrific crisis is that Rohingya women and girls are suffering profound physical and mental trauma without getting needed health care,” Wheeler said. “Bangladeshi authorities and aid agencies need to do more community outreach among the Rohingya to provide confidential spaces to report abuse and reduce stigma around sexual violence.”

Burmese authorities have rejected the growing documentation of sexual violence by the military. In September, the Rakhine state border security minister denied the reports. “Where is the proof?” he said. “Look at those women who are making these claims – would anyone want to rape them?”

Human Rights Watch previously documented widespread rape of women and girlsduring military “clearance operations” in late 2016 in northern Rakhine State, allegations the Burmese government crudely rejected as “fake rape.” In general, the government and military have failed to hold military personnel accountable for grave abuses against ethnic minority populations. Multiple biased and poorly conducted investigations in Rakhine State largely dismissed the allegations of these abuses.

Burma’s government should end the violations against the Rohingya immediately, cooperate fully with international investigators, including the Fact-Finding Mission established by the UN Human Rights Council, and allow humanitarian aid organizations unimpeded access to Rakhine State.

Bangladesh and international donors have acted quickly to provide relief for the refugees, and are expanding assistance for rape survivors. Concerned governments should also impose travel bans and asset freezes on Burmese military officials implicated in human rights abuses; expand existing arms embargoes to include all military sales, assistance, and cooperation; and ban financial transactions with key Burmese military-owned enterprises.

The UN Security Council should impose a full arms embargo on Burma and individual sanctions against military leaders responsible for grave violations of human rights, including sexual violence. The council should also refer the situation in Rakhine State to the International Criminal Court. It should request a public briefing from the UN special representative of the secretary-general for sexual violence in conflict, who just returned from the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh.

“UN bodies and member countries need to work together to press Burma to end the atrocities, ensure that those responsible are held to account, and address the massive problems facing the Rohingya, including victims of sexual violence,” Wheeler said. “The time for consequences is now, otherwise future Burmese military attacks on the Rohingya community appear inevitable.”

Selected accounts from Human Rights Watch interviews
  • Fatima Begum, 33, was raped one day before she fled a major attack on her village of Chut Pyin in Rathedaung Township during which dozens of people were massacred. She said: “I was held down by six men and raped by five of them. First, they [shot and] killed my brother … then they threw me to the side and one man tore my lungi [sarong], grabbed me by the mouth and held me still. He stuck a knife into my side and kept it there while the men were raping me. That was how they kept me in place. … I was trying to move and [the wound] was bleeding more. They were threatening to shoot me.”
  • Shaju Hosin, 30, saw one of her children killed when she fled their home village of Tin May, Buthiduang Township. She said: “I have three kids now. I had another one – Khadija – she was 5-years-old. When we were running from the village she was killed, in the attack. She was running last, less fast, trying to catch up with us. A soldier swung at her with his gun and bashed her head in, after that she fell down. We kept running.”
  • After her village was attacked, Mamtaz, Yunis, 33, and other women and men fled to the hills. Burmese soldiers trapped her and about 20 other women for a night and two days without food or shelter on the side of a hill. She said the soldiers raped women in front of the gathered women, or took individual women away, and then returned the women, silent and ashamed, to the group. She said, “The men in uniform, they were grabbing the women, pulling a lot of women, they pulled my clothes off and tore them off…. There were so many women … we were weeping but there was nothing we could do.” 
  • Isharhat Islam, 40, was raped by soldiers during military operations in her village Hathi Para (Sin Thay Pyin) in October 2016 and then again during the recent military operations. She described the stigma she faces, saying, “I have had to deal with disgust, others looking away from me.”
  • Three of Toyuba Yahya’s six children were killed just outside her house in Hathi Para (Sin Thay Pyin) village in Maungdaw Township. Then seven men in military uniform raped her. She said that soldiers killed two of her sons, ages 2 and 3. by beating their heads against the trunk of a tree outside her home. The soldiers then killed her 5-year-old daughter. She said: “My baby … I wanted him to be alive but he slowly died afterward … My daughter, they picked her high up and then smashed her against the ground. She was killed. I do not know why they did that. [Now] I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. Instead: thoughts, thoughts, thoughts, thoughts. I can’t rest. My child wants to go home. He doesn't understand that everything has been lost.”

An estimated 600,000 Rohingya refugees have fled violence into Bangladesh [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]

By Saif Khalid
November 15, 2017

Activists have called for stronger action to stop the "ongoing genocide" against Rohingya Muslims after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he was against "broad-based economic sanctions" against Myanmar.

At a joint press conference with Myanmar's de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the capital Naypyitaw on Wednesday, Tillerson said he favoured individual sanctions against military officials based on "credible and reliable information" of their involvement in atrocities.

Responding to Tillerson's call for an independent investigation, Tun Khin - president of Burmese Rohingya Organisation based in the UK - asked how it will be carried out when the military is refusing to allow a fact-finding mission on the ground.

"Rohingya people are facing genocide in the 21st century. This is the time to act. What the US and the international community is doing is not enough," said Tun Khin.

According to a report published on Tuesday by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Fortify Rights, there is "mounting evidence" of genocide against the Rohingya in Myanmar.

"These crimes thrive on impunity and inaction," said Matthew Smith, chief executive officer of Fortify Rights in a statement. "Condemnations aren’t enough. Without urgent international action towards accountability, more mass killings are likely."

Tun Khin called for targeted sanctions against Myanmar's military, which has driven out about 600,000 Rohingya from western Rakhine state into neighbouring Bangladesh since August.

"Every day Rohingyas are being killed and their houses burnt. It's two-and-a-half months since the military offensive began and still atrocities are continuing," he said.

"We demand that Myanmar be referred to the ICC [the International Criminal Court] and the UN peace-keeping force be deployed to protect the lives of Rohingya. We also need a UN-mandated global arms embargo on the country."

Human rights activists have also lambasted a report by Myanmar's army that said no Rohingya civilians were killed in the military crackdown launched in the wake of deadly attacks on soldiers by an armed Rohingya group.

Ro Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist based in Germany, said the army will never admit its crimes against the Rohingya - which troops have been committing for the past 39 years.

"They have committed many crimes against other minorities as well such as Karen, Kachin and Shan," said Ro Nay San Lwin.

Myanmar's army has transferred Major-General Maung Maung Soe, who was behind the crackdown against the Rohingya, to another post.

But Ro Nay San Lwin said this was just a "public relations exercise".

"This was done to show that they [the military] are taking actions ahead of Tillerson's visit."

Rohingya refugees in Teknaf (Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain)

By Tarek Mahmud
November 15, 2017

The newly arrived Rohingya refugees are interested in biometric registration for facilitated relief-taking and thinking of a facilitated future repatriation process

Bangladesh has so far completed the biometric registration of 512,058 Rohingya refugees who have entered Bangladesh to flee the ethnic violence carried out by the Myanmar army in Rakhine state.

The registration process, which started on September 12, is being conducted at 70 booths in seven biometric registration centres in the Ukhiya and Teknaf upazilas of Cox’s Bazar.

The Press Information Department (PID) confirmed the number and said: “Rohingyas are still coming to Bangladesh from Myanmar’s Rakhine state but the influx has slowed down.”

The head of the Department of Immigration and Passport (DIP) said the biometric registration of the refugees could be completed by the end of the year.

“At this speed, all the refugees could be registered in a month,” DIP Director General Maj Gen Md Masud Rezwan said. “The registration will also help Bangladesh repatriate the displaced Rohingyas back to Myanmar.”

DIP’s Technical Engineer, squadron leader Md Arefin Ahmed, said the registration process will help the administration to identify and Rohingya who attempts to acquire a national identity card, driving licence or passport.

“We are registering the fingerprints so that the refugees can be detected easily in the future. This way, any Rohingya with ill-motives will not be able to get a Bangladeshi identity card or a passport illegally, since all data is being stored at the DIP and Election Commission data bank,” he said.

“Creating such enriched database has brought more discipline during relief distribution, too.”

The company that is providing technical support in the biometric registrations believes the process will assist in the repatriation of the refugees once the issue is resolved.

“The expectation has been raised with the example of how Germany registered the Syrian refugees to ensure each one is identified while performing any activity within Germany,” Tiger IT team deputy general manager, Rajib Chowdhury, said.

According to Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission, up to November 13 around 627,500 Rohingyas had entered Bangladesh since the latest military crackdown began in Rakhine state on August 25.

Apart from the newly-arrived Rohingyas, an estimated 500,000 of the minority ethnic group have been living in the two upazilas of Cox’s Bazar for years now, according to unofficial sources.

Authorities have found that the new Rohingya refugees at the camps are interested in biometric registration to enjoy relief facilities and to ensure the prospect of repatriation in the future.

However, the Rohingyas who have been residing in Bangladesh for many years show no interest in registering, but would rather enjoy the benefits like a Bangladeshi citizen.

DIP’s Assistant Director Tarique Salman said they are working to raise awareness among the previously arrived Rohingyas so that they are inspired to become biometrically registered.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has estimated that a further 200,000 Rohingyas are likely to arrive in Bangladesh from Myanmar in the coming weeks – bringing the total Rohingya population to over one million officially – only exacerbating an already unimaginable humanitarian crisis.

Terming the Myanmar Army’s oppression as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”, the United Nations has said that the Myanmar army and local mobs have burned all of the estates in Rakhine to the ground, after killing and raping the inhabitants.

The Buddhist-majority Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingyas as citizens, forcing them to live in squalid camps under apartheid-like conditions.

Rohingya refugee Mohammed Siddiq poses for a photo in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on November 2, 2017. THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION/Beh Lih Yi

By Beh Lih Yi
November 15, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR -- In a dimly lit shop in Kuala Lumpur, where dried fish, herbs and pickled tea leaves imported from Myanmar are on display, two men sit behind a counter inspecting bank notes.

“We send money to Balukhali and Kutupalong everyday,” one of the men, wearing a long white robe and an Islamic skullcap, said to a Rohingya man approaching the counter. 

“Send today, money arrives on the same day,” he said. 

The shop is among many in the Malaysian capital that Rohingya use to send money to the two vast refugee camps in Bangladesh since a military crackdown in August prompted over 600,000 members of the ethnic group to flee Myanmar. 

The Rohingya, a Muslim minority denied citizenship in Myanmar, have been escaping persecution in their mostly Buddhist homeland for decades but the latest exodus was the worst in years. 

With Rohingya families still heading to the camps, refugees who left in earlier waves who have managed to establish some sort of modest livelihood are pooling together their limited resources to send money to the newly displaced. 

Much is flowing from Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country that is home to more than 50,000 Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers, where many of them work as daily laborers, hawkers and construction workers. 

Money transfer companies have reported a spike in remittances since the crisis erupted in August. 

But the community is also tapping popular mobile money services and a centuries-old transfer system with roots in the Middle East to send financial aid to the camps for families to buy food, medicine and other necessities. 

‘THEY HAVE NOTHING NOW’ 

Rohingya refugee Kamal, who has been in Malaysia since 2012, said his parents and six siblings fled to Bangladesh’s Balukhali camp in October and are counting on him for financial support.

Among them is his 65-year-old diabetic father who needs a regular supply of medicine. 

“They have nothing now, they have to buy every single thing,” Kamal told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a rented low-cost flat on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur that he and his wife share with another couple. 

“To boil water, they have to buy firewood and a bunch of wood is 40 taka (50 cents), which is enough to get a meal,” said the 30-year-old refugee, who uses a pseudonym to protect his identity. 

Kamal uses bKash, a popular Bangladeshi mobile money service, to send money to his family from wages he earns working odd jobs - sometimes 1,000 taka ($12)and sometimes up to 5,000 taka ($60) - as often as he can. 

His family pick up the money in Bangladesh from certified agents using a code. 

An employee at a licensed money transfer firm in Pudu, an area in central Kuala Lumpur frequented by refugees, said she had received an average of 30 money transfer requests daily to Bangladesh since the latest violence erupted.

In the past, Myanmar refugees would typically send money to their homeland, rather than Bangladesh, said the staff member, who declined to give her name. 

Remitting money through an official transfer store requires the Rohingya to show their U.N. refugee cards. 

That’s not something all Rohingya in Malaysia possess – it can be a slow process for a newly arrived asylum-seeker to apply for refugee status, and applications are not always successful. 

Those without official documents have turned to a network of informal transfer outlets modeled on the ancient “hawala” system which is based on trust, and typically leaves no paper trail. 

The system involves agents accepting funds in one country and promising to pay a beneficiary in another country in exchange for a fee that is smaller than at a bank.

Hawala is popular among migrants in the Middle East and has been used to remit money to remote areas, where banking is out of reach or too costly. 

TRUST, PERSONAL TIES 

Mohammed Siddiq, 34, hands over cash to one of these agents every month to send money to his family in a camp for displaced people in Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar’s western Rakhine state. 

The agent notifies his counterparts in Sittwe, and the money is delivered to his family inside the camp. 

“We trust our people, the agents have been loyal to us,” said Siddiq, who has been in Malaysia for 13 years and supports himself by delivering chickens to shops. 

“I have to trust these people because my family members in the camp have no other resources. I was afraid and worried but there is no other way.” 

Most of these services are run from grocery stores or restaurants popular with the Rohingya community in downtown Kuala Lumpur, often from an unmarked backroom. 

Siddiq said he uses the services because sometimes, when he was short of cash to send to his family, the agents would loan him money and note down the debt which he could repay later. 

A Rohingya man, who used to be an agent, said refugees rely on the system because of trust and personal ties, and their family is able to collect the money usually within a few hours. 

“Most of the time when the Myanmar people here have to send money it involves an emergency, so this is quick and efficient,” said the refugee, who declined to give his name. 

But he stopped acting as a middleman after a few months, partly because too many Rohingya were turning to him to borrow money. 

“It is hard to say no to friends, relatives because they are in emergency,” he said. “But later they disappeared, and I kept making losses.” 

Reporting by Beh Lih Yi @behlihyi, Editing by Ros Russell



New Report: Mounting Evidence of Genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar

International cooperation needed to halt killing and seek justice

(WASHINGTON D.C. and COX’S BAZAR, November 15, 2017) — There is “mounting evidence” of genocide against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, according to a new report published today by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Fortify Rights. The government of Myanmar has a responsibility to halt atrocities being perpetrated by Myanmar security forces, civilian perpetrators, and militants and hold perpetrators accountable. The international community should develop and implement a shared strategy to ensure the cessation of atrocities and advance accountability.

“The Rohingya have suffered attacks and systematic violations for decades, and the international community must not fail them now when their very existence in Myanmar is threatened” said Cameron Hudson, Director of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Without urgent action, there’s a high risk of more mass atrocities.”

“They Tried to Kill Us All”: Atrocity Crimes against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, Myanmar is based on one year of research conducted by Fortify Rights and the United States Holocaust Museum in Myanmar and Bangladesh. More than 200 in-depth, in-person interviews—documented primarily by Fortify Rights in Myanmar and on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border—with Rohingya survivors and eyewitnesses of atrocity crimes, as well as international aid workers, informed the report.

It documents widespread and systematic attacks on Rohingya civilians from October 9 - December 2016 and from August 25, 2017 to the present day committed by Myanmar Army soldiers, police, and civilians.

“They tried to kill us all,” said “Mohammed Rafiq,” 25, from Min Gyi village in Maungdaw Township, recalling how soldiers corralled villagers in a group and opened fire on them on August 30, 2017. “There was nothing left. People were shot in the chest, stomach, legs, face, head, everywhere.”

The report reveals how Myanmar state security forces and civilian perpetrators committed mass killings in dozens of villages in Maungdaw Township in the first wave of violence in 2016 and in villages throughout all three townships of northern Rakhine State since August 25, 2017. Myanmar Army soldiers and civilian perpetrators slit throats; burned victims alive, including infants and children; beat civilians to death; raped and gang raped women and children. State security forces opened fire on men, women, and children at close range and at a distance and from land and helicopters, killing untold numbers. Survivors from some villages described how perpetrators slashed women’s breasts, hacked bodies to pieces, and beheaded victims, including children.

“These crimes thrive on impunity and inaction,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights. “Condemnations aren’t enough. Without urgent international action towards accountability, more mass killings are likely.”

More than half of Myanmar’s one million Rohinyga have fled the country in the past nine weeks and over 700,000 Rohingya are now living as refugees in Bangladesh. Thousands are still arriving in Bangladesh weekly. Since 2012, the Government of Myanmar has confined more than 120,000 Rohingya to more than 35 internment camps throughout Rakhine State.

The Myanmar Army-led assault on Rohingya civilians comes in response to attacks by the Rohingya militant group, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on three police outposts on October 9, 2016 that left nine dead and another attack on 30 police outposts and one army base on August 25, 2017 that left at least 12 dead. Members of ARSA are also responsible for human rights violations.

The government of Myanmar has enforced strict restrictions on Rohingya freedom of movement, marriage, childbirth, and other aspects of daily life for decades. The authorities deny Rohingya Myanmar citizenship by law and deny their ethnic identity, claiming they are interlopers from Bangladesh and casting them as an existential threat to Buddhist culture. The government continues to deny the delivery of essential humanitarian aid, including food and nutrition, to affected areas of northern Rakhine State.

“These crimes won’t end on their own,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Fortify Rights. “People of conscience in Myanmar need to do everything possible to end the abuses and culture of impunity in the country.”

Along with recommendations for the Government of Myanmar, the report details options for the international community, such as: enacting targeted sanctions on the individuals responsible for crimes in Rakhine State, instituting an arms embargo on Myanmar, and referring the situation to the International Criminal Court, which was established to investigate, try, and prosecute those responsible for atrocity crimes when the State is unwilling or unable to do so.

Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attend a press conference at Naypyitaw, Myanmar November 15, 2015. REUTERS/Aye Win Myint

By Antoni Slodkowski
November 15, 2017

NAYPYITAW -- U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Wednesday for a credible investigation into reports of human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims committed by Myanmar’s security forces after a meeting with its civilian and military leaders.

More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since late August, driven out by a military counter-insurgency clearance operation in Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s Rakhine State. 

A top U.N. official has described the military’s actions as a textbook case of “ethnic cleansing”. 

“We’re deeply concerned by credible reports of widespread atrocities committed by Myanmar’s security forces and by vigilantes who were unrestrained by the security forces during the recent violence in Rakhine State,” Tillerson told a joint news conference with Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of a civilian administration that is less than two years old and shares power with the military. 

Tillerson had earlier held separate talks with Myanmar’s military chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, whose forces have been accused of atrocities. 

A senior U.N. official on Sunday leveled allegations of mass rape, killings and torture against the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw, after a tour of refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar region of neighboring Bangladesh. 

Tillerson called for the Myanmar government to lead a credible and impartial investigation and said those who committed abuses should be held responsible. 

“The recent serious allegations of abuses in Rakhine state demand a credible and impartial investigation and those who commit human rights abuses or violations must be held accountable,” he said. 

“In all my meetings, I have called on the Myanmar civilian government to lead a full and effective independent investigation and for the military to facilitate full access and cooperation.”

He also said it was the duty of the military to help the government to meet commitments to ensure the safety and security of all people in Rakhine state. 

A posting on Min Aung Hlaing’s Facebook page said Myanmar’s military supremo had explained to Tillerson the “true situation in Rakhine”, the reasons why Muslims fled, how the military was working with the government to deliver aid and the progress made for a repatriation process to be agreed with Bangladesh. 

The military launched its clearance operation after an army base and 30 police posts were attacked on Aug. 25 by Rohingya militants, killing about a dozen members of the security forces. 

CONSEQUENCES 

Tillerson condemned the militant attacks, but said any response by the security forces needed to avoid to the “maximum extent possible harming innocent civilians”.

An internal investigation by the military into the allegations of atrocities that was released this week was branded a “whitewash” by human rights groups. 

Back in Washington, U.S. senators are pressing for economic sanctions and travel restrictions targeting the Myanmar military and its business interests. 

Tillerson said he would advise against any broad-based sanctions against Myanmar, as the United States wanted to see it succeed. 

But he said if there was credible and reliable information on abuses by individuals they could be targeted by sanctions.

Tillerson said the United States would work with partners so that those responsible for any atrocities would face consequences, “using all available mechanisms, including those available under U.S. law”. 

Myanmar is undergoing a transition to democracy after decades of rule by the military, but the generals retain extensive powers over security and a veto over reform of a constitution that has barred Suu Kyi from the presidency. 

“Myanmar’s response to this crisis is critical to determining the success of its transition to a more democratic society,” Tillerson said. 

”It’s a responsibility of the government and its security forces to protect and respect the human rights of all persons within its borders and to hold accountable those who fail to do so.” 

He said the United States would provide an additional $47 million in humanitarian assistance for refugees bringing the total to $87 million since the crisis erupted in August. 

“The humanitarian scale of this crisis is staggering,” Tillerson said. 

But he said he was encouraged by talks between Myanmar and Bangladesh to agree on a refugee repatriation process. 

During the news conference, Suu Kyi was asked to explain why she had not spoken out more strongly over the plight of the Rohingya, as the Nobel peace prize winner’s perceived failure to speak up has damaged her international reputation as a stateswoman. 

“What I say is not supposed to be exciting,” Suu Kyi said, adding that she had aimed to keep the public informed without setting different ethnic, religious communities against each other. 

“It’s important to bring peace and stability to this country and that can only be done on the basis of rule of law and everybody should understand that the role of theirs is to protect peace and stability, not to punish people.” 

Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel

Displaced persons near Sittwe, Myanmar in December 2013. IRIN/David Longstreath

By UN News 
November 14, 2017

Human trafficking and exploitation are rife among Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar to seek safety in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, the United Nations migration agency has found.

“Understanding the scope of human trafficking is difficult in most settings due to the hidden nature of the crime,” said Kateryna Ardanyan, a counter-trafficking expert of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in a press release issued Tuesday. 

“In the chaos of a crisis like this, trafficking is usually invisible at first, as there are so many other urgent needs like food and shelter. But agencies responding to this crisis should not wait until the number of identified victims increases,” she added. 

According to interviews and community focus groups conducted in the district's makeshift settlements by IOM, desperate men, women and children are being recruited with false offers of paid work in various industries including fishing, small commerce, begging and, in the case of girls, domestic work.

With almost no alternative source of income, the refugees are willing to take whatever opportunities they are presented with, even ones that are risky, dangerous and that involve their children.

Once they start the job, they usually find that they are not paid what was promised. They are often deprived of sleep, made to work more hours than was agreed, not allowed to leave their work premises and not allowed to contact their family. Women and girls are often physically or sexually abused.

Some report being forced into jobs which they never agreed to do. In one case, a number of adolescent girls, who were promised work as domestic helpers in Cox's Bazar and Chittagong, were forced into prostitution. Others reported being brought to locations different from the agreed destination.

In one case, a woman reportedly went to work for a family and was brought back to the settlements dead. The family of the victim received a settlement from the employers.

Many of the recruiters are Bangladeshi, while some are Rohingya, and many were established in the area prior to the most recent influx. The number of criminals and trafficking rings operating in the district has expanded with the population.

The abuse mainly occurs in neighbourhoods surrounding the settlements, but recruiters are also taking people to places as far away as Cox's Bazar city, Chittagong and Dhaka.

IOM is also aware of cases where Rohingya have been trafficked to outside Bangladesh, and is assisting the victims. Most of the trafficking is taking place inside the country, which follows the pattern of trafficking globally.

Forced and early marriages are also taking place among the Rohingya population. For many families, it is a coping mechanism that offers protection and economic advancement for young Rohingya women and girls. 

“Rohingya refugees need preventative and proactive action now to mitigate risks of human trafficking, and the survivors need help, before this spirals out of control,” Ms. Ardanyan said.

Over 617,000 Rohingya refugees have settled in Cox's Bazar since 25 August, but exploitation of the Rohingya population in the district has been occurring since well before this most recent influx of people.

Rohingya Muslims on Dang Khali Saur beach, Rakhine state. Photograph: Sky News

By Alex Crawford 
November 14, 2017

Alex Crawford of Sky News reports from Rakhine state on the fleeing Rohingya Muslims unable to get to Bangladesh and stranded on Dang Khali Saur beach, desperate for food and water

It’s the sound of the wailing that is most haunting. It’s a deep, soulful, pit-of-your-being, howling hurt. And it follows us as we’re swept along by this moving, wretched mass of humanity. These are the Rohingya Muslims who are unable to flee the violence being unleashed against them by travelling overland to Bangladesh because of the distances involved; the certainty of running into Myanmar soldiers and having to navigate landmines. They’ve run in the only other direction they could – towards the beaches of Maungdaw district in Rakhine state, until they reached water and could go no further.

We’ve travelled in a traditional Bangladeshi fishing boat to Dang Khali Saur beach, now home to what’s believed to be the largest number of stranded Rohingya in Rakhine. Here, the bulk of the atrocities by the Myanmar military have been taking place.

We wade through the shallows from the boat and are met by a group standing knee-deep in water. At the front, being held up by a young man, is a small, frail woman, with hollowed out cheeks and sunken eyes. I grasp her upper arm to steady her as she wobbles and her thin frame takes my breath away. I can encircle her entire upper arm by touching my thumb with my forefinger. We follow the crowd along the beach. It’s slow progress because of the sheer numbers. Men are crying openly. A woman walking behind me sobs continuously: big, helpless gulps of despair.

Through night vision on the camera we can see the hordes of people around us, holding babies, grasping tiny hands, propping up their elderly. We’re constantly stopped as parents thrust their babies at me. One father holds his baby boy’s skinny little leg, imploring me to feel how slight it is. A young woman is holding a newborn and she tells us her baby was born a week ago, right on this beach. Some of them have been here for two months, trapped on this sand prison, they say. There is an army outpost nearby, they tell us, and landmines beyond the beach prevent them from returning inland, to their villages. 

“When they started burning our homes and slaughtering us, we ran for our lives,” one man tells us. “We ran towards the beach and the soldiers guided us past the landmines down a path to the [shore], then they sealed the path behind us. Now we’re trapped here.” They tell us repeatedly of killings and rapes at the hands of the Myanmar military. 

As I’m talking to one mother, asking her about her baby – how old he is, where he was born – others push their way through the crowd. Suddenly there are rows of women cradling their young ones in their arms. A 19-year-old girl says she gave birth the day before and we can see the umbilical cord is still attached. She’s half hunched over, her face twisted in pain. 

The captain of our boat has said we can take about 15 people back with us. It was taking in water even on the trip over, with his crew scooping out bucket-loads from the bottom minutes after we set off. He is keeping a careful count of who is coming on board. The girl insists on her mother, and the father of her baby, coming too.

The boatman has done this trip several times before. He’s well aware of the desperation of these people so he’s anchored his boat some distance away from shore to avoid a sudden rush when we set off. It is a cruel selection procedure. The consensus of the boat and crew is that the very youngest, the most frail and the most vulnerable should be given passage. But those who fulfil that criteria far exceed the boat’s capacity. One of the men on the boat has come in search of his relatives. He tracks down only two of them, a younger brother and a young cousin. But he guides them to the waiting area to board the boat, grateful that he’s managed to find at least two. One woman holds my hand, sobbing, and tells us her husband was shot by the soldiers. She’s alone with three young children. 

There’s feverish activity at one stretch of the beach as a huge contraption of jerry cans, bamboo and plastic string is being turned into a life-raft. It looks about 40 square feet and there are scores of men with small head torches working on it. “We have no money at all, so we have to make our own boat,” we’re told. 

These people who’ve survived the arson, execution and rape inland. But now, unless they somehow get away from this beach hell, they tell us they fear dying of starvation and disease. In the shadows, we can just make out some tents, rigged up from small plastic covers and bamboo sticks. The heat is stifling but these people are stranded here, exposed to the elements with no easy access to fresh water, food or shelter. A young man is carried to us and the crowd tells us he was beaten trying to forage for water. Their testimony is in stark contrast to the denials being issued by the Myanmar authorities, who insist there’s no persecution and their security “clearance” is because of terrorist activity against the army.

Rohingya children on the boat with Alex Crawford, Rakhine state. Photograph: Courtesy of Sky News

The boatman is getting very agitated about how long we’ve been ashore and the crowd is increasingly chaotic and frantic. He’s worried there will be a rush for his craft when they see we’re leaving. So many are being left to fester further on this miserable stretch of land.

A few of the crew try to hold people back, waving their arms and shouting at them to stay back. The group who board carry sackfuls of the few belongings they’ve managed to bring with them – a few solar panels, rice and clothes. Once again, these Rohingya are on the move but there’s no joy among them, not even discernible relief. These are people who have endured an awful lot. Twin boys of five or six years old sit clinging to each other on the side of the boat. They look terrified. They, like everyone on the boat, has no idea how they’re going to manage from now or what will happen to them. But somehow whatever is in front of them is worth running towards because it cannot possibly be as bad as what they are escaping from.

Alex Crawford is Sky News special correspondent

More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh in two and a half months, sparking a dire humanitarian crisis. (Photo: AFP/Munir Uz Zaman)

By AFP
November 14, 2017

MANILA: Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi faced rising global pressure Tuesday (Nov 14) to solve the crisis for her nation's displaced Rohingya Muslim minority, meeting the UN chief and America's top diplomat in the Philippines.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the Nobel laureate that hundreds of thousands of displaced Muslims who had fled to Bangladesh should be allowed to return to their homes in Myanmar.

"The Secretary-General highlighted that strengthened efforts to ensure humanitarian access, safe, dignified, voluntary and sustained returns, as well as true reconciliation between communities, would be essential," a UN statement said, summarising comments to Mr Suu Kyi.

Mr Guterres' comments came hours before Ms Suu Kyi sat down with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Manila.

Washington has been cautious in its statements on the situation in Rakhine, and has avoided outright criticism of the Myanmar leader.

Supporters say she must navigate a path between outrage abroad and popular feeling in a majority Buddhist country where most people believe the Rohingya are interlopers.

At a photo opportunity at the top of her meeting with Mr Tillerson, Ms Suu Kyi ignored a journalist who asked if the Rohingya were citizens of Myanmar.

At a later appearance after the meeting, Mr Tillerson - who is headed to Myanmar on Wednesday - was asked by reporters if he "had a message for Burmese leaders".

He apparently ignored the question, replying only: "Thank you", according to a pool report of the encounter.

ETHNIC CLEANSING

More than 600,000 Rohingya have flooded into Bangladesh since late August, and now live in the squalor of the world's biggest refugee camp.

The crisis erupted after Rohingya rebels attacked police posts in Myanmar's Rakhine state, triggering a military crackdown that saw hundreds of villages reduced to ashes and sparked a massive exodus.

The UN says the Myanmar military is engaged in a "coordinated and systematic" attempt to purge the region of Rohingya in what amounts to a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

The stream of desperate refugees who escape across the riverine border bring with them stories of rape, murder and the torching of villages by soldiers and Buddhist mobs.

The Myanmar government insists military action in Rakhine is a proportionate response to violence by militants.

Following its first official investigation into the crisis, the army published a report this week in which it cleared itself of any abuses.

However, it heavily restricts access to the region by independent journalists and aid groups, and verification of events on the ground is virtually impossible.

Ms Suu Kyi, a former democracy activist, has been lambasted by rights groups for failing to speak up for the Rohingya or condemn festering anti-Muslim sentiment in the country.

Musician and campaigner Bob Geldof on Monday slammed Ms Suu Kyi as a "murderer" and a "handmaiden to genocide", becoming the latest in a growing line of global figures to disavow the one-time darling of the human rights community.

Supporters say she does not have the power to stop the powerful military, which ruled the country for decades until her party came to power following 2015 elections.

In a summit on Monday night with leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member, Mr Guterres also voiced concern about the Rohingya.

He said the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya was a "worrying escalation in a protracted tragedy," according to the UN statement.

The UN chief described the situation as a potential source of instability in the region, as well as radicalisation.
Rohingya Exodus