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November 21, 2017

The situation for Myanmar’s Rohingya minority has deteriorated dramatically since August 2017, when the military unleashed a brutal campaign of violence against the population living in the northern parts of Rakhine State, where the majority of Rohingya normally live. This report maps in detail the violations, in particular discrimination and racially-based restrictions in law, policy and practice that Rohingya living in Rakhine State have faced for decades, and how these have intensified since 2012, following waves of violence between Muslims and Buddhists, often supported by security forces.

By Yimou Lee
November 20, 2017

NAYPYITAW -- China called for a ceasefire in Myanmar’s Rakhine State so that Rohingya Muslim refugees can return from Bangladesh, proposing a three-stage approach to the crisis as diplomats from 51 mostly Asian and European countries gathered in Myanmar on Monday.

Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi attends the 13th Asia Europe Foreign Ministers Meeting (ASEM) in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

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

Amid a burgeoning humanitarian catastrophe, rights groups have accused the Myanmar military of atrocities, while foreign critics have blasted Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace prize winner who leads a civilian administration that is less than two years old, for failing to speak out more strongly. 

On Monday, Suu Kyi opened an Asia-Europe Meeting for foreign ministers that had been scheduled in Myanmar before the outbreak of the crisis. 

Speaking in the capital of Naypyitaw on Sunday, having arrived from Dhaka, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China believed Myanmar and Bangladesh could work out a mutually acceptable way to end the crisis. 

“The first phase is to effect a ceasefire on the ground, to return to stability and order, so the people can enjoy peace and no longer be forced to flee,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement, citing Wang. 

“With the hard work of all sides, at present, the first phase’s aim has already basically been achieved, and the key is to prevent a flare-up, especially that there is no rekindling the flames of war.” 

During a meeting on Sunday, the ministry said, Wang told Myanmar President Htin Kyaw, “As a friend of both Myanmar and Bangladesh, China is willing to keep playing a constructive role for the appropriate handling of the Rakhine State issue.” 

Visiting Myanmar last week, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made many of the same points, but he also called for a credible investigation into reports of atrocities.

REPATRIATION PROCESS 

Once a ceasefire is seen to be working, Wang said talks between Myanmar and Bangladesh should find a workable solution for the return of refugees, and the final phase should be to work toward a long-term solution based on poverty alleviation. 

Myanmar and Bangladesh officials began talks last month to settle a repatriation process for Rohingya refugees, which Bangladesh expects to take to the next level in coming days. 

Speaking on the sidelines of the ASEM meeting, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said, “We believe that stopping the violence, the flow of refugees and guaranteeing full humanitarian access to Rakhine state, and safe, sustainable repatriation of refugees are going to be key.”

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends the 13th Asia Europe Foreign Ministers Meeting (ASEM) in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

Mogherini, who also visited Bangladesh over the weekend, said, “There’s a real possibility of Myanmar and Bangladesh reaching a memorandum of understanding and agreement for the safe repatriation of refugees to Myanmar.” 

The European bloc was ready to help with the process, she added. 

It was unclear, however, whether a safe return was possible, or advisable, for the thousands of Rohingya women and children still stranded on the beaches trying to flee hunger and instability in Rakhine. 

Myanmar intends to resettle most refugees who return in new “model villages”, rather than on the land they previously occupied, an approach the United Nations has criticized in the past as effectively creating permanent camps. 

Besides restoring peace for Rohingya to return, Myanmar also had to resolve the issue of their citizenship, having treated them as stateless for decades, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, told a news conference in Tokyo.

The UNHCR was ready to assist both countries with repatriation, he said, adding that it could help Myanmar with the citizenship verification of the Rohingya. Until now it has not been invited to participate in either. 

“Much as resources are needed in Bangladesh to respond to the crisis, the solutions to this crisis lie in Myanmar,” Grandi said. 

VIOLENCE LARGELY OVER 

The crisis erupted after the military launched a brutal counter-insurgency operation against the militants after attacks on an army base and 30 police posts in Rakhine on Aug. 25.

Myanmar’s military has said that all fighting against the Rohingya militants died out on Sept.5. 

The group behind those attacks, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), had declared a one-month ceasefire on Sept.10, which was rejected by the Myanmar government. But there have been no serious clashes since. 

The United States and other Western countries have become more engaged with Myanmar since it began a transition to civilian government after nearly 50 years of military rule. 

Myanmar’s generals retain autonomy over defense, internal security and border issues in the current power-sharing arrangement. 

China, with close ties to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, has long been a key player in lawless borderlands where rebel ethnic groups have battled Myanmar’s government for decades in a conflict driving thousands of refugees to seek shelter in China. 

Reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING, Antoni Slodkowski in YANGON and Thomas Wilson in TOKYO; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore

By James Bennett
November 20, 2017

Amid mounting evidence Myanmar's military used mass rape in its apparent ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, the ABC has met survivors of this trauma, who have detailed gang-rape and cruel violence by soldiers.

Now facing an indelible stigma, they are pleading for justice.

Warning, this report contains distressing details of sexual violence.

The dark niqab covering all but her eyes, 18-year-old Noor sits gingerly on the floor of a friend's hut. 

She has ventured across Bangladesh's Kutupalong refugee camp, away from family and community to share a story she has kept secret, even from doctors.

It began when Myanmar's military raided her village of Laungdun, at the height of its vicious response to Rohingya insurgent attacks in August.

"As the military started persecuting villagers, we [girls and women] fled and took shelter in a house," she said.

The soldiers discovered them. Then left. Then returned.

"They started searching our bodies and removed our clothes forcefully," Noor said. 

Noor and several others were singled out, tied up and taken away.

When she resisted, soldiers choked her, then subjected her to a violent gang rape so prolonged she fainted.

"About 10 to 15 army men raped me, and left me there and went away," she said.

"I had blood and urine all over my clothes."

Revived by several village women, she later walked to Bangladesh in excruciating pain.

Weeks on, she is still suffering internal bleeding.

But the stigma of her violation is so powerful she has kept the full details of her ordeal secret, even from doctors, fearing her husband will find out and reject her.

"My husband even threatened to leave me if I do not recover from bleeding soon," she said.

Noor sits on the floor of a friend's hut in Bangladesh's Kutupalong refugee camp.
(Photo: ABC News/James Bennett)

A pattern, village after village

Another 18-year-old, Shamshida, from a different village near Maungdaw, tells a chillingly similar story.

"The military came to the village; I, along with two other girls were taken to a school," she said.

A knife was placed on her throat.

"Three military persons took us to three separate rooms. Then they raped us," Shamshida said.

Unmarried, she fears the shame of her violation is indelible, and will render her unwanted, forever.

"I don't know what will happen. Won't it be a problem? Won't people talk about it?" she said.

Other Rohingya women have been forced to confront more immediate consequences — pregnancies following rape.

Abortion is illegal in Bangladesh, but doctors can approve it in extreme circumstances. 

Several aid workers, who asked to remain anonymous, have confirmed to the ABC a number of terminations have been carried out.

They said there is an urgent need for many more female counsellors to cope with an expected wave of traumatised victims.

"That is exactly why this [rape] is such an effective way to attack someone," Human Rights Watch researcher Skye Wheeler said.

"Not only do you cause them injuries and fear, but you leave them in a state of deep sadness, injured."

Unmarried, Shamshida fears the violation will render her unwanted.
(Photo: ABC News/James Bennett)

'I want justice for me'

Ms Wheeler interviewed over 52 Rohingya women from 19 separate villages.

Twenty-nine had been raped, all but one gang-raped.

Ms Wheeler's report adds to mounting evidence mass rape is a key component of the military's persecution of the Rohingya, which the UN has branded "textbook" ethnic cleansing.

"This was one of the ways ethnic cleansing was being carried out," she said, adding that often lasting traumatic memories make it hard for women to feel safe in places they have been assaulted, thus making repatriation harder.

Pramila Patten, the UN's special rapporteur on sexual violence in conflict, said last week "sexual violence is being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar".

Ms Patten vowed to raise the matter with the International Criminal Court.

But Myanmar is not a signatory to the court's treaty, so any investigation would need the unanimous support of the UN Security Council, considered unlikely.

Myanmar continues to deny any atrocities took place.

Although global condemnation has recently grown louder, the international community has been hesitant to reimpose sanctions or an arms embargo, fearing major supplier and investor China would back Myanmar, thus strengthening its influence and undoing years of western efforts to encourage democracy.

But that is impossible to explain to Shamshida.

"I want justice for me. I want the world community to punish them," she said.

Rohingya refugees arrive to the Bangladeshi side of the Naf river after crossing the border from Myanmar, in Palang Khali, Bangladesh October 16, 2017. (Photo: Reuters/Jorge Silva)

Min Khant
RB Opinion
November 20, 2017

After the Second World War II, the United Nations was formed for the peace, security, and welfare of the human beings to avoid the third world war that can be more destructive for human being whilst possibly the highest battering while the third world warring rival nations are prosperous of more explosively powerful with chemical, ballistic and nuclear arsenal. 

Since the establishment of the United Nations after the WW II, the relevant global complicated troubles and the bias issues have been seen as unsettled and unanswered because of the veto power wielding nations at the top table of United Nations Security Council at last. 

However, it could not and cannot achieve all the relevant issues of the world in accord the United Nations chatter, the UN supports, and encourages for the matters of unsolved world affairs very carefully in the manner of peaceful ways as much possible as it can to avoid the widespread wars among the nations and between the factional groups.

Right now, more than 190 nations of the world are the member nations of the United Nations as THE BIG HUMAN BEING FAMILY to gather at the single location to see its fellow human beings’ wellbeing and nightmares at the same time. Regarding being oppressed, suppressed, and victimized Rohingyas people, who have been residing in north Rakhine state since time immemorial, have been persecuted, terrorized and recently driven out from their locations by Myanmar military forces with the coordinative efforts of noble laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to Bangladesh since 9 October 2016, particularly 26 August 2017. 

In conscious people’ understanding, people nations of the world from south to north, west to east, small to big, weak to powerful in economic and military might well understood after seeing the nightmarish scenarios of Rohingyas people who have been totally perished in their lives and properties by Myanmar military merciless crackdown. That outlandish and unbearable catastrophic of the Rohingyas’ in heavy rainy season have unavoidably forced them to leave to the safe place, to Bangladesh. 

If such the miniature mobile shot, scenarios by the ordinary and uneducated absconders to Bangladesh would have been surprising & galvanizing to the people of the global communities to bring the issue to the United Nations Security Council to discuss several times with a month. 

Then, it is ripe time to think impartially by the world people who are still in negative view over Rohingyas that how much more details about Myanmar regime’s destructions may have been exposed by the world investigation team and international media, which have been denied by Myanmar authorities to their constant demands of unhindered access to the localities. 

Myanmar military forces and the publicly elected democratic government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi have been afraid of being exposed the atrocities they have committed crimes against innocent people. In addition, ever since they want to hide behind the atrocities they have committed, “saying the international investigation and world media coverage would not help support to the harmonious living side by side between Rohingyas Muslims and Rakhine Buddhist communities in Rakhine state.” 

Do you people of the world satisfy to the justification of the government of Myanmar to the above-mentioned inconsiderable, negligible, and careless excuse to the world to cleanse the innocent Rohingyas and to veil their heinous annihilation to the fellow human being, Rohingyas?

Rohingyas have been the nationals of Myanmar and it is undeniable. Rohingyas are the fellow citizens of ASEAN at large. Casting vote in Third Committee: 72nd session in The United Nations ‘situation in Human rights in Myanmar’, majority of ASEAN nations have voted in favor of Myanmar who is the brutal regime and the butcher according to crimes committed against the Rohingyas people. 

Those ASEAN neighboring countries are “The Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, voted to the favor of Myanmar, butcher; Thailand has abstained from voting”. Seeing these ASEAN fellow nations, they not only wanted to tarnish they relations they have already had with Brutal Myanmar and to continue to maintain the sisterly relations with it and its military leaders for the opportunity of economic beings but also they don’t have the good merciful hearts to show the humanity to the fellow ASEAN Rohingyas nationalities who are Muslims in faith. They are most aggressive collective nations. 

The most powerful and super power nations such as Republic of China and the Russian Federations are at always-weird nations, which will at all times remain in favor of Myanmar regime to shield Myanmar from USA and its allied EU nations, which have been the most challenging human rights countries for all people of the world. 

The World second most populous nation, INDIA, and the world third largest economic might JAPAN have chosen the abstention in the event, they simply having senseless to choose the right path WHETHER should they possibly favor ROHINGYA who the most persecuted human beings or THE MYANMAR regime, which earns the nastiest name in the world arena for its violation of Human rights. Ultimately, both INDIA and JAPAN have chosen the abstention position while they want to keep faces of both ROHINGYA, brutalized and Myanmar regime, the Killer. 

In reality, after having seen all the Rohingyas bizarre scenarios in the hand of Myanmar brutal military crackdown on the most persecuted Rohingya people, countries of the world from all regions should have to stand, to have solved the issues unanimously, by the victimized Rohingyas people than cruel, injustice and heartless Myanmar military. 

What is wrong with those nations? Please stand only by the sufferers, ROHINGYAS.

WHETHER THEY chose in favor of Myanmar military regime and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s public puppet regime OR stayed away from voting as abstention, both categories of the nation’s attitude are “THEY have chosen the side of OPPRESSOR in the event of VICTIMISED ROHINGYAS and MYANMAR REGIME, the ANNIHILATOR. 

They showed no HUMANITY at ALL in the VILLAGE of human but they chose the SLAUGTER who has been annihilating the innocent ROHINGYAS.

Do Show Humanity in FUTURE, as ROHINGYA are dire need of THE WORLD’s unanimous approval to settle this outstanding issue, which has been remained unsolved for many decades.



For the last 40 years, Rohingyas of Northern Arakan/Rakhine State of Myanmar (formerly Burma), have been subjected to what Amartya Sen called a "slow genocide." Since August 26, over 607,000 Rohingyas have sought refuge in Bangladesh after having fled Myanmar’s campaign of murder, arson and sexual violence, the latest of 5 waves of state-sponsored terror in the region. Today there are more Rohingyas outside of their birthplace than inside it. Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine is honored to host a panel discussion on the topic of the Rohingya crisis and its global context with Maung Zarni, a Buddhist native of Burma and genocide scholar and human rights activist, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, University Professor in the Humanities (Columbia) and luminary in the field of postcolonial and feminist studies.




Myanmar army has been accused of carrying out ethnic cleansing of Rohingya [Annette Ekin/Al Jazeera]

By Al Jazeera
November 20, 2017

Rohingya activists have accused Aung San Suu Kyi of "denying their existence", after Myanmar's leader failed to mention a humanitarian crisis that has seen the exodus of more than half a million refugees to Bangladesh since August.

In a speech on Monday, Aung San Suu Kyi said the world is facing new threats partly because of illegal immigration and the spread of "terrorism", drawing criticism that she is trying to divert attention away from the Rohingya crisis.

"Today we are facing a new period of global uncertainty and instability," Aung San Suu Kyi said at the 13th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of foreign ministers in Naypyidaw. 

"Conflicts around the world are giving rise to new threats and emergencies: illegal immigration, spread of terrorism and violent extremism, and even the threat of nuclear war." 

In August, a fierce military crackdown, in the wake of attacks on army posts, sent more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing what the United Nations has described as "textbook ethnic cleansing" in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State.

Described as the "world's most persecuted minority", the Rohingya have suffered decades of discrimination and abuse at the hands of Myanmar's army and have been denied citizenship since 1982.

Many Buddhists in Myanmar believe that Rohingya are Bengali who migrated to the country illegally during the British rule in the subcontinent. 

'Change the discussion'

Reacting to Aung San Suu Kyi's speech, Ro Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist based in Germany, said her statement was nothing but a "denial of our existence".

"Rohingya were recognised as citizens after independence in 1948. Our citizenship was snatched in 1982 by the military regime," he told Al Jazeera.

"When Suu Kyi's party, National League for Democracy (NLD), was established in 1988, many Rohingya supported her," he added.

"The NLD issued IDs that mentioned the word Rohingya," he said, adding that four Rohingya stood in the 1990 parliamentary elections on the ticket of Aung San Suu Kyi's party.

Al Jazeera's Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from the border town of Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh where most of the fleeing Rohingya have taken shelter, said the Myanmar leader's speech was seen by many as a "calculated move".

"She is trying to change the main discussion from the Rohingya humanitarian crisis and the issue of ethnic cleansing to the crisis of immigration and terrorism," added Chowdhury.

"She is trying to please the military, which controls the borders, defence and interior ministry."

in the run-up to the foreign ministers meeting in Myanmar's capital, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini emphasised the need to provide humanitarian assistance after visiting refugee camps in Cox's Bazar.

"Seeing so many very young children taking care of even younger children is what strikes me the most," she said in a statement.

The EU chief also called for a solution to the crisis and backed a plan by former UN chief Kofi Annan, who called for more investment to achieve community-directed growth and alleviate poverty in Rakhine.

Annan's proposal also called for Myanmar to grant, among others, citizenship to Rohingya.

Mogherini, however, was criticised for not calling out the atrocities committed by Myanmar's army, including a campaign of murder, rape and arson, since August 25.

Lotte Leicht, EU Director of Human Rights Watch, said that it was "appalling" how the EU chief "completely" failed to acknowledge that Rohingya were "fleeing the army's campaign of crimes against humanity".

 
Aung San Suu Kyi, in her first public statement, had backed the military for their handling of the Rohingya crisis. Since then, her party has organised inter-faith rallies that critics have dubbed a "public relations exercise".

Nay San Lwin said, "Rohingya are not immigrants but citizens of Myanmar.

"She [Suu Kyi] is showing her true face that she is against Muslims."



November 19, 2017

A group of US lawmakers, who have visited refugee camps in Bangladesh, says Myanmar has committed ‘war crimes’ against the Rohingya minority group -- the atrocities that the Southeast Asian nation’s army denies.

The US delegation led by Senator Jeff Merkley made the remarks on Sunday during their meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a day after speaking with Rohingyas who fled to Cox’s Bazar from Myanmar.

The delegation included Senator Richard Durbin, Congresswomen Betty McCollum and Jan Schakowsky, Congressman David Cicilline, US Ambassador Marica Bernicat and the US Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission Joel Reifman.

The delegation arrived in Dhaka on Friday and went to Cox’s Bazar the next day to visit the refugees at the Balukhali camp.

On Sunday, they shared their experience with Hasina, said the PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim.

“The delegation thinks what happened there are war crimes. They have expressed their concerns over the war crimes and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar,” he told the media after the meeting.

Karim said the US delegation believes that what happened in Rakhine was clearly a violation of human rights.

“The delegates said they want the refugees to be allowed to return to their home land.”

The prime minister told the US lawmakers that Bangladesh provided shelter to the Rohingyas on humanitarian grounds.

“Myanmar is one of our closest neighbours. We want them to take back their citizens,” Karim quoted Hasina as saying.

Emphasising the implementation of the Kofi Annan-led commission’s recommendations, Hasina focused on rehabilitating the Rohingyas in Rakhine and providing them with security.

Following the meeting with US lawmakers, the Countess of Wessex Sophie called on the prime minister.

The wife of British Queen Elizabeth’s youngest son Prince Edward, Sophie urged Hasina to continue with the diplomatic efforts for the safe return of Rohingyas.

“The Countess of Wessex said the exodus of Rohingyas from Myanmar has to stop,” said Karim.


By Sheikh Shahariar Zaman
November 18, 2017

Bangladesh will continue to hold dialogue with Myanmar to resolve the refugee crisis

The government plans to reject a proposal by China recommending Bangladesh seek a bilateral solution to the ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis with Myanmar.

The Bangladesh government will speak in favour of international pressure on Myanmar, and will reject China’s offer for mediating an agreement with Myanmar during a meeting scheduled for Saturday.

The meeting will be attended by Bangladesh Minister of Foreign Affairs AH Mahmud Ali and his Chinese counterpart Wang YI, a government official told the Bangla Tribune.

The official added that Bangladesh will continue to hold dialogue with Myanmar to resolve the refugee crisis, but the international community must remain involved in the matter.

China has been recommending Bangladesh reach a bilateral solution to the Rohingya issue with Myanmar, and advised against involving the international community.

Chinese special envoy of Asian Affairs Sun Guoxiang pressed this issue during his visit to Dhaka earlier on November this year.

Addressing the matter, the government official said: “Bangladesh has held bilateral discussions with Myanmar over the Rohingya issue on numerous occasions, but had failed to make any headway in resolving the crisis.

“As soon as Bangladesh changed its stance and sought involvement from the international community, attempts to resolve the crisis began,” the official added.

“We do not think China’s offer to help solve the Rohingya crisis, and the recommendation of not involving the international community is acceptable.”

The official also said Bangladesh does not agree with China’s stance on dealing with the Rohingya refugee crisis, and will continue to hold dialogue with the international community, including China, to bring the refugee crisis to an end.

On October 25, following a meeting with Chinese special envoy Sun Guoxiang, Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque told reporters: “We have presented our stance over the matter. I told him [Guoxiang] when he visited Bangladesh six months ago, there were only 400,000 Rohingya refugees, now there are over 1,000,000.”

“This is the gravity of the situation,” Shahidul had said.

The foreign secretary had also admitted that China is recommending that Bangladesh should seek a bilateral solution to the Rohingya refugee issue with Myanmar.

This article was first published on Bangla Tribune

Rohingya refugees walk on the muddy path after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Teknaf, Bangladesh. (Photo: MOHAMMAD PONIR HOSSAIN/REUTERS)

Min Khant
RB Opinion
November 18, 2017

In these days, the state counselor’s discussion with several leaders of the world has included the word ‘more time need’ to settle the humanitarian complexity of Rakhine state. 

Very noticeably what the government of Myanmar has been applying the dirty method to the world is “need more time” to be vanishing and becoming extinct the internally displaced Rohingyas and Kaman people along Rakhine state after having long-standing suffering in life-threatening dirty camps. 

As every person of the world has already known that no sooner had U Thein Sein started gaining the state power through ballot boxes altered way in the year 2010 along the country than the one sided violence led by the Buddhists monks had mushroomed against the Rohingyas, Muslims at large and Christian minority every part of the country, Myanmar. 

To brutalize Rakhine Rohingyas Muslims and Muslims all over the country, the State Sanga or ‘Buddhist Monk Association’ had created multi-destructive organizations all over the country. 

As soon as, the subordinate groups receive the directions from the head of the Buddhist Bureau, the sub-coordinative forces who involved the local Buddhist communities would not only usually destroy against “the Muslim societies, their Mosques & religious buildings, the residences belong to Muslims, and livelihoods which they have been carrying for their life-savings. In addition, they would successfully burn the properties of Muslims to ashes, killed many innocent people, and left the societies (Buddhists & Muslims) into long-lasting animosity in the regions at the very sight of local authorities that have been under the green light of central government policies. 

The starting point of hatred and extreme dislike against Rohingyas and Kaman Muslims of Rakhine were started in 2011 from Taungouk Township, southern Rakhine state. Which has been the famous hillside-loathing township in southern Rakhine state against Islam and Muslim faiths were totally cleansed since 1982 and where the Buddhist hooligans of that township had butchered 11 Muslims in May 2011, along their pilgrim way.

U Thein Sein and its puppet regime was thronged to the power by the U Than Shwe, the former Senior General, who has been the prime architect to play all dirty games to spoil the political system of future Myanmar after hijacking the world longest 13 years of periods to be drafting the deceitful constitution. 

The objective of 2008 constitution is to maintain and rest the future power of the state in the hand of the Military who are the faithful dogs to U Than Shwe, who exploits all properties of the country during his reign for him & his entourage. As more, in accord the constitution, he wanted to be forgiven or exempted from crimes that he and his associates had committed against the entire democratic minded Myanmar people who may one day grab the state power and be able to punish the previous criminals.

However, the antagonistic and hostile publics have been crying out in regards Rohingyas whom they have foolishly accused as immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh. The former President U Thein Sein and the Immigration minister U Khin Ye have made clear to the public about the Rohingyas (Muslims) that there are no Muslims illegally immigrated in Rakhine state as accused by the Buddhist Monks, Rakhine people and many political parties. 

What the consecutive governments could not and the current regime cannot do is: “they haven’t been controlled, taken action in accord the prevailing rules but they have been exempted from taking action to commit more crimes having opportunities as immunity.”

Since June 2012, day in day out, entire Rakhine public, political parties, administrative staffers, police department, military battalion have joined to annihilate Rohingyas Muslims and Kaman people from Arakan state. Many Rohingyas and Kaman were herded to outside the townships and they were forever displaced in their localities and since then they have to live in squalid camps, which are out of condition and unsafe to be alive in there as Human. The effected Rohingyas and Kaman people are from Sittwe township, Pauktaw township, Myaybone township, Kyaukpyu township, Yaan Byay (Kyauk Nimaw, a helmet) township, Kyauktaw township, Rathedaung Township, and Mrauk Oo township. 

The displaced, hopeless, and frustrated people have been restricted their regular flow of basic humanities from outside by the Rakhine extremists who are led by animal doctor Aye Maung, the chair of Arakan National Party, and nowadays the whole Rakhine people are under the trend of ANP party. 

There have been constant local and international dignitaries’ regular visits to Rakhine state to meet the local monk leaders, public leaders, political figures, and regional authorities to settle the issue, rehabilitating the displaced Rohingyas to their original places but it has never come into reality. Rakhine leaders and that of the public occasional rhetoric statements have been either to drive out the Rohingyas and Kaman from Rakhine state or to force them to agree to accept the NVC cards which is the intentional disenfranchisement. 

Visibly, all these unacceptable political drive against Muslims of Rakhine were adopted by the central government as the state political tool to please Rakhine Buddhists in the one hand and to be frustrating and disappointing the existing Muslims in Rakhine state from the other. 

There are some NGOs who take responsibilities to mediate among the factional people in Rakhine state to come to a harmonious settlement, but those NGOs attempts have been failure to get fruitful results, settling the issue for harmonious and peaceful co-existence side by side between two large communities, Rakhine Buddhist and Muslims Rohingyas. Rakhine families and societies are almost pessimistic.

The central and Rakhine state governments have reasoned the world body, saying they need a space, more time, which no one knows how many years they will keep the people in IDP camps and what happens to them in these squalid camps.

Government demands to show identity by the refugees, to verify as the citizens of Myanmar, who are in amount more than 600,000 in Bangladesh to be repatriated again through the trilateral consensus among Myanmar, Bangladesh, and the United Nations. THAT attitude of Myanmar regime is a blatant cynicism to accept properly those refugees, while many of them could not show the identities wanted by Myanmar government. The government’s inner crookedness and lack of honesty has clearly been shown to the world that it does not want to allow the refugees and resettle to their original locations as per the demand of world community. 

Seemingly, the current regime initiative is many of whom, the current Rohingyas generation, who have already run away to Bangladesh and be repatriated, were never ever handed the Myanmar citizenry identities though their parents and grandparents may show, and majority will never be able to show the documents, proving the citizens of Myanmar. 

In reality, the current regime, led by noble laureate neither Daw Aung San Suu Kyi nor none of the former high-ranking officials has been honest on Rohingyas issues. They are all birds of the same flock feather together in the issue of Rohingyas, and there is nothing to keep trust on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, while she is not an honorable archetype but a modern day chicanery liar as well as enormous killer. 

Do people of the world realize what the government policy has been on Rohingyas and Kaman Muslims? The entire Rohingyas and Kaman have been the citizens of the nation. No single person is neither foreigner nor second-class citizens such as; naturalized citizens, temporary citizens and associated citizens in Rakhine state. They are all either NRC (National Registration Card) holders or somehow a few Pink (National Scrutiny Card) cardholders. What is wrong with the government? 

Do all they (Myanmar officials) become a crowd of fool governing body? Nowadays, overall Myanmar governing body becomes in accord English saying: “There’s none so deaf as those who will not hear.” Meaning Myanmar regime has been treating the issue of Rohingya as VERY UNIMPORTANT.

As the world community’s not as much enthusiasm in the Rohingya issue, Myanmar regime has adopted a SCHEME of “the more the government demands extra time to be settling the issue, and then the world agrees on this wicked tactic, so possibly the number of displaced people would leave from the camps after having unbearable & miscellaneous sufferings in the camps”. Need more time political ploy has been the depopulation and extinction of ROHINGYA and KAMAN people in Arakan state.

Right now after understanding all the heinous plot of Myanmar regime against Rohingyas, not only the state of Bangladesh but also the world Body should not hurriedly agree by any mean to repatriate the Rohingyas refugees to avoid next coming plots of Myanmar in future. 

While Myanmar is a hostile, aggressive, and unsympathetic nation and that of the majority are pessimistic against the repatriation of Rohingyas to their native land, then the world community should bond firmly that Myanmar government fully accepts upon the world demand to fulfill the standing important procedures to be implemented before Rohingyas to be repatriated to Myanmar again.

By Salma Abdelaziz
CNN
November 17, 2017

Bangladesh-Myanmar border -- The slash marks on Rashida Begum's neck have turned into dark, red scars.

She showed us the cuts as if to say: look, I tried to fight back, I tried within an inch of my life.

"We saw the military digging holes (for mass graves). We were five women with our babies," Rashida said, almost in a whisper. "The grabbed us, dragged us into the house, and shut the door."

The soldiers snatched Rashida's baby son from her arms and killed him.

"I just screamed, I cried but they wouldn't listen to us. They don't even understand our language," Rashida recalled.

The uniformed men showed her no mercy. They slit Rashida's throat and tore off her clothes. She was brutalized and raped alongside the four other women. As Rashida lost consciousness, the men set the house alight and left them for dead.

"I thought I was already dead, but when my skin started to burn I woke up," she said.

Rashida Begum says she was raped by multiple Myanmar soldiers before she fled to the refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Naked and disoriented, she ran out of the flames and hid in a nearby field, but she wishes she had not survived. 

"It would be good if I too died because if I died then I wouldn't have to remember all these things. My parents were killed too, lots of people were killed," Rashida said as tears streamed down her face.

The soft-spoken 25-year-old was too traumatized to speak further about the assault or the loss of her child, but answered quickly when asked if she wanted revenge.

"We will be pleased if the military who raped us and killed our parents, if they are hanged," she said.

Then Rashida went quiet, her lips quivering, her hands shaking uncontrollably. In her eyes was a distant gaze that made her seem far away.

"I constantly think about what happened," she said. "I can't get it out of my mind."

'Untold numbers' of women raped by soldiers

Rashida's story is not an uncommon one in the sprawling camps along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. More than more than 615,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since late August, desperate to escape the violence in Rakhine State. Myanmar's military has intensified what it calls "clearance operations" targeting "terrorists" in Rakhine State following a series of attacks on police posts by Rohingya militants that left 12 officers dead. 

"One of the military's most feared weapons is mass sexual violence, with untold numbers of women and girls brutally gang raped by government soldiers," according to a Human Rights Watch report released Thursday, which documents the widespread rape of Rohingya women and girls at the hands of Myanmar's security forces, often in uniform.

Myanmar's military has has denied carrying out atrocities, and this week cleared itself of any wrong-doing in an internal report, saying it was responding to attacks by militants. The country also announced it was replacing the general in charge of Rakhine State. 

The United Nations has described the situation in Myanmar as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing," and some observers have accused the army of overseeing genocide against the Rohingya.

Still wearing the skirts they were assaulted in

Aid workers say it's difficult to estimate just how many women have been raped, but the incidents are so prevalent that Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have developed a program to provide support for victims.

Aerlyn Pfeil, an MSF midwife, has taught a group of young female leaders a song to spread the word on the social services available in the refugee camps.

"Rape can happen to anyone. After being raped there is no peace in mind. This is not my fault being raped," the song goes. "Within three days of rape you need medicine. After three days, you need to consult a doctor."

Some Rohingya women still traumatized by their assaults have confided in Pfeil. The midwife appears frayed, worn down by one too many stories of horror.

"Several of the women I spoke to -- I was the first person they shared their stories," she said.

But for the victims, catharsis is rarely an option. They must focus on survival, feeding their children, eking out a living where dignity is hard to come by. None of the victims CNN spoke to had received medical attention.

"Sure, they are worried about pregnancy, yes they are concerned about STIs [sexually-transmitted infections], but mainly they are concerned that they are still wearing the same clothes and that they have no roof over their children's heads and their shelter still hasn't been built," Pfeil said.

Dozens of women have received medical and psychological treatment for rape, and about half of them are girls under the age of 18, MSF reported earlier this month.
"The piece for me that is the most heartbreaking is that the women coming in are still wearing the same skirts. They are still wearing the same skirts that they were assaulted in," Pfeil said.

"It's just heartbreaking that three months later you are still putting on the same skirt that someone assaulted you in."

Victims demand justice: 'No one is helping us'

Several rape survivors now living in refugee camps on the border agreed to speak to CNN on camera, an act of fierce bravery given that victims are often socially ostracized.

When the military came to Aisha's village, her husband, fearful of being killed, ran away, leaving her and her five children vulnerable.

37-year-old Aisha told CNN that soldiers attacked and raped her in her home.

"They had their eyes on me," she said of her attackers. "Two of the soldiers were standing in front of my door. One came inside the house and pointed the gun at me."

"They hit my children with the butt of the gun to get them out, and I don't know where they went -- my children ran away."

The men then turned their attention to the 37-year-old, punching and beating her into submission.

"Two stood at the door, one tore my clothes off, and he raped me at gunpoint and the gun was pointed at my chest."

The Rohingya's native language is different to that of the Burmese -- Myanmar's dominant ethnic group -- but Aisha understood clearly the soldier who had her pinned to the ground.

"He said, 'I will kill you. If you move, if you scream I will kill you.' And he covered my mouth with his hand," she recalled. "I felt so bad. He was not my husband. He did it so roughly, he did it without mercy."

"When I remember what happened, tears come to my eyes," Aisha said as she started to cry. "Why did they do this to me? Why did they rape me?"

She began to answer her own question.

"They did this to so many other women in the village too. They used it as a weapon of war," she said. 

"They did it because we wouldn't leave our homes, and they think that if they do this, it forces us out."

Aisha's fear of her attackers has given way to hardened anger, not just at her perpetrators but at the world for failing to hold Myanmar's military accountable.

"Since you are shown all over the whole world, maybe something will happen for us, maybe we will be left in peace." she said. "I hope it will help to stop the violence. That's why I am talking to you, to demand justice. No one is helping us."

CNN's Clarissa Ward contributed to this report.

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.


    • Rohingya Exodus