By Katherine Gypson

Voice of America

December 7, 2017

CAPITOL HILL — The U.S. House of Representatives condemned the "ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya" on Wednesday, passing a resolution (423-3) by a two-thirds voice vote "calling for an end to the attacks" against the Muslim minority in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

The resolution is the first step in congressional action that could eventually include a stand-alone sanctions bill aimed at putting financial pressure on the Burmese military and providing U.S. economic assistance for the resettlement of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh back to Myanmar.

“This is a moral issue and a national security issue,” House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, a Republican from California, said on the House floor Tuesday. “No one is secure when extremism and instability is growing in this part of the world.”

Hundreds of thousands flee

An estimated 600,000 Rohingya have been displaced in recent months, fleeing into Bangladesh and creating a humanitarian crisis.

“Hundreds have been killed,” Royce said as he described the scope of the crisis. “At least 200 villages have been burned to the ground, landmines have been placed inside Burma’s border with Bangladesh, maiming refugees who are seeking safe haven. There are reports of rapes and all types of violence committed against the Rohingya.”

The bipartisan resolution - co-sponsored by Democratic Congressman Joe Crowley of New York and Republican Representative Steve Chabot of Ohio - calls for “an end to the attacks in and an immediate restoration of humanitarian access to the state of Rakhine in Burma.”

The resolution also calls on Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto head of Myanmar's government, and the Burmese military to work together to implement humanitarian aid and reconciliation.

"The Burmese military's widespread brutality toward Rohingya civilians over the last few months and its attempts to drive them out of the country are deeply disturbing.” Chabot told VOA in a statement on the passage of the resolution. "That is why Congressman Crowley and I introduced H.Con.Res. 90, to condemn this ethnic cleansing and show the American people’s outrage at these attacks.

"This resolution calls on Burmese authorities to work with the international community to resolve the crisis while also calling on Secretary [of State Rex] Tillerson to impose sanctions on those responsible for human rights abuses," Chabot added.

Tillerson shifted the U.S. approach to the crisis last month when he deemed the violence against the Rohingya ethnic cleansing, saying, “This violence must stop, this persecution must stop.”

Sanctions effort

A bipartisan sanctions bill introduced last month by New York Democratic Representative Eliot Engel, the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and by Chabot would end U.S. military ties with Myanmar while imposing harsh sanctions on industries that fund the Burmese military.

If passed, the bill also would reimpose sanctions on the lucrative Burmese gem trade that were lifted last year by then-president Barack Obama in an executive order.

A companion bill in the U.S. Senate is sponsored by Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Todd Young of Indiana, and Democrats Dick Durbin of Illinois and Ben Cardin of Maryland.

“If they want to go back to the bad old days when we had all sorts of restrictions on them – economic restrictions, trade restrictions, political restrictions – then we’re forced to go back to those bad old days because if they’re going to perpetuate ethnic cleansing, we don’t want to be complicit,” Engel told VOA in an interview last month.

Chabot told VOA the sanctions bill also provides key economic funding for Rohingya refugees returning to Myanmar.

“The goal here is to get those who have been displaced and in general have gone to Bangladesh to allow them to return to Burma to return to their homes, although a lot of those homes have been burned to the ground by the military, so there’s an awful lot of economic development that’s going to be necessary,” Chabot said.

A source on the House Foreign Affairs Committee told VOA there is strong bipartisan interest in the bill, but that it is still undergoing refinements with outside groups as it collects cosponsors.

With just six working days left in the House legislative calendar and a full congressional agenda that includes funding the government, the bill is highly unlikely to move forward until next year.

But passage of the resolution is a key first step for the U.S. Congress.

“The United States certainly cannot solve every problem in the world,” resolution co-sponsor Crowley said Tuesday. “But there are some things that we can, and that we must do. And imposing sanctions against the perpetrators of atrocities in Burma is one of the things that we must do. Doing so will send an important signal that we are watching, and we are not standing by idly.”

By Serajul Quadir

Reuters

December 7, 2017

DHAKA -- Rohingya refugees continue to flee Myanmar for Bangladesh even though both countries set up a timetable last month to allow them to start to return home, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR)said on Thursday.

The number of refugees appears to have slowed. 625,000 have arrived since Aug. 25. 30,000 came last month and around 1,500 arrived last week, UNHCR said 

“The refugee emergency in Bangladesh is the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world,” said deputy high commissioner Kelly Clements. “Conditions in Myanmar’s Rakhaine state are not in place to enable a safe and sustainable return ... refugees are still fleeing.” 

“Most have little or nothing to go back to. Their homes and villages have been destroyed. Deep divisions between communities remain unaddressed and human access is inadequate,” she said. 

Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed on Nov. 23 to start the return of Rohingya within two months. It did not say when the process would be complete. 

Myanmar’s security forces may be guilty of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority, according to the top U.N. human rights official this week. Mainly Buddhist Myanmar denies the Muslim Rohingya are its citizens and considers them foreigners. 

UNHCR would make a fresh appeal to donors for funds after the end of February in next year, Kelly said.

RB News

December 6, 2017

Tokyo, Japan -- Legislators from all parties, along with Human Rights Now, Human Rights Watch, and Save the Children, came together to host the emergency parliament in-house event “The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis and Japanese Diplomacy” on December 4th. The event started at 5:30PM and was a full house, gathering over 100 participants, including numerous media affiliates. It ended after 7:00PM with lively networking, interviews, and conversation.

Widespread military violence against the Rohingya ethnic minority in Rakhine State, Myanmar exploded in August of this year, forcing over 600,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. Reports from the Rohingya refugees detail grave human rights abuses against them at the hands of the Myanmar military; nevertheless, Japan abstained from voting on the resolution to condemn the persecutions against the Rohingya during the Third Committee meeting at the United Nations General Assembly on November 16. While 135 American and European countries adopted the resolution, by abstaining, Japan essentially shared the same stance with many dictatorship countries, among others.

It was for this reason, to push the Japanese government to reconsider its deplorable stance, that this event was held. Many legislators came to the event and made remarks, including Michihiro Ishibashi (Democratic Party), who graciously helped in the planning of the event; Ichiro Aisawa (Liberal Democratic Party); Mizuho Fukushima (Social Democratic Party); Yuriko Yamakawa (Constitutional Democratic Party); Yukihiko Akutsu (Constitutional Democratic Party); and Yukihisa Fujita (Social Democratic Party). In addition, several secretaries of legislators also attended the event.

The first main speaker was Yukihiko Kimura, a journalist reporting with on-site videos of the current Rohingya crisis. Despite being full to capacity, the entire room fell silent as we listened to various first-hand experiences of horror, including a woman’s raw account of rape and losing her family.

The next speaker was Shogo Watanabe, a member of the Lawyers’ Group for Burmese Refugee Applicants in Japan, who traced back the conflict to its roots. We learned of the historical and political background of the persecution against the Rohingya, and he ended in voicing concern over why Rohingya refugees are not recognized as such, and are instead often taken into custody when they flee to Japan.

Afterwards, Zaw Min Htut, a Rohingya resident who has been living in Japan for nearly 20 years, delivered a powerful plea to both the government and all event participants in the audience. He deplored the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ silence on the matter, expressing his horror that genocide is repeating history even in the 21st century. The Japanese government is continuing its close relationship with the Myanmar government and high ranking military officials, which can be seen as tacit support of the human rights abuses. He ended his speech with a plea to every member of the audience to raise their voices and urge the Japanese government to change their stance.

The entire room was filled with mixed emotions: shock at seeing the suffering of the Rohingya refugees; surprised disappointment in the Japanese government’s abstaining on the Rohingya resolution at the UN General Assembly Third Committee; and anger as to why Japanese diplomacy isn’t taking action to stop this tragedy. We strongly hope that they take a firm stand to protect the rights of the Rohingya at the United Nations Human Rights Council’s special session on the violence against the Rohingya, taking place on December 5th in Geneva.

By Stephanie Nebehay

Reuters

December 5, 2017

GENEVA -- Myanmar’s security forces may be guilty of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority, the United Nations’ top human rights official said on Tuesday, adding that more were fleeing despite an agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh to send them home.

Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that none of the 626,000 Rohingya who have fled violence since August should be repatriated to Myanmar unless there was robust monitoring on the ground. 

Myanmar’s ambassador Htin Lynn said that his government was working with Bangladesh to ensure returns of the displaced in about two months and “there will be no camps”. 

Zeid, who has described the campaign in the past as a “textbook case of ethnic cleansing”, was addressing a special session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva called by Bangladesh. 

He described “concordant reports of acts of appalling barbarity committed against the Rohingya, including deliberately burning people to death inside their homes, murders of children and adults; indiscriminate shooting of fleeing civilians; widespread rapes of women and girls, and the burning and destruction of houses, schools, markets and mosques.”

“Can anyone - can anyone - rule out that elements of genocide may be present?” he told the 47-member state forum. 

Zeid urged the Council to recommend that the U.N. General Assembly establish a new mechanism “to assist individual criminal investigations of those responsible”. 

Prosecutions for the violence and rapes against Rohingya by security forces or by civilians “appear extremely rare”, Zeid said. 

Marzuki Darusman, head of an independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar, said by video from Malaysia: “We will go where the evidence leads us...Our focus is on facts and circumstances of allegations in Myanmar as a whole since 2011.” 

His team has interviewed Rohingya refugees including children in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, who recounted “acts of extreme brutality” and “displayed signs of severe trauma”, he said. 

Myanmar has not granted the investigators access to Rakhine, the northern state from which the Rohingya have fled, he said. “We maintain hope that it will be granted early in 2018.” 

Pramila Patten, special representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, who interviewed survivors in Bangladesh in November, said: “I heard the most heart-breaking and horrific accounts of sexual atrocities reportedly committed in cold blood out of a lethal hatred of these people solely on the basis of their ethnicity and religion”. 

Crimes included “rape, gang rape by multiple soldiers, forced public nudity and humiliation, and sexual slavery in military captivity”, Patten said. 

Myanmar denies committing atrocities against the Rohingya. Its envoy Htin, referring to the accounts, said: “People will say what they wanted to believe and sometimes they will say what they were told to say.” 

The United Nations defines genocide as acts intended to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group in whole or in part. A U.N. convention requires all countries to act to halt genocide and to punish those responsible. 

Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Alison Williams

Dublin City Council

Civic Office

Wood Quay

Dublin 8

November 30, 2017

Dear Councillors,

The Rohingya community from Ireland is writing to your honourable offices on the issue surrounding the ‘Freedom of the City of Dublin’ bestowed on Aung San Suu Kyi.

In May 2009, a small number of the Rohingya community was resettled in Ireland by the government of Ireland. We came from two refugee camps in Bangladesh where most of the members of the community spent over 17 years. We fled from the 1991 ethnic cleansing campaign named “Operation Clean Nation” under the former military junta. We have now resettled in Ireland and are happy to call Ireland our home. We feel part of both the Rohingya community and the Irish community where ourselves and our children are working to become part of Irish society. We are working in our communities with volunteers, neighbours, local schools and colleges and governmental and non-governmental organizations for further integration in Irish society while also remembering where we came from, our identity and the family and friends that we left behind.

We share in the values of Irish society, a belief in freedom, solidarity, the protection of human rights, fairness, social justice and equality, all of the values which Irish society as a whole represents and of course, Dublin City Council. 

Ireland has had a long history of protection of human rights and for acknowledging individuals and groups who work towards social justice. Our community joined hundreds of Dubliners and human rights activists across the country on June 18, 2012 to give Aung San Suu Kyi a ‘céad míle fáilte’ in Dublin city when she was handed one of the most prestigious freedom award for her time under the house-arrest and for her outspoken words against the military regime at that time. On accepting the award, Aung San Suu Kyi said “This will be one of the unforgettable days of my life. I’ve been welcomed to Ireland as though I belong to you and thank you with all my heart. To receive this award is to remind me that 24 years ago, I took on duties from which I have never been relieved”. 

In her acceptance speech, she made promises to the Burmese people and gave a special mention to the Rohingya community in front of the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre.

However, since entering politics and forming her government after the landslide victory in 2015, she has rescinded on her promises. Not only that, she had now become the perpetrator of horrendous abuses directed at the Rohingya people. When questioned about the human rights abuses in Myanmar she claims that she is now a politician and not a human rights defender.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s systematic persecution and clearance operations of the Rohingya is clearly a form of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’. Many countries including the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom called the recent atrocities “the most profound human rights tragedies on the 21st century”. The United Nations labelled “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. International experts on genocide coined it “the slow-burning genocide” entering into its final stages, and the U.S. Holocaust Museum and many other organizations found “strong-evidence of genocide” against Rohingya. The evidence is clear in terms of the atrocities and human rights abuses against the Rohingya.

Furthermore, more than 877,000 Rohingya have been expelled from their birthplace since she became a politician in 2012, and over 712,000 (1.35-times the population of Dublin City) since she became the State-counsellor of Burma in April 2016. More than 625,000 of our people found refuge in the neighbouring Bangladesh since August 25th 2017 after fleeing the campaign of genocide in the country governed by her government. 

Mairead Maguire, the Irish Nobel Peace Laureate said, “It is morally wrong to treat Rohingya as non-citizens on their own lands. The plight of Rohingya in Myanmar (Burma) has worsened since 2012. Right now, they have two equally risky options; to stay and die in Myanmar or leave by boat.”

Seven fellow Nobel Peace Laureates warned Aung San Suu Kyi in May 2015 that “What Rohingya are facing is a textbook case of genocide in which an entire indigenous community is being systematically wipe out by the Burmese government.”

Despite the repeated calls from human rights groups and individuals, and the strong evidence of the atrocities, Aung San Suu Kyi remains silent and defends the military which is known for its heinous crimes and human rights abuses over the past 50 years. She is in denial and refuses to acknowledge what is happening saying “no, no, it is not ethnic cleaning” and “ethnic cleansing is too strong an expression to use for what is happening”.

Aung San Suu Kyi has become complicit in the actions by the Burmese military and refuses to acknowledge and condemn the military operations of genocide. As mentioned, she has been condemned internationally but continues to guard the military and refuses to instigate any slowing down of the atrocities. 

Buddhist nationalism and the actions of the Burmese government is a blatant attack on our community and is an example of acute Islamophobia where the Rohingya people are being persecuted despite international condemnation. It is not only the Rohingya community that are suffering but all other religious minorities. As a sitting member of parliament, she has neither attempted to protest against four “Race and Religion Protection Laws” adopted at the end of military-backed government. Nor has she any concerns as the State-counsellor in promoting divisive and inflammatory comments from Thura Aung Ko, the minister of religious affairs. She had failed to condemn members of her cabinet whom have labelled all Muslims living in Burma as “associate citizens”. In other words, we are simply second-class citizens. 

Aung San Suu Kyi has called for the history of Burma to be rewritten which sets out to completely erase the residue of the existence of the “Rohingya” in the country’s historical documentations issued by the former democratically elected governments prior to General Ne Win’s coup d'état in March 1962.

Aung San Suu Kyi has also appointed ex-major Zaw Htay, one of the most racists and culprits in the incitement of hatred and violence against Rohingya which erupted the 2012 campaign of genocide, as the Director-general of her State-counsellor’s Office. He has served as former President Thein Sein’s spokesperson, and remains as the main source of misinformation and propaganda which is constantly fed to her.

For her Minster of Information, she has picked Pe Myint, a Rakhine nationalist who is responsible in the assertion of widespread fake, biased, unethical and anti-Rohingya propaganda. Through the ministry she has instructed the entire Burmese media outlets to use “terrorist” whenever covering the situations of “Bengali” – the term her official Facebook Page “Information Committee” often uses to refer to the Rohingya.

Thaung Tun, a military junta-era diplomat who once warned Aung San Suu Kyi “must not rock the boat” after her NLD (National League for Democracy) Party boycotted the junta’s constitution convention, is appointed in the new National Security Advisor post to defend her government like he had done for the junta on the international platform. 

Aung San Suu Kyi has also dispatched a group of diplomats or High Commissioners across the world who have mastered in victim-blaming, pointing the finger at insurgents in Burma. The letter that Lord Mayor of Dublin Micheál Mac Donncha received on September 11, 2017 from Burmese Ambassador in UK Kyaw Zwar Minn, in response to the Freedom of the City of Dublin award is a classic example of propaganda filled with anti-Rohingya rhetoric and outright lies. Below is an extract from the letter.

“It should be noted that, our security forces are fighting the extremist terrorists to safeguard Myanmar’s sovereignty. Terrorism today has become a global problem and it is a menace to the civilized world. Terrorism incidents in any part of the world, whether in Myanmar or in any other country should be treated the same as dangerous and dealt with accordingly.”

The letter further states that “terrorists and their lobbyists are working together to wrongfully portray Myanmar’s image by making up stories to incite anger and promote misunderstandings…… Accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide are totally false”. When the Irish government funded, Irish Centre for Human Rights’ published their report “Crimes against Humanity in Western Burma: The Situation of the Rohingyas”, documented the systematic persecution and the policies of discrimination implemented by the military. It gave particular attention to the 1982 Citizenship Law which is the foundation of all the persecution and discrimination – stripping of citizenship, denying freedom of religion, movement, marriage, education, healthcare, livelihood, etc.., and subjected to torture, arbitrary arrest, forced-disappearance, rape and sexual violence, forced labour, taxation and land confiscation.

It is also mentioned in the letter that Aung San Suu Kyi’s government supports the recommendations of Kofi Annan’s Commission, and the commission according to her spokesperson Zaw Htay, serves “as a shield” against “accusation from the international community”.

The tone and rhetoric of the letter highlights Aung San Suu Kyi’s Islamophobiac view. It gives the green-light to the military to collectively punish the entire community under the name of counter-terrorism campaign. Further atrocities occurred following the August clash with Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) who were forced to defend themselves by taking sticks, machetes and stolen arms to fight against the over 4-decade of institutionalised persecution and systematic campaign of slow-genocide. 

Kofi Annan’s commission had made recommendations, among them is providing citizenship to Rohingya. However, as the letter reads, the government supports “Citizenship verification pilot projects” which “the Muslim community leaders asked their people not to cooperate”. The pilot project is entirely a campaign to undermine the ethnic identity of Rohingya and to forcefully issue cards known as National Verification Cards (NVCs) to Rohingya civilians under the name of “Bengali” – the term seen by Rohingya as the cultural genocide or forced ethnic-reclassification. Her government along with the security forces have launched the smear campaign threatening the remaining Rohingya civilian to hold the cards or face mass-starvation through preventing farming, fishing and livelihood, and/or expulsion from the country.

Aung San Suu Kyi has clearly instructed the European Union, the United State of America, other countries and agencies to refrain from using the word “Rohingya”. The commission report has also briefly highlighted that she has requested to avoid using ‘Rohingya’. As the first female de factor leader, she has forgotten or ignored the widespread use of the term by Burma’s statesmen following the country’s Independence.

The first elected Prime Minister of Burma U NU told the nation on September 25, 1954, “The people living in northern Arakan (now Rakhine State) are our national brethren. They are called Rohingyas. They are on the same par in the status of nationality with Kachin, Karen, Mon, Rakhine and Shan… They are one ethnic people living within the Union of Burma.” And so did the second Prime Minister of Burma U Ba Swe on November 4, 1959, “The Rohingya has equal status of nationality with Kachin, Kayah, Karen, Mon, Rakhine and Shan.”

Furthermore, “Rohingya leaders asked us not to call the Rohingya ‘Khaw Taw’, nor ‘Bengali’, nor ‘Chittagonian Kalar, nor ‘Rakhine Muslims’. Instead the Rohingya leaders said their self-referential ethnic name was the Arabic word Rohingya,” Vice Chief of Staff of Burma Armed Forced Brigadier Aung Gyi proclaimed on November 15, 1951.

Now Aung San Suu Kyi denies the right to self-identification of Rohingya community, and at the same time, has instructed to use “Muslims” or “the Muslim community in Rakhine”. On many occasions, she has refused to talk with diplomats who used “Rohingya” or told foreign delegates to refrain using “Rohingya”.

In her much-anticipated speech delivered on September 19, she used “Rohingya” once when associating Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army’s actions with “acts of terrorism”. “A new FM radio channel has been set up… broadcasts in Rakhine, Bengali and Myanmar languages,” described the choice of “Bengali” language for Rohingya during the speech.

She also lied that “All people living in the Rakhine State have access to education and healthcare services without discrimination” when there is absolutely no tertiary education nor primary healthcare services – there was only 1 doctor for 140,000 Rohingya compare to 1 for 681 Rakhine prior to the ongoing genocidal campaign which leaves no Rohingya doctors in Northern Rakhine State.

After the mounting criticism of not setting foot on Rakhine State, she visited the state on November 2. She was accompanied by a number of previously U.S. blacklisted military cronies and tycoons to survey for potential international investment on the Rohingya lands, which, according to her Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Minister Win Myat Aye, are the government properties. She visited just 2 of over 300 Rohingya villages completely destroyed under her watch since August 25, and met the military-handpicked Rohingya who cannot speak the Burmese language to portray Rohingya in the local media as “illegal Bengali” who don’t speak the national language. Before she left for capital Naypyidaw, she told the communities not “to quarrel” and “praise the security forces” for following “the Code of Conduct” that she reportedly instructed to adhere, told during her September Speech.

To further avoid or divert international condemnation and prosecution for her complicity in the genocide, she reached an agreement with Bangladesh on November 23 to repatriate the Rohingya refugees without providing the citizenship, the security, the international observers and the resettlement to their places of origin. Instead, her government proposed to build temporary camps, similar to Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps in Sittwe and other townships of Rakhine State where more than 120,000 Rohingya are still confined without basic movement, education, healthcare, livelihood since 2012. According to the government, the temporary camps are to host the refugees until they are being resettled back to their villages which seems extremely suspicious due to the calls from various nationalist groups including Buddhist monks and her own party members to permanently segregate the entire population by means of camps and heavily-guarded ghettos.

On November 27, Oxford, the city where she has pursued her education, the place where she has met her late husband Michael Aris and the home where her two sons Alexander Aris and Kim Aris, were raised, stripped her of “Freedom of Oxford” bestowed in 1997, for “her inaction in the face of oppression of the minority Rohingya population… denial of any ethnic cleansing and dismissal of numerous sexual violence against Rohingya women as ‘fake rape’”.

In a similar action of protest, St Hugh’s College, Oxford University where she obtained B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1968, has pull down her portrait from its entrance and removed her name from its common room. The London School of Economics, cities of Sheffield and Glasgow and the Canadian trade union Unifor, are some of the growing list of cities, institutions and agencies which feel compelled to withdraw their honours for her lack of values, integrity and moral responsibilities.

She becomes a leader, more precisely political leader who doesn’t want to compromise for the power which corrupts her absolutely.

The abject cowardice she has shown to stand up against the world’s most persecuted people, the moral failure she has demonstrated to condemn the atrocious actions of military, and the vicious denial she has forged to label the well-documented crimes against humanity as “fake” including rape – which she bravely said on May 23, 2011, “Rape is rife. Rape is used in my country as a weapon by Armed Forces against those who only want to assert the basic human rights”, all invariably indicate the downfall of once-considered the Beacon of Hope or the Champion of Freedom.

When the members of Rohingya community visited the Mansion House in the heart of city on September 19, the Lord Mayor of Dublin showed the plate hung in the house. It strikes us deep in our heart with the extreme example of solidarity, generosity, kindness and compassion that the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma showed towards the victims of “An Gorta Mor” – Irish Great Famine of 1847 by donating 710 Dollars, despite enduring the Trail of Tears after the series of forced removal from their ancestral homes.

Ireland has since become a nation which respects and stands for human rights, and becomes an exemplary champion of human rights.

Now is the time for this great city to forge another unbreakable bond with another persecuted people who face the mirror-image of “Trail of Tears”, and it is time to show the world that this historical city still carries the honour, the freedom and the hope which is instilled for the deprived groups of people like the Rohingyas.

Thank you for being patient in reading this long letter from a community which still carries untold sufferings of over four decades which has intensified in recent months. We feel strongly the Dublin City Council need to know the full facts and the lived experience of the suffering of our brothers and sisters. 

We hope that Dublin City Council will follow other major cities in condemning the actions of Aung San Suu Kyi and to remove her from ‘the freedom of Dublin’ honours list. 

We look forward in great hope. 

Sincerely,

Haikal Mansor

The European Rohingya Council (ERC)

gsecretary@theerc.eu 

085 7692758

Mohammed Rafique

Rohingya Community Ireland (RCI)

rohingyaireland@gmail.com 

info@theerc.eu 

086 0391625

Associated Press

December 3, 2017

By Abdul Aziz

Dhaka Tribune

December 3, 2017

'We could not hold our tears when he stood in front of us'

Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh -- Pope Francis, the supreme religious figure of Catholic community, was shocked to hear the harrowing tales of atrocities from the 16 Rohingya refugees, who were brought to Dhaka on Friday to meet the Pope.

The pontiff, in reply, advised them to be patient and pray to God. Moreover, the pope also assured them that he would urge the world community to stand beside the Rohingya refugees.

The 16 Rohingya refugees have shared the above information with the Dhaka Tribune correspondent after returning back to the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar.

The 16 Rohingya — 12 men, two women and two young girls — traveled to Dhaka from Cox’s Bazar, where refugee camps are overflowing with more than 6,20,000 Rohingya who have fled what the UN says is a campaign of ethnic cleansing by Myanmar.

They are very happy to have the assurance from the religious leader. Sarder Ayub Ali Majhi, one of the Rohingya refugees who had met the Pope, told the Dhaka Tribune: “The Pope met with all of us individually. We could not hold our tears when he stood in front of us. Many of those who were present there also broke down in tears.”

Another refugee named Sarder Lalu Majhi said: “We told the Pope about our rights and the brutal atrocities of Myanmar military. We told him that we would return to our homeland if they provide us with full citizenship and peaceful environment.”

“He listened to all of us very attentively and assured us of finding a solution after talking to the world community,” Lalu Majhi added.

By AFP

December 3, 2017

YANGON -- Pope Francis's embrace of the Rohingya during a trip to Bangladesh has sparked some angry comment on social media in Myanmar, where just days earlier he chose not to publicly air their plight.

On Friday (Dec 1), the head of the Catholic church met a group of refugees from Myanmar's stateless Muslim minority in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.

He referred to them as "Rohingya" - a term unacceptable to many in Myanmar where they are reviled as alleged "Bengali" illegal immigrants rather than as a distinct ethnic group.

During his public addresses on the previous leg of his trip in mainly Buddhist Myanmar, Francis did not refer to the group by name or directly allude to the crisis in Rakhine state, from where over 620,000 Rohingya have fled since August.

His caution initially won applause from Myanmar's tiny Catholic minority - who feared a nationalist blowback - as well as from Buddhist hardliners, who are on the defensive after a global outcry about the treatment of the group.

A deadly attack by Rohingya militants on police posts in late August sparked a ferocious crackdown in Rakhine by the Myanmar military, which the US and UN describe as ethnic cleansing.

As he arrived back at the Vatican, the pontiff said he had taken up the Rohingya cause in private in Myanmar, also describing how he wept after meeting the group of refugees.

"I wept: I tried to do it in a way that it couldn't be seen," he told reporters. "They wept too." The comments sparked a flurry of online anger in Myanmar, a country locked off from modern communications for five decades but which now has an active social media.

"He is like a lizard whose colour has changed because of weather," said Facebook user Aung Soe Lin of the pope's strikingly different stances on the crisis.

"He should be a salesman or broker for using different words even though he is a religious leader," said another Facebook user called Soe Soe.

Myanmar's Catholic church had advised Francis not to stray into the incendiary issue of the status of the Rohingya in Myanmar, in case he worsened tensions and endangered Christians.

In his public addresses he treaded softly on the topic, urging unity, compassion and respect for all ethnic groups - but not naming the Rohingya.

"The Pope is a holy person...but he said something here (in Myanmar) and he said different in other country," another Facebook user Ye Linn Maung posted.

"He should say the same things if he loves the truth." Others were more sanguine about Francis' choice of language once he had left Myanmar soil.

Maung Thway Chun, chairman of an unofficial party of nationalists called the 135 Patriots Party, applauded the pope's decision not to name them in Myanmar despite pressure from rights groups.

"It means he respects Myanmar people," he said. "He even did not use the word many times in Bangladesh...I think he said it once, just to comfort human rights organisations."

Pope Francis meets Rohingya Muslim refugees.

CNN

December 2, 2017

By Arafatul Islam

Deutsche Welle 

November 30, 2017

Pope Francis has so far failed to mention the Rohingya on his week-long trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh. At the Rohingya refugee camps Cox's Bazar, those familiar with the pontiff are hoping he will address their plight.

"Who is the pope?" asks Moulove Abdul Halim, a Rohingya refugee who came to Bangladesh from Myanmar two months ago. He manages a newly-built mosque at a camp in Kutupalong, an area in the Bangladeshi coastal city of Cox's Bazar where most of the Rohingya refugees live.

Halim is unfamiliar with Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church, who will begin a three-day trip to Bangladesh on Thursday after leaving Myanmar. He showed no interest in commenting when asked about the pontiff's visit, instead returning to his young students memorizing the Koran in the mosque.

The Kutupalong refugee camps, where most of the nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees live, is growing by the day. New tents are being erected in areas where no electricity or sewage system is available.

Samsunnahar, a 20-year-old refugee, confused the word "pope" with the soft drink "Coke" when Francis' name was mentioned. Fellow refugee Mohammad Hashim thought the pope was a powerful local politician he should know about.

"We just want to live an independent life in Myanmar like the country's other citizens. We are Rohingyas, and they should recognize us. Can the pope help us in getting our home back?" asked Hashim. The 20-year-old student sees no hope of continuing his education in Cox's Bazar, as the refugee camps have no high schools and Rohingya students are not allowed to enroll in local Bangladeshi schools.

No condemnation from Francis in Myanmar

Pope Francis has avoided using the term Rohingya on his trip thus far during meetings with Myanmar's de facto leader Aung Sung Suu Kyi and Buddhist leaders. Many in the Buddhist-majority country, including the government itself, refer to the minority group as "Bengalis,'' implying they are interlopers from Bangladesh, and dispute UN claims that they are being persecuted by the army.

Those refugees following Francis' trip to the region were disappointed that he has not yet mentioned the plight of the Rohingya people this week.

Mayyu Ali, who was studying English literature at a University in Myanmar before authorities imposed a ban on Rohingya students in 2012, moved to Bangladesh two months ago with his family after the military burned his home.

"I was hoping that [Francis] would visit the camps in Kutupalong to realize the suffering we have been going through every day," Ali told DW. "Had he been here, he would have understood us better.'"

Ali nonetheless remains optimistic Francis will speak the truth about the plight of the Rohingya people, as he did in twice during appeals from the Vatican earlier this year.

Refugee camp not on pope's schedule

The Pope's official itinerary in Bangladesh does not include a stop at the Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar, but Regina Catrambone, co-founder of Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), which is working on the crisis, is hopeful Francis will show up unannounced. "The reason [the pope is not planning to visit the Rohingya camps] is maybe a security concern," she said. "But I still hope that he will surprise us and decides to come. He is a pope that likes surprises.''

Other international charities working on the Rohingya crisis have avoided directly addressing the pope's visit, considering it a political issue, and Bangladesh government officials also expressed reluctance in commenting on the subject.

Nay San Lwin, a Germany-based Rohingya activist who is visiting Bangladesh prior to pope's visit, thinks that the pontiff avoided using the term Rohingya in Myanmar due to "pressure by Burmese Cardinal Charles Maung Bo.'' However, he wants to hear the term from the Pope during his visit to Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

"Bangladesh is hosting more than a million Rohingya refugees as of today. They all are victims of Myanmar's genocide. So the Pope must condemn the genocide,'' Lwin said. "He should also urge the international community and the United Nations to intervene in Myanmar to stop the ongoing genocide.''

Christians make up less than 1 percent of Bangladesh's 160 million people. More than 80,000 Catholics in the country are expected to join a mass prayer with the pope at a historic garden in the capital, Dhaka, on December 1.

Dhaka Tribune

November 30, 2017

The speakers of “Ending the Slow Burning Genocide of Rohingyas by Myanmar” conference looking at the pictures of Rohingyas displayed at Dhaka University on November 29, 2017 (Photo: Mehedi Hasan/Dhaka Tribune)

The Independent

November 28, 2017

Aung San Suu Kyi applauds as she sits next to Pope Francis. Photograph: Max Rossi/Reuters

By Poppy McPherson

The Guardian

November 28, 2017

Pontiff calls for unity and tolerance speaking after Aung San Suu Kyi address but avoids naming Muslim minority

Pope Francis failed to mention Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority as he shared a stage with the country’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, saying the country was suffering from civil conflict and hostilities “that have lasted all too long and created deep divisions”.

Speaking in the capital, Naypyitaw, on Tuesday afternoon, the pontiff talked of the need to “respect the rights of all who call this land their home”.

His visit to Myanmar comes after an exodus of more than 620,000 Rohingya from Rakhine state to the southern tip of Bangladesh after a military crackdown that the UN, US and UK have described as ethnic cleansing.

The trip is, however, so delicate that some papal advisers warned him against even saying the word “Rohingya”, lest he set off a diplomatic incident that could turn the country’s military and government against minority Christians. 

“The future of Myanmar must be peace, a peace based on respect of the dignity and rights of each member of society, respect for each ethnic group and its identity,” Francis said, speaking after Aung San Suu Kyi had made an address.

“Religious differences need not be a source of division and distrust, but rather a force for unity, forgiveness, tolerance and wise nation-building.” 

Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingya as citizens or as members of a distinct ethnic group with their own identity, and it rejects the term “Rohingya” and its use.

Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said the pope had missed an opportunity, adding that the “Rohingya have been stripped of so many things but their name should never be one of them”.

Mayyu Ali, a Rohingya refugee who recently fled the violence and lives in a camp in Bangladesh, said he was disappointed the pope did not speak more directly.

“He should keep speaking up for the truth as he did before. Last year, he cited ‘Our Rohingya brothers and sisters’. And he said more about our suffering,” he said.

“If he avoids speaking up for persecuted Rohingya during his visit to our country, it would be something like he also is a bystander of the suffering we have [had] since decades.” 

However, the EU’s ambassador to Myanmar, Kristian Schmidt, praised the speech, saying it was unnecessary for Francis to talk directly about the crisis.

“He didn’t need to. It was written all over the speech, between the lines,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be about specific words. It was all about values. And on values it was absolutely eloquent and strong.”

The meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi was the most anticipated of the pope’s visit, given the international outcry over the crackdown on Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority.

The operation against the minority was launched in August after Rohingya militants attacked security posts. Rohingya fleeing into neighbouring Bangladesh have reported that entire villages were burned and looted, and women and girls were raped.

On Monday evening, Oxford city council stripped Aung San Suu Kyi of the freedom of the city award it gave her 20 years ago, saying those who turn a blind eye to violence tarnish its reputation.

On Wednesday, Francis will preside over a mass service in the commercial capital, Yangon, which tens of thousands of people are expected to attend, before flying to Bangladesh on Thursday.

Myanmar’s 650,000-strong Catholic community has been eagerly anticipating the visit, but the excitement has been tempered by fears that bold remarks by the pope could spark nationalist anger towards them.

Speaking shortly before the pope flew into Naypyitaw, Father Gregory, a priest from northern Myanmar, said attitudes were divided on the issue.

“Some people want him to say about Rakhine state and some people don’t want to say about this,” he said. He declined to express his opinion, citing the extreme sensitivity of the issue. “Kind of a dilemma, so I cannot say,” he said.

Myanmar’s Catholic leaders have stressed that Aung San Suu Kyi has no voice to speak out against the military over the operation, and have urged continued support for her efforts to move Myanmar towards a more democratic future that includes all its religious minorities, Christians in particular. 

During talks on Monday evening, the country’s powerful army chief told Francis there was “no religious discrimination” in Myanmar. 

Hours after the pontiff landed and was welcomed to the country by thousands of Catholics, Gen Min Aung Hlaing told the pope the military “performs for the peace and stability of the country” and there is “no discrimination between ethnic groups in Myanmar”.

Before delivering his speech on Tuesday, Francis spoke to interfaith leaders at the archbishop’s residence and separately met a prominent but controversial Buddhist leader.

The pope stressed a message of “unity in diversity” in his 40-minute meeting with Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders. He told them they should work together to rebuild the country and that, if they argue, they should argue like brothers, who reconcile afterwards, his spokesman, Greg Burke, said.

His meeting with the Buddhist monk Sitagu Sayadaw was “always in an effort to encourage peace and fraternal coexistence as the only way ahead”, according to Burke.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report