Latest Highlight

A Rohingya reporter photographs a man allegedly shot by security forces in Rakhine. Photo: Noor Hossain/Rohingya Mobile Reporters

By Maliha Khan
December 9, 2017

How Rohingya citizen journalists have been documenting the crisis over the years and what's changed now

For years now, the persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar has been broadcast to the world largely through volunteers who use smartphones to send photos, audio and video clips out to the Rohingya diaspora, larger Muslim community and the world. In the camps in the south of Bangladesh, refugees show images and videos of scenes of violence back home on their phones. Members of these WhatsApp or Facebook groups include the Rohingya diaspora in countries as wide-ranging as Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and the UK.

Rakhine state has been “closed” to the outside world with the government restricting access to the region to independent observers, journalists, rights groups, and the UN. “Due to the denial of access to the region, it is essentially impossible to get information,” says Rohingya refugee Mohammed Rafique, founder of The Stateless, a Rohingya community news portal.

What little has come out has been through social media, community outlets, and blogs. Two prominent sources of news online include the Rohingya Blogger and The Stateless.

Nay San Lwin, based in Germany, runs the Rohingya Blogger. The blog has become an important news media outlet for documenting human rights abuses against the Rohingya as well as featuring major international articles doing the same. Lwin's father, U Ba Sein, founded the website in 2005 and Lwin himself has been blogging since 2012. “We have gathered a great deal of evidence which arguably amount to show genocide has occurred against the Rohingya,” stated Lwin recently at a conference organised by the Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit (RMMRU) in Dhaka.

The year 2012 marked deadly riots between Buddhists and the Rohingya in the state of Rakhine, with allegations that the subsequently deployed military committed human rights abuses in Rohingya villages. As the national media largely ignored the violence, Rohingya community leaders and members of the diaspora set up their own media outlets to document and report on atrocities being committed in the state.

It was at this time that both Rohingya Blogger and The Stateless came into being. Lwin formed a team of volunteers based in northern Rakhine state. His team members keep tabs on all the villages in the area to document actions of the Border Guard Police (BGP), military and civilian authorities against the Rohingya.

“We also have volunteers in central Rakhine state who are reporting about the situation of refugee camps,” says Lwin. Around 120,000 internally displaced Rohingya have been interned in camps across Rakhine State since 2012 with the government restricting the UN and aid groups from distributing vital food aid or providing healthcare services.

Rohingya Blogger also has volunteers this side of the border, who have covered several incidents in the camps. They do not have problems recruiting, says Lwin, because they are well-known and many are willing to cooperate for the sake of getting information of their plight out to the world. 

The Rohingya Blogger team works discreetly, even among the villagers who are their sources. They are also anonymous online as they could all be sentenced to long imprisonment for their activities, says Lwin.

“Two of our team members were arrested two years ago but they managed to get released by themselves. We didn't publicise that they were our members as they would have been sentenced to imprisonment for their work. Some non-members who sent reports to us were arrested as well and four people from Buthidaung township have been sentenced for six years,” says Lwin.

Mobile phones have been available in the villages of Rakhine state only since 2014. Even without, says Lwin, his sources are tenacious. Lwin says of his experiences over the years, “I used to receive handwritten information. They know how to send information and they know how to reach me. I have even received handwritten reports from prison cells.”

What's changed in 2017? For one, half of Lwin's team is now in Bangladesh, having fled there since the most recent spate of violence August onwards. The rest of the volunteers remain in their villages but mobility is no longer an option. Many of their contacts, too, have fled across the border. This has led to a change in focus for the blog. “As the atrocities against the Rohingya are mostly known to the world by now, we are shifting our attention to writing news updates in Burmese to better inform Burmese Buddhists,” says Lwin.

Lwin and his news site have come under attack by the government. An article published in January of this year was dismissed by the Information Committee of the State Counsellor's Office as “fabricated”. “Our work has been publicly attacked by the government and the military. The official Facebook page of the Office of the President has attempted to attack and discredit us. They claim that our evidence and reporting was fake news,” stated Lwin at the RMMRU conference.

The Stateless is also run by a member of the Rohingya diaspora, based in Ireland. This, too, is run with the help of volunteers based within Rakhine State who operate with no pay and undertaking enormous risk.

A Rohingya mobile reporter takes photos and video footage of a burning village in Rakhine state.

Mobile journalism has been crucial for the persecuted Rohingya to get information out, using social media groups in WhatsApp and WeChat among others.“We normally go through a process in the groups to verify the authenticity of information by confirming with other members and video or imagery evidence. Then we proceed in writing the report,” says Rafique.

Recently, there have been reports of journalists documenting the Rohingya crisis going missing, targeted by the military. Since October 9 of last year, nine out of 10 of their mobile journalists have either disappeared or been killed, reports Rafique.

Since August 25 of this year, hundreds of villages have been entirely destroyed by the military with over 600,000 having sought refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh. The Stateless is currently starved of information with no sources left in the villages of Rakhine, says Rafique. This draught of information also has repercussions for human rights activists and international media outlets which depend on community sources in the otherwise “closed” state for information from inside.

Burmese journalists have not been spared, even on this side of the border. In September, Minzayar Oo and Hkun Lat, two photojournalists from Myanmar, were detained for almost 10 days. According to Bangladesh police, they were arrested for conducting their journalist work while on tourist visas. Ironic, considering that the rest of the world's journalists have been going about their work in Cox's Bazar without the threat of arrest.

The international media have finally taken a sustained interest in the matter due to the influx of over a million refugees into Bangladesh over the last year. But the work of these Rohingya mobile journalists remains as important as ever. With Rakhine still closed to the outside world, information from the epicenter of the crisis is vital to the fight of the Rohingya both inside and outside Myanmar.




By Mutasim Billah and Sorwar Alam
December 9, 2017

Repatriation deal for displaced Rohingya, fleeing violent crackdown in Myanmar, is designed for failure, warn experts

DHAKA, Bangladesh -- In the wake of Bangladesh and Myanmar signing a deal to repatriate Rohingya refugees to Myanmar’s Rakhine state, most experts see "zero probability" that the deal will be implemented.

The bilateral deal, signed this Nov. 23, stipulates some nearly impossible conditions for the verification of the residency of the people the agreement calls "displaced persons from Myanmar" instead of their widely known ethnic identity of Rohingya. 

C.R. Abrar, coordinator of the Dhaka-based Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RAMMRU), told Anadolu Agency that the agreement was rubbish, as by signing the deal Myanmar only aimed to ease the international pressure on it.

Abrar, one of the most prominent experts in Bangladesh on the Rohingya, said the agreement had “many limitations”.

“There is no way to involve a third party to identify refugees, according to the pact.”

Some sections of the deal would make repatriation impossible, according to him.

“Because all the documents the Rohingya had were taken by Myanmar by force when they fled persecution, and there was no reason to carry the documents under the [dire] circumstances when they had to flee genocide,” he said.

And even if the Rohingya show the documents claiming their residency, Myanmar’s government has the right to reject anyone it wants, according to Abrar.

He added: “We’ve learned that Myanmar’s government has changed the official names of many villages and residential areas in Rakhine state. If the Rohingya mention the name of a village or the city, in light of this it’s doubtful they will be accepted.”

Although Rohingya refugees should willingly return to their homeland, he said: “I see no reason that they will go back.”

“I think this deal is pure rubbish. It will be used by Myanmar’s government as a defense against international criticism.”

He said the deal says nothing about including human rights groups and NGOs providing humanitarian assistance to the repatriation process.

The agreement only envisages that the two governments "will duly coordinate with the UNHCR,” the UN refugee agency, if needed. 

"It’s been said that the returning Rohingya would be held in camps for a short period of time but there’s no fixed duration.

“I don’t think there’s any section in this agreement that protects the Rohingya’s rights, and that's why I don’t think they'll go back."


No provisions for monitoring the process

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

Violence erupted on Aug. 25, forcing over 620,000 Rohingya to cross from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN.

The refugees are fleeing a military operation in which security forces and Buddhist mobs have killed men, women and children, looted homes, and torched Rohingya villages. According to Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali, around 3,000 Rohingya have been killed in the crackdown.

M. Humayun Kabir, Bangladesh’s former ambassador to the U.S., said that many issues on the repatriation have yet to be fixed.

"This is only the initial phase of the agreement. Many more things remain to be done. We have around a month-and-a-half" before implementing the deal, he said.

“Actually, the articles of the agreement are referred to as guiding principles, [and] a joint working group will be created. Then I think there will be a chance to talk about documentation. We can mention to them that if we already registered Rohingya refugees this can be used as a document. If it can be done, then the process will be easy,” he said.

Under the Nov. 23 agreement, the only documents acceptable as valid for proving Rohingya residency in Myanmar are “copies of documents issued in Myanmar indicating their residence in Myanmar, such as old and expired citizenship identity cards / National Registration cards / Temporary Registration cards (White cards) and any other documents issued by relevant Myanmar authorities; or Other documents or information indicating their residence in Myanmar, such as addresses, reference to household or business ownership document, school attendance, or any other relevant particulars and information.”

Kabir agreed that there are no provisions for monitoring the repatriation process.

Though the deal emphasizes "the need for sustainable and durable solutions … [for a] process of voluntary return in safety, security, and dignity with options for recommencing livelihoods, after verification that the returnees have been residents of Myanmar," both the experts voiced their concerns over this.

“If the Rohingya can’t be assured that they are safe, then they won’t go,” said Kabir.

But he also praised the deal as a big achievement for Bangladesh, as the Myanmar government had to sit at the negotiating table with Bangladesh and agree to sign the deal due to constant pressure from the international community.

“I think now Myanmar also feels pressure [from the international community], that’s why they agreed to sign the deal,” he said, adding that the international community should continue its pressure on Yangon.

“We would like to be optimistic about this agreement, but at the same time we will remain conscious until it is implemented,” he said. 

‘China pushed for the deal’

Afsan Chowdhury, a veteran journalist and researcher in Bangladesh, told Anadolu Agency that China was the main player in the deal.

He underlined that both Bangladesh and Myanmar have multibillion-dollar financial ties with China.

“The deal was done due to China's influence,” Chowdhury said. 

“In line with China's choice, we made a bilateral agreement instead of multilateral agreements. China has a huge influence on both countries. Now it’s able to control everything…

“Bangladesh gets ultra-low-interest loans from China, and that’s why China has an implicit influence. I’m not very optimistic about this bilateral agreement. Nobody is optimistic.”

He highlighted that China was the first country in the world to welcome the agreement.

Ro Nay San Lwin, a European-based Rohingya activist, told Anadolu Agency that repatriation was “practically impossible”.

Documentation and verification would be main issues of the process, as the Rohingya would be unable to present the required documents since Myanmar has long since stopped providing Rohingya any official citizenship documents.

“There are many ways to prove the residency status of the people who fled to Bangladesh. The most important is that UN organizations must be involved in this repatriation,” Lwin explained. 

“Bangladesh must be very strong when they deal with Myanmar. They should not accept any burden imposed by Myanmar. If they believe anyone is from Myanmar, they have to pressure Myanmar to take them back.”

He added: "At a special session of the UNHRC held Tuesday in Geneva, Myanmar representative Htin Lynn said there will be no camps. But we still need to see the official announcement from Myanmar’s government.

“No Rohingya will go back home unless their citizenship and basic human rights are guaranteed by Myanmar’s government.” 

Lwin said that Rohingya survivors will go back to Myanmar "only if their houses are rebuilt and ready in their original villages, they are offered full citizenship cards at the entry points, and are guaranteed that they would not be persecuted again".

Rohingya Muslim refugees walk down a hillside in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar on November 26, 2017.

By Katherine Gypson
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.”

Newly arrived Rohingya refugees sit on a truck to take them to get registered after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border at a relief centre in the Teknaf area, Bangladesh, November 23, 2017. (Photo: REUTERS/Susana Vera)

By Serajul Quadir
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.

Reporting By Serajul Quadir; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg



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.



Rohingya refugees continue their way after crossing from Myanmar into Palang Khali, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

By Stephanie Nebehay
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

Pope Francis interacts with a Rohingya Muslim refugee at an interfaith peace meeting in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, Dec. 1, 2017. Pope Francis ordained 16 priests during a Mass in Bangladesh on Friday, the start of a busy day that will bring him face-to-face with Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar at an interreligious prayer for peace. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

By NICOLE WINFIELD
December 3, 2017

Dhaka, Bangladesh -- Pope Francis has gotten into trouble before for ditching diplomatic protocol and calling a spade a spade, most famously when he labeled the Ottoman-era slaughter of Armenians a "genocide" from the altar of St. Peter's Basilica.

Francis took the hit — Turkey recalled its ambassador to the Vatican in protest — for the sake of standing up for an oppressed people who were nearly wiped off the map a century ago.

Given the opportunity to do the same in Myanmar, where the military has launched what the U.N. says is a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya Muslim minority, Francis opted instead for diplomatic expediency. He not only avoided the contested term "Rohingya" in his public remarks, he ignored Asia's worst refugee crisis in decades entirely and didn't call out his hosts for launching it.

Human rights groups complained. Rohingya complained. Journalists and pundits asked if Francis' legacy as a fearless crusader for the world's most marginal — the poor, homeless, refugees and prisoners — wasn't now in question.

By Friday, Francis' heart won out.

In an emotional encounter with 16 Rohingya refugees, Francis said what he probably wanted to say from the start. His voice trembling after he greeted the men, women and children who had been forced to flee their homes in Myanmar for wretched camps in Bangladesh, Francis begged them for forgiveness for what they had endured and the "indifference of the world" to their plight.

"The presence of God today also is called 'Rohingya,'" he told them.

And with that one word, Francis erased days of speculation that the tell-it-like-it-is, protocol-be-damned pope had sold out to the professional diplomats at the Vatican who were willing to deny a persecuted minority their very identity for the sake of global and local church politics.

Francis on Saturday explained his strategy: He said he would have never gotten his message across if he had launched into a public critique of the Rohingya offensive while on Burmese soil, saying doing so would have "slammed the door in their face" to any real dialogue.

"It's true I didn't have the pleasure of slamming the door in their face publicly with a denunciation," Francis told reporters en route home to Rome. "But I had the satisfaction of dialogue, and letting the other side dialogue, and in this way the message arrived."

The Vatican had defended Francis' initial silence as necessary for the sake of "building bridges" with Myanmar, which only established diplomatic relations with the Holy See in May.

"Vatican diplomacy is not infallible," spokesman Greg Burke told reporters in Yangon. "You can criticize what's said, what's not said. But the pope is not going to lose moral authority on this question here."

Burke added that the Catholic Church is a minority in Myanmar. The implication was clear: Catholics are already discriminated against in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, and certainly didn't need any blowback from the vast majority of Burmese who recoil at the term "Rohingya" because it implies an official recognition of them as an ethnic group. The local church had urged Francis to refrain from using the term, and Francis obliged.

A pope is first and foremost a shepherd to his flock.

The Vatican also wanted to back its local church in supporting Aung San Suu Kyi, who many Burmese see as their only hope for forging a more democratic, inclusive society where basic rights are guaranteed for all minorities — Christians included.

And so when he arrived in Yangon and joined Suu Kyi at an official welcome ceremony, Francis behaved like a true diplomat.

He called for all ethnic groups in Myanmar to have their basic rights guaranteed — an important message to be sure but one that was clearly written by committee.

Francis upped the ante when he arrived in Bangladesh, where he acknowledged the "immense toll of human suffering" under way in the squalid, overcrowded refugee camps that are now home to more than 620,000 Rohingya who have poured across the border from Myanmar's Rakhine state.

In his official arrival speech, Francis demanded the international community take "decisive measures" to not only help Bangladesh provide for the refugees, but to resolve the underlying political causes in Myanmar that set off the exodus.

But he didn't say "Rohingya." Until he met them.

And when he did, when he clasped their hands in his and listened to their tragedies, he not only acknowledged their identity, he assumed responsibility for all the suffering they had endured.

"In the name of all those who persecute you, who have persecuted you, and those who have hurt you, above all in the indifference of the world, I ask you for forgiveness," he said. He repeated the word: "Forgiveness."

Francis was back.

Pope Francis meets a group of Rohingya refugees in Dhaka, Bangladesh December 1, 2017 (Photo: Reuters)

By Abdul Aziz
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.

Pope Francis prays with Rohingya refugees during an Interreligious and Ecumenical meeting for peace at the garden of the Archbishop in Dhaka, on Dec 1, 2017.PHOTO: EPA-EFE

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.

By Joshua Berlinger and Delia Gallagher
December 2, 2017

Dhaka, Bangladesh -- Pope Francis referred to the Rohingya people by name on Friday, the first time he has directly addressed Myanmar's persecuted Muslim minority in his Asia tour.

"The presence of God today is also called Rohingya," the Pope said after speaking to an interfaith audience in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka.

He did not use the term in public earlier in the week in Myanmar, to the dismay of campaigners for the Rohingya, whose stories of escaping violence in the country have provoked international condemnation. Friday is the final full day of his trip.

After his speech, the Pope met a group of Rohingya refugees one by one, giving some of them blessings and listening to the stories of others.

"Your tragedy is very hard, very big. We give you space in our hearts," the Pope said. "In the name of everyone, of those who persecute you, those who hurt you, and especially of the world's indifference, I ask for your forgiveness. Forgive us."

"Many of you talked to me about the great heart of Bangladesh, which offered you refuge. Now I appeal to your heart to give us the forgiveness we are asking from you," he told the group of refugees after meeting them.

Pope Francis shakes hands with Rohingya refugees during an interreligious and ecumenical meeting for peace on Friday in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

More than 620,000 Rohingya have fled across the border from Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh since a spate of violence began in August. Many say they were forced to flee atrocities committed by the Myanmar military.

Myanmar's government does not use the term Rohingya to refer to the group. It considers the Rohingya people to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though some families have lived in Myanmar for centuries. The Rohingya are not recognized as an official minority in Myanmar, effectively meaning they are denied citizenship.

During a speech Tuesday alongside Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, Pope Francis did not use the term Rohingya despite hopes he would do so.

Vatican spokesman Greg Burke dismissed the idea that Francis -- who has used the Rohingya term before -- diminished his moral authority by avoiding a direct reference to the group during his visit to Myanmar, the first by a Pope to the Buddhist-majority country.

"People don't expect him to solve impossible problems," Burke said.

Activists argued that because Francis did not use the term while he was in Myanmar, he was complicit in the country's strategy to delegitimize the Rohingya plight by questioning their name and identity.

"The term Rohingya is not a racial slur. It is a dignified term for more than two million people who are living across the world," European-based Rohingya activist Nay San Lwin told CNN in an email. 

After the Pope's remarks in Bangladesh, Lwin told CNN that he and other Rohingya advocates felt like "winners."

"Unexpectedly he used the correct term. He didn't avoid when he met the Rohingyas in person," Lwin said.

The international community has been outraged by the stories of fleeing refugees.

Jafar Alam, a 24-year-old Rohingya who was due to speak with the Pope in Bangladesh, told reporters before the meeting that the army lined up 30 people in his village and killed them all.

The United Nations, the US and the UK have accused the Myanmar military of ethnic cleansing, systematically driving the minority Muslim population from their homes through murder, rape and terror.

Myanmar's military claims it is pursuing terrorists responsible for a deadly attack on security forces in August. It denies that it has systematically persecuted the Rohingya. 

During his visit to Myanmar, Francis met the country's two most important leaders: Suu Kyi and Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of Myanmar's armed forces.

During a brief meeting with Pope Francis Monday, Hlaing insisted that all faiths were able to worship freely in Myanmar.

But many Myanmar watchers said Hlaing's claim is false, pointing to the Rohingya crisis. 

"The mind boggles when you're confronting such blatant falsehoods and incredibly bogus narratives that have been formulated by people covering up atrocities," said Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division.

Suu Kyi, a former Nobel Peace Prize winner for her nonviolent resistance to the military junta that ruled Myanmar for decades, has also denied that ethnic cleansing is going on her country. 

She addressed the crisis in general terms during a speech alongside Francis Tuesday, saying her government aims "to bring out the beauty of our diversity and to make it our strength, by protecting rights, fostering tolerance, ensuring security for all." 

CNN's Rebecca Wright contributed to this report

Rohingya Exodus