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Rohingya refugees line up to receive blankets outside Kutupalong refugee settlement near Cox's Bazar, November 24, 2017. PHOTO: SUSANA VERA/REUTERS

By C R Abrar
May 9, 2018

THIS week has experienced a flurry of diplomatic activities centring the Rohingya issue. Principal among those was what has been dubbed a “historic and highly unusual” visit of an important delegation of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to Bangladesh and Burma. Quite understandably, the visit drew attention of various quarters—states, international agencies, refugee and rights organisations, and most importantly, the hapless Rohingyas who have been “living in mud and shacks, with no hope and no future, no nation and no identity, no past and no future.”

During its visit, the delegation should have experienced two contrasting scenarios. On the one hand, in Kutupalong refugee camp and in the no-man's land, they heard heart-wrenching testimonies of scores of survivors of the ongoing genocide—horrifying tales of mass murder, rape, torture, tossing of children in raging fire, torching of homes and hearths and systematic expulsion of an ethnic community whose identity and claims to citizenship have been meticulously dismantled over the last four decades by a state that has little regard for human rights, which the world body so fervently champions (at least in theory). The delegation also heard how a resource-poor and one of the most densely populated countries of the world, has lived up to its commitment to uphold the UN Charter and the lofty principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in sheltering more than a million of refugees in distress. While UN diplomats heap massive praise on Bangladesh for its generosity and compassion, the organisation has so far failed to do the heavy-lifting in mobilising resources and garnering political will in addressing the root cause of Burma's genocide.

On the other hand, the delegation met representatives of a regime that not only perpetrated perhaps the most gruesome crime against humanity this century has ever witnessed, in fulfilling its long-term genocidal agenda to free Arakan of ethnic Rohingyas, but also blatantly flouted the UN Charter and UDHR, and since the outbreak of current crisis in August 2017, repeatedly hoodwinked the security council that called for bringing an end to the current humanitarian crisis.

By now the authorities in Naypyidaw have established themselves as masters of the art of deception. Time and again they have promised the UNSC that effective action would be taken to create an enabling environment for the return of Rohingyas who are languishing in refugee settlements in Bangladesh. The delegation does not need reminding that till date not a single case of repatriation has taken place, save the staged repatriation of five Rohingya individuals out of a million who have been deported.

Befitting the adage “giving the devil its due”, the astute policy planners of Burma have been immensely successful in manipulating the UNSC. As early as September 2017, Burma informed the UNSC that it was prepared to start the repatriation at any time. The country's National Security Advisor U Thaung Tun assured the UNSC that repatriation would take place by using the framework worked out jointly by Bangladesh and Burma in 1992. However, despite such a pledge, seven months have passed with no sign of repatriation. Under the memorandum of understanding with Bangladesh, Burma promised to stem the flow of refugees. In less than two weeks after signing the document, more than 100,000 Rohingyas crossed the border into Bangladesh. Anticipating the security council's displeasure over its inaction, Naypyidaw was smart enough to cook up yet another scheme—the Union Enterprise Mechanism, with the purported aim to extend humanitarian assistance and resettlement of repatriated Rohingyas. The UNSC fell into the trap and in a presidential statement it “welcomed” the signing of the memorandum with Bangladesh and the formation of the Union Enterprise Mechanism.

Despite its explicit commitment to UNSC to cooperate with Bangladesh in expediting the repatriation process, in contrast to 1992 accord, Burma further tightened the eligibility criteria for the Rohingyas' return and the verification process, thwarting any substantive effort for repatriation. In essence, it rebuffed the calls made by the UNSC in its two meetings held in September and November 2017.

The Burmese swindlers made best use of November 23 agreement with Bangladesh to stave off UNSC criticism for not progressing with repatriation. In a December UNSC meeting, Burma's envoy to UN informed the council that repatriation would begin within the next two months. While the gullible world body appeared to have fallen for the hoax, true to its colour, a week before the commencement of repatriation (on 22 January), Burma demanded family-wise list of Rohingyas—a demand that Bangladesh subsequently complied with.

Even though the Burmese threw in a spanner in the latest effort of repatriation, its minister for international cooperation, Kyaw Tin, claimed that his country was ready to welcome refugees and held Bangladesh responsible for the delay. One hopes while assessing the sequence of stalled repatriation, eminent members of the UNSC delegation would bear in mind the subterfuges that the Burmese resorted to in undermining the repatriation effort.

In their meeting with the UNSC delegation, Rohingya refugees handed over a 13-point demand which they had earlier passed on to the visiting Burmese minister for social welfare. Included in the list were demands for restoration of their citizenship rights, bringing the perpetrators of heinous crimes to justice, ensuring international presence in Arakan, return of ancestral land confiscated by the authorities, payment of compensation for losses, presence of international media and human rights groups in Arakan, release of all political prisoners and closure of internally displaced camps. In other words, the refugee community demanded ensuring “protected return to protected homeland”—a plan that was floated in the February 2018 Rohingya conference in Berlin that has gained near unanimous acceptance of the global Rohingya community.

While briefing the press in Bangladesh, a member of the UNSC delegation noted “We don't have any magic solution in the Security Council”. May he be reminded that maintaining “world peace and security” forms the core function of the security council and the council is duty bound to deliver on both counts? All states that are members of the council are meant to act on what is good for international community and not be guided by their own selfish political, strategic and economic interests. Any departure from this would tantamount to violation of the UN Charter. Rohingyas do not want UNSC delegation to whisk around a magic wand in its search for solution. They want the UNSC to adhere to the UN Charter, in word and spirit, to ensure their protected return to protected homeland and bring the perpetrators to justice.

The influential UK permanent representative Karen Pierce observed “…it is not the Security Council's fault that there is a crisis.” Well, not quite so. For decades, the Burmese state has pursued a policy of annihilation of ethnic Rohingya considered as “the most persecuted minority in the world” by the United Nations. As the community was gradually stripped of their citizenship and other associated rights, being subjected to methodical discrimination and unleashing of spikes of violence periodically triggering massive refugee flows, the international community opted to look the other way. Rohingyas were also considered a dispensable lot as western countries raced to exploit the resources and engage in trade with the genocidal regime under the rubric of supporting democratic transition. Every veto wielder in the security council is guilty of complicity in the four decade long slow genocide. The difference in complicity among them is in degree and not in kind.

This charade is exposed when UK representative in the delegation Pierce told BBC in Burma on May 1 that there is no difference between Burma's domestic investigation and international investigation as long as Aung San Suu Kyi accepts and launches the investigation with the help of the security council. What could be crueller for the victims of genocide than the security council openly lending its collective assistance to the genocidal government to conduct such investigation into its own crimes?

Over the last four decades, the UN has failed to stop genocide and other atrocious crimes that led to death and displacement of millions (Rwanda, Bosnia, Sudan and now Burma). The onus lies on the permanent members of the security council to make the institution functional and relevant. The Rohingya case provides an opportunity for the UN's redemption. Ensuring protected return to protected homeland and bringing the perpetrators to justice is the first step in that direction.

While members of the UNSC delegation return to New York and deliberate on their whirlwind mission, one hopes they bear in mind that for the first time in the history of the august body that is tasked to maintain global peace and security, they had the rare opportunity of visiting the sites where genocide was perpetrated by a murderous regime.

C R Abrar teaches international relations at the University of Dhaka.

UNSC delegation arrive at Naypyidaw airport on April 30, 2018 to meet Suu Kyi [Photo: AFP]

By Zarni Aung (MYARF)
RB News
May 2, 2018

Maungdaw -- Rohingya youths who spoke to the members of the UN Security Council Delegation are now facing the risk of arrest by the Myanmar Military Intelligence Service, sources say.

The UNSC delegation members visited the ‘Refugee-Receiving Camps’ at 'Hla Phoe Kaung, Ngakura and Taung Pyo' in Northern Maungdaw on Tuesday (May 1). They were not allowed to meet with the Rohingya villagers there, it has been reported.

In afternoon, the delegation visited the village of ‘Pantaw Pyin (Nol Boinna)’ -- which is now the last standing Rohingya village in Southern Maungdaw and all other villages to its South were burnt down by the Myanmar military and the Rakhine extremists last year.

There, the delegation spoke to Children, Youth and Women waiting in the last rows instead of the Men prepared and placed in the front rows by the Government to speak to the delegation.

The delegation asked the children and youth "which ethnicity are you and who burned down your homes?" Amidst the fear of being targeted due to the surveillance of the Myanmar Security Forces, the youths dared to reply "Myanmar military and Rakhine extremists burned down our homes. And our ethnicity is Rohingya."

Aerial View of Burnt Rohingya Villages in Maungdaw [Photo: SS from video shared by @KarenPierceUN on Twitter]
After that, the delegation asked “what ID Cards are you holding now?" To which they replied "our grand-parents and parents had three-fold cards also called NRC (National Registration Card). The government has begun confiscating them from us since 1992 which has now made us a people without any ID Cards."

And the delegation asked "and so, why don't you accept NV Cards?" The youth replied "because our forefathers had NRC like any other ethnic people in Myanmar and we are their grand-children. We'll only accept Citizenship Card."

And "how about your movement (travelling around)" asked the delegation. The youth replied "there is a BGP Check-post at the Entry Point of every village. They harass and beat us. So, it's difficult to even go to the downtown now."

The delegation spoke to Rohingya women in the village and left afterwards.

"While the children and the youth were interacting with the UNSC delegation, SaRaPha (Myanmar’s Military Intelligence Service) shot video of them. After the delegation had left the village, SaRaPha scolded the village administrator and began to chase the youth that spoke to the delegation. They are now hiding and could be arrested by the SaRaPha anytime," said a village man on the condition of anonymity.

[Edited by M.S. Anwar]

Please email to: editor@rohingyablogger.com to send your reports and feedback.



Media Release from Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK

For Immediate Release 
2nd May 2018

BROUK welcomes Liechtenstein Support for Burma ICC Referral


Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK welcomes the support of Liechtenstein for the UN Security Council referring Burma to the International Criminal Court. 

Liechtenstein UN Twitter account, @LiechtensteinUN tweeted on 30th April:

Amb. Wenaweser at #UN event with @BenFerencz today coveys his hope that #UNSC members will return from their #Myanmar visit with renewed sense of duty to take action including #ICC referral #ACTcodeofconduct.


Despite overwhelming evidence of large scale violations of international law against the Rohingya, including evidence from several of the United Nations’ own agencies, members of the United Nations Security Council have refused to support referring Burma to the International Criminal Court. The United Nations has stated that these violations of international law are so serious that they could constitute genocide. 

Rohingya organisations worldwide have been calling for years for the UN Security Council to refer Burma to the International Criminal Court. Had they done so, the current crisis might never have happened. 

Kachin civil society organisations, also suffering from large scale violations of international law, have also called on the United Nations Security Council to ‘do their job’ and refer Burma to the International Criminal Court.


“We would like to thank the government of Lichtenstein for supporting a UNSC referral of Burma to the International Criminal Court,” said Tun Khin President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK. “Lichtenstein is showing principled leadership. We need to build a global consensus, not just of Security Council Membership, but all UN members, to overcome potential opposition by some Security Council members. The UK can’t claim leadership on this issue when it is dragging its feet and refusing to support an ICC referral. It is time Boris Johnson stopped blocking Foreign Office backing for an ICC referral.”

For more information please contact, Tun Khin +44 7888714866.

RB News
May 1, 2018

Buthidaung -- Ethnic Rohingya villagers are being subjected to forced labor by Buthidaung-based Myanmar military regiment (551) and LID (15).

According to the villagers of 'Ah Thwin Nget Thae', 25-30 Rohingyas from the village are forced by the military at the regiment (551) to clean the camps, wash their clothes, cook for them, feed their pigs and more.

Before they (Rohingya) return home in the evening after working for the whole day, they are forced to sign on a blank page. Sometimes, their village administrator is forced to sign an acknowledgement that these forced labors are paid.

"(The military) force (us) to do the work the whole day. They pay us not a single penny, rather we are forced to sign a blank page. Village administration is also forced to acknowledge that they (the forced labours) are paid. The forced labours are demanded through the village administration," said a villager asking not to be named.

If the villagers do not go for forced-laboring as per the order, then the Military personnel would go on rampage in the village and; catch and hold the cattle belonging to Rohingya on ransom. And the villagers have to pay Kyat 400,000-500,000 to get these cattle back, say the villagers.

Besides, every week, 10 Rohingya villagers from 'U Hla Phay' are forced to work for the military without pay.

Likewise, 10 Rohingya villagers each from 'Ah Thwin Nget Thae,' and 'Tappyo Chaung' are summoned by the military at LID (15) to work as forced labors, sources added.

[Translated by Sabit Hamid]

Please email to: editor@rohingyablogger.com to send your reports and feedback.



U Mohammed Hanif, 48, was apparently killed today [Photo: Saeed Arakani/RB News]

RB News
May 1, 2018

Sittwe (Akyab) -- An internally displaced Rohingya man was found dead in Sittwe (Akyab) Township this (May 1) evening.

The man identified as U Mohammed Hanif s/o U Goni Miya, 48, was apparently killed around 6pm today. He was found dead with blood spilling all over his head and body at 'Cyclone Center' nearby 'Manzi' Police Station.

"He is an IDP living at 'Ohn Taw Gyi' camp. He was found dead at around 6pm and the Cyclone Center where he was found dead is an abandoned place where people go and rest nearby 'Manzi' police station.

“And the Police from the Police-Post often carelessly and brutally beat Rohingya passers-by," said an eyewitness to RB News.


After Police has sealed the place of the crime [Photo: Saeed Arakani/RB News]

 It looks like a murder and the possible murderers could be the police personnel from the ‘Mansi’ Police Post, according to our initial investigations.

The police have currently blocked all public access to the crime scene and took the dead-body for post-mortem to Sittwe General Hospital at 7:30pm.

[Reported by Saeed Arakani; Edited by M.S. Anwar]

Please email to: editor@rohingyablogger.com to send your reports and feedback.

United Nations Security Council envoys pose for a photograph with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after their meeting in Dhaka, Bangladesh, April 30, 2018. REUTERS/Michelle Nichols

By Michelle Nichols
April 30, 2018

DHAKA -- Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the U.N. Security Council on Monday to press Myanmar to take back hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled a military crackdown to take refuge in her country.

Security Council envoys visited Hasina in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, before traveling to Myanmar for meetings with its government leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and military Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing later on Monday. 

“They should put more pressure on the Myanmar government so that they take their citizens back to their country. That’s what we want,” Hasina told reporters. 

The visit by the Security Council envoys, to see the aftermath of a military operation in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, puts a global spotlight on the crisis which the United Nations and others have denounced as ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims. 

Myanmar denies the accusation, saying the military was engaged in a legitimate counter-insurgency operation. 

Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts in Rakhine State in August last year sparked the crackdown that, according to the U.N. and rights groups, sent nearly 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to camps in neighboring Bangladesh. 

Hasina said the refugees should return “under U.N. supervision where security and safety should be ensured”. 

“They want to go back to their own country. So the Security Council can play a very pivotal role,” she added. 

When asked if U.N. supervision meant the deployment of peacekeepers, Hasina said: “Not exactly, well, that the U.N. will decide”. 

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Social Welfare Minister Win Myat Aye, who is leading rehabilitation efforts in Rakhine, declined to comment. 

Kuwait’s U.N. Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi, one of the envoys, told Hasina the Security Council wanted to “send a clear strong message ... that we’re determined to end this humanitarian crisis”. 

The envoys visited camps on Sunday, where distraught refugees pleaded for help ahead of the coming monsoon season. Many live in bamboo-and-plastic structures perched on hills in the southeast Bangladesh district of Cox’s Bazar.

‘DIFFICULTIES’ 

Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in January to complete the voluntary repatriation of the refugees within two years but differences between the two sides remain and implementation of the plan has been slow. 

“We know there are difficulties in the talks between Bangladesh and Myanmar on the return of the refugees but it is important ... to create the appropriate conditions for the refugees to go back freely and voluntarily to their home of origin,” said al-Otaibi. 

The envoys are due to travel to Rakhine State on Tuesday. 

The Security Council asked Myanmar in November to ensure no “further excessive use of military force” and to allow “freedom of movement, equal access to basic services, and equal access to full citizenship for all”. 

They will seek to push the Myanmar government to implement those requests, diplomats said. 

Hasina also called on Myanmar to implement the recommendations of a commission headed by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which was appointed by Suu Kyi in 2016 to investigate how to solve Rakhine’s long-standing tensions.Among the commission’s recommendations was a review of a Myanmar law that links citizenship and ethnicity and leaves most Rohingya stateless. 

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has for years denied Rohingya citizenship, freedom of movement and access to basic services such as healthcare. Many in Myanmar regard Rohingya as illegal immigrants from mostly Muslim Bangladesh. 

Additional Reporting by Thu Thu Aung and Yimou Lee in YANGON; Editing by Darren Schuettler



By Dr Maung Zarni
April 29, 2018

Northern Rakhine State, which is ancestral home of Rohingya need to be declared and turned into Homeland for Rohingya protected by international armed forces.

Arakan National Party (Rakhine racist party) openly opposes Rohingya presence South of Maung Daw. One Rakhine MP reiterated this opposition at the Myanmar Parliament this week.

The least Rohingya survivors deserve is all the area North of Maung Daw from where they have been expelled in the last 40 years in waves of genocidal terror.

South of Maung Daw needs to be made de-militarized zone where no Myanmar Tatmadaw troops would be allowed to cross.

Bangladesh the creation of which was made possible by the international community, particularly India and certain western governments such as Canada, will likely be in a position to foster cross-border trade between Rohingya Homeland and Bangladesh provinces of Cox Bazaar, Tef Naaf, and Chittagong.

Rohingya homeland will NOT be landlocked.

When Myanmar is prepared politically and psychologically to re-accept Rohingyas as an ethnic group with full and equal political citizenship then Rohingya Homeland may be reintegrated back into Myanmar.

Until then Rohingya community around the world and 'friends of Rohingya' must devote their energy to turning Protected Homeland into an interim solution - in fact, this is THE ONLY VIABLE SOLUTION - to end Myanmar Genocide.

---


Makawp maga da ya hkrum ai Rohingya ni aq Buga ginra byin pru wa na matu saw lajin ai lam 
​ 
Rakhine mungdaw aq dingda maga na ginra gaw Rohingya ni jiwoi jiwa prat kaw na nga pra wa ai ginra rai nga ai. Dai ginra hpe shanhte madu ai Buga ginra(Homeland) langai hku ndau nna, mungkan mungdan ni aq pawng hpawn laknak lang hpung ni makawp maga ya ra na re. 

Arakhan Amyusha Pati( Arakan National Party) gaw Maung Daw mare aq dingdung maga hta Rohingya amyu sha ni shanu nga ai hpe ning hkap ma ai. Ndai bat laman hta sha Rakhine mung shawa rap daw salang langai gaw Myen rap daw(Parliament) hta Rohingya ni hpe ning hkap ai lam kahtap tsun lai wa sai. 

Rohingya amyu sha ni gaw lai wa sai shaning 40 ning jan kawn Maung Daw mare kaba a dingda maga kaw na amyu sha shamyit masing hkrum sha nna, shanhte Buga kaw na gau shale hkrum wa sai re. Shanhte amyu sha ni yawm dik htum hku nna ndai ginra yawng hpe madu ging ai. 

Mung Daw mare a dingdung ginra hpe gaw Myen laknak lang wuhpung ni n mai shang ai ginra hku nna ndau masat ra ai. 

Bangladesh mungdan byin pru wa ai gaw mungkan mungdan law law jawm shakut lai ya wa ai majaw re. Grau nna India mungdan hte Canada mung dan zawn re ni atsam dat garum ya lai wa sai. Rohingya amyu sha ni madu ai lamu ga hte Bagaladeshg mungdan na Cox Bazaar, Tel Naaf hte Chittagong mare kaba ni lapran hta sut masa, dut lu dut sha galaw lu na matu Bangaladesh mung dang hku nna garum ya ra na re. 

Rohingya ni aq lamu ga gaw panglai hkinggau n nga, lamu ga ni hte sha pat da hkrum ai(Landlocked) ginra rai na nre. 

Myen asuya maga hku nna Rohingya amyu sha ni hpe mungchying sha langai hku masat na matu mung masa lam ya hku sha n ga, myit kraw kata kaw na mung hkapa la lu ai aten, mungdan masha ni yawng lu ging ai ahkaw ahkawng ni hpe hpring tup jaw lu ai aten hta gaw lahta kaw tsun mat wa ai Rohingya ni a Buga ginra hpe Myen mung dan aq daw chyen langai hku bai masat mat wa mai ai. 

Rohingya ni hpe galaw nga ai amyu shamyit masing hpe tsep kawp jahkring kau lu na matu gaw aten ladaw langai laman shanhte madu ai Buga ginra hpe n dau nna, makawp maga ya na matu jawm galaw ai ladat hte sha galaw sa wa ra na re. Dai zawn n lu galaw shi ai aten hta chyawm gaw mungkan shara shagu hta nga ai Rohingya amyu sha ni hte shanhte hpe madi shadaw ai ni yawng gaw Rohingya ni madu ai Buga ginra langai byin pru wa hkra atsam dat jawm shakut sa wa na re. 

Rohingya refugees holing placards, await the arrival of a UN Security Council team at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh on Sunday. Source: AP


April 29, 2018

Representatives from the five permanent UN Security Council members are in Bangladesh to see the conditions endured by some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims.

Hundreds of Rohingya staged a demonstration Sunday as UN Security Council envoys visited refugee camps in Bangladesh where about 700,000 people who have fled Myanmar in the past year have sought sanctuary.

Some of the Muslim refugees broke down in tears as they told the ambassadors harrowing stories of murder and rape in Myanmar. The demonstrators waved placards demanding justice for atrocities against the refugees until they were dispersed by police.

Senior diplomats from the 15-member Security Council - including permanent members the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - arrived in Bangladesh on Saturday for a four-day visit to the camps. They will go on to Myanmar where they are to meet civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar has faced intense international pressure over the military clampdown against the Rohingya launched last August that the United Nations has called "ethnic cleansing".

The Security Council has called for the safe return of the Rohingya and an end to the discrimination against them.

Members of the UN Security Council, who promised Sunday to work hard to resolve a crisis. AP

However, deputy Russian ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy, whose country has supported Myanmar, warned that the council did not have a "magic stick" to resolve what is now one of the world's worst refugee crises.

"We are not looking away from this crisis, we are not closing our eyes," the Russian diplomat told reporters.

Britain's UN ambassador Karen Pierce said the Rohingya "must be allowed to go home in conditions of safety".

"It may take some time but we'd like to hear from the government of Myanmar how they wish to work with the international community," she said.

Safety needed

The UN envoys first visited Konarpara camp, a no man's land between Bangladesh and Myanmar where some 6,000 Rohingya have been trapped on bleak scrubland since the bloodshed began last year.

The camp's Rohingya leader Dil Mohammad said council envoys spoke with some women victims of the violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state, as well as community elders.

"We told them that we're staying here to save our lives. We're very much eager to go back to our land, provided our security is ensured by the UN," Mohammad told AFP.

Wounded Rohingya refugees walk with the help of crutches at the Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp. AP

Later, the diplomats went to the giant Kutupalong camp where hundreds of Rohingya staged the protest that was dispersed by police before the envoys arrived. A second was later held in the camp.

"We want restoration of our citizenship under Rohingya ethnicity. We want security and return of our confiscated land and properties," said Rohingya leader Mohibullah.

The council members were "shocked" by the accounts of rapes, murders and torture endured by the Rohingya in Rakhine, according to Mohibullah.

Myanmar has said the military operation in Rakhine was to root out extremists and has rejected nearly all allegations that its security forces committed atrocities.

The Security Council delegation is to meet with Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday before leaving for Myanmar.

They are to go on a helicopter flight over Rakhine to see the remains of villages torched during the violence.

Kuwait's Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi said the visit was not about "naming and shaming" Myanmar, but that "the message will be very clear for them: the international community is following the situation and has great interest in resolving it."

On Friday, Human Rights Watch called for the Rohingya crisis to be referred to the International Criminal Court.

"The lack of a UN Security Council resolution has left the Myanmar government convinced that it has literally gotten away with mass murder," HRW executive director Kenneth Roth told reporters in Yangon.



April 27, 2018

Extended conversation with Rohingya activist Tun Khin, who visited the world’s most densely populated refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, earlier this month. The UN Security Council is visiting Burma and Bangladesh starting this week to assess the state of the Rohingya. Hundreds of thousands of registered Rohingya refugees now live in the Cox’s Bazar district in southeastern Bangladesh after fleeing a Burmese military campaign of rape, murder and arson that the U.N. has called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” Now Aid agencies are scrambling to relocate tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees from crowded camps in Bangladesh ahead of the monsoon season in June. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says at least 150,000 people are at “high risk from mudslides and floods” from the heavy rain in the next few months. This comes as more refugees are still crossing over from Burma. Last week, Burma’s Social Welfare, Relief, and Resettlement Minister Win Myat Aye said Burma will start repatriation of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh ahead of the monsoon. But Tun Khin, President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK and a member of the Free Rohingya Coalition, says repatriation without international protection will have devastating effects. We are joined in our New York studio by Tun Khin. He was born in Burma, but in 1982 he was rendered effectively stateless along with a million other ethnic Rohingya under a nationality law.






April 27, 2018

Aid agencies are scrambling to relocate tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees from crowded camps in Bangladesh ahead of the monsoon season in June. Hundreds of thousands of registered Rohingya refugees now live in the Cox’s Bazar district in southeastern Bangladesh after fleeing a Burmese military campaign of rape, murder and arson that the U.N. has called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” Now the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says at least 150,000 people are at “high risk from mudslides and floods” from the heavy rain in the next few months. Some could be moved to a recently formed island at the mouth of the Meghna River. This comes as more refugees are still crossing over from Burma. We are joined in our New York studio by Tun Khin, President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK and a member of the Free Rohingya Coalition. He was born in Burma, but in 1982 he was rendered effectively stateless along with a million other ethnic Rohingya under a nationality law.



Transcript

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We end today’s show looking at how aid agencies are scrambling to relocate tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees from crowded camps in Bangladesh ahead of the monsoon season in June. More than a million registered Rohingya refugees now live in southeastern Bangladesh after they fled in 2017 amid a Burmese military campaign of rape, murder, and arson that the U.N. has called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” Now the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says at least 150,000 people are at “high risk from mudslides and floods” from the heavy rain in the next few months. Some could be moved to a recently formed island at the mouth of the Meghna River. This comes as more refugees are still crossing over from Burma.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we are joined in our New York studio by Tun Khin, President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, a member of the Free Rohingya Coalition. Born in Burma, but in 1982, he was rendered effectively stateless along with a million other ethnic Rohingya under a new nationality law. Welcome back to Democracy Now! You were just in the area. You have just returned. Tell us what you saw and your deep concerns about the moving of the Rohingya in Bangladesh who have fled what many are calling genocide, in Burma.

TUN KHIN: Yes. These are victims of genocide. They fled because they’re facing serious mass atrocities in their homeland. That’s why they fled. What I have seen—there is many Rohingyas—women are not getting proper medical aid. At least 30,000 Rohingya women are pregnant. There are some rape victims there, raped women also. At least 25,000 unaccompanied children there.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re talking about Cox’s Bazar, where you were—

TUN KHIN: [inaudible]

AMY GOODMAN: —home to the most densely populated refugee camp in the world?

TUN KHIN: Yes. So the challenge in here is now coming after a few weeks, when heavy rain comes up. Half million population will—their lives will be in danger because of flood and because of heavy rain. That is what happens normally in that area. So it is very important international community must focus on that to protect these people. Because I worry there will be next another natural disaster these Rohingya people will face. Last year, they faced man-made disaster, what we have seen as genocide, completely. Completely their atrocities against Rohingya has been going [inaudible] of genocide, I should say.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Can you talk about what plans are in place to relocate the Rohingya from Cox’s Bazar?

TUN KHIN: As far as what I learned from international NGOs, they’re trying to relocate. They’ve mapped up the—some places and they’re trying to relocate some Rohingyas. But we still do not know when and how they will do that.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And what about the question of repatriation? Have any of the Rohingya returned to Burma?

TUN KHIN: For me, there is—it cannot be happening, repatriation. Because the Burmese military and government systematically driven them out from their homeland. So they created—the Burmese military and government created impossible situation for the Rohingyas. When I was there, last three weeks, the people are still fleeing from Burma to Bangladesh. And last two days ago, I received five families fled. Every day, Rohingya families are fleeing. At least one week, 10 to 15 families are fleeing, because Burmese military and government is arresting many Rohingyas with false allegation, threatening them. “We do not want to see you in this country.”

AMY GOODMAN: Tun Khin, the UN Security Council is going to Bangladesh this weekend. What do you want to come out of this visit?

TUN KHIN: Firstly, as I met also the victims, they told me they want to see justice before they are returned. They want see these perpetrators where their children been burned alive, where their daughters been raped in front of them, where their sons been slaughtered in front of them. They want justice. They want to see these perpetrators in international criminal court. So this is important we bring them international criminal court, firstly.

Secondly, when we talk about repatriation, we want to return our homeland. That’s what a refugee told me. But they want protection. That is why we are calling here protected return to protected homeland, in Myanmar. So that international protection is needed. In Burma as a whole country—USDP party, NLD party, military, security forces, Buddhist monk—they do not want to see Rohingya as citizens. They’re saying illegal immigrants. So any time mass atrocity we will face again—before this happen, protection is needed when you return these refugees.

AMY GOODMAN: Tun Khin, we want to thank you for being with us. President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK. And this breaking news—Presidents Trump’s nominee to head the VA, Dr. Ronny Jackson, has withdrawn from consideration. Democracy Now! is accepting applications for our year-long paid social media fellowship. Check it out at Democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman with Nermeen Shaikh.

Famous Burmese dissident Dr. Maung Zarni speaks to Anadolu Agency on heartrending plight of Rohingya Muslims and what can be done to resolve it, in Istanbul, Turkey on April 24, 2018. ( Selin Çalık Muhasiloviç - Anadolu Agency)

Famous Burmese dissident Dr. Maung Zarni speaks to Anadolu Agency on heartrending plight of Rohingya Muslims and what can be done to resolve it

By Selin Calik Muhasilovic
April 26, 2018

ISTANBUL -- In a rare exclusive interview, Myanmarese scholar and democracy advocate Dr. Maung Zarni spoke to Anadolu Agency on the ongoing humanitarian crisis involving Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence and persecution in the Rakhine state and Turkey’s important role specifically to help them return to the ‘Protected Homeland’. 

- ‘The Rohingya are misframed as a proxy for terrorists’ 

You are a Buddhist academic but you support the Rohingya Muslims. How did the genocide take place? Why do you oppose the genocide as a Buddhist? 

Well, I am not supporting Rohingya Muslims because they are Muslims. 

I am supporting that they are fellow humans from my country and they are oppressed not because they take up arms, not because they are trying to gain independence or separate from Burma, but because they are Rohingya and they are misframed as a threat to national security. 

As you know, they are misframed as a proxy for the terrorists in the Middle East. They are also seen and misperceived basically as local proxies for Bangladesh, if Bangladesh were ever to decide to take the Rohingya region. 

So, essentially the Rohingya are innocent and they have a small number of radical or young angry Rohingya who want to fight back because they do not have any option because they have lost everything. 

But, that does not justify what the Burmese military has been doing, which is essentially “genocide”. 

If I do not speak out and oppose, I would be less than a human being, because this kind of genocide can destroy our community and poses a threat to the territorial integrity of Burma. 

In the case of the Rohingya, we have been engaged in different ways of killings since 1978 when the Burmese military decided that this community must not be allowed to exist as Rohingya or their numbers must be reduced by terrorizing them so that they would run away to Bangladesh or other places. 

So, on the religious or philosophical ground, the killings must not be condoned, especially given that I know that the Burmese military destroys their livelihood, food systems, and restrict their access to farms where they can raise or harvest food crops like rice.

If I do not speak out, then it is my responsibility, then I am complicit. 

In this kind of situation when you keep your mouth shut, you know that a large number of human beings are being slaughtered; then I am complicit. 

Similar to the situation in the Nazi Germany, when some decent and good Germans kept their mouth shut as they were afraid for their lives.

But, there were also a very small number of Germans who said Nazism was bad for everybody, including the Germans. 

So, they opposed when a lot of people were executed by the SS, or the Hitler regime. In my case, I have been declared the top enemy of the state and a national threat.

But, if you do not want your children to be raped and killed, you should not want any other people’s families to be hurt either. 

The Rohingya are not small in number. We are talking about 800.000 Rohingya who have run away from their lands. 

They are someone else’s wife, husband, brother, teacher... They are human beings like us. I personally know some of the people that rewrote the citizenship law against the Rohingya in 1982.

I also know the top leader of the military that organized the genocide. As a researcher, I know. So, on these grounds, I have no choice but to oppose these inhumane acts. 

That’s why I am the first Buddhist who publicly says this is wrong. I named these acts as crimes as early as 2013 when everybody basically ridiculed me, saying that I was exaggerating because they did not see the large numbers of people being killed. 

The government has often restricted access to the northern Rakhine State for journalists and aid workers. What kind of restrictions have you experienced as an academic and activist? What kind of price have you paid? Has this price been worth paying?

Firstly, let me tell you that I have been active for 30 years in different campaigns or movements to try to stop the military government in Burma and to introduce the principles of human rights, women’s rights, environmental protection etc. 

Rohingya is the latest issue that I want to do something about, to end the genocide. In the last 30 years, I haven’t suffered in the form of imprisonment, torture, or restrictions as I come from a privileged, urban, and educated family. 

But I do get some “treats” from time to time. When I was living in Brunei and teaching there, the Burmese Embassy tried to have me fired from the Brunei University because the Brunei government wanted to do business with the Burmese government. 

Brunei is a Muslim country but they are more interested in making money with the Buddhist government. So, unfortunately I resigned from my position under pressure because I had written a number of articles in support of the Rohingya Muslims. 

- ‘Kofi Annan Commission is a failure’

In September 2016, an advisory commission headed by Kofi Annan was established to sustain the peace and stop the massacre of the Rohingya Muslims. Do you think that this commission has been successful in its efforts? 

The Kofi Annan Commission is a huge international shield to protect the Burmese government because Kofi Annan is seen as a credible individual. 

I have never held Kofi Annan in any high regard particularly because Kofi Annan was the man on whose watch two genocides took place.

The first genocide was that of the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica, who were slaughtered in 1995 when Kofi Annan was the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in New York.

The second one was Rwanda. 800.000 people were slaughtered and Kofi Annan concealed the telegram that had come from the head of the peacekeeping mission in Rwanda to his office in New York.

Additionally, Kofi Annan did nothing in South Sudan when the South Sudanese were being killed by the regime. Nonetheless, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the UN. 

His commission had two other foreign members; the former Dutch ambassador and the former Lebanese minister of culture. 

On this issue, their mandate was not to document the human rights abuses or decide whether a genocide is being committed in Burma. Their mandate was to look at the situation from our conflict-mediation perspective. 

His commission’s framework is fundamentally flawed because the nature of the Rohingya persecution is not a conflict; it is a genocide. Genocides are not conflicts. 

Genocide is essentially the destruction of an ethnic or religious or racial group of people by the political state that is controlled by the majority ethnic or religious group. 

In our case, the Buddhist majority that controls the arm forces and the Rakhine state wanted to get rid of all the Rohingya or a large number of Rohingya who happen to be Muslims from their own homeland. 

In ignoring the international criminal nature of the Burmese state and its policies and then taking a “conflict resolution” or “conflict management” approach, the Kofi Annan commission is deeply flawed conceptually. 

But even with that conceptual flaw, I would say that maybe some of the recommendations are worthy, like granting the Rohingya citizenships. The Kofi Annan Commission was never ever accepted by the Burmese military anyway. 

We have a situation in Burma, where the government is kind of hybrid; there is the military and the Aung San Suu Kyi government. They jointly run the country depending on the issues. 

On the Rohingya issue, the military never accepted Kofi Annan’s involvement, because he was widely seen within the military leadership as someone connected with the responsibility to promote an intervention, although our responsibility to protect has never been mentioned and used by the UN to stop the mass atrocities. 

So, his commission had absolutely no chance of succeeding from day one. The military attempted to derail his commission within the parliament by introducing a motion that would oppose Kofi Annan’s involvement. 

The military worked with the Rakhine nationalists to stage protests whenever Kofi Annan and his commission came to the Rakhine state. The military also encouraged the Rakhine people not to collaborate with Kofi Annan. So, this commission is a complete failure. 

- ‘Serious leadership from a powerful state like Turkey is needed’ 

According to a Turkish government statement, President Erdogan was the first to manage to get permission for humanitarian aid to enter Myanmar. The Burmese government had, at the peak of the violence, blocked all UN aid for the Rohingya. How does Turkey support the oppressed Rohingya? 

On the issue of Rohingya, Turkey has been extremely good. Turkey apparently highly prioritized the oppression of the Rohingya people.

Turkey’s first lady (Emine Erdogan) visited Rohingya and Cox’s Bazaar and met with the Rohingya. Turkey has provided humanitarian aid by the help of TIKA, AFAD and other NGO’s of Turkey. 

I think the support that the Turkish leadership has shown towards Rohingya Muslims seems to be genuine and that is very commendable from a human rights perspective. 

I think there are two things Turkey can do: one is to increase the level of humanitarian assistance to Rohingya very significantly. There are about one million Rohingya in Bangladesh alone, 200,000 Rohingyas are in the IDP (internally displaced person) camps. 

The other is that Turkey can mobilize the political opinions among the governments within Muslim blocs, the 57-country OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation), and Western blocs such as Canada, France, Germany and others with the purpose of holding high-level international conferences to discuss the future of the Rohingya people and what they need to rebuild their communities.

They were expelled from the region where they were born and raised in. There is a 100-km stretch of land where the Rohingya people used to live. 

They were driven out violently, a massive number of the Rohingya were slaughtered and women raped. We are looking at the killing fields of the northern Arakan, a stretch of a hundred kilometers. 

Turkey and other governments around the world should mount a serious opposition against the Burmese government’s plan to turn the killing fields of northern Arakan to economic zones. 

Turkey’s leadership and role would be the most important contribution; Turkey can do more than feed the Rohingya and give them medicine. 

In reality, no one can keep feeding one million people forever. What the Rohingya need is essentially their homeland, where they can grow their own rice or they can set up little shops. Their area is also not landlocked. They can do cross-border trade. 

So, what is needed is serious leadership from a powerful state like Turkey. Western governments are not showing any commitment to address the issue. 

They keep framing this as a conflict but there is actually a genocide being committed by a state against a people who just want to simply live in peace in that country.

That’s why Turkey needs to step in more to stop the hegemony of the Western governments on the Rohingya issue.


April 26, 2018

Boston, United States -- During a recent visit to the United States, Dave Eubank spoke with PRI’s The World regarding the Rohingya crisis, ARSA, and what the future may hold for Rohingya refugees. To listen to the interview, click the clip below.





American aid worker and former special forces officer David Eubank recently returned from Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh where he met with the insurgents of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. Eubank tells The World’s Marco Werman the group is poorly trained and funded but determined to offer armed resistance to Myanmar’s government.

Rohingya refugee children fly improvised kites at the Kutupalong refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Dec. 10, 2017. (Photo: Damir Sagolj / Reuters)

April 26, 2018

The interviewers in the camps asked the refugees to recount their experiences during the wave of violence unleashed against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims.

WASHINGTON/COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh — The U.S. government is conducting an intensive examination of alleged atrocities against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, documenting accusations of murder, rape, beatings and other possible offenses in an investigation that could be used to prosecute Myanmar’s military for crimes against humanity, U.S. officials told Reuters.

The undertaking, led by the State Department, has involved more than a thousand interviews of Rohingya men and women in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh, where almost 700,000 Rohingya have fled after a military crackdown last year in Myanmar’s northwestern Rakhine State, two U.S. officials said. The work is modeled on a U.S. forensic investigation of mass atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region in 2004, which led to a U.S. declaration of genocide that culminated in economic sanctions against the Sudanese government.

The interviews were conducted in March and April by about 20 investigators with backgrounds in international law and criminal justice, including some who worked on tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, the U.S. officials said.

The information will be analyzed in Washington and documented in a report to be sent to the State Department’s leadership in May or early June, the officials said. It’s unclear whether the Trump administration will publicly release the findings, or whether they will be used to justify new sanctions on the Myanmar government or a recommendation for international prosecution.

“The purpose of this investigation is to contribute to justice processes, including community awareness raising, international advocacy efforts, and community-based reconciliation efforts, as well as possible investigations, truth-seeking efforts, or other efforts for justice and accountability,” said a document used by the investigators in the sprawling refugee camps and reviewed by Reuters.

Three U.S. officials in Washington and several people involved in the investigation on the ground in Bangladesh disclosed details of the fact-finding operation to Reuters.

A State Department official, asked to confirm the specifics of the investigation conducted in the refugee camps as reported by Reuters, said “the program details are accurate.” The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. government was using all available information and a wide range of tools, but added: “We cannot get ahead of the deliberative, policymaking process.”

As of publication, the Myanmar government and military had not responded to questions from Reuters. Myanmar has said its operations in Rakhine were a legitimate response to attacks on security forces by Rohingya insurgents.

The interviewers in the camps asked the refugees basic demographic questions, the date the person left Myanmar, and to recount their experiences during the wave of violence unleashed against the Rohingya in Rakhine State by the Myanmar military and local Buddhist residents.

The investigators also asked refugees to describe the battalions and weaponry used by the Myanmar military in Rakhine State during operations against the Rohingya, said one person involved with the investigation in the camps, which are located in the Cox’s Bazar district in southern Bangladesh. The investigators have received names of individual perpetrators and the identities of specific battalions allegedly involved, this person said.

A second person involved in the project on the ground said 1,025 refugees have been interviewed and the assignment may include a second phase focused on military units.

Zohra Khatun, 35, a Rohingya refugee in the camps, said she told investigators that soldiers waged a campaign of violence and harassment in her village in Rakhine State starting last August. They made arrests and shot several people, driving her and others to flee, she said.

“One military officer grabbed me by the throat and tried to take me,” she told Reuters, clutching her shirt collar to demonstrate. The military, she said, burned homes in the village, including hers.

The investigation coincides with a debate inside the U.S. government and on Capitol Hill over whether the Trump administration has done enough to hold Myanmar’s military to account for brutal violence against the largely stateless Rohingya.

The Rohingya are a small Muslim minority in majority-Buddhist Myanmar. Though they have been present in what’s now Myanmar for generations, many Burmese consider them to be interlopers. Violence against them has increased in recent years as the country has made a partial shift to democratic governance.

In November, following the lead of the United Nations and the European Union, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared that the Rohingya crisis constituted “ethnic cleansing,” a designation that raised the possibility of additional sanctions against Myanmar’s military commanders and increased pressure on its civilian leader, Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The Myanmar government has denied the accusations.

The United States responded in December by imposing targeted sanctions on one Myanmar general and threatening to penalize others. Washington has also scaled back already-limited military ties with Myanmar since the Rohingya crisis began. Human rights groups and Democratic lawmakers in Washington have urged the Republican White House to widen sanctions and designate the violence as “crimes against humanity,” a legal term that can set the stage for charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

“No decisions have been made on that front, but it’s something being looked at very carefully,” a senior Trump administration official told Reuters.

A Reuters investigation published in February provided the first independent confirmation of what had taken place in the village of Inn Din, where 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys were hacked to death by Rakhine Buddhist villagers or shot by security force members. The story was based on accounts not only from Rohingya refugees but also from soldiers, police officers and Buddhist locals who admitted to participating in the bloodshed.

Pictures obtained by Reuters showed the men and boys with their hands tied behind their backs and their bodies in a shallow grave. Two Reuters journalists were jailed while reporting the story and remain in prison in Yangon, where they face up to 14 years in jail on possible charges of violating Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act.

So far, there has been resistance by lawyers in the White House and State Department to adopt the terms “crimes against humanity” or “genocide” in describing deaths of Rohingya in Myanmar, the U.S. officials said.

The State Department itself has been divided over how to characterize or interpret the violence against the Rohingya, the officials said.

The East Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau, staffed largely by career diplomats and representing the view of the embassy in Myanmar, has held at times “to a success narrative” on Myanmar since the lifting of sanctions was announced in October 2016 and the strong public role played by the U.S. government in the historic 2012 opening of the country after decades of military rule, one official said.

Diplomats in Yangon have also been reluctant to jeopardize Washington’s relationship with Suu Kyi, a democratic icon who has faced criticism for failing to do more to rein in the violence against the Rohingya. Some senior U.S. officials still believe Suu Kyi remains the best hope for a more democratic Myanmar, one official said. “They are reluctant to upset that relationship.”

That contrasts with the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, based in Washington, which has pushed for tougher sanctions, the officials said. Bridging that gap has been made more difficult because the State Department under President Donald Trump has yet to fill many important diplomatic positions, the officials said.

Officials described the process in the refugee camps of documenting the abuses as rigorous. Each interview was coded with key words according to the alleged crime, such as killing, rape, sexual violence and lynching. Different categories of alleged perpetrator also have codes — from civilians to insurgents, Myanmar military personnel and police.

“After the 1,000 interviews and statistical analysis, we can draw certain conclusions about the perpetrators of crime and patterns of crime,” one official said.

The official said one possible result from the documentation of abuses against the Rohingya could be a vote by the United Nations General Assembly to establish an international body to investigate the most serious crimes committed against the Rohingya, similar to what it’s done with Syria.

The State Department did not respond to questions about divisions within the administration over how to characterize the violence and criticism that the administration was too slow in acting to halt abuses.

Subiya Khatun, 29, who fled her Rakhine home in September and reported seeing three dead bodies in a canal on her way to the Bangladesh border, said she hoped for justice and a safe return to Myanmar.

“They said they have come from America. ‘This investigation will be used for your help,’” she said she was told by the people who interviewed her in the camps. “If Allah wishes, we will get justice and our demands will be fulfilled.”

Ethnic Rohingya women rest at a temporary shelter in Bireuen, Aceh province, Indonesia, April 20, 2018. Indonesian fishermen rescued dozens of Rohingya Muslims from a boat stranded off Aceh province on Friday, police said, in the latest attempt by members of the persecuted ethnic group to flee Myanmar by sea.

By Associated Press
April 21, 2018

BIREUEN, INDONESIA — A Rohingya Muslim man among the group of 76 rescued in Indonesian waters in a wooden boat says they were at sea for nine days after leaving Myanmar, where the minority group faces intense persecution, and were hoping to reach Malaysia. 

The eight children, 25 women and 43 men were brought ashore Friday afternoon at Bireuen in Aceh province on the island of Sumatra, the third known attempt by members of the ethnic minority to escape Myanmar by sea this month. Several required medical attention for dehydration and exhaustion, local authorities said.

An ethnic-Rohingya man, center, is assisted by a paramedic after a group of Rohingya Muslims was brought ashore in Bireuen, Aceh province, Indonesia, April 20, 2018.

Fariq Muhammad said he paid the equivalent of about $150 for a place on the boat that left from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where a violent military crackdown on the minority group sparked an exodus of some 700,000 refugees over land into neighboring Bangladesh since August. 

The refugee vessel was intercepted by a Thai navy frigate and later escorted by a Thai patrol vessel until sighting land, Fariq said. The group believed the Thais understood they wanted to reach Malaysia and were dismayed when they realized they were in Indonesia, said Fariq, who gave the identification numbers of the Thai vessels. 

'We could not stay'

“We were forced to leave because we could not stay, could not work so our lives became difficult in Myanmar. Our identity card was not given so we were forced to go,” he told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Local officials and a charitable group are providing shelter and food for the refugees. The International Organization for Migration said it has sent a team from its Medan office in Sumatra, including Rohingya interpreters, to help local officials with humanitarian assistance. 

Rohingya, treated as undesirables in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar and denied citizenship, used to flee by sea by the thousands each year until security in Myanmar was tightened after a surge of refugees in 2015 caused regional alarm. 

Third attempt in April

In April, there has been an apparent increase in Rohingya attempts to leave the country by sea. An Indonesian fishing boat rescued a group of five Rohingya in weak condition off westernmost Aceh province April 6, after a 20-day voyage in which five other people died. 

Just days before, Malaysian authorities intercepted a vessel carrying 56 people believed to be Rohingya refugees and brought the vessel and its passengers to shore. 

Mohammad Saleem, part of the group that landed Friday in Aceh, said they left from Sittwe in Rakhine state, the location of displacement camps for Rohingya set up following attacks in 2012 by Buddhist mobs. 

“We’re not allowed to do anything. We don’t have a livelihood,” the 25-year-old said. “We can only live in the camps with not enough food to eat there. We have no rights there.”


    • Rohingya Exodus