Ethnic Cleansing
Websites/Multiple Documents
Description:
"Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic or religious groups from a given territory by a more powerful ethnic group, with the intent of making it ethnically homogeneous. The forces applied may be various forms of forced migration (deportation, population transfer), intimidation, as well as mass murder and genocidal rape.
Ethnic cleansing is usually accompanied with the efforts to remove physical and cultural evidence of the targeted group in the territory through the destruction of homes, social centers, farms, and infrastructure, and by the desecration of monuments, cemeteries, and places of worship.
Initially used by the perpetrators during the Yugoslav Wars and cited in this context as a euphemism akin to that of Nazi Germany?s "Final Solution", by the 1990s the term gained widespread acceptance due to journalism and the media?s heightened use of the term in its generic meaning..."
Source/publisher:
Wikipedia
Date of entry/update:
2017-10-18
Grouping:
Websites/Multiple Documents
Category:
Ethnic Cleansing
Language:
English
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Individual Documents
Description:
"8 December 2023: An international criminal tribunal for Myanmar can and must be urgently established, says the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M). A briefing paper published today by SAC-M explains why, and identifies several ways in which such a tribunal could be created. Download the paper here: Establishing an International Criminal Tribunal for Myanmar
Myanmar has long been plagued by systemic impunity designed and perpetuated by successive military juntas. Extensive evidence of grave human rights violations, war crimes, crimes against humanity and possible genocide, of which the military is the primary perpetrator, has been documented over many years. Yet, no genuine trials have ever taken place and no meaningful justice has been achieved for the many, many victims.
“The need for justice in Myanmar is becoming more urgent by the day,” said Yanghee Lee of SAC-M. “The number of people that have suffered at the hands of Myanmar’s military – the vast majority of them still living in unbearable conditions – is devastating and continues to grow. Myanmar’s peoples simply cannot be made to wait for justice any longer.”
The justice system in Myanmar is currently unable to prosecute those accused of committing international crimes and is unlikely to be for many years to come. An international solution for the accountability deficit is therefore needed. The international community has already established the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) and other mechanisms before it to advance the cause of justice in Myanmar. But these efforts alone are insufficient and incomplete.
“The work of the IIMM, the Fact-Finding Mission and other international justice efforts for Myanmar will be in vain unless and until a competent court with comprehensive jurisdiction can commence prosecution of those most responsible for the most serious crimes under international law committed in Myanmar,” said Chris Sidoti of SAC-M. “The National Unity Government has already accepted the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in Myanmar, but the Prosecutor of the ICC is not acting on that acceptance, so that is why we are proposing these practical alternatives if the ICC Prosecutor does not act.”
Calls for justice in Myanmar have grown louder since the military attempted a coup in February 2021 and a nationwide resistance emerged in response to its ensuing brutality. The international community has done little during that time to support the cause of justice and freedom in Myanmar. Establishing an international criminal tribunal for Myanmar would be a practical way of finally responding to the calls of the Myanmar people and upholding the international community’s obligations under international law.
“The people’s national uprising is fundamentally changing the course of the Myanmar nation,” said Marzuki Darusman of SAC-M. “There are many challenges ahead. ASEAN, the United Nations, the international community at large, cannot continue to leave the Myanmar people to face these challenges alone. Ensuring that the primary architects of Myanmar’s suffering are finally brought to justice could be the single most significant contribution that the international community makes to Myanmar’s democratic future.”..."
Source/publisher:
Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
Date of publication:
2023-12-08
Date of entry/update:
2023-12-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
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95.47 KB 132.37 KB 552.76 KB
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Sub-title:
52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council
Description:
"More than two years since the military coup in Myanmar, the junta’s atrocities continue to escalate, driving the country ever deeper into a humanitarian and human rights catastrophe.
Meanwhile, the international response to the situation has had no noticeable impact on the military’s crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The junta is unbowed by “statements of condemnation.” Targeted sanctions are critical but they have not been coordinated closely or enforced rigorously enough.
The UN Security Council’s resolution in December was regrettably watered down to contain almost no actionable language. In the three months since it was adopted, the junta’s security forces have arrested over 530 people, sentenced over 420, and killed more than 275 in airstrikes, arson attacks, and summary executions. Just last week about 20 civilians who had taken shelter in a monastery were massacred.
The junta likewise continues to flagrantly disregard ASEAN’s five-point consensus adopted in 2021, which the regional bloc lacks effective tools to enforce.
A new, bolder approach is needed. Myanmar’s generals are not going to change their conduct until the cumulative cost of their atrocities grows too great to bear.
States need to harmonize their efforts to impose real consequences: coordinating and enforcing tougher targeted sanctions to cut off the junta’s access to the extractive revenue, weapons, and aviation fuel enabling its abuses. As ASEAN chair, Indonesia should lead the bloc in supporting these measures as well as accountability efforts to bring justice to the junta’s victims.
The facts on the ground are clear. What are governments waiting for?..."
Source/publisher:
Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of publication:
2023-03-20
Date of entry/update:
2023-03-20
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Crimes Against Humanity, Ethnic Cleansing, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
more
Sub-title:
A recent Sinophone Borderlands public opinion survey sheds light on Bangladeshi views of the Rohingya, roughly a million of whom have been forced to seek refuge in Bangladesh.
Description:
"February 15, 2023, marks the 2000th day since the start of the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.
Although the historical background of the Rohingya crisis is much longer and more complicated, going back to World War II and including previous massacres/exoduses in 1978, 1991-92, 2012, and 2016, it was only in August 2017 that the news hit the global headlines and the story became well-known.
In August 2017, the Kofi Annan Commission (established by Myanmar’s civilian National League of Democracy government to settle the Rohingya problem) prepared its report, a failed compromise. One day later, Myanmar military posts were attacked by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a guerrilla group operating in the Rakhine region. In their collective response, the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s army, resorted to the worst retaliation possible.
The Tatmadaw started a brutal campaign against the Rohingya. In the months that followed, more than 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh as the Tatmadaw committed ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, with “genocidal intent.”
For Bangladesh, the crisis meant a new and unprecedented strain. The country has received Rohingya refugees since 1978, but the scale in 2017 was incomparable to previous exoduses. The official Bangladeshi position toward the Rohingya crisis has combined the acceptance of the refugees with the hope that the influx of people would only be temporary.
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On the one hand, Bangladesh openly welcomed the repressed group, presenting itself as a “good global citizen.” On the other hand, Dhaka later declared that the Rohingya must return to their origin country as soon as possible, and that it is Myanmar’s obligation to repatriate them while the international community and the United Nations must persuade Naypyidaw to do so. Since this never happened, Bangladesh and its citizens have to live with the consequences of the prolonged stay.
As the religious, cultural, and humanitarian imperative to help oppressed brethren meets the socioeconomic tensions produced by forced immigration on such a scale, it is of vital importance to hear the voices of the Bangladeshi people. As part of the Sinophone Borderlands public opinion survey in Bangladesh in June-August 2022, more than 1,300 Bangladeshi respondents were asked an open-ended question about their perception of the Rohingya people. Respondents were drawn from all regions of Bangladesh and included a representative sample of age groups and genders. The timing of the survey coincided with the fifth anniversary of the brutal Tatmadaw offensive that sent Rohingya refugees fleeing across the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh.
The survey question asked what first came to people’s minds when thinking of the Rohingya. The most common answers, as the word cloud above reveals, were “Muslim,” “tortured,” “helpless,” and “Myanmar.” This gives us a good idea of how Bangladeshis perceive the Rohingya people: as persecuted, helpless, Muslim people originally from Myanmar.
The reason for the Rohingya being in Bangladesh is very clear to Bangladeshis, who provided responses such as “came from Myanmar,” ”tortured by Myanmar army,” or “brutality of Myanmar.” Also, the fact that the Rohingya people are predominantly Muslims is well-known and often highlighted in the responses (“tortured Muslims” or “persecuted Muslims,” for example).
While the Rohingya are seen by many Bangladeshis as persecuted and expelled victims of the Myanmar army and people feel they should help them (see responses such as “expelled,” “victims,” “homeless,” “persecuted,” “neglected,” and “we should help”), there are also voices that see the Rohingya people as a threat (“destroying the Bangladeshi economy” or “harming Bangladesh”) and advocate for sending them back to Myanmar (“go back to Myanmar”). Issues such as drug dealing and a food crisis came up several times. Also, some label the Rohingya as foreigners who don’t belong to Bangladesh.
That said, most Bangladeshis highlight the struggle for survival of the Rohingya people and express sadness over their situation and sympathy toward them.
To conclude, the results of the survey show that among Bangladeshis, empathy toward the Rohingya, the repressed Muslim brothers and sisters, so far trumps tensions and challenges produced by their enforced, prolonged stay. Yet, the longer the Rohingya crisis is unresolved, the more probable a shift toward negative perceptions becomes..."
Source/publisher:
"The Diplomat" (Japan)
Date of publication:
2023-02-15
Date of entry/update:
2023-02-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Ethnic Cleansing, International Criminal Court (Myanmar)
Language:
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Sub-title:
Fortify Rights and 16 individual complainants seek accountability for Rohingya genocide and coup-related atrocities
Description:
"Fortify Rights and 16 individual complainants from Myanmar filed a criminal complaint with the Federal Public Prosecutor General of Germany under the principle of universal jurisdiction against senior Myanmar military generals and others for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, Fortify Rights announced today.
The 215-page complaint and more than 1,000 pages of annexes provide evidence to assist the Office of the Federal Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the Rohingya genocide as well as atrocity crimes related to the military junta’s coup d’état launched on February 1, 2021.
February 1, 2023 marks the second anniversary of the deadly coup and crackdown in Myanmar, and August 2022 marked five years since the Myanmar military’s most egregious attacks on the Rohingya people. However, the individuals responsible for crimes related to both have yet to be held accountable.
“An ethnically diverse and united front of survivors from throughout Myanmar are bringing this case to seek justice and accountability,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder at Fortify Rights. “Despite international attention and several ongoing accountability initiatives, the Myanmar military still enjoys complete impunity, and that must end. These crimes cannot go unpunished. Germany’s universal jurisdiction law is a global model for combatting impunity for the worst crimes and providing access to justice for survivors of atrocities no matter where the crimes occur or where the survivors are located.”
Universal jurisdiction is a legal principle enabling a state to prosecute individuals responsible for mass atrocity crimes—genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes—regardless of where the crimes occurred or the nationality of the perpetrator or victims. Universal jurisdiction is typically reserved for “international crimes,” which are so severe that they represent offenses against the entire international community.
The criminal complaint was filed on January 20, 2023. Fortify Rights is represented by Covington & Burling LLP, which has offices in Germany.
Approximately half of the 16 individual complainants survived the Rohingya genocide and Myanmar military-led “clearance operations” in Rakhine State in 2016 and 2017, and approximately half survived post-coup atrocities in states and regions throughout the country in 2021 and 2022.
The complainants include six women and ten men who represent several ethnicities in Myanmar, including Arakanese (Rakhine), Burman, Chin, Karen, Karenni, Mon, and Rohingya. They include students, scholars, farmers, human rights defenders, businesspersons, former village heads, and homemakers. All the complainants survived or witnessed crimes in Myanmar, and many have since fled the country. At the time of writing, the complainants are located in several countries, including Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Germany, and the U.S.
Two of the complainants—“M.K.” (not their real initials) and Nickey Diamond—are presently situated in Germany and have retained German legal counsel for matters related to the complaint announced today. They both experienced and witnessed crimes in Myanmar in 2017 and 2021, respectively.
“We trust in Germany to open an investigation and seek justice for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed by the military and its leaders in Myanmar,” said Nickey Diamond, who is also a member of the Board of Directors at Fortify Rights. “This is the time to end impunity and ensure the military perpetrators and others no longer get away with their crimes.”
“F.K.” (not her real initials) is a 51-year-old Rohingya woman complainant who survived genocidal attacks in Rakhine State in 2017. In August 2017, soldiers and non-Rohingya residents of Rakhine State entered her village in northern Rakhine State, burned houses, and prevented residents of the village from fleeing. Individuals under the military’s control raped F.K.’s daughter-in-law while F.K. was in earshot and as soldiers beat her in an adjacent room. The Myanmar military killed seven members of her family in the attack on her village and, in a separate incident, cut her with a knife, leaving permanent scars. F.K. witnessed piles of dead bodies of Rohingya civilians in her village and military soldiers stabbing, beating, and killing numerous Rohingya men and children. Soldiers killed one child as he begged them for drinking water.
F.K. told Fortify Rights: “The Myanmar government and military have been trying to vanish our Rohingya community for 50 years. . . As a Rohingya woman, I want justice for the genocide so that it does not happen again. As a Rohingya complainant, I am ready to file the UJ [universal jurisdiction] case.”
The complaint announced today alleges that the Myanmar military systematically killed, raped, tortured, imprisoned, disappeared, persecuted, and committed other acts that amount to genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in violation of the German Code of Crimes Against International Law. The complaint includes substantial evidence showing that senior military junta officials exercised superior responsibility over subordinates who committed crimes, knew about their subordinates’ crimes, and failed to take any action to prevent the crimes from happening and to punish the perpetrators.
The complaint is on file with the German authorities and is not publicly available.
In the complaint, Fortify Rights and the complainants request that the German Prosecutor open an investigation into specific military officials and others who, according to evidence, are liable for mass atrocity crimes. The complaint also requests that the German authorities open a “structural investigation” into the situation in Myanmar, which would uncover numerous other crimes in various locations and affecting other ethnic groups not otherwise covered by the complaint.
Thi Da, one of the complainants, is a 35-year-old ethnic-Chin woman and mother of three. In September 2021, the Myanmar military arbitrarily arrested and tortured her husband, Ngai Kung, 35. Following his arrest, Thi Da received no official information about her husband’s whereabouts and well-being, rendering it an enforced disappearance. Myanmar junta soldiers reportedly informed a group of pastors that her husband was killed. At the time of writing, Thi Da does not know what happened to him.
“I’m still angry with the [Myanmar junta] soldiers,” said Thi Da to Fortify Rights. “They don’t think of us as people and treat us like animals or objects.”
In addition to the complainants’ testimonies to the Prosecutor General, the complaint draws on more than 1,000 interviews with survivors of international crimes in Myanmar conducted by Fortify Rights since 2013 as well as leaked documents and information provided by Myanmar military and police deserters and others that shed light on the military’s operations, crimes, and command structures.
More than 1,000 pages of annexes accompany the complaint and include additional documentation of atrocity crimes in Myanmar that may be of service to the German authorities, including revelatory reports by Fortify Rights, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Tom Andrews, the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, and others.
An investigation and subsequent prosecution of these crimes under German law would serve to punish those who have committed the gravest of crimes, prevent future crimes by perpetrators in Myanmar, and signal to other would-be perpetrators in Myanmar and elsewhere that accountability for atrocity crimes cannot be avoided, said Fortify Rights.
As part of this complaint, several Myanmar civil society organizations agreed to cooperate with the German authorities, including the Chin Human Rights Organization, the Karen Human Rights Group, the Karenni Human Rights Group, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland, the Burmese Rohingya Organization U.K, and an organized network of Myanmar lawyers working throughout the country.
Similarly, as part of this complaint, prominent human rights defenders from Myanmar and several senior U.N. officials, diplomats, and others have agreed to be resource persons for the German prosecutor in this case. They include U.N. Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews; former U.N. special rapporteurs Tomas Quintana and Yanghee Lee; former Dutch Ambassador Laetitia van den Assum; former Thai Ambassador Kobsak Chutikul; members of the U.N. Fact-Finding Mission Marzuki Darusman and Chris Sidoti; President of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Kerry Kennedy; and others.
An investigation and subsequent prosecutions in Germany of the atrocity crimes detailed in the complaint would not duplicate other international accountability efforts underway but would only add to the mounting evidence about the Myanmar military’s crimes, said Fortify Rights. Other efforts include an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC), a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and a universal jurisdiction case in Argentina for crimes related to the Rohingya genocide.
Specifically, in 2019, the ICC authorized an investigation into crimes perpetrated by Myanmar authorities against Rohingya where at least part of the crime was committed on the territory of Bangladesh or another State under ICC jurisdiction. At present, the ICC cannot investigate and prosecute any international crime completed entirely in Myanmar, and thus the investigation would not encompass the vast majority of the crimes against Rohingya alleged in the complaint. The ICC is also not investigating crimes against humanity or war crimes that occurred in the aftermath of the February 2021 coup d’état.
In 2019, the Republic of The Gambia brought a case against Myanmar at the ICJ in The Hague, alleging Myanmar is responsible for genocide against the Rohingya people. While it is a critically important case, the ICJ proceeding concerns only State responsibility for Myanmar’s violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention. The ICJ does not hold individuals criminally accountable, and no individuals will face repercussions through that court for crimes uncovered in that proceeding.
Also in 2019, Rohingya human rights defender Maung Tun Khin of the Burmese Rohingya Organization U.K. (BROUK) and six Rohingya women survivors filed a petition urging an Argentinian court to investigate, under universal jurisdiction, crimes committed with impunity against Rohingya in Myanmar. That judicial investigation is ongoing; however, while critically important, the case in the Argentinian courts currently focuses only on a specific region and does not address war crimes or the conduct surrounding the attacks against Rohingya in 2016 and 2017 or crimes against humanity in connection with the coup d’état. Moreover, unlike German law, Argentine law does not prescribe a punishment for the crime of genocide, so there is no applicable penalty for the offense. Rather, a perpetrator can be convicted in Argentina in the context of genocide but would be punished for “ordinary” crimes committed, such as homicide, rape, or unlawful detention. Maung Tun Khin and BROUK have agreed to cooperate with German authorities on the complaint submitted by Fortify Rights and others.
The German authorities are well-placed to fill present gaps left by the currently pending accountability mechanisms, said Fortify Rights.
In 2019, Fortify Rights began exploring international legal options for survivors in Myanmar to pursue criminal prosecutions under universal jurisdiction. The organization researched and analyzed the feasibility of 16 jurisdictions in Europe, Africa, and South America that provide access to justice for atrocity crimes committed outside their national borders, ultimately deciding to file the complaint in Germany.
Under German law, the Prosecutor has the ultimate discretion to bring a case under universal jurisdiction. The Prosecutor should do so in particular when important witnesses to atrocities are present in Germany, which is the case regarding the complaint announced today.
German prosecutors are currently conducting more than 100 investigations into international crimes related to other countries and contexts. The Prosecutor General has also undertaken numerous structural investigations into atrocity crimes, which have led to several trials. German courts have heard cases dealing with torture in Syrian prisons as well as crimes by members of Da’esh, including against the Yazidi community.
In March 2022, the German Prosecutor opened a structural investigation into Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
In a statement to the United Nations on October 22, 2022, the Permanent Mission of Germany to the U.N. stated:
While we would prefer to have the most serious crimes under international law tried by international tribunals, in particular the ICC if the applicable complementarity criteria are met, the Code of Crimes against International Law allows us to work towards accountability for these crimes on a national level . . . The message is clear: those who commit atrocities cannot feel safe. They will eventually be held accountable. There is no safe haven for perpetrators of international crimes against criminal prosecution in Germany. Justice will be served for the victims and survivors.
Investigations by German authorities into international crimes can also potentially be used in prosecutions in venues and jurisdictions outside Germany.
“Germany is in a unique position to help thwart impunity in Myanmar,” said Matthew Smith. “Fortify Rights and the individual complainants are poised and ready to assist German prosecutors. An investigation now will help ensure that those responsible for these heinous crimes are held to account and punished, whether in Germany or elsewhere.”
Excerpts from select complainants’ statements to the German authorities:
[T]he military found where we were hiding and started firing at us. My mother told me to run away to save my life, so I jumped into the river . . . I saw bullets coming like drops of rain . . . When I realized I lost my family, I felt totally broken inside. My village was burned before my eyes. There is not a single home left. I lost everything.
—Statement of Rohingya Complainant “J.H.” (not actual initials)
[The military] surrounded the village . . . [and] began tying people up. At one point, I recall that the military entered the downstairs of the house [where we were hiding] and shot a seven- or eight-year-old boy in the kitchen. His brain spread across the floor . . . The soldiers then tried grabbing me . . . I fell and became unconscious. After I became unconscious, I did not know where my baby had been taken . . . I kept screaming for my baby child.
—Statement of Rohingya Complainant “S.B.” (not actual initials)
After the coup occurred, . . . I was told [by my contacts in the Ministry of Home Affairs] that if I was captured, I would most likely be tortured and/or killed. Around March 10, 2021, I and my family escaped . . . We often were forced to dig our own bomb shelters to avoid the threat of airstrikes of our entirely civilian encampments, as other such civilian areas were constantly being targeted by the Tatmadaw.
—Statement of Myanmar coup Complainant Nickey Diamond
In the days following the military coup, the police arrested people who helped the protestors. My friend was arrested for giving water to the protesters. Because I gave them [the protestors] shelter, I knew that I would be arrested. When Muslims are arrested, they are often killed or disappeared. I am a huge target for the military because of my human rights work, identity as a Rohingya Muslim, and my political views. I believed that I would be killed if I was arrested . . . I have feared for my life since the coup..."
Source/publisher:
"Fortify Rights"
Date of publication:
2023-01-24
Date of entry/update:
2023-01-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, Ethnic Cleansing
Language:
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
290.8 KB 179.1 KB
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"Though it comes far too late, the decision of the US government to finally formally determine that the violence perpetrated by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya in 2017 in Rakhine State amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity is welcomed by 357 Myanmar CSOs and regional and international partners.
This announcement comes after over four years of tireless repeated efforts by Rohingya, supported by human rights groups within Myanmar and across the world in solidarity with their cause. They have continued to seek justice and accountability, the recognition of their rights, including the restoration of their citizenship, equal rights, freedom of movement, and for safe, voluntary and dignified return of Rohingya to their homes in Rakhine State.
As the long-awaited recognition of the atrocity crimes being determined by the US government is here, urgent actions must be taken towards criminal prosecution for these crimes and to ensure the protection of the remaining Rohingya in Rakhine State whose situation continues to be dire. Otherwise, this determination will languish as rhetoric and only serve to further embolden the Myanmar military that not only continues to implement its policies of genocide and persecute the remaining 600,000 Rohingya in Rakhine State, but is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against the people across the country.
The same military that committed genocide against the Rohingya are committing massacres, airstrikes, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary mass arrests, sexual and gender-based violence, violence against children and mass displacement following its attempted coup – an attempt that failed, largely due to courageous and united resistance from the people of Myanmar in defense of their democracy.
At the 49th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, stated that systematic abuses by the military junta may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, including deliberately targeting civilians with airstrikes and burning people alive. The impunity enjoyed by the Myanmar military must end and this can only be achieved through swift and rigorous justice and accountability.
We call on the United States Government to:
Recommend the UN Security Council adopt a resolution referring the situation in Myanmar to the ICC;
Recommend the International Criminal Court to accept the declaration lodged by the Myanmar government, the National Unity Government, under Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute accepting the Court’s jurisdiction with respect to international crimes committed in Myanmar territory since 1 July 2002;
Formally support the ongoing case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice brought forward by The Gambia, including financial and legal assistance;
Call on the Congress to Pass the Burma Unified through Rigorous Military Accountability Act of 2021 (BURMA Act 2021);
Impose further targeted sanctions against the military and its leadership, military businesses including specifically targeting Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), military-linked business partners and network of arms dealers;
Increase aid to Rohingya genocide survivors in Bangladesh and other countries, and advocate for Bangladesh to adopt sustainable policies for hosting Rohingya refugees, including immediate access to education for all Rohingya children.
Direct USAID to coordinate emergency humanitarian aid provision efforts, including through cross-border channels, for the aid to reach to most vulnerable populations of more than 889,000 IDPs resulted from the military violence and airstrikes, and combat COVID-19, by providing resources and working in equal and meaningful partnership and collaboration with ethnic and community-based humanitarian and civil society organizations;
Coordinate to impose a global arms embargo on the Myanmar military; and,
Sanction the supply of jet fuel to the Myanmar military to end airstrikes..."
Source/publisher:
357 Civil Society Organizations
Date of publication:
2022-03-29
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, International Criminal Court (Myanmar), International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
269.77 KB 236.97 KB
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Description:
"မြန်မာစစ်တပ်ခေါင်းဆောင်များကို တရားစွဲဆိုရမည်
နောက်ကျပြီးမှဖြစ်သော်လည်း ၂၀၁၇ ခုနှစ် ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်တွင် ရိုဟင်ဂျာလူမျိုးများအပေါ် မြန်မာစစ်တပ်မှ ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သည့် အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများက လူမျိုးတုံးသတ်ဖြတ်မှုနှင့် လူသားမျိုးနွယ်အပေါ် ဆန့်ကျင်သော ရာဇဝတ်မှုများ မြောက်ကြောင်း တရားဝင်အသိအမှတ်ပြုသည့် အမေရိကန်အစိုးရ၏ ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်ကို မြန်မာအရပ်ဘက်လူထုအဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၊ နှင့် ဒေသတွင်းနှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာ မိတ်ဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်း ပေါင်း ၃၅၇ ဖွဲ့တို့က ကြိုဆိုလိုက်သည်။
ဤဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်သည် ရိုဟင်ဂျာများ၏ လေးနှစ်ကျော်ကြာအောင် မလျှော့သော ဇွဲလုံ့လ ကြိုးပမ်းအားထုတ်မှုနှင့်အတူ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံနှင့် ကမ္ဘာတစ်ဝှမ်းရှိ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးအဖွဲ့များ၏ သွေးစည်းညီညွတ်သော ပံ့ပိုးကူညီမှုတို့ကြောင့် ဖြစ်ပေါ်လာခြင်း ဖြစ်သည်။ ရိုဟင်ဂျာများသည် ၎င်းတို့အတွက် တရားမျှတမှုနှင့် တာဝန်ယူမှု တာဝန်ခံမှု ရှိလာစေရေး၊ နှင့် ၎င်းတို့၏ နိုင်ငံသားဖြစ်မှု ပြန်လည်ရရှိရေး၊ လွတ်လပ်စွာသွားလာလှုပ်ရှားခွင့်နှင့် ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်တွင်ရှိသော ၎င်းတို့၏ နေအိမ်များသို့ ဘေးကင်းလုံခြုံစွာဖြင့် ၎င်းတို့သဘောဆန္ဒအလျောက် ဂုဏ်သိက္ခာရှိစွာ နေရပ်ပြန်နိုင်ရေး တို့အပါအဝင် ၎င်းတို့၏ အခွင့်အရေး ပြန်လည်အသိအမှတ်ပြုခံရရေးအတွက် ဆက်လက်ကြိုးစားလုပ်ဆောင်နေကြသည်။
ထိုရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်သော ရာဇဝတ်မှုများအပေါ် ကာလရှည်ကြာစောင့်စားနေခဲ့ရသည့် အမေရိကန်အစိုးရ၏ ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်နောက်တွင် ထိုရာဇဝတ်မှုများအတွက် ရာဇဝတ်ဆိုင်ရာတရားစွဲဆိုမှုများ ပြုလုပ်ရေး ဦးတည်သော အရေးယူဆောင်ရွက်မှုများ အရေးတကြီးလုပ်ဆောင်ရန် လိုအပ်သည်။ သို့မဟုတ်ပါက ဤဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်သည် စကားလုံးသက်သက်အဖြစ် အရာမရောက်ဘဲ ရှိနေမည့်အပြင် ၎င်း၏ လူမျိုးတုံးသတ်ဖြတ်မှုဆိုင်ရာ မူဝါဒများ ဆက်လက် အကောင်အထည်ဖော်ဆောင်နေခြင်းနှင့် ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်တွင် ကျန်ရှိနေသေးသော ရိုဟင်ဂျာလူဦးရေ ၆၀၀,၀၀၀ အပေါ် ဖိနှိပ်ခြင်း လုပ်ဆောင်နေရုံသာမက နိုင်ငံတစ်ဝှမ်းရှိ ပြည်သူများအပေါ်တွင်လည်း စစ်ရာဇ၀တ်မှုများနှင့် လူသားမျိုးနွယ်အပေါ် ဆန့်ကျင်သော ရာဇ၀တ်မှုများ ကျူးလွန်နေသာ မြန်မာစစ်တပ်ကို ပိုမို၍ပင် အတင့်ရဲလာစေမည် ဖြစ်သည်။
ရိုဟင်ဂျာများအပေါ် လူမျိုးတုံးသတ်ဖြတ်မှု ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သည့် ယင်းစစ်တပ်ကပင် ဒီမိုကရေစီကာကွယ်ရာတွင် ရဲရင့်ပြတ်သား စည်းလုံးညီညွတ်သော မြန်မာပြည်သူများ၏ စုပေါင်းခုခံဆန့်ကျင် မှုကြောင့် ကျရှုံးနေသော ၎င်းတို့၏ အာဏာသိမ်းရေး ကြိုးပမ်းမှုနောက်ပိုင်းတွင် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများအပေါ် အစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများ၊ လေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်မှုများ၊ ဥပဒေမဲ့သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများ၊ မတရား အစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် ဖမ်းဆီးမှုများ၊ လိင်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာနှင့် ကျား-မ ကွဲပြားမှုအပေါ်အခြေခံသည့် အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများ၊ ကလေးသူငယ်များအပေါ် အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများနှင့် အစုလိုက် အပြုံလိုက် နေရပ်စွန့်ခွာထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်ရ စေမှုများကို ကျူးလွန်နေသည်။
ကုလသမဂ္ဂလူ့အခွင့်အရေးကောင်စီ၏ ၄၉ ကြိမ်မြောက် ပုံမှန်အစည်းအဝေးတွင် အရပ်သားပြည်သူ များအပေါ် လေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်မှုများနှင့် အရှင်လတ်လတ် မီးရှို့သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများကို ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ ပစ်မှတ်ထားလုပ်ဆောင်မှုများ အပါအဝင် မြန်မာစစ်အုပ်စု၏ စနစ်တကျ ချိုးဖောက်မှုများသည် စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှုများနှင့် လူသားမျိုးနွယ်အပေါ် ဆန့်ကျင်သော ရာဇဝတ်မှုများ မြောက်နိုင်ဖွယ်ရှိသည်ဟု ကုလသမဂ္ဂလူ့အခွင့်အရေးမဟာမင်းကြီးက ထုတ်ဖော်ပြောဆိုခဲ့သည်။ မြန်မာစစ်တပ်မှ ရရှိနေသော ပြစ်ဒဏ်ကင်းလွတ်ခွင့်ကို အဆုံးသတ်ရမည်ဖြစ်ပြီး ယင်းကို မြန်ဆန်တင်းကျပ်သော တရားမျှတမှုနှင့် တာဝန်ယူမှု တာဝန်ခံမှု ဖော်ဆောင်ခြင်းတို့မှတစ်ဆင့်သာ ရရှိနိုင်မည် ဖြစ်သည်။
အမေရိကန်အစိုးရမှ အောက်ပါအချက်များကို လုပ်ဆောင်ရန် မိမိတို့မှ တောင်းဆိုလိုက်သည် –
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ အခြေအနေကို နိုင်ငံတကာရာဇဝတ်ခုံရုံး (ICC) သို့ လွှဲပြောင်းပေးရန်အတွက် ကုလသမဂ္ဂလုံခြုံရေး ကောင်စီမှ ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်တစ်ခု ချမှတ်ရေး အကြံပြုတိုက်တွန်းရန်၊
၂၀၀၂ ခုနှစ် ဇူလိုင်လ ၁ ရက်နေ့မှစတင်၍ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံပိုင်နက်အတွင်း ကျုးလွန်ခဲ့သော နိုင်ငံတကာရာဇ၀တ်မှုများနှင့် စပ်လျဉ်း၍ ရောမသဘောတူစာချုပ် အပိုဒ် ၁၂(၃)အရ ICC တရားရုံး၏ တရားစီရင်ပိုင်ခွင့်ကို လက်ခံကြောင်း တင်သွင်းသော မြန်မာအစိုးရဖြစ်သည့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ (NUG) ၏ ကြေညာစာတမ်းကို လက်ခံရေး ICC တရားရုံးအား တိုက်တွန်းရန်၊
ဂမ်ဘီယာနိုင်ငံမှ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအပေါ် နိုင်ငံတကာတရားရုံး (ICJ) တွင် လက်ရှိစွဲဆိုထားသည့် အမှုအား ငွေကြေးနှင့် ဥပဒေဆိုင်ရာ ပံ့ပိုးကူညီမှုများ အပါအဝင် တရားဝင် ထောက်ခံအားပေးရန်၊
စစ်တပ်အား တင်းကျပ်သော တာဝန်ယူမှု တာဝန်ခံမှု ရှိလာစေခြင်းမှတစ်ဆင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ စုပေါင်းညီညွတ်ရေးဆိုင်ရာဥပဒေ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် (BURMA Act 2021) ကို အတည်ပြုပြဌာန်းနိုင်ရန်အတွက် ကွန်ဂရက်အား တောင်းဆိုရန်၊
မြန်မာ့ရေနံနှင့် သဘာဝဓာတ်ငွေ့လုပ်ငန်း (MOGE)၊ စစ်တပ်နှင့် ဆက်နွယ်နေသော စီးပွားရေးမိတ်ဖက် များနှင့် လက်နက်ရောင်းဝယ်သူ ကွန်ရက်များအပေါ် ပစ်မှတ်ထား အရေးယူပိတ်ဆို့မှုများ အပါအဝင် မြန်မာစစ်တပ်နှင့် ၎င်း၏ ခေါင်းဆောင်များအပေါ် ပစ်မှတ်ထား အရေးယူပိတ်ဆို့မှုများ ပိုမိုလုပ်ဆောင်ရန်၊
လူမျိုးတုံးသတ်ဖြတ်မှုမှ အသက်ရှင်ကျန်ရစ်သည့် ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်နိုင်ငံနှင့် အခြားနိုင်ငံများရှိ ရိုဟင်ဂျာများအတွက် အကူအညီအထောက်အပံ့များ တိုးမြှင့်ပေးရေး၊ နှင့် ရိုဟင်ဂျာ ကလေးသူငယ်များအတွက် ပညာရေး လက်လှမ်းမီစေရေး အပါအဝင် ရိုဟင်ဂျာဒုက္ခသည်များ လက်ခံထားရေးနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်နိုင်ငံအနေဖြင့် ရေရှည်တည်တံ့သော မူဝါဒများ ချမှတ်လာစေရေး စည်းရုံးလှုံ့ဆော်ရန်၊
စစ်တပ်၏ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများနှင့် လေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်မှုများကြောင့် ထိခိုက်အလွယ်ဆုံးသော ပြည်တွင်း နေရပ်စွန့်ခွာထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်ရသူ (IDP) ၈၈၉,၀၀၀ ကျော်ထံသို့ အကူအညီများ ရောက်ရှိစေရန်အတွက် နယ်စပ်ဖြတ်ကျော် လမ်းကြောင်းများတစ်ဆင့် အပါအဝင် လူသားချင်းစာနာ ထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အရေးပေါ်အကူအညီ ပံ့ပိုးနိုင်ရေး ကြိုးပမ်းမှုများ ညှိနှိုင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရန်အပြင် COVID-19 တိုက်ဖျက်ရေးအတွက် တိုင်းရင်းသားနှင့် လူထုအခြေပြု လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု ဆိုင်ရာ အဖွဲ့အစည်းများနှင့် အရပ်ဘက်လူထုအဖွဲ့အစည်းများကို အရင်းအမြစ်များ ထောက်ပံ့ပေးခြင်းနှင့် အဓိပ္ပါယ်ပြည့်ဝစွာဖြင့် တန်းတူသောမိတ်ဖက်များအဖြစ် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရန် USAID အား ညွှန်ကြားရန်၊
မြန်မာစစ်တပ်အပေါ် ကမ္ဘာလုံးဆိုင်ရာ လက်နက်ခဲယမ်းရောင်းချမှု ပိတ်ဆို့ရေး ချမှတ်နိုင်ရန်အတွက် ညှိနှိုင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရန်၊ နှင့်
မြန်မာစစ်တပ်၏ လေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်မှုကို ရပ်တန့်စေရန်အတွက် လေယာဥ်ဆီတင်ပို့ရောင်းချမှုကို ပိတ်ဆို့ရန်။..."
Source/publisher:
357 Civil Society Organizations
Date of publication:
2022-03-29
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Human Rights and international relations, Discrimination against the Rohingya, International Criminal Court (Myanmar), International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar
Language:
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"The Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK) welcomes today’s determination by the United States’ Department of State that genocide has been committed against the Rohingya people.
“The US determination of the crime of genocide against us is a momentous moment and must lead to concrete action to hold the Burmese military accountable for their crimes,” said Tun Khin, President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK.
In 2018, United States investigators produced a 15,000 page investigation documenting atrocities committed in 2017 against the Rohingya, which included more than 13,000 instances of “grave human rights violations”, including gang rapes, crucifixions, mutilations, and of children being burned or drowned, and of families being locked inside homes that had been set alight.
Also in 2018 the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar published the results of its investigation, finding that the human rights violations committed against the Rohingya amounted to genocide. In 2019 the Fact-Finding Mission stated that the genocide was ongoing.
“This designation lets Rohingya know that their voices have been heard amid the cruel suffering they continue to endure,” said Tun Khin. “In Burma the Rohingya face denial of our identity, our rights and denial of the human rights violations committed against us. Rohingya faced genocide, one of the most terrible crimes imaginable, and then faced the international community not even acknowledging it had happened. Today the US has gone a long way to correcting that.”
Since the attempted military coup on 1st February 2021, the Burmese military has used deadly force across the country. Half a million people have been displaced and around 12,000 people arrested. 600,000 Rohingya remain in Burma and there are concerns that the military may once again whip up nationalist prejudice against the Rohingya in an attempt to deflect people from resistance to military rule.
“There is no doubt that being allowed to get away with genocide of the Rohingya encouraged the military to think it could get away with holding a coup as well,” said Tun Khin. “Accountability for Rohingya genocide will not just help protect the Rohingya, it will help protect all the people of Burma.”
The Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK calls for the US and other countries to follow this determination with concrete action against the military. This should include:
Sanction Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise (MOGE), Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank and other entities facilitating the flow of gas revenue to the military.
Join the Rohingya genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
Systematically sanction military, state-owned and private Burmese companies helping to finance the Burmese military.
Sanction Burmese companies involved in the supply and manufacture of arms for the military.
Sanction the supply of aviation fuel to Burma to help stop airstrikes against civilians.
Apply pressure on countries supplying arms to the Burmese military to persuade them to stop.
Support in principle for the referral of Burma to the International Criminal Court.
Significantly increased aid to genocide survivors in Bangladesh and other countries, and advocate for Bangladesh to adopt long-term policies for hosting Rohingya refugees, including immediate access to education for all Rohingya children..."
Source/publisher:
Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK
Date of publication:
2022-03-21
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Ethnic Cleansing, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
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Description:
"Introduction: building business, breaking peace?
Myanmar’s economic opening and transition to democracy has given businesses significant opportunities to expand in a high-growth but problematic emerging market.
Foreign direct investment has grown 10-fold since 20111 across all sectors of the
Myanmar economy. But Myanmar also ranks in the bottom 5 per cent of 189 countries
surveyed by the World Bank for ease of doing business,2 permeated by endemic
corruption at the individual, institutional and political levels.3 The United Nations
Development Programme lumps these issues under the umbrella of ‘business rights’,
including contractual certainty, financial fairness and freedom from corruption and
extortion,4 together considered as the building blocks for successful business
development.
While opening brought optimism that trade and growth would lift Myanmar’s
poorest, these gains have primarily benefited existing local elites as most new investments require local partners who hold high-level roles in Myanmar’s political–
military nexus. Moreover, Myanmar’s military undertook an ethnic cleansing of
2 million Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state – just the type of authoritarian action
that economic opening was promised to temper. Today, some 700,000 Rohingya are
refugees in neighbouring India and Bangladesh, with a further 100,000 in internally
displaced persons camps.5 While many international non-governmental organisations
(INGOs) have condemned the violent cleansing, no businesses operating in Myanmar
have spoken out against it as of February 2017, and none have withdrawn their
government partnerships or left the country. This silence comes as many companies
have explicitly framed their entry (or re-entry) into the Myanmar market as action to
help solidify peace in one of the world’s least developed states, promoting their roles as
agents of peace and sustainable socio-economic development.
Myanmar’s society remains a patchwork of ethnic groups, regional fighting and
power struggles that often pre-date military rule. While growth grows the pie (and
spoils of peace), unevenness of this distribution has exacerbated societal cleavages.
There are 135 ethnic minorities in Myanmar and 18 conflict groups that base their
allegiance and fight upon the stated basis of grievances resulting from social, political
and economic deprivation.6 These conflicts tend to be based in the country’s border
areas, where employment opportunities, infrastructure and state capacity are limited,
and the likelihood of abuses by official forces is high. Nearly all of these conflicts are
rooted in the uneven division of economic opportunities and civil rights in Myanmar,
along with the heavy-handed rule used to maintain it.
Layered within these historically repressive tactics is state-supported ethnic conflict.
These issues have manifested in Rakhine state between Buddhist majority ‘ethnic
Rakhines’ and a Muslim Rohingya minority. The Rohingya are called ‘Bengali
Muslims’ by most in Myanmar, due to their migration from what is now Bangladesh
beginning in the late 1700s, and as an indicator of the desire to designate Rohingyas as
outsiders.7 This is the government’s third major cleansing attempt of Rohingya, following similar efforts in 1978 and 1991.8 Many have used the new liberalised media
landscape to promote divisive ethnic speech, most visibly Buddhist nationalists Ashin
Wirathu and Ma Ba Tha.9 These overtures culminated in a series of ‘Protection of Race
and Religion’ laws that designated Myanmar as a Buddhist state and legalised antiRohingya discrimination.10 Criticised by the UN, INGOs and some domestic NGOs,
the bills were nevertheless passed throughout 2014 and 2015.
To understand why economic opening and rapid development has failed to bring an
inclusive peace to Myanmar, we compare Myanmar’s imperfect opening to existing
assumptions on how businesses can and should operate in fragile states. The literature
has been proliferating rapidly with theories about how, where and why businesses can
contribute to peace-building.11 The business community has also been urged to be
more involved in post-conflict peace-building processes,12 through the Responsibility
To Protect, UN Sustainable Development Goals, Business and Human Rights Guiding
Principles, United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and similar multilateral initiatives.
But the empirical evidence that can support and refine such pushes remains wanting.
We have gaps in understanding national-level variations in motivations behind business
engagement in peace, how international business-peace agendas influence local business
communities, which local business agents are the most effective for peace and development, how competition from firms based in countries with more illiberal
predispositions influences ethical business decision-making and where peace-building
business activities have worsened local ethnic conflict instead of alleviating it. This
article explores new avenues for theory on these issues through analysis of national
business engagement in peace and development in Myanmar after the country’s 2011
economic opening, emphasising business owners in conflict-affected Rakhine state.
This article presents three primary findings about business actions in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
Routledge (London)
Date of publication:
2019-02-14
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-02
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Ethnic Cleansing, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
Language:
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pdf
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514.1 KB
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Description:
"The Myanmar military regime has organized a new legal team led by its foreign minister, U Wunna Maung Lwin, to present the defense in the Rohingya genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
The regime’s order restructuring the committee, which was previously led by detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was announced in a bulletin published by the Myanmar Gazette on Thursday.
The panel has eight members. Among them are two former military officers—U Wunna Maung Lwin, who will serve as chairman; and the regime’s planning, finance and industry minister, U Win Shein—and two serving lieutenant generals: Yar Pyae and Adjutant General Myo Zaw Thein.
The other members of the panel are the junta’s minister for international cooperation, U Ko Ko Hlaing, as vice chairman; its new union attorney general, Daw Thida Oo; its deputy foreign minister, U Kyaw Myo Htut; and Daw Khin Oo Hlaing, who is said to be an international criminal law expert and also a member of a seven-member advisory board to the regime.
After a brutal military crackdown in the western state of Rakhine in 2017 that forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee across the border to neighboring Bangladesh, the African nation of Gambia in November 2019 brought a case at the ICJ—which is an organ of the UN and is also known as the World Court—accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya. State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi defended the country against the charge in December 2019.
Gambia’s legal team submitted a list of the Myanmar military’s atrocities against the minority Muslim group in northern Rakhine state. These included mass rapes, the burning of families in their homes and the killing of dozens of Rohingya children. As the case could take years, Gambia asked the ICJ to order Myanmar to take “provisional measures” to prevent more violations.
Going further than the measures requested by Gambia, the ICJ ordered Myanmar on Jan. 23 to report on its compliance with the provisional measures in four months and then every six months thereafter. The Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led civilian government submitted two reports prior to its ouster by the military in a coup on Feb. 1.
The deputy foreign minister for Myanmar’s parallel National Unity Government (NUG), U Moe Zaw Oo, said during an online press conference on June 4 that the civilian government would no longer offer a defense in the case. It vowed to work with the ICJ and said it would accept the court’s decision in the case.
The NUG also said it is considering accepting the exercise of jurisdiction by a separate international court, the International Criminal Court, over the killings, torture and other crimes against civilians committed by the Myanmar junta since the coup on Feb. 1. The Myanmar military seized power from the democratically elected National League for Democracy government, detained civilian leaders and abolished the new Parliament on the day it was scheduled to convene.
Since the coup, the Myanmar regime has killed at least 877 people and arrested more than 6,200, of whom 5,088 remain in detention, according to advocacy group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
At least 25 civilians have been tortured to death after being arrested by regime forces since the military takeover..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-06-24
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
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Description:
"A 12-year-old boy in ragged clothing shoulders a child, his younger sister of 3 years, as they walk mile after mile, escaping their home, because their father was shot dead on the spot and their mother was raped in front of them and killed thereafter. They are fleeing with many others who have similar experiences. Some of them lost their parents, or brothers and sisters while others saw their entire families burn alive. Two pregnant women walk for miles with inexplicable
hardship, but try their best to keep their babies inside alive.
The group finally enters Bangladesh after walking one day and seven hours, crossing lands and hills, and riding by boat. Like this group, more than half a million Rohingyas have fled persecution in Myanmar to Bangladesh since the military crackdown started on August 25, 2017. Following an alleged attack on 30 police camps and one military base by the radical Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), Myanmar security forces indiscriminately fired on Rohingya
civilians, burnt their houses down, raped girls and women, and killed hundreds of Rohingyas mercilessly. The intensity of atrocity was so extreme that the global community, including the United Nations, the European Union, human rights groups like International Organization of Migration (IOM), Amnesty International, and the Human Rights Watch, came forward to stand beside Rohingyas and condemn Myanmar for its deadly violence, severe brutality, and
crimes against humanity. The United Nations Human Rights Council termed it as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" and major international media outlets like the New York Times, ABC News, and CNN have called it genocide.
Many agencies working in the borderland of Bangladesh and Myanmar to support Rohingyas, particularly wounded ones, old people, children, and pregnant women, have said that this is one of the most devastating humanitarian catastrophes in the history of refugee crises. Myanmar's de facto leader, and also
a Nobel laureate in peace, Aung San Suu Ki, has also been accused by the international community of supporting the genocide committed by the Myanmar security forces.
The reason the Rohingyas, often called “the most persecuted people in the world," have been repressed and afflicted for decades is because of their identity as an ethno-linguistic and religious minority within the state structure of Myanmar. Additionally, a growing anti-Muslim Buddhist sentiment instigated by Ashin Wirathu, a Buddhist monk named by TIME “Burmese Bin-Laden,”
has contributed to the current critical condition unsuitable for Rohingya
Muslims’ peaceful living in Rakhine state.
The citizenship of Rohingya people was taken away by the Myanmar Citizenship Law of 1982, which conferred citizenship to 135 nationals, excluding Rohingyas, even though they have been residents of Arakan, what is now called Rakhine state, since the eighth century. Following the independence of Burma, now Myanmar, in 1948, the Rohingyas were close to gaining state recognition, but
after General Ne Win took power in 1962, the military regime started and this hope was lost. During this period of time, the Rohingyas underwent a brutal experience of human rights violations, atrocities, and a severe degree of oppression in their everyday experiences. Their lives were restricted, freedom of movement was cut off, education was halted, and even marriage became subject
to military approval. Following the Citizenship Law of 1982, the Rohingyas started living in an “open jail” as they were confined to their villages. In 1978, a severe military crackdown took place in Arakan state that triggered a massive influx of 200,000 Rohingyas to Bangladesh. The second influx occurred in 1991 when around 250,000 Rohingyas took refuge in Bangladesh. Following
an effective international pressure, under an agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar, almost all in 1978 and some 236,000 Rohingyas in 1992 were repatriated, but a large number of them returned to Bangladesh because the situation of the Rakhine state remained unchanged.
A big riot of Rakhine Buddhists supported by state agencies and Rohingya Muslims took place in June 2012, forcing around 120,000 Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh. In October 2016, 87,000 Rohingyas left Myanmar to escape deadly military operation. However, 2017 has witnessed even more extreme atrocities committed by the Myanmar security force, compelling around 600,000 Rohingyas to flee and take refuge in Bangladesh. Of the 600,000, 50 percent are
children, 30 percent are women (85 thousand are pregnant), 15 percent are old, and the remaining 5 percent are youth.
Many reports and Rohingyas' narratives have confirmed that thousands of Rohingya youths were killed in Rakhine state by the security forces. Now, the majority of Rohingyas live in Bangladesh (1,100,000 [combined with previously living 500,000 and newly arrived 600,000]), 800,000 live in Myanmar, and the remaining 700,000 live in other countries (India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates). Due to their miserable lives and inhuman state of livings, the Rohingyas have become an ideal example of how people lead their lives in the presence of "everyday death." Many attempts
are being made to resolve the Rohingya crisis, but nobody knows when, and how, Rohingya people will gain a peaceful life with due human dignity..."
Source/publisher:
Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs
Date of publication:
2017-10-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-19
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
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73.32 KB
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Description:
"A Muslim minority ethnic group in Buddhist dominated Myanmar, the Rohingya constitute about 4 percent of the country’s population. They inhabit the northern part of the Rakhine (formerly Arakan) State of Myanmar, one of the least developed parts of the country.
Persecuted for decades by the Burmese State, their numbers inside Myanmar have diminished steadily over the years from well in excess of a million to a few hundred thousand. Denial of citizenship, religious persecution, killings, rape, massacres and refusal to provide
even the most basic of human rights by subjecting them to forced labor, seizure of their land and property, extortion, denial of the freedom to travel to find work, and most humiliatingly
placing restrictions on marriage and the number of children they can have has led to hundreds of thousands of impoverished Rohingya fleeing to neighbouring countries, especially Bangladesh, over the course of the last seven decades. The United Nations (UN) has described them as "the most persecuted minority in the world".
At the core of the issue is the identity and religion of the Rohingya, with the Myanmar government refusing to acknowledge or use the term Rohingya, insisting on calling them ‘Bengali’ instead to highlight their alleged foreign origins. The largeststateless community in the world,the close to a million Rohingya living in appalling
conditions in makeshift refugee camps in Bangladesh are confronted with an enormous humanitarian crisis. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stated on 13 December 2017, that while there were 400,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh in early
2017, by the end of that year this number had swelled to over 1,000,000. The scale of the crisis is put into clear perspective by the fact that in contrast to their swelling numbers in Bangladesh, only an estimated 180,000 Rohingya remain in their native Rakhine State in
Myanmar. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently termed the State of the Rohingya as "catastrophic" and "completely unacceptable". Their miserable condition is being sought to
be exploited by radical Islamic organizations backed by the Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) such as the Lashkar-e-Taibah (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), as well as by other Sunni militant organizations, to serve their own nefarious purposes. Rohingya insurgent organizations such as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) are being set up, and the attacks against Myanmar security forces launched by these insurgents
are providing the excuse for a highly disproportionate response by the Myanmar government, thereby exacerbating the already grave plight of the Rohingya. That the ISI-backed groups are
also looking to direct the attention of radicalized elements from the Rohingya against the Sheikh Hasina-led government in Bangladesh and against India lends wider security ramifications to the issue.
US Vice President Mike Pence assessed the situation aptly when he described the Rohingya expulsion as a "historic exodus" and a "great tragedy unfolding", adding that the situation may "sow seeds of hatred and chaos that may well consume the region for generations to
come and threaten the peace of us all"..."
Source/publisher:
European Foundation for South Asian Studies (Amsterdam)
Date of publication:
2018-05-00
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
322.08 KB
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Description:
"PREFACE: The Rohingya crisis defies easy summary. Terms such as ethnic
cleansing, genocide, abuse of human rights, have all been
applied to what is undoubtedly a major humanitarian crisis of our
times. Understanding and responding to the plight of hundreds of
thousands of Rohingyas requires a multi-disciplinary approach,
with the need for engagement from a wide variety of
perspectives. Legal and medical questions, issues around
cultural contexts and the physical environment, psychological
and social factors, religious and political considerations, are all
highly relevant. There is no simple solution to a whole complex
of interconnected issues: here, as in so many other cases, the
eruption and tragic human consequences of collective violence
raise innumerable challenges. It is all the more urgent that we
can bring people together to engage in the kind of informed
debate that can assist intelligent action.
We are delighted that such a distinguished and broad range of
scholars and practitioners have contributed their insights in this
booklet of abstracts, and that some of them will be able to
contribute further in person at the conference held at UCL on 4-
5 July 2019. We welcome participation in what we hope will be a
productive set of encounters, seeking both to understand and,
through enhanced understanding, to inform more effective
responses to this still unfolding crisis.....Genocide Studie.....FORWARD : According to the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), there are over 70 million people worldwide
who have been forcibly displaced from their homes. As an
underlying principle of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) to be achieved by 2030 is to leave no one behind, it is
essential that the needs and aspirations of the forcibly displaced
are addressed. Of these about 10 million are stateless. With
limited or no legal rights, and often denied refugee legal status,
the challenges they face are severe. About one third of the
stateless forcibly displaced, belong to the Rohingya diaspora.
The Rohingya are a Muslim-majority ethnic group from today's
Rakhine State in Myanmar. After a long period of systematic
exclusion, the Rohingya were stripped of their citizenship in
1982. Since the late 1970s, nearly two million Rohingya have fled
Myanmar, with another one million living as internally displace
people (IDPs) within Rakhine State, in waves of violent forced
displacement perpetrated by the Myanmar authorities.
Violence towards the Rohingya in Myanmar from 2017, caused
the mass displacement of people to southeastern Bangladesh.
The Human Rights Council acting under UN resolution 34/22 has
cited this as a crime against humanity and called for an
investigation for genocide against the authorities in Myanmar.
The majority of the nearly one million displaced persons are
residing in overcrowded temporary makeshift shelters, of
bamboo frames and plastic sheeting, in Cox’s Bazar district.
Kutupalong is the world’s largest refugee camp. These camps
are highly susceptible to rainfall-triggered landslides, flash
flooding and cyclones and the likelihood of a public health
emergency from infectious diseases is high, which in this
vulnerable population threatens new disaster...."
Source/publisher:
University College London
Date of publication:
2019-07-05
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Internal displacement/forced migration of Rohingyas, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Human Rights and international relations, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Muslims in Burma, Statelessness in Burma/Myanmar, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
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Size:
1.74 MB (246 pages)
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Sub-title:
The case of Rohingya refugee crisis
Description:
"Background: The Rohingya are a large Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar at the center of a humanitarian catastrophe. Myanmar government does not recognize them as citizens or one of the 135 recognized
ethnic groups in the country. Myanmar regards them as illegal immigrants, a view rooted in their heritage in East Bengal, now called Bangladesh.1 However, the history of the geographic region of Myanmar dates back to centuries and it is evident from
the chronological conflicts that the roots of the Rohingya community belong to that region and the people are subjected to mere communal conflicts. But before discussing their origin the question
naturally arises that where did this term “Rohingya” come from. As mentioned by Dr. Nasir Uddin, in his book “To host or to hurt”, ‘After summarizing the unpublished thesis of A.S. Bahar entitled “The Arakani Rohingyas in Burmese Society”, M. A. Alam codify the origin of the Rohingyas as follows: “ Rohang, the old name of the Arakan, was very familiar region for the Arab seafarers even during the pre-islamic days. Tides of people like the Arabs, Moors, Turks, Pathans, Moghuls, Central Asians, Bengalis came mostly as
traders, warriors, preachers and captives overland or through sea route. Many settled in Arakan, and mixing with the local people, developed the present stock of people known as ethnic Rohingya. (To host or to hurt, Nasir Uddin) The history of the region of Burma has seen a sequence of ethnic shifts, conquests, expansion and
collapse that is quite typical of the history of most regions of the world. In the last millennium and a half, there has tended to be a core state or core in the Irrawaddy Valley, which repeatedly expanded towards
and contracted from the periphery of the modern day territory of Myanmar; therefore by the mid 90’s around one third of the population of Myanmar was made up of ethnic groups distinct from the Burman
majority. This naturally reflected the history of interaction with China to the north, India to the west, Thailand and Laos to the east and Indonesia and Malaysia to the south. In particular, the mountainous
regions to the north and east of the central Irrawaddy regions have long been home to a diverse range of non-Burmese ethnicities. Some of these groups live exclusively in modern day Myanmar but many live
on both sides of the various borders. Up to the nineteenth century, the evidence points to a degree of ethnic and religious tolerance, even as the Burmese regions became increasingly dominated by
Buddhism, while more marginal groups retained animist beliefs or adopted Christianity or Islam. These discussions lead to the fact that it is particularly important to separate the history of Arakan from
that of Burma up to the 1800s. The core of the Burmese civilization in central Burma, along the Irrawaddy Valley is geographicaly and culturally linked to the tibetian region, southwest China and the
rest of East Asia. The south (the modern day Mon and Taninthayri provinces) is part of the wider Malaysian Peninsula and has sea links to the south, including Sri Lanka and parts of Indonesia. In fact,
this was the original vector for the early spread of Buddhism to Burma.
However, Arakan region in the west has always been separated from the rest of Burma by a high and difficult-to-traverse coastal mountain range. As such, for most of its early history, both in terms of ethnic
makeup and political economic interaction, the natural links of the region were across the Bay of Bengal to India rather than with the rest of Burma. It was also a relatively poor province, reliant on subsistence
agriculture and fishing, so it was generally of little interest to would be conquerors..."
Source/publisher:
Department of Architecture (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2018-10-00
Date of entry/update:
2021-05-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Muslims in Burma, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
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"The year was defined by the Rohingya crisis, which lingers on and remains un-resolved. The agreement signed by the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh in November 2017 had several aborted starts in 2018. Both governments came under the pressure of China to deal with the repatriation of the Rohingya refugees bilaterally, without the involvement of other (international) parties. What was evi-dently a forced repatriation plan was eventually halted in November. The outcry of human rights and refugee organisations continued unabated, as did western outrage against State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, widely seen as callous and complicit in the military’s atrocities against the Rohingya. As ties with the United States worsened, ChIn response to the series of terrorist attacks in August 2017 by the Rohingya militant organisation named the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army
(ARSA), the Myanmar military carried out what it termed ‘clearance operations’, which in the space of a few weeks in September, and involving mass rape, arson and indiscriminate killings, led to one of the greatest refugee crisis in recent decades.1 Approximately 750,000 Rohingya (representing the majority of this stateless, largely Muslim ethnic group) fled Rakhine state seeking refuge on the other side of the border, in the Chittagong district of eastern Bangladesh. The fallout within Bangladesh was that this impoverished South-East Asian country was confronted with a crisis withina’s economic clout in Myanmar was consolidated, as evidenced by the expansion of economic projects and Beijing’s leverage on Nay Pyi Taw during the
crisis. At home, however, Suu Kyi remained personally popular. Despite some efforts at rebooting, her government’s performance has oscillated between ineptitude and incompetence. Some personnel reshuffles and new strategic plans notwithstanding, its shortcomings remain well-known, being plagued by personalisation, the central-
isation of decision-making and over-reliance on loyalty, to the detriment of expertise and professionalism. The NLD’s cohabitation with the military has continued, but no open rifts have thus far surfaced.....Introduction: In response to the series of terrorist attacks in August 2017 by the Rohingya militant organisation named the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the Myanmar military carried out what it termed ‘clearance operations’, which in the space of a few weeks in September, and involving mass rape, arson and indiscriminate killings, led to one of the greatest refugee
crisis in recent decades.1 Approximately 750,000 Rohingya (representing the majority of this stateless, largely Muslim ethnic group) fled Rakhine state seeking refuge on the other side of the border, in the Chittagong district of eastern Bangladesh. The fallout within Bangladesh was that this impoverished South-East Asian country was confronted with a crisis with which it could barely cope. Within the borders of Myanmar, physical destruction across Rakhine state was observed, yet there was also widespread
support across most segments of Myanmar society for the way in which the authorities handled the crisis. The agreement signed by the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh in November 2017 went through several aborted starts in 2018. Both governments came under the pressure of China to deal with the repatriation
of the Rohingya refugees bilaterally, without the involvement of other (international) parties. The outcry of human rights and refugee organisations continued unabated, as did western outrage against State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, widely seen as callous and complicit in the military’s atrocities against the Rohingya.
Of course, dealing with the Rohingya crisis and the repatriation issue
was not the only issue faced by the Myanmar government in 2018, but the fallout from the violence continued to cast a long and dark shadow on the country’s international image. Domestically, Aung San Suu Kyi remained personally popular, despite an overall poor government performance. Being about halfway into the National League for Democracy’s (NLD) term in office, it is now a good time to assess the performance of the government in terms of its domestic, economic and foreign policy. Its performance has been rather disappointing. Always bound to disappoint in light of the unrealistically high expectations that accompanied it, the government led defacto by Aung San Suu Kyi has combined ineptitude, centralisation and personalisation of decision-making. Substantial time has been spent on drawing up strategic plans, and less on actually building up human capacity,
expertise and turning plans into practice. This article is structured as follows. First, it revisits developments in domestic policy. Stalled progress in the peace process and increasingly fraught relations with ethnic Rakhine suggest that despite some efforts at
rebooting, transition has stalled.2 The subsequent section reviews the mixed picture insofar as the economy is concerned. Lastly, it examines how the country’s international ties have been affected by the crisis, enabling China to consolidate its already strong influence..."
Source/publisher:
University of St Andrews (Scotland)
Date of publication:
2018-00-00
Date of entry/update:
2021-05-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
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126.02 KB (14 pages)
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"Abstract: The tension and violence against the Rohingya in Rakhine State, Myanmar has been escalating to the extent that it could be called ethnic cleansing or crime against humanity. The international
community has insufficiently done in preventing and protecting the Rohingya that are facing persecution in Myanmar. The national mechanism in Myanmar which consists of the Rakhine
Conflict Investigation Commission, the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission, and the Central Committee for Rakhine State Peace, Stability, and Development Implementation intends
to address the truth and solution to the crisis. Moreover, due to the latest incident in Muangtaw where nine policemen were killed, the Myanmar government also establishes another commission
to investigate such an incident. The international community also calls for the independent truth commission to address the Rohingya issue. It is high time to examine and assess those mechanisms
to what extent they help mete justice and accountability for atrocities in Myanmar. This paper will also compare and contrast the works of human rights and investigation commissions established
by Myanmar and the others in order to suggest the best practices to enhance the mechanisms in Myanmar.....INTRODUCTION: Atrocity crimes are pervasive in many areas of the world. They are gross human rights violations which the international community must not tolerate because they are crimes of international concern which pose a threat to peace and international security. 1 However, some
atrocity crimes happen in the areas out of sight of the world. Little is known about what has been happening in those areas, such as in Myanmar. Myanmar seems to be a peaceful Buddhist country
in Southeast Asia; however, it has been facing internal armed conflicts for decades since the country has become independent from the United Kingdom in 1948. 2 The conflicts and human
rights abuses have erupted in several states namely Kachin, Shan, Kayah, Kayin, and Rakhine.3 Particularly, in Rakhine State, Myanmar attempts to hide atrocities against the Muslim minority –
the Rohingya – from the attention of the international community to avoid responsibility and accountability. This paper focuses on the problems in Rakhine State, in particular the Rohingya
issue. The Rohingya conflict is now not only a domestic concern but being treated as an international problem. Several reports from non-governmental organizations and international affairs literatures regarding the Rohingya issues have been published. Yet, only a few legal publications and the non-governmental organizations (NGOs)’ reports have addressed or touched upon the Rohingya problem regarding the possibility of the crime of genocide and crime against
humanity. 4 None of the legal literature has examined the attempts of the government and the international community to bring justice and accountability to the Rohingya. Therefore, this will be the very first preliminary study on the transitional justice mechanisms of the contemporary conflicts. This paper will explore, examine, analyze, and assess the legal implications of the mechanisms to resolve the Rohingya issue established by both Myanmar in the domestic level and the international community at the international level. This paper argues that despite the number of mechanisms, they are fragmented, overlapping, and have not served sufficient justice and
accountability for the violence against the Rohingya. Therefore, the government of Myanmar should push more effort to address this issue.
The first part of the paper will explore the background of the Rohingya story in terms of both historical and contemporary contexts to address the root causes and figure how conflict evolves through time. The second part will describe both domestic, hybrid, and international
mechanisms dealing with the atrocity against the Rohingya in Myanmar. This will explain how those mechanisms emerge and function. The third part will assess and analyze the impacts of each
mechanisms based on their progress, procedures, and outcomes. This part will also compare and contrast the work of those mechanisms to evaluate the capabilities to probe the ongoing conflict.
The fourth part will juxtapose the existing mechanisms to the other types of mechanisms used elsewhere and will also look at the way forward to bring justice and accountability to Myanmar.
This part will also provide a critical review of the paradox of justice and peace in the Myanmar context and the introduction of the anticipated mechanisms. Lastly, this paper will conclude with
some preliminary observations of the works and studies of those transitional justice mechanisms and will provide some recommendations to enhance the capacity of the mechanisms..."
Source/publisher:
Jutha Saovabha
Date of publication:
2021-04-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-05-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
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"Summary: Myanmar, also known as Burma, has suffered decades of repressive military rule, poverty due to years of isolationist economic policies, and civil war with ethnic minority groups.
The transfer to civilian leadership in 2011 spurred hopes of democratic reforms. But the military maintained control over parts of the government, and security forces began a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya.
The military launched a coup in February 2021, announcing a yearlong state of emergency and arresting opposition figures, including de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and civil society activists.....Introduction: Throughout its decades of independence, Myanmar has struggled with military rule, civil war, isolation from global affairs, and widespread poverty. In 2011, the military junta dissolved, giving way to a military-installed transitional government and ushering in what many believed would be a new era for the Southeast Asian nation. The country’s longtime opposition party—the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi—won majorities in both chambers of parliament in 2015, and some foreign governments and companies that had previously shunned Myanmar began developing ties with it.
But the military, known as the Tatmadaw, has continued to dominate many aspects of domestic affairs. Military and civilian leaders, including Suu Kyi, have also faced international condemnation for ongoing human rights abuses and brutal violence against Rohingya Muslims in the western state of Rakhine, which a UN report said were committed with “genocidal intent.” In February 2021, the military staged a coup and officially retook control, dashing hopes for democratic progress..."
Source/publisher:
Council on Foreign Relations (New York)
Date of publication:
2021-02-10
Date of entry/update:
2021-05-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Racial or ethnic discrimination in Burma: reports of violations against several groups, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Ethnic Cleansing, Genocide, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, Several Groups, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
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Sub-title:
The Rohingyas were equal citizens and enjoyed all the rights and privileges as any other until 1982 when the Citizenship rules of Myanmar were re-written and this time it left out the Rohingya.
Description:
"Ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya – a reality: Many believe that the Rohingya have been a part of Myanmar well before the British colonists arrived and have been an integral part of the country ever since. They have been mostly concentrated in the Rakhine region of the country and have been subjected to horrific atrocities from time to time. There have been countless instances of genocide-like situations for the community before but nothing as brutal as what started in 2012 and has been going on ever since albeit with varying degrees of intensity. The events have plagued a stratum of people who have in many ways got used to living in conditions that are sub-human and have accepted the same as their destiny.
The world is aware of what has been going on in Myanmar for way too long now, but nothing has been done so far to save the countless lives that are being lost on a daily basis. As many as 800,000 people have been displaced from the Rakhine region into Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, and India. Their living conditions in those countries are not better than what it would have been had they been at the mercy of Lucifer himself. The ones who were unlucky enough to stay back have faced a greater ordeal. They have been restricted to a concentration camp-like holding areas and have been denied basic human rights like the right to movement, medical treatment, etc. They are not allowed to work or earn and are forced to live off the scraps that the government gives them. There are no medical facilities in these camps and the one doctor who treats patients is not even a doctor. Children are dying of malnutrition and of diseases like dysentery and diarrhea that are easily treatable.....The silence of a Noble Peace Prize winner: It’s almost ironic that the Prime Minister-equivalent of Myanmar is 1991 Noble Peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Her father was the one who broke the shackles of colonialism and made the country in the image of a nation that gave equal rights and privileges to all citizens irrespective of their religion, caste, creed, etc. The Rohingya in Myanmar were equal citizens and enjoyed all the rights and privileges as any other until 1982 when the Citizenship rules of the country were re-written and this time it left out the Rohingya. Stripped off their honour and right to exist, they started crumbling under the oppression meted out to them by the security forces and the ethnic Rakhine Buddhists with whom they were sharing the land.
When Suu Kyi was questioned about the genocides of 2016 and beyond by a journalist, she replied by saying that she would not go so far as to call it a genocide. Shockingly, even after the truckload of evidence and testimonials at her disposal, she continues to shrug off the genocides by calling the evidences exaggerated and asking the world to ask the question “why the same was happening” instead of telling her that “it was happening”. That was one of the most perplexing statements that I heard from a world leader in a long time.....The impact of Ashin Wirathu and his 969 Movement: Ashin Wirathu, a Buddhist monk who was hailed by the then president of Myanmar as the son of Buddha has been known to be someone who has peddled his hate for the Muslim community under the guise of Nationalist fervour for long. He was even featured on the TIME Magazine cover with a headline that read “THE FACE OF BUDDHIST TERROR”. He was imprisoned on charges of inciting violence and was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment but with the situation in Myanmar changing and the need of a leader to mobilize mass emotion felt, he was given a pardon and released after serving 8 years of his sentence. The man immediately got back to his work and using his “969 Movement”, did exactly what the ones who had released him believed he would — spread chaos and violence with his venomous speeches.
Within a short span of time, he had incited enough hate to generate multiple riots. But he did something that was far more important for the government and military than any of the violence that he was inciting. He was able to integrate many different ethnic Buddhist groups under the common umbrella of “hatred for the Muslim Bengalis” and this let the government and the forces concentrate their full might on the Rohingya sidelining all the protest and the other disturbances from different ethnic groups that had plagued the country. The Buddhists completely forgot how brutally they were subdued by the very same government and military and were up in arms in support of what they were doing.....The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army – retribution or mistake: The Rohingya, who had faced violence for so long finally found a voice in the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), also known by its former name Harakah al-Yaqin (meaning Movement of Faith). The organization was founded by Ataullah Abu Ammar Jununi, a Karachi-born Rohingya who served as an imam to a 150,000 Rohingya diaspora in the city of Mecca. He received training under the Taliban in Karachi and arrived in Rakhine, Myanmar in 2012 coinciding with the beginning of the religious riots. On 9 October 2016, Ataullah led hundreds of insurgents to the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, where they attacked Burmese Border Police posts. A week later, Ataullah appeared in an online video, claiming responsibility for the attacks. Ataullah led a second large-scale attack on 25th August 2017, which resulted in the deaths of 71 people. This was just the instigation and reason that the Myanmar Army needed to get into action. Using the attacks as pretext, the army intensified its operations and cracked down with renewed vigour and never seen before horror. When asked if ARSA was a religion-based terrorist group in an interview, one of its members made it clear that they were not religious in nature and their struggle was only for the rights of the Rohingya many of whom were Hindus.....My views on the subject: It must be agreed that Myanmar’s Rohingya have been a subjugated lot for centuries. In the absence of the very basic of human rights, it is always possible for people to resort to violence especially when they are funded from outside. With the kind of torture and insults that the Myanmar Rohingya have had to face post-2012, it is no surprise that they rose up in revolt. The Myanmar government and the military used the violence on their part as a weapon against them and targeted not only terrorists but mostly innocent civilians. They threw small kids into burning houses. There was a woman who was attacked by the security forces and after being hit on the head, she fell unconscious. By the time she gained consciousness, she realized that she was raped by at least 20 different people. A 48-year-old man who, up till the attacks was a shopkeeper, never got to meet his son who was in another part of the same area and never made it back. He had a good life but he is now one of the 8 million refugees in Bangladesh lying in the mud and in a dilapidating thatched hut with 5 little children.
It is necessary to bring the terrorists to justice, but the law of my country has always taught me that it is ok to let 10 guilty escape rather than punish one innocent. That is the belief that we Indians have grown up with. To us what is happening to the Rohingya is beyond anything that we could ever learn to come to terms with. I am confident that there must have been other ways to deal with this situation. Many parts of my country are plagued by terrorism and radicalism, but we never see our military burning away villages or using helicopter-borne artillery targeting one and all. With piles of evidence and first-person accounts to contain with, it is left to be seen when the world community will do something about this ongoing genocide. It is also left to be seen if the Rohingya community will survive this extermination..."
Source/publisher:
EastMojo
Date of publication:
2021-05-18
Date of entry/update:
2021-05-19
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Arakanese/Rakhine/Rohingya history, Statelessness in Burma/Myanmar, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
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Description:
"Introduction: Not so many people were acquainted with the issue of Rohingya prior to the communal conflict that erupted in 2012. In fact, the conflict has brought the “hidden” issue to the surface, to a new level of visibility particularly among common people. Nevertheless, there is still relatively plenteous unknown patency behind the
tragedy that occurred to the Rohingyas, besides a simple fact that it is an ethnoreligious conflict between Buddhist majority of Burman and Arakanese against the Muslim minority of Rohingya. The United Nations, indeed, even has regarded the Rohingyas as one
of the world’s most persecuted minorities1 and among the world’s least wanted.2 This paper observes three major issues that are strongly linked and contributed to the creation of predicament for the Rohingyas. Comprehending these three issues are pivotal in order to see and possess thorough understanding about the Rohingyas The first issue covers the problem that related to the legal status of the Rohingyas. Second, the issue that related with the human rights abuse that happened toward the Rohingyas. Third, the issue of Buddhist fundamentalism.....The Birth of The Stateless Rohingya: The statelessness of Rohingya is a product of legal-political process
conducted by the Burmese regime ever since the birth of modern Burma. The main driving force behind this policy has been the (political) stance of the Burmese authority that does not consider
the Rohingya as a part of its native population (shown by the Panglong Agreement). In fact, the origin of Rohingya is still debatable hitherto. Both sides, the Burmese and the proRohingya, claim to have the most precise argument regarding the origin of Rohingya.
Based on the point of view of Burmese historians, Khin Mau Saw, for
example, stated that there had never been the term “Rohingya” before 1950’s (when the Mujahids changed their name into “Rohingyas”) supported by the fact that there was no such name as “Rohingya” in the Census of India 1921 (Burma) compiled by G.G Granthan,
I.C.S (Superintendant of Census Operation Burma) or in the Burma
Gazetter, Akyab District compiled by R.B Smart..."
Source/publisher:
Ricky Raymon
Date of publication:
2013-12-27
Date of entry/update:
2021-05-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Human Rights and international relations, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Muslims in Burma, Statelessness in Burma/Myanmar, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
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Description:
"We live in a rapidly changing world in which people often seek about human rights. But it turns meaningless when we see the number of refugees around the world is increasing rapidly. It will be unbelievable to hear that,the present world is facing the most global refugee crisis and we are witnessing a massive shift of humanity due to racial violent disorder, religious virulence, extreme nationalism, political and social conflict. In recent worlds Rohingya Muslims refugee have been the focus of considerable loved ones public concern .
It is believed that Rohingya Muslims are the most persecuted population all over the world.They have faced decades of systematic discrimination, stateless and targeted violence since the early 20th century. But the Rohingya affair has been largely ignored by the world community due to geopolitics , something that pushed some scholars to think that they represent a ghost and forgotten ethnic group, suffering slow burning genocide. The UN called the Myanmar authority to put an end the brutal security operation claiming the atrocities against the Rohingya as ‚a textbook example of ethnic cleansing‛
As Myanmar authorities are subjecting the Rohingya Muslim minority to collective punishment ,millions of Rohingya muslims crossed the international border and took shelter in Bangladesh. Bangladesh provided shelter for them from the humanitarian perspective as it was going on for many years with a significant spikes following violent attacks in 1978 ,1991-1992 ,2016 and finally in late August 2017.
Following the co-ordinate attack on 30 police camps and an army base by so called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA)1 a group previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin on August 25, 2017,causing deaths of 12 police officers, the Myanmar military began a major crackdown in the villages of Northern Rakhaine State. The atrocities included attacks on Rohingya people and locations, looting and burning down Rohingya villages, mass killing of Rohingya civilians, gang rapes, and other sexual violence. As a result Rohingya Muslims started to flee to save their life to avoid ethnic and religious persecution by Myanmar’s security forces and as a neighbouring country their destination is of course Bangladesh. As of 15 October 2017, the Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG)2 reported that 537,0001 Rohingya refugees have entered Bangladesh since the attacks.But anoher report says that at least 720,000 Rohingya fled after the bloody crackdown and entered Bangladesh to join some 300,000 already living in the camps who took shelter during past influx. More than 6,700 Rohingya Muslims including at least 730 children under the age of five were killed in the first month of the crackdown according to Medcins Sans Frontieres (MSF) an international humanitarian medical non governmental organization (NGO) of French but Myanmar claims officially the figure is only 400. Whatever the figure is, the question arises towards international community whether it will be regarded as ‚Genocide ‚or ‚Ethnic cleansing.‛.....Ethnic cleansing defined: Ethnic cleansing and genocide seems to be same in nature but completely two distinct concept. The term ethnic cleansing is a literal translation of the Serbo-Croatian phrase :‚etnicko ciscenje‛ , that is focused in the context of the 1990’s conflict in the former Youguslavia . But the roots of the term and who started the term is still unknown. It is believed that the term ethnic cleansing is invented by Slobodan Milosevic.3 The expression ethnic cleansing has been used in resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly and has acknowledged in judgements and indictments of the ICTY.
There is no international treaty relating to the crime Ethnic Cleansing. As it has not been considered as an independent crime under international law ,so no exact definition will be given or what exact acts will be constituted for the purposes of the ethnic cleansing is not cleared. However a United Nations Commission of experts mandated to look into violations of international humanitarian law in the territory of the former Youguslavia defined ethnic cleansing in its interim report S/25274 as "… rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups from the area."4..."
Source/publisher:
Jagannath University (Dhaka)
Date of publication:
2017-08-00
Date of entry/update:
2021-05-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, International Criminal Court, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
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333.98 KB
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Description:
"Amid all cosmopolitan whimpering of a barrier free
world, modern-State with its essence of legal coercion
and phlegmatic exclusivity continues to flaunt. In such
absoluteness, enquiring the issues of people seeking
refugee would be synonymous to that of traversing the
margins. Particularly at a time of extreme jingoism and
other form of conservative assertions, the idea of ‘global
village’ unfolds as a ‘formless chaos’, more particularly
for the displaced people and subsequent forced refugees.
While prolongation of UN and the ever expanding wave
of globalization yield a consolatory ground, the reality
of many lives opens horizon of indispensable necessity
to contemplate global injustice and question the ideal
protocols of international morality. For instance, the
images of Syrian exodus in recent times reminded
many the reality of inter war period. Moreover, the
events, inter alia, Brexit, the result of U.S. Presidential
election and subsequent anti-immigration policies and
many immigration related reforms under taken by sub
continental governments insinuate the world might
be undergoing a radical phase of extremely inwardly
complacent national attitude. Many a countries not
signing the 1951 Refugee Convention makes the
issue of the refugees all the more important and worth
academic contemplation. In fact, the immediate fallout
of many refugee related events has given the world a
pressing sense of human rights violation in multiple
facets as well as degrees. More often than not, the world
has proved to be too unkind to let the hapless sustain.
If one were to rhapsodise recent cases of refugee that
can really interrogate the intrinsic values of human
survival, for obvious reason, it would have been the
Syrian exodus and the Statelessness of the Rohingyas.
While the agonizing plights of these two populations
have been captivated by media with subsequent
deliberation, a fruitful solution to their problem is still
a distant dream. This paper attempts to decipher the
Rohingya issue and construe it as an enduring injustice
embodied in indifference as well as abandonment. It is with this argument that the paper starts with a brief
account of the historiography of the Rohingyas, giving
some sense to understand the trajectory of their current
predicament. The next section would seek to trace the
root, events and pattern of probable genocide inflicted
on these people. This section would establish the
violence, marginalization and state sponsored atrocities
to recover the pattern of a radical and enduring injustice.
The last section arrests the state of stolidity on part of
international community as well as abandonment of the
population by the Burmese government. This would
eventually prove their case as one of enduring injustice
embodied in indifference..."
Source/publisher:
Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism (GRFDT)
Date of publication:
2018-05-00
Date of entry/update:
2021-05-01
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
Format :
pdf
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205.76 KB
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Description:
"Conflict is inevitable and normal thing. Also the existence of the conflict in not a problem but the problem is how to handle it. When the conflict cause death of thousands and 1 migrate a lot that means the conflict reach a high level and it needs for immediate solution.
In addition the very notion of ethnicity is a struggle topic in the social sciences for years.2 The Muslims minority in Myanmar (Rohingya) is suffered from violence in their home country and as result many of them fled to the neighbor country such as Bangladesh. They
are one of the most marginalized refugee communities in south and Southeast Asia. In general the problem in Myanmar is a humanitarian and moral issue due to racial differences and governance problem. The Rohingya people are victims of the discriminatory policies of
the government. 3 If we look to the political and military conflicts in the world map, we found that the most areas of tension are concentrated in places where there are Muslim minorities. This paper
will focus in the Muslims minority in Myanmar. Firstly this paper will explain the historical background of the Muslim minority and the political system in the country. Then the conflict in Myanmar and how it escalates until it become hard to solve it. Moreover this paper will discuss the political interest and it’s related with violence. After that it will discuss the response of the international community. Then it will discuss the solutions alternative for this conflict. The current Burmese government‘s will not provide a solution to the ethnic conflict in Myanmar. In addition Burma‘s ethnic problems could be solved by negotiation between the groups with a powerful mediator. This will happen through the establishment of a real federal political system that guarantees the autonomy for all ethnic groups in Myan-
mar or gives the independence for the Muslims minority in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
Sultan Qaboos University:College of Economy and Political Science
Date of publication:
2016-11-30
Date of entry/update:
2021-04-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Ethnic Cleansing, Genocide, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Muslims in Burma, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
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197.9 KB
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Description:
"The international community has shown great interest in the Rohingya1Muslims problem, especially in the aftermath of the violence in June and October 2012.While scores of writers in international media have focused on the subjectivity of the conflict, there are academics and policy-makers pondering what could be done to achieve long-term solutions to the inherent problem. Myanmar2 has experienced myriad ethnic conflicts since its indepen- dence from the British in January 1948, but what makes the Rohingya problem unique
and why has it caught the attention of the wider international community? Is it because the Rohingya Muslims are less fortunate community than the other groups or is it because they are distinctive?
It is puzzling to see some social or cultural groups within a society tend to express themselves more radically than the others. It is equally intriguing to see how governments often respond differently to such phenomenon. A society may be divided along the lines of culture, religion, political affiliations or other forms of divisions. One dominant theor- etical model social scientists employ to study political stability in a segmented society is “consociational democracy”. 3 Arend Lijphart defines consociational democracy as a “government by elite cartel designed to turn a democracy with a fragmented political
culture into a stable democracy”. 4 Under such political arrangement, the elites attempt to form a stable government by accommodating or integrating diverse views and interests of people belonging to different cultural groups. A successful consociational democracy
requires that the elites have the “ability to accommodate the divergent interests and demands of the subcultures” and also have the “ability to transcend cleavages and to join in a common effort with the elites of rival subcultures”. The possibility of such cooperation between rival elites would depend on their “commitment to the maintenance
of the system and to the improvement of its cohesion and stability” provided that the elites understand the “perils of political fragmentation”.5 Consociational democracy emphasizes the role of “elite behavior” in diverse societies.6 Cooperation between elites within the same group and also with elites of other groups or
cultures is essential. In successful consociational democracy, the elites find ways to accommodate different sections of the society by sharing power as well as reaching decisions by means of “consensus” or “unanimity”. 7 In an attempt to find a common
ground to establish a grand coalition government, the elites try to achieve two objectives. First, the goal of elites is to settle “conflicts of interest” that may exist among the parti- cipating members. Second, by settling conflicts of interest, the elites also want to achieve a settlement or result that is “most favorable” to their own supporters. The extent to which the elites can reach a consensus agreement is dependent upon how much each participating elite can make “concessions”. The elites know that they cannot solve conflicts of interest unilaterally, and therefore, need to make a strategic “bar-
gaining”. One elite’s interest may not necessarily be the same as that of the other elites and vice versa. Such differences would give each elite a chance to bargain for the best possible outcome that involves “competition as well as cooperation”.8 Purpose of Study
This article attempts to understand the nature of conflict between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine9 Buddhists of Rakhine state in the Western part of Myanmar in 2012. The violent conflict first started in June, and seemingly subsided for three months, but later erupted again in October. While the two groups blamed each other for inciting the violence, they could not find a mutually acceptable peaceful solution among themselves.
The Rohingyas accused the Rakhine state government and the central government of deliberately attempting to eliminate their population and termed the violence as state sponsored ethnic cleansing. The central government denied such allegations, but failed to produce a concrete plan for long-term solutions. In this article, I attempt to explain
the underlying factors causing such mayhem and argue that consociational democracy should be pursued to achieve long-term solutions to the problem. However, I must be clear here that consociational democracy cannot work effectively or may even be irrelevant without first addressing the Rohingyas’ citizenship and identity problems. In order to understand the nature of violence in 2012, I will briefly discuss the historical context of the problem. I will then analyze the policies of the Myanmar government toward the issue, and discuss the general perception of the Myanmar people toward the conflict. I will also study the reactions of international community vis-à-vis the Rohingya conundrum. After presenting the different perspectives, I will discuss why I believe consociational democracy is the ideal approach to solve the problem..."
Source/publisher:
"Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs" via "Routledge" (London)
Date of publication:
2013-07-03
Date of entry/update:
2021-04-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Racial or ethnic discrimination in Burma: reports of violations against several groups, Ethnic Cleansing, Genocide, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
105.78 KB
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Topic:
Burma, conflict journalism, corporate politics of immediation, emotion in media, journalism, politics of immediation, refugees, Rohingya
Topic:
Burma, conflict journalism, corporate politics of immediation, emotion in media, journalism, politics of immediation, refugees, Rohingya
Description:
"Burma is the second largest country in Southeast Asia, and prior to the current period of opening that began in 2010, had been under tight military control since 1962. Until recently, on the rare occasions when the country has invited inter- national attention, it has done so for its lack of democracy and its abusive human rights record. Despite Burma’s diversity, with 135 ethnic groups legally recognized by the 1982 Citizenship Law, the Rohingyas are not listed as such, although many have lived in Burma for generations. Thus the Rohingya remain
stateless, with a total population in Burma of approximately 800,000, a component of the four percent of the Burmese population who are Muslim in a country that is 90% Buddhist. The Rohingyas have been much maligned, called ‘ugly as ogres,’dirty, terrorists, and ‘kalar,’ a racial slur. Myanmar’s government refers to the
Rohingya as ‘Bengalis’ or ‘illegal Bengalis,’ which speaks of their status as uprooted Bangladeshi immigrants during the British occupation. Anti-Muslim violence occurred in 1978, 1997, and 2001, in different areas of Burma, and violence between the Muslim Rohingyas and the Rakhine Buddhists has been referred to by one UN official as a ‘chronic crisis’ (Fuller, 2012: 19). In the June 2012 violence, almost 5,000 Rohingya houses were burned down by Rakhine
Buddhists, police, military, and other ‘security’ forces, more than 30,000 Rohingyas became homeless, and many lost their lives. The violence between June 2012 and March 2014, including a major wave of violence in October 2012, resulted in the deaths of more than 200 people and displaced another 140,000, the vast majority of
them Rohingya. While there have been Rakhine victims, the majority have been Rohingya. While some Rohingyas are taking shelter in displacement camps, others have tried to enter neighboring countries such as Bangladesh. Most often they are denied entry, facing dangerous and often deadly conditions at sea. Their plight has
triggered international calls by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), human rights groups and other countries to grant them entry into Bangladesh and other countries according to international law.
Despite elections in Burma in 2010 that led to a nominally civilian government, the military’s influence remains strong, as it is constitutionally guaranteed 25% of the parliamentary seats. Former military general and now president, Thein Sein, and
Burmese opposition leader and now member of parliament, Aung San Suu Kyi, have both vowed to work towards democratic change. The nature of these changes, and the international interest in Burma that has skyrocketed since the first signs of democratic progress in the country, are the focus of much discussion and debate.
Our purpose here is to analyze how the three media sources construct the story of the sectarian violence threatening to derail the reform process, and the implications this may have for Myanmar’s media and for media systems in countries in transition. We find that combining attention to Mutua’s SVS framework with attention to the politics of immediation provides insight into how different patterns of media representation imply different policy solutions. The next section contextualizes Mutua’s approach and framework..."
Source/publisher:
"International Communication Gazette"
Date of publication:
2012-06-00
Date of entry/update:
2021-04-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rakhine, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Ethnic Cleansing, Genocide, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Muslims in Burma, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
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161.34 KB
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Description:
"In the vulnerable southeastern Bangladeshi city, Cox’s Bazar, an esti-
mated 1 million Rohingyas languish in spartan refugee camps following brutal
ethnic cleansing from their homes in Rakhine, a state over the border in
western Myanmar (see Figure 1).1 This was not the first—nor likely to be the
last—catastrophe to fall upon the Rohingya, but it has been the most devastating
since anti-Rohingya violence in the country began escalating in the early 1990s.
Since independence from the British in 1948, the Rakhine state has generally
been neglected by Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, affecting the state’s Buddhists,
Muslims (not all of whom are Rohingya), Christians, animists and others. There is
a long-standing belief among the Buddhist majority that Muslims seek to under-
mine Myanmar’s Theraveda Buddhist identity, stemming from fears of Rohingya
Muslims in particular, but increasingly toward all Muslims in Myanmar generally.
Myanmar’s extremist clergy, called Sangha, and their followers are joined by
counterparts in Sri Lanka and Thailand who also espouse conspiratorial canards
of Muslims weaponizing their fertility and male virility to achieve numerical,
social, religious and cultural dominance in these countries, and thus eradicate
Theraveda Buddhism in those nations.
Buoyed by the support from key international partners, Myanmar has both down-
played the extent of the alleged atrocities and justified the actions it admits to taking
against the Rohingya by insisting that even ordinary Rohingya are coconspirators
with the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which launched several
high-profile insurgent attacks against security forces based in Rakhine in October
2016, August 2017, and most recently in January 2018..."
Source/publisher:
The Washington Quarterly
Date of publication:
2018-01-00
Date of entry/update:
2021-04-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Ethnic Cleansing, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
219.26 KB
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Description:
"It?s difficult to imagine a more dramatic drop in public stature than the one Aung San Suu Kyi has experienced these past few weeks. No doubt due in large part to the overwhelming sense of betrayal felt by many, the Nobel Laureate has been harshly criticized for her country?s recent treatment of the Rohingya. Words like ?Genocide” and ?Ethnic Cleansing” have, to my mind, been aptly used to define the situation in Rakhine State. With hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands fleeing across the border to Bangladesh, it?s difficult to imagine a more systematic and purposeful deprivation of life and human rights currently unfolding. In the bloody corpus of human suffering, this chapter should without a doubt serve as the stereotypical example of ethnic cleansing.
To a large extent, the international media agrees with that statement. And yet, though their denunciation of recent events has been forceful, the condemnation of Aung San Suu Kyi has proved a qualified one especially in more analytically minded circles. As it turns out, holding a Nobel prize inclines people, specifically those who consider themselves thoughtful, towards leniency. This is why you?ll hear arguments claiming that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has no good options, that she must appease the military leaders who are truly behind this massacre, that she risks damaging Myanmar?s fledgling democracy with too strong a denunciation of violence, and that the majority Bamar would turn against her should she speak out too strongly in defense of the Rohingya. Suu Kyi?s chief moral failing, by these accounts, is one of inaction. Her silence, rather than any active effort to tangibly harm people, is the main cause for disappointment..."
Haroon Atcha
Source/publisher:
TEACIRCLEOXFORD
Date of publication:
2017-09-25
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Ethnic Cleansing, About Aung San Suu Kyi
Language:
English
more
Description:
"By now, the main contours of the recent events in Rakhine State, in western Myanmar, are well-known. On August 25, an insurgent group calling itself the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) (previously Harakah al-Yaqin) attacked police posts in northern Rakhine, eliciting a broad counterinsurgency response from the Myanmar military that has displaced over 400,000 Rohingya people into Bangladesh. As in previous cycles of violence, the Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, has reportedly targeted civilians in its ?clearance operations,” leading to allegations of killings, rape, and the burning of villages. The UN?s human rights body has referred to this latest outbreak of violence as ?a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
The crisis in, and now, beyond, Rakhine is part of a much longer story of Rohingya oppression and persecution in Myanmar. This history has almost certainly contributed to the growth of the ARSA insurgency. In contrast to its own claims and those of the Myanmar government and media, ARSA comes across as a poor, small, and desperate movement, staging its attacks in a haphazard manner with homemade weapons like knives, swords, and sticks. The Myanmar government and Burmese media, however, have painted ARSA— and in many ways, Rohingya people more broadly— as part of global Islamist networks. In government communications, ?extremist Bengali terrorists” is the favored term for the military?s current foe in Rakhine. Notably, the current crisis is unfolding under the government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. She is Myanmar?s long-time opposition leader, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD). The NLD swept into power in the country?s nationwide elections of late 2015, the first open national elections in generations..."
Soe Lin Aung
Source/publisher:
TEACIRCLEOXFORD
Date of publication:
2017-09-27
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Ethnic Cleansing, Various rights: reports of violations against several ethnic groups
Language:
English
more
Description:
"The High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra?ad al-Hussein announced on December 20, 2017 that he wouldn?t be seeking a second mandate, due to the ?appalling climate for advocacy” in the current geopolitical system. This comes as a worrying warning regarding the inability of the UN system to respond to multiplying conflicts across the globe, from Syria to Yemen, and from Myanmar to Iraq, with acts amounting to crimes against humanity.
His nomination in 2014— which was unanimously approved by all 193 member states of the UN General Assembly— was at the time perceived as a positive sign, showing a political will to strengthen human rights within the UN system.
The former professional diplomat, who has acquired a strong reputation as a fierce defender of human rights, never shied away from speaking truth even to the most powerful states within the UN. He was especially vocal in his criticism of Russian support to the Syrian government, and regularly denounced the Trump administration?s faux pas, from the travel bans against citizens from Muslim majority countries to the administration?s reaction to the demonstrations organized by white supremacists in Virginia..."
Morgane Dussud
Source/publisher:
Teacircleoxford
Date of publication:
2018-01-05
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Ethnic Cleansing, Various rights: reports of violations against several ethnic groups
Language:
English
more