Announcement of New Website: Rohingya Today (RohingyaToday.Com) Dear Readers, From 1st January 2019 onward, the Rohingya News Portal 'Rohingya Blogger' will be renamed and upgraded as 'Rohingya Today'. Due to this transition to a new name, our website will be available at www.rohing...
Rohingya News @ Int'l Media
Maung Zarni, leader of the Free Rohingya Coalition, speaks at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo on Thursday. | CHISATO TANAKA By Chisato Tanaka, Published by The Japan Times on October 25, 2018 A leader of a global network of activists for Rohingya Mu...
- Activists: US Stance on Rohingya Not Strong Enough
Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar wait to carry food items from Bangladesh's border toward a no man's land where they set up refugee camps in Tombru, Bangladesh, Sept. 15, 2017. By William Gallo Voice of America September 25, 2018 Activists are criticizing a long-awaited U.S. State Departme...
- Rohingyas declare Aug 25 as ‘genocide day’
By Abdul Aziz Dhaka Tribune August 28, 2018 The UN likened the Aug 25 crackdown in the Rakhine state to genocide The Rohingyas have announced to observe August 25 as the "genocide day," a year after a Myanmar military crackdown forced more than 700,000 members of the ethnic minority...
- World fails to end Rohingya crisis: US Official
By Safvan Allahverdi Anadolu Agency July 31, 2018 'We keep saying 'never again', but it keeps happening,' says US representative to UN Economic and Social Council WASHINGTON -- The world has failed to end the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar, where hundreds of thousands of people were dri...
- Rohingya cannot become ‘forgotten victims,’ says UN chief urging world to step up support
Secretary-General António Guterres (center) meets with Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh. (Photo: UNFPA Bangladesh/Allison Joyce) Published by UN News on July 11, 2018 Painting a grim picture of villages being burned to the ground and other “bone-chilling” accounts he heard fr...
- Thousands of Rohingya Continue to Flee Violence in Myanmar
Rohingya girls carry firewood on their heads as they make their way through Kutupalong refugee camp, June 28, 2018, in Bangladesh. By Lisa Schlein | Published by Voice of America on July 4, 2018 GENEVA — U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein reports thousands of Ro...
Myanmar News
By Sena Güler | Published by Anadolu Agency on December 1, 2018 Maung Zarni says he will boycott Beijing-sponsored events until the country reverses its 'troubling path' ANKARA -- A human rights activist and intellectual said he withdrew from a Beijing-sponsored forum in London to pro...
- Durbin Blasts Removal of Myanmar Sanctions From Defense Bill
Aung San Suu Kyi, State Counsellor of Myanmar, has been a guest at the Capitol, including in Sept. 2016. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo) By Niels Lesniewski | Published by Roll Call on July 31, 2018 Signs point to McConnell not allowing language targeting country also known as...
- Zeid calls for ICC probe into Myanmar Rohingya crisis
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferre High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein. Published by UN News on July 4, 2018 Myanmar should “have some shame” after attempting to convince the world that it is willing to take back hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled an “ethnic cleansing c...
- UN rights expert ‘strongly recommends’ probe by International Criminal Court into ‘decades of crimes’ in Myanmar
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferre Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar Yanghee Lee. Published by UN News on June 27, 2018 The United Nations rights expert on Myanmar is “strongly” recommending that the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate and prosecute those allege...
- Canada sanctions top Myanmar military over Rohingya abuses
Myanmar's military has forced some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims out of Rakhine state and across the border to Bangladesh since August 2017 By AFP June 25, 2018 Canada on Monday announced sanctions in coordination with the European Union against seven senior Myanmar officials over the Rohingy...
- EU sanctions Myanmar generals over Rohingya; Myanmar says two are fired
A Rohingya refugee is seen in Balukhali refugee camp at dawn near Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh, March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne By Robin Emmott, Antoni Slodkowski Reuters June 25, 2018 LUXEMBOURG/YANGON -- The European Union imposed sanctions on seven senior military officials from ...
Video News
Experts’ Roundtable on the Myanmar/Bangladesh Crisis held at the University of Ottawa
18 Apr 2018 0 comments
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- Justice for the Rohingyas: The World Must Act (A Panel Discussion)
For the last 40 years, Rohingyas of Northern Arakan/Rakhine State of Myanmar (formerly Burma), have been subjected to what Amartya Sen called a "slow genocide." Since August 26, over 607,000 Rohingyas have sought refuge in Bangladesh after having fled Myanmar’s campaign of murder, arson and...
- The Rohingya: Silent Abuse
By Al Jazeera August 10, 2017 Denied citizenship, forced from their homes, and subjected to cruelty; we investigate the plight of Myanmar's Rohingya. Filmmakers: Salam Hindawi, Ali Kishk, Harri Grace Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has a population of around 51 million people. T...
- Is the world ignoring the plight of the Rohingya?
By Al Jazeera December 4, 2016 Malaysian prime minister urges foreign intervention to stop what he calls the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. Pressure on government leaders in Myanmar is being ramped up - as Malaysia accused its neighbour of committing genocide aga...
- Left For Dead: Myanmar’s Muslim Minority (Full Length)
By VICE News November 11, 2016 In recent years, democratic reforms have swept through Myanmar, a country that for decades was ruled by a military junta. As the reforms took hold, however, things were growing progressively worse for the Rohingya, a heavily persecuted ethnic Muslim minor...
- Dr Maung Zarni comments on Kofi Annan Commission and Myanmar Genocide of Rohingya
Dr Maung Zarni comments on Kofi Annan Commission and Myanmar Genocide of Rohingya, Al Jazeera English News Hour, 7 September 2016 ...
Article @ RB
Comedy and Tragedy in Burma: Grappling with Aung San Suu Kyi’s broken legacy and the Myanmar genocide
06 Oct 2018 0 comments
Oskar Butcher RB Article October 6, 2018 Every night in an unassuming shop space located in Mandalay’s 39thStreet, Lu Maw and Lu Zaw – the remaining members of the Burma’s most famous comedy trio, the Moustache Brothers – present their show: a curious combination of comedy, political sa...
- In memory of U Maung Kyaw Nu
Richard Potter and U Maung Kyaw Nu Richard Potter RB Article July 20, 2018 Early in the morning on May 31st U Maung Kyaw Nu passed away. Maung was known by most as a political activist and president of the Burmese Rohingya Association of Thailand. He was a political prisoner in Burma ...
- Ba Kyaw: The Leading Military Gunman of Maung Nu Massacre
A survivor from Monu Fara (Photo: Ro Mayyu Ali) Ro Mayyu Ali RB Article February 2, 2018 Curtly, shabby, and always redly in eyes but very tactful to pick up the collections for extortion purposes. Grabbing any Rohingya's motor-bike, a soul-ruffling terrifying entry into the village ble...
- U Ko Ni: A man of mountains of knowledge on constitutional reforms
Haikal Mansor RB Article January 29, 2018 Widely considered as the architect of “State-counsellor” position created for Aung San Suu Kyi after Myanmar’s Constitution barred her the presidency. Born in Katha, Sagaing Division on February 11, 1953, Abdul Gani, better known as U Ko Ni ...
- National Verification Card (NVC): A Hidden Trap for Myanmar’s Rohingya
Mohammed Ayub (TU), UAE RB Article October 22, 2017 Myanmar Military was never sincere in handling ethnics’ affairs, especially, in Rohingyas’ whose permanent home is northern Arakan. Throughout the history, military uses the Muslims population of the country for political diversion an...
- The Laukathara and its influence on Myanmarism
(Photo: EPA) Habib Siddiqui RB Article September 17, 2017 Myanmar, formerly Burma, is a resource rich country in south-east Asia, bordering Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand. The old men of the military that ran the country for more than half a century have been displaced by a...
Article @ Int'l Media
“Genocide cards”: Rohingya refugees on why they risked their lives to refuse ID cards
22 Oct 2018 0 comments
A demonstration over identity cards at a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh in April, 2018. Image: NurPhoto/SIPA USA/PA Images. By Natalie Brinham | Published by Open Democracy on October 21, 2018 Wary of the past, Rohingya have frustrated the UN’s attempts to provide them with documenta...
- Select published works on Myanmar GENOCIDE since 2013 by ZARNI, Natalie Brinham and Amartya Sen
Buddhist Nationalism in Burma Institutionalized racism against the Rohingya Muslims led Burma to genocide By Maung Zarni SPRING 2013 Rohingya are categorically darker-skinned people—sometimes called by the slur “Bengali kalar.” Indeed, the lighter-skinned Buddhists of Burma...
- When Facebook becomes 'the beast': Myanmar activists say social media aids genocide
By Euan McKirdy CNN April 7, 2018 As tens of millions of Americans come to grips with revelations that data from Facebook may have been used to sway the 2016 presidential election, on the other side of the world, rights groups say hatemongers have taken advantage of the social network to wid...
- To former British Ambassador Derek Tonkin, anti-apartheid was useless, Khmer Rouge officials were "delightful", anti-genocide scholars are "fakes"
You've gotta love former British Ambassador Derek Tonkin! Genocidal Khmer Rouge chaps were "delightful". Berlin Conference organisers are "Fakes". Apartheid was 'very complex', anti-apartheid activism was useless. Former British Ambassador Derek Tonkin has shown no conscience, c...
- Dr Jacques Leider, strategic adviser to Myanmar Military, and Derek Tonkin (who supported S. Africa's apartheid and Khmer Rouge) are favorite experts for Myanmar Racists
The Rt. Hon. Theresa May, MP Prime Minister Government of the United Kingdom 10 Downing Street, London SW1A 2AA E-mail: mayt@parliament.uk Berlin, 30th January 2018 Your Excellency I am Khin Maung Saw, a retired lecturer in the Department of Burma Studies, Institute of Southea...
- Ex-British Ambassador Derek Tonkin spent his retirement years denying Myanmar genocide while still in government, he was involved in helping the deposed Khmer Rouge
Ambassador U Kyaw Myo Htut talks to Chairman of Network Myanmar and former UK Ambassador to Vietnam, Thailand and Laos Mr Derek Tonkin (Photo: Embassy Magazine) 51 page window into a racist colonial mind of Derek Tonkin - https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/media/uploads/files/Tonkin.pdf From: Dem...
Analysis @ RB
By M.S. Anwar | Opinion & Analysis The Burmese (Myanmar) quasi-civilian government unleashed a large-scale violence against the minority Rohingya in the western Myanmar state of Arakan in 2012. The violence, which some wrongly frame as ‘Communal’, was carried out by the Burmese armed forces...
- Review and Analysis of Suu Kyi’s Speech
Wynston Lawrence RB Analysis October 12, 2017 Suu has spoken on Myanmar National TV channel on 12 October 2017. She would like to tell her fellows Burmese people how her government is going to confront challenges of Rohingya Crisis. This crisis has gained world attentions with terrible comme...
- Outsourcing Myanmar Military’s Lethal Propaganda
Ne Myo Win RB Analysis and Opinion September 29, 2017 Let me not detail much about the harrowing accounts of horrors that the Rohingya people in Myanmar have been going through since August 25, 2017. The world leaders such as Emmanuel Macron, Recep Erdogan and Najib Razak have ca...
- Hitler/Nazi Symbols are popular in Myanmar and now Mein Kampf is made accessible in Burmese
By Dr Maung Zarni RB Analaysis September 25, 2017 Rakhine human rights activists have been found to be reading Mein Kampf when they were exiled along Thai-Burmese border towns such as Mae Sot. Nazi symbols are often used publicly - with such public approval by those who want to extermin...
- Rohingya and the Right to Self-Identify
Rohingya and the Right to Self-Identify by Dr Maung Zarni at Permanent People's Tribunal on Myanmar on March 7, 2017 ...
- Understanding Myanmar Military and Its Strategic Paradigm - Dr. Maung Zarni
Understanding Myanmar Military and Its Strategic Paradigm - Dr. Maung Zarni ...
Analysis @ Int'l Media
Ensuring the Safety of Rohingyas as a National Minority Inside Myanmar: Who? How?
20 Nov 2018 0 comments
By Maung Zarni, Natalie Brinham | Published by Middle East Institute on November 20, 2018 “It is an ongoing genocide (in Myanmar),” said Mr. Marzuki Darusman, the head of the UN Human Rights Council-mandated Independent International Fact-Finding Mission at the official briefing at ...
- Did Amnesty fall into Myanmar Genocidal Regime's Trap designed to exonerate itself?
By TRT Newsmaker May 28, 2018 Despite its big name, Amnesty under fire for its latest report on Rohingyas: shoddy research, flimsy evidence on which questionable findings are presented as 'facts". ...
- ICC Jurisdiction and the Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar
(Photo: Kevin Frayer/Getty) By Geoff Curfman Just Security January 9, 2018 Over the past four months, Myanmar’s armed forces, officially known as the Tatmadaw, have driven over 600,000 Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh, killing thousands of civilians in the process and prompting the ...
- 5 reasons the U.N. Security Council should care about the Burmese military’s sexual assaults on the Rohingya
Rohingya women cry while watching a graphic video of the Tula Toli massacre in their home in Thaingkhali Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh in December. (Allison Joyce for The Washington Post) By Jamille Bigio and Rachel Vogelstein The Washington Post January 4, 2018 Burma’s ethnic cle...
- AP Analysis: No sign Rohingya will be allowed to return home
In this Sept. 14, 2017, file photo, Rohingya Muslim man Naseer Ud Din holds his infant son Abdul Masood, who drowned when the boat they were traveling in capsized just before reaching the shore, as his wife Hanida Begum cries upon reaching the Bay of Bengal shore in Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh. ...
- Analysis: Face-to-face with Rohingya, pope ditches diplomacy
Pope Francis interacts with a Rohingya Muslim refugee at an interfaith peace meeting in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, Dec. 1, 2017. Pope Francis ordained 16 priests during a Mass in Bangladesh on Friday, the start of a busy day that will bring him face-to-face with Rohingya Muslim refugees from M...
Opinion @ RB
Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar wait to be let through by Bangladeshi border guards after crossing the border in Palang Khali, Bangladesh October 9, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj MS Anwar RB Opinion November 12, 2018 Some may differ. But I believe the government of Bangladesh is ...
- Humanitarian Colonialisms in the Rohingya Genocide
By Dr. Maung Zarni September 20, 2018 NGOs destroy civil society, said a top sociologist at Columbia. He is absolutely correct. If Rohingyas do NOT hang together they will be hang separately. I see the disaster or humanitarian colonialism being repeated in Rohingya situation. T...
- Putting Lives in Danger
[This is a longer version of the article with the same title published on Dhaka Tribune on June 19.] Irresponsible reports do nothing to help the cause of human rights © MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU By MS Anwar | June 22, 2018 An Amnesty report that points fingers at ARSA could do more...
- Cologne Conference demands accountability of the Myanmar Government
By Habib Siddiqui RB Opinion May 9, 2018 The Rohingyas are victims of a ‘slow-burning genocide’ that is perpetrated as a national project in Buddhist Myanmar (formerly Burma). Some 700,000 Rohingyas have been forced out of their ancestral homes in western Rakhine (formerly Arakan) stat...
- What will Protected Homeland for Rohingya look like?
By Dr Maung Zarni April 29, 2018 Northern Rakhine State, which is ancestral home of Rohingya need to be declared and turned into Homeland for Rohingya protected by international armed forces. Arakan National Party (Rakhine racist party) openly opposes Rohingya presence South of Maung...
- Myanmar’s Investigation Commissions: Tactic to Conceal Rohingya Genocide
By M.S. Anwar | Opinion & Analysis The Burmese (Myanmar) quasi-civilian government unleashed a large-scale violence against the minority Rohingya in the western Myanmar state of Arakan in 2012. The violence, which some wrongly frame as ‘Communal’, was carried out by the Burmese armed forces...
Opinion @ Int'l Media
By Maung Zarni | Published by Anadolu Agency on December 15, 2018 US will not intercede, and Myanmar's neighbors see it through economic lens, so international coalition for Rohingya needed LONDON -- The U.S. House of Representatives Thursday overwhelmingly passed a resolution ca...
- Don’t let Aung San Suu Kyi off the hook for her role in the Myanmar genocide
Aung San Suu Kyi in 2013. Photo by Shawn Landersz on Flickr. By Khin Mai Aung | Published by Lion's Roar on December 6, 2018 Last week, a prominent Buddhist teacher defended Aung San Suu Kyi, the Buddhist Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Myanmar civilian leader, against criticism that she i...
- The solutions to the Rohingya crisis: Voices from the Field
By Nasir Uddin | Published by South Asia Journal on November 17, 2018 The world witnessed a massive refugee situation in the borderland of Bangladesh and Myanmar in 2017, where an extreme form of brutality perpetrated by the Myanmar security forces forced hundreds of thousands Rohingya p...
- Five concrete measures can end Rohingya genocide
By Dr. Maung Zarni Anadolu Agency October 5, 2018 - The writer is coordinator for strategic affairs at the Free Rohingya Coalition and adviser to the European Center for the Study of Extremism, Cambridge, UK Five steps can be taken towards achieving justice, repatriation and the re...
- Canada has recognized the Rohingya genocide. Now what should come next?
A Myanmar soldier guards an area at the Sittwe airport as British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt arrives in Sittwe, Rakhine state, on September 20, 2018. (Ye Aung Thu / AFP/Getty Images) By Irwin Cotler and Brandon Silver | Published by MACLEANS on September 21, 2018 In the wake of a UN rep...
- India must stand by the Rohingya in their hour of need
By Tapan Bose | Published by CounterCurrents.Org on August 1, 2018 Rohingya refugees are back in the news again. On Tuesday (July 30) Mr. Rijiju, the Minister of State for Home said some of the Rohingya living in India do not have the status of “refugee” but are “illegal migrants” who wo...
History @ RB
Aman Ullah RB History August 25, 2016 The ethnic Rohingya is one of the many nationalities of the union of Burma. And they are one of the two major communities of Arakan; the other is Rakhine and Buddhist. The Muslims (Rohingyas) and Buddhists (Rakhines) peacefully co-existed in the A...
- Pamela Gutman 1944–2015 and The History of early Arakan
Aman Ullah RB History June 13, 2016 [Dr Pamela Gutman was the first Australian to complete a doctorate in Asian Art, specializing in Burma. Her scholarship did much to contribute to Australian-Burmese government relations from the 1970s onwards, painting a picture of the art and cultural lif...
- The Etymology of Magh
Aman Ullah RB History April 26, 2016 Mohan Ghosh wrote in his book ‘Magh Raiders of Bengal’ that, “In 8th century under the Hindu revivalist leader, Sankaracharijya, Buddhists in India were persecuted in large-scale. In Magadah, old Bihar of India, Buddhists were so ruthlessly oppressed by c...
- Maurice Collis and Mrauk-U (1430 - 1785 AD)
Aman Ullah RB History April 19, 2016 [Maurice Stewart Collis (1889 –1973) was an administrator in Burma (Myanmar) when it was part of the British Empire, and afterwards a writer on Southeast Asia, China and other historical subjects. MS Collis was born in 1889, the son of an Irish solicitor,...
- Arakan in Post 1000 AD
Aman Ullah RB History April 17, 2016 Before 10th century, Arakan was inhabited by Hindus. At that time Arakan was the gate of Hindu India to contact with the countries of the east. Morris Collis writes in his book "Burma under the iron heels of British" that the Hindu ruled Arakan from firs...
- Arakan Before 1000 AD
Aman Ullah RB History April 10, 2016 The earliest name of Arakan was ‘Kala Mukha’ (Land of the) Black Faces writes Noel Francis Singer in his book ‘Vaishali and the Indianization of Arakan’. It was inhabited by these dark brown-colored Indians who had much in common with the people (today’s...
Rohingya History by Scholars
Professor Michael Charney: The best historical research on Rohingyas and the fiction of Myanmar National History
20 Jan 2018 0 comments
Dr. Maung Zarni's Remark: The best research on Rohingya history: British Orientalism which created the pseudo-scientific biological notion of "Taiyinthar" or "real natives" of #Myanmar caused that country's post-colonial cancer of official & popular genocidal Racism. This co...
- Timeline: Being Rohingya in Myanmar, from 1784 to Now
By Alal O Dulal Collective The Wire September 24, 2017 As Rohingya people continue to flee Rakhine State and allege widespread persecution, a look at their struggle through the years. A Rohingya refugee girl collects rain water at a makeshift camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, S...
- Northern Arakan as Rohingya's Ancestral Land: G.H.Luce citing the Stone Inscription from Ava Period
By Dr Maung Zarni December 16, 2015 THE #ROHINGYA OR ROHINJAS OF PRE-COLONIAL #MYANMAR Rohinjas were NOT descendants of colonial era "farm coolies" from East Bengal as Myanmar government blatantly lies to the world. Based on the 14th century stone inscriptions, Luce described them as ...
- Muslim Identity and Demography in Arakan - Part 5
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui Asian Tribune October 23, 2011 Part 5: The Demography Controversy According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the population in Arakan grew to 173,000 in 1831, 248,000 in 1839, 461,136 in 1871 and 762,102 in 1901. For the total population in Arakan to grow ...
- Muslim Identity and Demography in Arakan - Part 4
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui Asian Tribune October 16, 2011 Part 4: Rakhine Attempt to Whitewash Burman King’s Crime Khin Maung Saw provides a highly distorted rendition of the 1784 invasion of Arakan and tries to justify the brutal occupation by the racist and bigot Burman King Bodaw Paya by s...
- Muslim Identity and Demography in Arakan - Part 3
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui Asian Tribune October 12, 2011 Part 3. The Muslim Factor in Arakan Just as it happened throughout the coastal territories from the Arabian Peninsula to the Barbary Coast and the shores of Gibraltar and Iberian Peninsula (and beyond) via Alexandria, Tripoli and Tunis to...
Report @ RB
(Photo: Soe Zeya Tun, Reuters) RB News October 5, 2013 Thandwe, Arakan – Rakhinese mob in Thandwe started attacking Kaman Muslims on September 28, 2013. As a result, 5 Kaman Muslims were mercilessly killed and 1 was died in heart attack while escaping the attack. 781 Kaman Mus...
- Special Report: 26.1 Millions Kyat extorted by U-Daung village administrator Tin Maung in Maungdaw
RB Special Report July 27, 2013 Maungdaw, Arakan – Tin Maung, a Rakhine from Na-Ta-La village and administrator of U-Daung village tract, Southern Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, was not elected by the people of U-Daung village tract, but rather he was appointed as village administrator b...
- Pahang Rohingya Language School: The first Rohingyalish School in Malaysia
RB Report July 21, 2013 Pahang Rohingya Language School: The first Rohingyalish School in Malaysia School Theme: “Bring Rohingya Language from tongues to papers” Project Supervised by: Rohingya Social & Welfare Association Pahang (Newly found organization) Mohammed Rafique S...
- A Look into Atrocities against Rohingyas to Date
M.S. Anwar RB Report October 1, 2012 Since the violence against Rohingyas started, atrocities against Rohingyas have been being carried out in large scale. They have been arrested, tortured and killed. Their women and girls were raped. Their properties were looted, destroyed and torched. In...
Report by Media/Org
For Rohingya refugees, imminent surge in births is traumatic legacy of sexual violence - special report
11 May 2018 0 comments
Rohingya families arrive at a UNHCR transit centre near the village of Anjuman Para, Cox’s Bazar, south-east Bangladesh after spending four days stranded at the Myanmar border with some 6,800 refugees. (Photo: UNHCR/Roger Arnold) By UN News May 11, 2018 Late last year, as violent repressi...
- Reuters Special Report: How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village
Ten Rohingya Muslim men with their hands bound kneel as members of the Myanmar security forces stand guard in Inn Din village September 2, 2017. REUTERS By Wa Lone, Kyaw Soe Oo, Simon Lewis, Antoni Slodkowski Reuters February 8, 2018 INN DIN, Myanmar -- Bound together, the 1...
- Myanmar army massacred dozens of Rohingya, survivors say
In this Friday Nov. 24, 2017, photo, Mohammadul Hassan, 18, is photographed in his family’s tent in Jamtoli refugee camp in Bangladesh. Hassan still bears the scars on his chest and back from being shot by soldiers who attempted to execute him. More than 650,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Ban...
- Burma: Methodical Massacre at Rohingya Village
By Human Rights Watch December 19, 2017 Hundreds Killed, Raped in Tula Toli Rangoon – The Burmese army carried out systematic killings and rape of several hundred Rohingya Muslims in Tula Toli village in Rakhine State on August 30, 2017, Human Rights Watch said in a report released...
- AP Investigation: Rohingya methodically raped by Myanmar’s armed forces
Nov. 22, 2017, photo, F, 22, who says she was raped by members of Myanmar’s armed forces in June and again in September, cries as she speaks to The Associated Press in her tent in Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. The Associated Press has found that the rape of Rohingya women by Myanmar’s s...
- "Caged without a roof": Apartheid in Myanmar's Rakhine State
By Amnesty International November 21, 2017 The situation for Myanmar’s Rohingya minority has deteriorated dramatically since August 2017, when the military unleashed a brutal campaign of violence against the population living in the northern parts of Rakhine State, where the majority o...
ေစာင့္ေမွ်ာ္ေနပါတယ္ by လူထုစိန္၀င္း
Written by လူထုစိန္၀င္း သမၼတဦးသိန္းစိန္အစိုးရကို မေထာက္ခံေသးဘူး၊ ေစာင့္ၾကည့္ေနဆဲျဖစ္တယ္လို႔ ေရးလိုက္တဲ့စာ ဂ်ာနယ္ေတြထဲပါလာတဲ့မနက္ပိုင္းမႇာတင္ စာဖတ္ပရိသတ္အေတာ္မ်ားမ်ားဆီက ဖုန္းေတြလက္ခံရရႇိတယ္။ အားလံုးက အားမလိုအားမရျဖစ္လို႔ ဆက္ၾကတာ။ အေၾကာင္းျပခ်က္ကိုယ္စီရႇိ အားမရသူအမ်ားစုက ဘယ္ေလာက္ၾကာေအာင္ေစာင့္ရဦးမႇာလဲ။ ႏႇစ္ေပါင္းငါးဆယ္လံုးလံုး ေစာင့္ၾကည့္ခဲ့တာ မလံုေလာက္ေသးဘူးလားလို႔ ေမးၾကတယ္။သူတို႔တေတြ စိတ္မရႇည္ႏိုင္ေတာ့တာ အေၾကာင္းမဲ့ မဟုတ္ဘူး ဆိုတာ သိေနတဲ့အတြက္ နားလည္ေပးလုိက္ပါတယ္။ အားမရသူအနည္းစုကေတာ့ အရပ္သားအစိုးရသစ္က ဒါေလာက္ေျပာၿပီး ဒါေလာက္လုပ္ျပေနတာေတာင္ မေထာက္ခံေသးဘူး။ ေစာင့္ၾကည့္ဦးမယ္ဆိုတာက မလြန္လြန္းဘူးလား။ မ်က္မႇန္စိမ္းႀကီးခြၽတ္လိုက္ပါေတာ့လို႔ ေငါ့ေတာ့ေတာ့နဲ႔ ေျပာၾကတယ္။ သူတို႔မႇာလည္း အ ေၾကာင္းျပခ်က္ေတြ အမ်ားႀကီးရႇိေနေၾကာင္းသိထားလို႔ နားလည္ေပးလိုက္ပါတယ္။ အမ်ားႀကီးပိုပိုသာသာ ႏႇစ္ငါးဆယ္လံုးလံုး ေစာင့္ၾကည့္ခဲ့ၿပီးၿပီဆိုသူမ်ားမႇ အေၾကာင္းျပခ်က္ေတြ လံုေလာက္႐ံုမက [...] Read more
He regarded his 8-day visit to Burma, 20-28 October, as a fruitful eye-opener, said Harn Yawnghwe, director of Brussels-based Euro-Burma Office (EBO) and youngest son of the late first President of Burma who went into exile with his mother in 1963.
Harn Yawnghwe with his daughter arriving in Rangoon
The only problem he faced was when he applied for his visa. Despite being invited by three ministers, he was technically still a persona non grata, the embassy told him. It was finally issued, only after he had put down a minister's name as his guarantor.
If there were any more misgivings, he was discouraged from them when he arrived there.
There were only two fixed items on his agenda: To visit his hometown Yawnghwe, once the seat of one of the most powerful Shan princedoms, and Rangoon, where he went to school. But it turned out most of his time there were filled up by a flurry of meetings with 12 political parties and a number of high ranking regime officials.
"I didn't meet anybody saying anything negative about what's taking place in Burma," he remembered.
One senior police officer: This is just what we've been waiting for so long.
An Inlay shopkeeper: Since you are back after all these years, things must be moving for the better for our country.
A Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP) leading member: Since the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is made up of all national races, including Shans, cooperation is better than expected earlier.
The parties
Apart from the SNDP, he also held meetings with 5 democracy parties, remaining 4 Nationalities Brotherhood parties and the deregistered Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD). "All seemed to be saying three things to me:
The government under U Thein Sein leadership is really working for change
Change won't come easy. Old systems and laws are still in place. It'll take some time before new systems and laws can move in. The new labor act, for instance, came into being because of the assistance by the ILO. It means exiles can take part in drafting new laws. And it should not be considered as propping up the old regime, but as help strengthening democracy in the country.
Support and encouragement therefore are needed to make the changes in the making irreversible"
He earlier told Financial Times, "They have decided to change. It's not what we called for, but there are changes. Even if they are pretending to change, we should push them so the change becomes irreversible."
The NLD
His argument found an ally at least in the National League for Democracy's U Win Tin. "Our line of thinking does not differ from yours," Harn was told.
"Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to meet The Lady, despite tireless efforts made by one of her close associates," he said.
He declined to name the said close associate, but said he is one of her intimates who still carries deep mistrust of Thein Sein. "She told me I need to have trust in him," he said to Harn.
The ruling class
Without doubt, the country's top leadership is made up of two factions, divided by conflicting personal feelings and ways of thinking, according to him:
The Gang of Four:
Vice President #1 Tin Aung Myint Oo
Upper House Speaker Khin Aung Myint
Information Minister Kyaw Hsan
Finance Minister Hla Tun
"They have reportedly urged the Senior General (Than Shwe) to stage a comeback, but unless Thein Sein makes a big blunder thereby giving him sufficient excuse, it is unlikely he will return", he reasoned.
The "Reformists":
President Thein Sein
Lower House Speaker Thura Shwe Mann
Railway Transport Minister Aung Min
Industry #1 Minister Soe Thein
(and surprise, surprise) Electric Power Minister Zaw Min(whose declaration "not to back off" from the Myitsone project had triggered a series of popular actions culminating in its suspension)
"However, the fence sitters are still the majority in the top echelon, I was told," he said. "They are naturally waiting to see which direction the wind is blowing before they make up their minds."
Peace talks
Negotiations for a renewed ceasefire are conducted by a team led by U Aung Thaung, USDP Secretary #1 and U Thein Zaw, Chairman of Lower House National Races Affairs and Internal Peace making committee, on the Sino-Burmese front. It has notable but not surprising success with the Wa and Mongla groups, but "nothing but love" with the Kachins. Despite negotiations since June, war between the two has intensified much to the chagrin of the local populace.
"An alternative for the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), if it is not held up by the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) the alliance of which it is the leading member, is to propose to Naypyitaw for an appointment of a new negotiating team," said Harn.
Coincidentally, on the Thailand-Burma side, another team led by U Aung Min had been seeking out appointments with the armed groups along the border. It had already met the Karen National Union on 9 October 2011, though details have yet to be disclosed. A source said the Karens were impressed with Aung Min who used to serve on the Karen front.
Harn Yawnghwe, while in Rangoon on Thursday, 27 October, told the 5 democracy parties "he would try to help in making peace in ethnic areas," reported Mizzima News quoting Nayyi Ba Swe, daughter of former prime minister U Ba Swe.
"I was asked (by a regime official) what I thought of about its 'group-by-group' approach, shunning the UNFC approach," Harn recalled. "I told them at the initial level which is for conclusion of ceasefire agreements, it should be okay to deal groupwise. But when it comes to political negotiations, all stakeholders should be invited."
He said he had also urged the government to release the political prisoners as soon as possible, so to dispel the lingering doubts, if nothing else.
Other opposition movements meanwhile are making a 3 point call: Release of all political prisoners, nationwide ceasefire and inclusive dialogue.
Credit : Shanland
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Remarks Maria Otero Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs Refugees International Event, U.S. Institute of Peace Washington, DC October 25, 2011 Good morning. It’s a pleasure to be here with you all today. I want to thank Refugees International for hosting this important conference, and to our [...] Read more
ရုရွားႏိုင္ငံဆိုင္ရာ ျမန္မာသံအမတ္ၾကီး၏ လွ်ိဳ႕ဝွက္ သတိေပးစာ
ရုရွားမွ ျမန္မာစစ္ဗိုလ္မ်ားရဲ့ ၂၀၁၀ ျပည္ေထာင္စုေန႔က ျမန္မာ့ရိုးရာ အတာသၾကၤန္ သရုပ္ျပပြဲ..ရုရွားမွ ေနာင္တေခတ္ရဲ့ ေအာင္စစ္သည္မ်ား စည္းမဲ့၊ ကမ္းမဲ့ စည္းပ်က္၊ ကမ္းပ်က္ ေနထိုင္မႈေၾကာင့္ အေဆာင္မွ ထြက္ေပးရန္ ေတာင္းဆိုခံရမႈႏွင့္ ၂၀၁၀ၾသဂုတ္လက ရုရွားႏိုင္ငံဆိုင္ရာ ျမန္မာသံအမတ္ၾကီး၏ လွ်ိဳ႕ဝွက္ သတိေပးခ်က္တဲ့ဗ်ိဳ႕... ၂၀၁၀ခုႏွစ္ ေဖေဖာ္ဝါရီလက ရုရွားမွာ ျပဳလုပ္တဲ့ ျပည္ေထာင္စုေန႔ အခမ္းအနားမွာ ေတြ႔ရတဲ့ သံအမတ္ၾကီး ဦးမင္းသိန္း (ဝဲ-ဒု)၁၆ ၾသဂုတ္ ၂၀၁၀ ခုႏွစ္က ရုရွားႏိုင္ငံဆိုင္ရာ ျမန္မာသံအမတ္ၾကီး ဦးမင္းသိန္း၏ လွ်ိဳ႕ဝွက္ သတိေပးစာ (function() { var [...] Read more
Which Part Does China Play In Burma’s Civil War?
By Zin Linn The Chinese army secretly transported dozens of Burmese troops inside its border on 21 October morning to fight against the Kachin Independence Army, which is resisting an offensive by Burmese regiments, referring local witnesses, Kachin News Group reported. As said by eyewitnesses, approximately 30 Chinese [...] Read more
U.S General (Ret) Wesley Clark Discussed about the Future of Burma/Myanmar
A new Asia Society Task Force Report offers recommendations on framing US policy toward Burma. Retired General Wesley Clark, Henrietta Fore, and Suzanne DiMaggio discuss the findings. [...] Read more
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UA: 213/13 Index: ASA 16/003/2013 Myanmar Amnesty International Date: 6 August 2013 URGENT ACTION MYANMAR ACTIVIST ARBITRARILY DE... -
--> ရုိဟင္ဂ်ာမ်ားသည္ တုိင္းရင္းသားေလာ။ ႏုိင္ငံသားေလာ။ လူေလာ။ ေခြးေလာ။ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံရဲ့ နယ္စပ္ေဒသတေလ်ာက္မွာ ေနထုိင္ၾကတဲ့ တု...
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By Bill O’Toole Myanmar Times November 3, 2014 In the lead-up to the 2010 general election, the Union Solidarity and Development P... -
Protesters display banners ahead of the arrival of UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee in western Rakhine state, Jan. 8, 2015. (P... -
RB News May 27, 2013 Washington DC : The protests against Myanmar President U Thein Sein were organized by US Campaign for Burma,... -
(Photo: Facebook) By Wa Lone Reuters August 13, 2017 YANGON -- Hundreds of Buddhists took to the streets in western Myanma... -
Thousands of displaced Rohingya Muslims live in refugee camps in Myanmar's Rakhine state. AFP: Ye Aung Thu By Clara Tran ABC ... -
By Pankaj Karmakar The Daily Star September 14, 2014 With a smile on his face, sexagenarian Abu Sayeed was walking to his ho... -
သည္ဗြုိက္ ဂ်ာနယ္ပါ ၀န္ႀကီးဌာနတခ်ုိ့ က်ပ္ သိန္းေထာင္ခ်ီ အလြဲသံုးမႈ သတင္းနဲ ့ပတ္သက္ၿပီး သတၲုတြင္း ၀န္ႀကီးဌာနက ဥပေဒေၾကာင္းအရ ေဆာင္ရြက္မယ္ လို ... -
A Rakhine National Party election campaign rally in Yangon, October 25, 2015. (Ye Aung Thu / AFP) By Frontier Myanmar February 9, ...
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