January 25, 2025
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News @ RB

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...

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...

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Article @ RB

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...

Article @ Int'l Media

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...

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...

Analysis @ Int'l Media

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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...

Rohingya History by Scholars

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...

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...

Report by Media/Org

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...

Press Release

(Photo: Reuters) Joint Statement: Rohingya Groups Call on U.S. Government to Ensure International Accountability for Myanmar Military-Planned Genocide December 17, 2018  We, the undersigned Rohingya organizations worldwide, call for accountability for genocide and crimes against...

Rohingya Orgs Activities

RB News December 6, 2017 Tokyo, Japan -- Legislators from all parties, along with Human Rights Now, Human Rights Watch, and Save the Children, came together to host the emergency parliament in-house event “The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis and Japanese Diplomacy” on December 4th. The eve...

Petition

By Wyston Lawrence RB Petition October 15, 2017 There is one petition has been going on Change.org to remove Ven. Wira Thu from Facebook. He has been known as Buddhist Bin Laden. Time magazine published his image on their cover with the title of The Face of Buddhist Terror. The petitio...

Campaign

A human rights activist and genocide scholar from Burma Dr. Maung Zarni visits Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi Extermination Camp and calls on European governments - Britain, France, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Denmark, Hungary and Germany not to collaborate with the Evil - like they did with Hitler 75 ye...

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Editorial by Int'l Media

By Dhaka Tribune Editorial November 5, 2017 How can we answer to our conscience knowing full-well what the Myanmar military is doing to the innocent Rohingya minority -- not even sparing children or pregnant women? Despite the on-going humanitarian crisis involving Rohingya refugees ...

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Systematic sex crimes: Burma army still uses rape as tool of war

Susanna Hla Hla Soe, director of the Karen Women’s Empowerment Group, spoke to DVB's Feliz Solomon about the continued use of rape as a tool of war in Burma. (Photo: Jessica Mudditt)

By Feliz Solomon 
June 30, 2014

As Burma moves to resolve six decades of civil conflict, reports continue of sexual violence in ethnic territories. Women’s support and advocacy groups continue to accuse the Burmese military of using rape as a tool of war; more than 70 cases — about half of them fatal — have been reported since 2011.

In early June, the Burmese government took one step towards ending military rape, when they signed the United Nations’ Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. But not everyone believes that the measure was sincere. Critics say that the government has not advanced a plan to train the military in gender sensitivity, enforce laws about sex crimes, or provide support for survivors. Some have even called the move “a PR exercise”.

A delegation of women and one government official from Burma attended an international summit on sex crimes in conflict earlier this month, hosted by the British government. Upon her return to Rangoon, DVB spoke with Susanna Hla Hla Soe, director of the Karen Women’s Empowerment Group, about the promises made and the root causes of sexual violence.

Q: Now that the Burmese government has signed the UN’s Declaration on Sexual Violence in Conflict, what plans have they put forth to implement it?

A: The government has endorsed the agreement. When we spoke with Burma’s deputy minister of foreign affairs at the summit, he said that he will come back [to Burma] and meet with the government to talk about implementation. He said that success will require collaboration with civil society organisations; that is crucial.

So we welcome this and we are happy. But what we don’t want is for this to be like other agreements, such as CEDAW [Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women]. It was signed 17 years ago and nothing has happened. We don’t want this to happen again, so we really encourage and support the government to take this up – to make sure they stop sexual violence in conflict.

Q: Could you explain why impunity is such a huge problem in Burma’s ethnic territories?

A: Sexual violence is used systematically, and the main problem is the law. There is zero law enforcement on these cases. They excuse it, every time. They say, ‘We, the military have our own law, our own institutions. So don’t worry, we can handle it by ourselves.’ It’s a kind of impunity.

The military needs to be controlled; they should be under civilian control.

Q: What is the role of women in Burma’s peace process? Is there enough representation?

A: Enough? No.

We rarely see women’s participation in the peace process. There is some in Karen, Karenni and Mon [states], but in other cases, we don’t see any women participating in the peace process.

Q: What message would you like to bring back to the women of Burma, following the summit in London?

A: Only one person at the summit talked about the root cause of the problem. It is militarisation. Leymah Gbowee, the Nobel peace prize winner, was the only one to mention the root cause. The others, they didn’t talk about it.

People are using all these polite words. The top leaders talk, they comment, but we’re not clear about the mechanisms, how they will bring justice to the victims. During the summit, we mostly heard from very big organisations, like INGOs and the UN. They’re on the panels; they talk; they use the best words. But we shouldn’t forget the capacity of local organisations. They live with the community, they know the real problems.

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