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Protest against Facebook in Jakarta-Indonesia on January 12, 2018. [Anadolu]

March 13, 2018

'I’m afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast.'

UN human rights experts investigating a possible genocide in Myanmar have said that Facebook had played a role in spreading hate speech against the majority-Muslim Rohingya minority.

The UN's Special Rapporteur on Myanmar also said that the Rohingya crisis in the Rakhine State "bears the hallmarks of genocide". 

More than 650,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar's Rakhine State into Bangladesh since a military crackdown last August. Many have provided harrowing testimonies of executions and rapes by Myanmar forces, but Myanmar's national security adviser demanded "clear evidence" for the potential acts of genocide.

Facebook role 

Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, told reporters that social media had played a "determining role" in Myanmar.

"It has ... substantively contributed to the level of acrimony and dissension and conflict, if you will, within the public. Hate speech is certainly, of course, a part of that. As far as the Myanmar situation is concerned, social media is Facebook, and Facebook is social media," he said.

UN Myanmar investigator Yanghee Lee said Facebook was a huge part of public, civil and private life, and the government used it to disseminate information to the public.

"Everything is done through Facebook in Myanmar," she told reporters, adding that Facebook had helped the impoverished country but had also been used to spread hate speech.

"It was used to convey public messages but we know that the ultranationalist Buddhists have their own Facebooks and are really inciting a lot of violence and a lot of hatred against the Rohingya or other ethnic minorities," she said.

"I'm afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended."

Yeehang Lee's comments follow the release of images by the human rights group Amnesty International.

Facebook response

Facebook said there is "no place for hate speech" on its platform.

"We take this incredibly seriously and have worked with experts in Myanmar for several years to develop safety resources and counter-speech campaigns," a Facebook spokesperson told the BBC.

"Of course, there is always more we can do and we will continue to work with local experts to help keep our community safe," Facebook spokesperson has said. 

More than 650,000 Rohingya have fled from Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh since August [Tyrone Siu/Reuters]

March 9, 2018

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein also calls on Myanmar to allow monitors in to investigate suspected 'acts of genocide'.

The UN human rights chief has called for all atrocities committed against Myanmar's Rohingyato be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for prosecution.

Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, who has previously described Myanmar's campaign against the Rohingya as a "textbook case of ethnic cleansing", also urged the country to allow monitors into restricted areas to investigate what he called suspected "acts of genocide".

If they want to disprove the allegations of serious violations against the Rohingya, "invite us in" to Rakhine State, Zeid told a news conference on Friday in Geneva.

"We are saying there are strong suspicions that, yes, acts of genocide may have taken place. But only a court can confirm this," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights added.

Al-Hussein's comments come after Myanmar National Security Adviser Thaung Tun said on Thursday that "if it was genocide, they [Rohingya] would all be driven out".

He added: "We have often heard many accusations that there is ethnic cleansing or even genocide in Myanmar. And I've said it before and I'll say it again - it is not the policy of the government, and this we can assure you. Although there are accusations, we would like to have clear evidence." 

Ro Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist, said the UN's announcement was "long overdue."

"It is very important to prosecute Myanmar leaders at the ICC and to end this ongoing genocide," Lwin told Al Jazeera.

"More than a million Rohingya are seeking justice. The Myanmar military and government have been committing crimes against humanity and genocide for over 40 years. Not only against the Rohingya, but also against Kachin, Karen, Shan and other ethnic minorities.

"As a Rohingya activist, we want to see Myanmar's Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in court at the Hague," he added.

Nearly 700,000 have fled

The Rohingya, viewed by the UN and the US as one of the most persecuted communities in the world, have face widespread discrimination from Myanmar authorities.

Since August, more than 650,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh after the country's military cracked down on the minority in northern Rakhine State.

Those fleeing have brought with them accounts of rape, torture, arson and killings by Burmese soldiers and vigilante gangs.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has estimated that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of the crackdown alone.

According to recent satellite imagery, more than 360 Rohingya villages had been partially or completely destroyed since August, with at least 55 villages completely bulldozed, removing all traces of buildings, wells and vegetation.

Myanmar's military says the crackdown was needed to root out Rohingya armed rebels who attacked border police posts in August, killing about a dozen people.

In January, Myanmar and Bangladesh announced a repatriation deal, but rights groups and Rohingya have raised concerns about the agreement, saying it does not guarantee full citizenship, or safety, for those who return.

Prior to the current exodus, tens of thousands of Rohingya had already been living as refugees in several neighbouring countries.



March 2, 2018

Myanmar troops want Rohingya to leave border region, drawing sharp response from Bangladesh which hosts most refugees.

Myanmar on Friday defended deployment of its troops near the Bangladesh border, where thousands of Rohingya refugees have taken shelter, calling it an "anti-terrorism operation".

The move has drawn criticism from Bangladesh, which summoned Myanmar's ambassador on Thursday, while the UN refugee agency raised their concerns at the military build-up.

Some 200 troops were deployed to the border on Thursday, close to a nearby strip of land between Myanmar and Bangladesh that is home to makeshift camps housing some 6,000 Rohingya refugees.

The strip of land is officially designated as Myanmar territory but is widely referred to as "no man's land" because it lies beyond the country's border fence.

"We acted this way based on the information we got regarding terrorism, especially the Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army (ARSA) movement," Zaw Htay, a spokesperson for the Myanmar government, told AFP news agency on Friday.

"It was not aimed at antagonising Bangladesh," Htay said.

Bangladesh has called for an immediate pullback of Myanmar security forces - who have reportedly issued warnings using loudspeakers for Rohingya to leave the "no man's land" - from the area.

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since August following a government crackdown, which was launched in the wake of deadly attacks on military posts by the ARSA.

It is the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world, according to the United Nations, with the majority of the displaced seeking refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh.

The Rohingya, one of the most persecuted communities in the world, are not recognised as citizens of Myanmar and face widespread discrimination from the authorities. Prior to the current exodus, tens of thousands of Rohingya have already been living as refugees in several neighbouring countries.

The prospects for repatriation

Myanmar and Bangladesh announced a repatriation deal in January, but rights groups and Rohingya have raised concerns about the agreement, saying it does not guarantee full citizenship, or safety, for those who return.

Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees, said last month conditions in Myanmar are "not yet conducive" for the Rohingya to go back.

"The causes of their flight have not been addressed, and we have yet to see substantive progress on addressing the exclusion and denial of rights that has deepened over the last decades, rooted in their lack of citizenship," Grandi told the UN Security Council on February 13.

Rights group Amnesty International said last month Myanmar's history of discrimination and segregation of the Rohingya were early "warning signs" of the ongoing crisis.

"This episode will stand in history as yet another testament to the world's catastrophic failure to address conditions that provide fertile ground for mass atrocity crimes," Secretary-General Salil Shetty said on February 22.

"The transformation of discrimination and demonisation into mass violence is tragically familiar, and its ruinous consequences cannot be easily undone," he added.

The UN has said the abuses by Myanmar's military may amount to genocide.




A satellite image shows evidence of bulldozed homes in the village of Myin Hlut [DigitalGlobe/AP]

February 23, 2018

Satellite imagery released by HRW shows Rohingya dwellings razed between late December and February.

Myanmar's government has razed at least 55 villages once populated by Rohingya, destroying with them evidence of crimes against the persecuted minority, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Satellite images released by the rights group on Friday show that, between December 2017 and mid-February, areas that were once full of buildings and greenery had been completely cleared.

HRW described the actions by Burmese security forces as an "ethnic cleansing campaign" and called on the UN and Myanmar's donors to demand an end to the demolitions.



A total of 362 villages have been destroyed either completely or partially since Myanmar's military began a campaign against the Rohingya in August last year, according to HRW.

Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director, said the deliberate destruction of villages to hide evidence of "grave crimes" was obstruction of justice.

"The government's clearing of dozens of villages only heightens concerns about Rohingya families being able to return home," he said.

"Donor governments should ensure they don't provide any direct or indirect support that would hamper justice or assist those responsible for ethnic cleansing in their efforts to pretend the Rohingya do not have the right to return to their villages in northern Rakhine state."

Reports about village demolitions have been filtering through from members of the Rohingya community long before satellite images appeared seemingly confirming the accounts.

Rohingya activist Ro Nay San Lwin told Al Jazeera that he had heard reports of villages being razed from people on the ground.

"I have been hearing about bulldozing the villages since the beginning of January," he said, adding: "There were many houses, mosques and Islamic schools which remained intact in ... Maungdaw but those all were demolished and bulldozed.

"First Rakhine vigilantes enter the houses and take the things they want ... Then the authorities demolish and bulldoze."

Since August more than 650,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh where they live in camps on near the border.

Those fleeing bring with them accounts of rape, killing, and the destruction of homes by Burmese soldiers and vigilante gangs.

The UN has described their plight as textbook genocide, but little action has been taken by the international community to halt the Burmese government's campaign.

Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed on a deal to send Rohingya refugees back.

As part of the repatriation deal, Rohingya will be held in holding centres, which Rohingya activists have called "concentration camps".

About one million Rohingya refugees are in Bangladesh [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]

By Anealla Safdar
February 20, 2018

UK-based activists, who hail from opposite sides of Myanmar conflict, on why Rohingya repatriation plan is not solution.

England, United Kingdom - As Myanmar's Rohingya continue to trickle into neighbouring Bangladesh, extending a six-month exodus, talk of repatriation simmers at the diplomatic level.

There are already about one million members of the persecuted, mostly-Muslim minority struggling in overcrowded camps in the South Asian country.

They have fled what several international leaders have termed a genocide in Myanmar, their home country where they are not granted the simplest of rights - including citizenship.

Victims and rights groups have provided evidence of a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Myanmar security forces stand accused of raping Rohingya women, tossing babies into fires, burning down entire villages and slaughtering thousands.

In January, Bangladesh and Myanmar announced a repatriation deal, prompting concerns from rights groups and members of the Rohingya.

The Rohingya were not consulted about the agreement, which does not guarantee safety upon return or basic rights such as full citizenship.

"Some people asked me - how can we return to this place?" says Tun Khin, a Rohingya activist and the head of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, who visited camps in Bangladesh last week.

"It is a joke. It is not the time to talk about repatriation," he adds. 

On Thursday, Tun Khin will address students at the University of Oxford, a symbolic location.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's de-facto leader charged with complicity over killings of Rohingya, studied at the university's St Hugh's College. 

Students there, angered that Aung San Suu Kyi remained a revered figure across campus as the crisis unfolded in Myanmar, recently succeeded in removing her portrait from the entrance and name from a common room.

Tun Khin will be joined on the panel by Maung Zarni, a member of Myanmar's Buddhist majority who hails from a military family. The scholar and activist, who is also based in the UK, says he is in "complete opposition to what my own community is doing to Tun Khin's community".

Al Jazeera spoke with Tun Khin and Zarni on plans to repatriate the Rohingya, the West's role in ending persecution and the apparent failure of the UN Security Council to stop the bloodshed.

Tun Khin visited camps in Bangladesh last week [Courtesy: Tun Khin]

Al Jazeera: Earlier this month, Boris Johnson, the UK's foreign secretary, returned from Myanmar and Bangladesh and said there was no doubt "industrial ethnic cleansing"of Rohingya Muslims had been taking place. Does this statement from a Western figure mark some kind of a turning point?

Tun Khin: As a Rohingya myself, I am a victim of genocide. This is not something that is happening just right now, it's been happening since 1978 when my mother was pregnant with me. I was born in Burma. My family fled to Bangladesh, and came back without any citizenship.

(Note: In 1978, Myanmar drove out "illegal"residents. Many Rohingya fled to Bangladesh but returned following international pressure. In 1982, Myanmar's Citizenship Law deprived the Rohingya of citizenship.)

The West knows what has been happening. There are well documented UK and US embassies in Yangon - they are all aware of what's been happening over many years to the Rohingya. 

What's been happening since August is clearly a genocide, which they knew about.

It's good to see Boris Johnson visited, but we haven't seen any significant action from the UK government to stop this genocide.

Maung Zarni: The Rohingya and Burmese Buddhists and other ethnic communities - we belong in the same country. Tun Khin's community has been singled out for, essentially, intentional destruction from its very root. This has been going on for 40 years since 1978 [and] the UN and its member states and the UK, US - they know more than enough to determine that this is a classic case of a genocide.

The problem is members states of the UN, particularly the UN Security Council. The Security Council is essentially in a coma in the case of Rohingya, in the case of Syria, in the case of Yemen.

Before this exodus, Yangon was the place every world leader and delegation went - they wanted to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, they wanted to visit her home.

Now, Burma is no longer democratising, Burma is actually going backward and moving in the fascist direction.

Now every single iconic figure with concerns about refugees is travelling to Bangladesh. Hollywood stars, heads of states, and Boris Johnson. I must say I am a little bit encouraged by the fact Johnson went there, he went strongly in support of the Rohingya and called it 'industrial ethnic cleansing'.

Now, Burma is no longer democratising, Burma is actually going backward and moving in the fascist direction. 
MAUNG ZARNI, MEMBER OF MYANMAR'S BUDDHIST MAJORITY

But I am very concerned [the West continues to] express support for Aung San Suu Kyi and portray her as the only hope and prospect for democratisation.

She is part of this genocide.

Al Jazeera: As you have mentioned, the language used by some international figures refers to genocide, while rights groups have spoken of an apartheid. Why does action not match this rhetoric?

Zarni: As much as it sounds impractical, there needs to be a concerted push by four or five major governments. French President Macron called this genocide. Boris Johnson called it industrial ethnic cleansing. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called it ethnic cleansing.

These are three major permanent UN Security Council members. You cannot describe a situation like this and then not consider very forceful options, even if the Burmese government and its neighbours are unprepared to act.

[Then there are] Islamic countries such as Turkey and Egypt recognising this as a major atrocity and crime.

We need a coalition of seriously concerned governments deciding what to do to.

Tun Khin is the head of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK [Courtesy: Tun Khin]

Al Jazeera: What does concrete action look like to you?

Tun Khin: I met refugees who fled Myanmar as recently as last week. It's a joke to talk about repatriation. It is not the time to talk about repatriation from this government. It's time to see how we can use the International Criminal Court (ICC) to try [Myanmar military chief] Min Aung Hlaing and Aung San Suu Kyi. They joined together to commit genocide.

The Rohingya want safety and protection - so we need a UN-protected area for their return.

Zarni: Before we can take any action, we need to accept the reality. The reality is that Burma - the society and military and government of Aung San Suu Kyi - has shown absolutely no indication that it will accept the Rohingya as an ethnic community who deserve full and equal citizenship as well as basic human rights, like everyone else in the country.

When you have a situation where the entire society and entire military and entire political class have rejected an ethnic community, then it is dishonest for any politician and any UN official leader to keep saying they want to see voluntary safe and dignified return.

What the Rohingya need is a piece of earth that they can call their home, where they don’t need to worry about being slaughtered or their houses and villages being burned. 
MAUNG ZARNI, MEMBER OF MYANMAR'S BUDDHIST MAJORITY

Return is no longer an option. If the Burmese army or Aung San Suu Kyi said they want to receive the Rohingya back, that is simply a deception to try to defuse the international attention and get the international community off its back.

What the Rohingya need is a piece of earth that they can call their home, where they don't need to worry about being slaughtered or their houses and villages being burned.

What we need to see is a small number of genuinely concerned leaders around the world to call a special conference to create an autonomous region for the Rohingya, where they can feel safe and protected by the UN and neighbouring government of Bangladesh and others. I don't think any other solution will work. 

We are not talking about [for example, the] creation of a Jewish state out of Palestine where there were already pre-existing populations that got kicked out. We are simply looking at the land where Rohingya were kicked out from, where Rohingya belong.

Tun Khin: These people have been in trauma - they are not talking about returning. Some people ask me, 'How can we return to this place?'There is no way to return.

Some who fled recently told me the military came to their village and told them they needed to go to an immigration office. When they left, the military burned down their homes. When they got back, the military arrested them, claiming they had burned their own houses. They were arrested for 10 days until they could pay the military a big bribe.

The people want UN protection - international protection. Everyone sees Rohingya as illegal immigrants, and says, 'just kill them all'.

Nobody will return unless there is forced repatriation.

Bangladesh and Myanmar announced a repatriation deal in January [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]

Al Jazeera: While you both seek an autonomous region for the Rohingya, what other scenarios could be expected regarding repatriation?

Zarni: It's in the interest of the Bangladeshi government to try to get as many Rohingya as possible returned to Burma - this is a large number of humans that Bangladesh is being burdened with. We need to understand frustrations and fears of Bangladesh of shouldering one million people on top of its 166 million.

From the Burmese military's perspective, they would want this process of repatriation to be drawn out as much as possible.

[Repatriation] is like telling Auschwitz survivors to go back and make a living in Auschwitz.

Al Jazeera: In Bangladesh, as well as overcrowding issues in the camps, what other challenges do the Rohingya face?

Zarni: The danger here is that thousands of Rohingya are facing health and existential crises. In the next three to four months, there will be monsoon season. 

They are in a low-lying area and Bangladesh is flood-prone. They are facing the extremely dangerous prospect of being washed away.

The outbreak of infectious diseases, diarrhoea and what not [is also a concern].

And then you have another 500,000 trapped inside Burma, whose lives are squeezed by Burmese military.

Al Jazeera: In a few days, you will speak at the University of Oxford, where Aung San Suu Kyi is a noted graduate. Why is the location important?

Zarni: Oxford University is playing this bystander role. It is looking on when genocide is happening under the watch of its most famous alumna.

The university maintains official ties with the University of Yangon, where genocidal views are espoused.

Oxford also has an exchange programme for Burmese scholars and researchers. They become more articulate and better educated and use the Oxford training to justify the genocide of the Rohingya and to cover up.

We want students to tell the Vice-Chancellor Louise Richardson to cut institutional ties with Yangon, to strip Aung San Suu Kyi of her doctorate. If the university doesn't have precedent, it should make an exception.

Tun Khin: As a Rohingya myself, I want to bring the messages of the victims to the University of Oxford.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Rohingya Muslims carry their children and belongings after crossing the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh in November [The Associated Press]

By Charles Stratford
January 21, 2018

Humanitarian conditions in camps hosting Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are set to worsen in the next few months, a human rights investigator has told Al Jazeera, while also raising concerns about a plan to repatriate the fleeing minority back to Myanmar.

In an interview from Balukhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Yanghee Lee, a UN special rapporteur who was banned from visiting Myanmar, said that with Bangladesh's monsoon season approaching, the crammed camps "will be witnessing landslides and we may see a huge number of casualties".

Lee also warned of the possibility of an "outbreak of diseases" that would spread due to heavy rainfall, which may become "impossible to contain from spreading elsewhere". 

The UN envoy was to visit Myanmar in January to assess the state of human rights across the country, including in Rakhine state, where a brutal military crackdown has sent more than 650,000 minority Rohingya fleeing into neighbouring Bangladesh.

People fleeing the violence have told of a systematic campaign of mass killings, rape and arson. The UN has described the situation as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

Lee took up the rights monitoring role in 2014, and is required to visit Myanmar two times a year in order to report to the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly.

She was banned last month from conducting her investigation. 

'It's just not human' 

In the interview with Al Jazeera, Lee urged the international community to aid in dispersing the overcrowded camps in Bangladesh.

"The concentration of people ... it's just not human". 

As part of the repatriation deal signed by the two Asian neighbours in November last year, Bangladesh and Myanmar officials agreed last week on plans to facilitate the return, over the next two years, of those displaced. 

Some 1,550 refugees will be sent back each week, which will add up to approximately 156,000 over a period of two years.

But Lee said the situation in Myanmar is not conducive for refugees to return. 

"First of all, where would they go back to? They've lost their livelihood, they've lost their crops, they've lost their fields," she told Al Jazeera.

"All the rice now is reportedly being sold elsewhere to other countries. They've lost their homes, so the rebuilding process is going to be huge, and the people should not be subjected to living in another camp-like situation." 

She also urged that the return of any refugees to their homes be entirely voluntary, stressing there needs to be "informed consent ... so they will know exactly what they are going back to". 

The current Rohingya crisis started in August, when Myanmar's army launched a bloody crackdown in response to attacks on border posts by the armed group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

The mainly Muslim minority, living primarily in Rakhine State, is not recognised as an ethnic group in Myanmar, despite having lived there for generations. They have been denied citizenship and are rendered stateless.



January 11, 2018

Amnesty International has reiterated a call for an independent investigation into rights abuses in Myanmar's Rakhine state after the country's army admitted its soldiers were involved in the murder of 10 Rohingya.

The remains of the victims were found in December in a mass grave outside Inn Din, a village in the Maungdaw township. 

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Min Aung Hlaing, the military's commander in chief, said soldiers and villagers had confessed to killing 10 suspected Rohingya fighters on September 2. 

James Gomez, Amnesty's regional director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, called the admission a positive development, but said it was "only the tip of the iceberg". 

It "warrants serious independent investigation into what other atrocities were committed amid the ethnic cleansing campaign that has forced out more than 655,000 Rohingya from Rakhine State since last August," he said on Thursday. 

The army's unprecedented acknowledgement came after months of denial of any wrongdoing towards the persecuted Rohingya minority.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar since August, when the army launched a bloody crackdown in response to attacks on border posts by the armed group, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. 

Refugees who crossed the border reported mass killings, gang rapes and arson, prompting the UN and rights groups to accuse Myanmar's army of possible crimes against humanity.

'Beyond comprehension'

Inn Din, the site of the mass grave, was one of the hundreds of villages that was engulfed by violence during the August crackdown.

The military, in its account of the killings, said "200 Bengali terrorists" armed with sticks and swords attacked soldiers in the area on September 1. Myanmar officials refer to the Rohingya as Bengalis, a pejorative term used to imply they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. 

Ten of the assailants were captured, but "it was found that there were no conditions to transfer the 10 Bengali terrorists to the police station and so it was decided to kill them", the military said, and vowed to take action against those involved in the killing. 

Amnesty's Gomez condemned the military account as an "appalling" attempt to "justify extrajudicial executions". 

"Such behaviour shows a contempt for human life which is simply beyond comprehension."

Ro Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist, said he did not believe the army's account of the incident. 

"The army is saying the ten are connected to the insurgency group. But this is false," he told Al Jazeera.

"I have spoken to many eye witnesses. The villagers were arrested from Inn Din beach on August 31, 2017. They were on the run because the Inn Dinn village was under siege by the Myanmar government," he said.


Lwin attributed the military's rare admission to the arrest of two Reuters journalists in December. 

The pair - Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo - were taken into custody after being invited to dine with police officers on the outskirts of Myanmar's largest city, Yangon. 

"There are many mass graves. But they [army] have released this one because the Reuters journalists got the evidence," Lwin told Al Jazeera.

Less than two percent of humanitarian aid goes towards education, said the International Rescue Committee [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]

By Al Jazeera
December 24, 2017

A humanitarian organisation has warned of a "lost generation" with more than 500,000 Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh unlikely to receive schooling in 2018.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said unless interventions are "urgently funded", the humanitarian needs of children will only increase.

"Education in emergencies is a life-saving and life-changing intervention - helping children recover and cope with the continuing adversity they face," said Sarah Smith, the IRC's senior director for education, on Friday.

"This is incredibly urgent for Rohingya children; no one is paying attention to their needs, and they face some of the highest levels of trauma the IRC has ever seen.

"Until children's rights to education in the Rohingya crisis are realised, we face the threat of a lost generation of what is already one of the world's most vulnerable populations."

Less than two percent of humanitarian funding goes towards education, the most underfunded sector in response to the Rohingya plight, the IRC said.

Evan Schuurman, part of the Save the Children's emergency response team in Cox's Bazar, saidin October that schooling was particularly important for traumatised refugee children.

"School isn't just about learning," he wrote in a piece published by Al Jazeera. "It provides routine and a sense of normality, a place where children can make friends, play and remember what it's like to be children.

"It's also a critical form of protection from exploitation and abuse, such as trafficking."

According to the Oxford Burma Alliance, a student-run organisation at Oxford University, more than 60 percent of Rohingya children between the ages of five and 17 have never been to school due to poverty, government restrictions on their movement, and a lack of schools in Rakhine State, Myanmar.

More than 620,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since August 25 in fear of abuses by Myanmarese soldiers, which the United States and UN described as "ethnic cleansing".

The ongoing crisis has been described as the biggest forced exodus of 2017.

Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a deal last month for the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees, but little is known of its details.




More than 800,000 stateless Rohingya are living in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh [Annette Ekin/Al Jazeera]

By Joseph Stepansky 
November 25, 2017

Kutupalong Refugee Camp, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh - Rohingya refugees tuned in on handheld, nine-band radios to the news that the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar had signed a preliminary deal for their return. 

The news slowly made its way throughout the labyrinthine alleyways of tarpaulin and bamboo shelters that more than 800,000 stateless Rohingya now call home. For those living in the camps, the development was frustratingly light on details, but the first repatriations could start in two months.

More than 620,000 Rohingya, a minority Muslim group, have fled Myanmar's Rakhine State since August 25 amid allegations of murder, mass rape, and coordinated arson carried out by the Myanmar military, in what the United States and United Nations have called "ethnic cleansing". The violence came after attacks on Myanmar police stations by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

A 1982 law prohibits Rohingya from becoming citizens of Myanmar. For decades, smaller groups of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to escape persecution from the majority Buddhist population in Myanmar. The most recent repatriation agreement was in 1992.

Rights groups have called for international monitors to oversee the latest repatriation, noting that Rohingya must be promised safety, the right to return to their land, equal rights and citizenship. Amnesty International has called the deal premature, as thousands of Rohingya continue to flee to Bangladesh every week.

Al Jazeera spoke with Rohingya refugees at the Kutupalong Refugee Camp about the prospects of returning to Myanmar.

Abdul Jabar, 65, former community chairman from Tung Bazar Village

[Joseph Stepansky/Al Jazeera]

The military started firing at us as we were fleeing our village when they started the attacks [in August]. My son was killed and two of my daughters were taken away by the military. I have five other children who made it to Bangladesh … I am educated. When I was younger, it was better for us. I was educated by a Muslim government teacher.

But education is not so easy for Rohingya any more. I did not get a job, despite being educated, because I was Rohingya. Rather, other non-Rohingya got the job, even though I was better educated.

I heard the news about the repatriation agreement from the radio. We don't want the 1992 agreement. We want that no violence will happen to us, that people will get an education, that people will freely move and not have to bribe the military to get around. If we do not get more rights, I will die here in Bangladesh. 

Nur Kamal, 18, farmer from Maungdaw Township

[Joseph Stepansky/Al Jazeera]

I came to the camps in the beginning of October. Our mosques and madrasas were closed by the government in 2012. The government has been pressuring us, and the situation got gradually more difficult. Our clerics were jailed.

If a Rohingya is well educated, he cannot get any job like Rakhine people. We cannot live freely. I'm extremely eager to go back to my homeland, but the first and main thing we need is citizenship. If we are not given citizenship, I would die rather than go back.

After the repatriation in 1992, Rohingya continued to be repressed. They would say, "Why are you here? You are Bengali." We're afraid this repatriation agreement will be the same as in 1992. We want a different agreement. In the 1992 agreement, you needed to show Myanmar identity papers to return. Most people don't have Myanmar identification cards. I have one and my grandfather has one, but my father does not. Families will be separated.

I will also only go back if we can return to our land. We really miss our land in Myanmar; it is too crowded here in the camps. We are in hardship here. We don't have fuel to cook food. First, we want citizenship status; that is our main demand. We want all people to be treated equally. 

Nur Bahar, 35, mother of five from Buthidaung Township

[Joseph Stepansky/Al Jazeera]

I will never go back to Myanmar as things are now. The Myanmar government disregarded our dignity. Women were raped and oppressed by them. The military surrounded our village and began firing on us. We ran. My aunt's child and husband were killed.

We tried to hide in the woods. I was raped by the military. I was beaten, hit in the head and shoulders and legs. I never experienced peace in Myanmar. There, we could not sleep. Here, at least we can sleep and know we are safe.

Even if the Myanmar government says we are safe, I won't go. They say one thing and do another. I will only go if we are given citizenship status and the government promises us protection. They need to settle this in a just way. Otherwise, I will not go back to Myanmar, even if they have to kill me here in Bangladesh.

Sole Mohammed, 50, former shopkeeper in Maungdaw Township

[Joseph Stepansky/Al Jazeera]

I came to Bangladesh in 2007. When I left Myanmar, there wasn't any violence, but we had no rights. I had to bribe the government just to do business and move around where I wanted to.

We want to go back to our homeland, our farms, our cattle and our shelters. We miss these things. But we are trying to get more rights from Myanmar. If they don't give us citizenship, why would we want to go back there? The people are not free to work, do any kind of ritual, choose any kind of profession. It is hard for children to get an education and we cannot freely move.

I will return if the situation improves, and our kids can get an education, and our land is returned, so we can live like the other people in Rakhine. We want equality. 

Feroza Khatum, 24, from Rathedaung Township

[Joseph Stepansky/Al Jazeera]

My daughter was thrown into the fire of a burning house by the Myanmar military. The military killed her. She was three and a half years old. I have no other children. 

I will not return now because we have been oppressed and I remember that oppression. I do not hope to return.

We should have citizenship status and the military must assure the international community that they will not oppress us. But I don't believe we will be safe. I don't believe the military will change anytime soon. The Myanmar government must promise us stability, and the world must force them to obey.

More than 620,000 people have poured into Bangladesh since August [Anadolu]

November 23, 2017

Bangladesh and Myanmar have signed a deal for the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees, who have taken shelter in the border town of Cox's Bazar after a brutal crackdown by the military.

Myanmar's foreign ministry confirmed the signing of the agreement on Thursday, without releasing further details. 

"I didn't find any clear statement how these refugees will be repatriated. I'm not sure whether they will be allowed to return to their original village," Rohingya activist Nay San Lwin told Al Jazeera.

"It looks like they will be placed in the temporary camps, and later the refugees will be locked up in the camps for a long time like the Rohingya in Sittwe for more than five years now.

"Myanmar minister for resettlement and welfare said they will repatriate maximum 300 refugees a day. So it can take up to two decades to repatriate all those refugees."

Al Jazeera's Scott Heidler, reporting from Yangon, said the deal was the result of international pressure which has been mounting steadily on Myanmar.

'Concentration camps'

"For Myanmar, it's very important because it is showing some progress on this Rohingya crisis," Heidler said.

San Lwin said refugees should not return if their citizenship and basic rights are not guaranteed.

"Bangladesh should not send back any Rohingya refugee to Myanmar unless citizenship and basic rights are guaranteed. The people who fled to Bangladesh lived in the open air prison for almost three decades, now it looks like they will be sent back to concentration camps." 

The agreement comes after Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi met Bangladesh's foreign minister to resolve one of the biggest refugee crisis of modern times.

More than 620,000 people have poured into Bangladesh since August, running from a Myanmar military crackdown that the US said this week clearly constitutes "ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya".

The talks between Aung San Suu Kyi and her Bangladeshi counterpart come in advance of a highly anticipated visit to both nations by Pope Francis, who has been outspoken about his sympathy for the plight of the Rohingya.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which denies committing atrocities against the Muslim minority, has agreed to work with Bangladesh to repatriate some of the Rohingya piling into desperately overstretched refugee camps.

'Systematically oppressed'

But the neighbours have struggled to settle on the details, including how many Rohingya will be allowed back in violence-scorched Rakhine, where hundreds of villages have been burned.

Last week Myanmar's military chief Min Aung Hlaing said it was "impossible to accept the number of persons proposed by Bangladesh".

"Bangladesh should not send back any Rohingya refugee to Myanmar unless citizenship and basic rights are guaranteed. The people who fled to Bangladesh lived in the open air prison for almost three decades, now it looks like they will be sent back to concentration camps." 

The agreement comes after Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi met Bangladesh's foreign minister to resolve one of the biggest refugee crisis of modern times.

More than 620,000 people have poured into Bangladesh since August, running from a Myanmar military crackdown that the US said this week clearly constitutes "ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya".

The talks between Aung San Suu Kyi and her Bangladeshi counterpart come in advance of a highly anticipated visit to both nations by Pope Francis, who has been outspoken about his sympathy for the plight of the Rohingya.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which denies committing atrocities against the Muslim minority, has agreed to work with Bangladesh to repatriate some of the Rohingya piling into desperately overstretched refugee camps.
'Systematically oppressed'

But the neighbours have struggled to settle on the details, including how many Rohingya will be allowed back in violence-scorched Rakhine, where hundreds of villages have been burned.

Last week Myanmar's military chief Min Aung Hlaing said it was "impossible to accept the number of persons proposed by Bangladesh".

Myanmar army has been accused of carrying out ethnic cleansing of Rohingya [Annette Ekin/Al Jazeera]

By Al Jazeera
November 20, 2017

Rohingya activists have accused Aung San Suu Kyi of "denying their existence", after Myanmar's leader failed to mention a humanitarian crisis that has seen the exodus of more than half a million refugees to Bangladesh since August.

In a speech on Monday, Aung San Suu Kyi said the world is facing new threats partly because of illegal immigration and the spread of "terrorism", drawing criticism that she is trying to divert attention away from the Rohingya crisis.

"Today we are facing a new period of global uncertainty and instability," Aung San Suu Kyi said at the 13th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of foreign ministers in Naypyidaw. 

"Conflicts around the world are giving rise to new threats and emergencies: illegal immigration, spread of terrorism and violent extremism, and even the threat of nuclear war." 

In August, a fierce military crackdown, in the wake of attacks on army posts, sent more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing what the United Nations has described as "textbook ethnic cleansing" in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State.

Described as the "world's most persecuted minority", the Rohingya have suffered decades of discrimination and abuse at the hands of Myanmar's army and have been denied citizenship since 1982.

Many Buddhists in Myanmar believe that Rohingya are Bengali who migrated to the country illegally during the British rule in the subcontinent. 

'Change the discussion'

Reacting to Aung San Suu Kyi's speech, Ro Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist based in Germany, said her statement was nothing but a "denial of our existence".

"Rohingya were recognised as citizens after independence in 1948. Our citizenship was snatched in 1982 by the military regime," he told Al Jazeera.

"When Suu Kyi's party, National League for Democracy (NLD), was established in 1988, many Rohingya supported her," he added.

"The NLD issued IDs that mentioned the word Rohingya," he said, adding that four Rohingya stood in the 1990 parliamentary elections on the ticket of Aung San Suu Kyi's party.

Al Jazeera's Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from the border town of Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh where most of the fleeing Rohingya have taken shelter, said the Myanmar leader's speech was seen by many as a "calculated move".

"She is trying to change the main discussion from the Rohingya humanitarian crisis and the issue of ethnic cleansing to the crisis of immigration and terrorism," added Chowdhury.

"She is trying to please the military, which controls the borders, defence and interior ministry."

in the run-up to the foreign ministers meeting in Myanmar's capital, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini emphasised the need to provide humanitarian assistance after visiting refugee camps in Cox's Bazar.

"Seeing so many very young children taking care of even younger children is what strikes me the most," she said in a statement.

The EU chief also called for a solution to the crisis and backed a plan by former UN chief Kofi Annan, who called for more investment to achieve community-directed growth and alleviate poverty in Rakhine.

Annan's proposal also called for Myanmar to grant, among others, citizenship to Rohingya.

Mogherini, however, was criticised for not calling out the atrocities committed by Myanmar's army, including a campaign of murder, rape and arson, since August 25.

Lotte Leicht, EU Director of Human Rights Watch, said that it was "appalling" how the EU chief "completely" failed to acknowledge that Rohingya were "fleeing the army's campaign of crimes against humanity".

 
Aung San Suu Kyi, in her first public statement, had backed the military for their handling of the Rohingya crisis. Since then, her party has organised inter-faith rallies that critics have dubbed a "public relations exercise".

Nay San Lwin said, "Rohingya are not immigrants but citizens of Myanmar.

"She [Suu Kyi] is showing her true face that she is against Muslims."


    • Rohingya Exodus