A security guard stands next to 38 Rohingya Muslims detained for illegally crossing the border in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Nov. 21, 2016. Credit: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters

By Patrick Winn
Global Post
December 1, 2016

Myanmar is beset by “human fleas.”

So says the nation’s most widely known state newspaper, now operating under the democratically elected government helmed by Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

This “morally bad” group of people are “loathe for their stench and for sucking our blood,” says the Global New Light of Myanmar. And the nation’s citizenry must “constantly be wary of the dangers of detestable human fleas.”

Comparisons to Nazism are cheap, especially in the social media era. But this op-ed stands out for, well, sounding remarkably similar to Third Reich propaganda.

“Sure, the Jew is also a human being,” wrote Joseph Goebbels, the future Nazi regime’s propaganda chief, in the late 1920s. “None of us has ever doubted that. But a flea is also an animal — albeit an unpleasant one … our duty is to make it harmless.”

This screed against “fleas” in Myanmar comes amid a violent crackdown along the nation’s marshy western coast. The targets? Rohingya Muslims, an ethnic minority numbering roughly 1 million.

They are widely hated in their own homeland. In recent years, about 10 percent of them have been driven into grim camps patrolled by armed guards.

Over the years, officials in Myanmar have called the Rohingya “ugly as ogres” and, more recently, too “dirty” for soldiers to rape. One political faction, with seats in parliament, has spoken warmly of Nazi pogroms and openly promotes “inhuman acts” to rid Rohingya from the nation.

A purge of sorts is now underway. Myanmar’s military is currently sweeping Rohingya villages to root out what the government calls “extremist” elements.

Indeed, a ragtag band of Rohingya militants — armed with sticks, blades and a few guns — emerged in October to attack soldiers and police. But the army has responded with overwhelming force.

Satellite images, commissioned by Human Rights Watch, suggest more than 1,000 buildings in Rohingya territory have been torched. The army, by its own admission, is pitting well-armed platoons against men wielding clubs.

According to the United Nations, at least 30,000 have fled this crackdown toward neighboring Bangladesh.

Macabre images, shot on mobile phones, continue to emerge from Rohingya circles. One clip appears to show a human figure incinerated. Others depict villagers fleeing gunfire.

Is this footage legit? If so, is the army culpable? These questions might be answerable if the government hadn’t declared much of the conflict zone off limits to outside observers — namely journalists and aid workers. Instead, the military prefers to control the terrain and thus maintain a stranglehold on information.

Meanwhile, Rohingya are escaping en masse toward Bangladesh. According to many government officials — including those surrounding Aung San Suu Kyi — that is where they belong.

Bangladeshi officials rightly note that western Myanmar is the Rohingya minority’s proper homeland. Less defensible is Bangladesh policy directing armed units to turn back terrified Rohingya refugees.

“They haven’t got many chances here either,” says Ko Ko Linn, an activist based in Bangladesh with the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation, or ARNO. He contends that “this is no place to take shelter. If you reach the border, you get pushed back. So how can they survive?”

As for the alleged jihadis hunted down by Myanmar’s army? They are nothing more than “local youth, homegrown youth, who find persecution unbearable,” Ko Ko Linn says. “You can’t call them jihadis.”

ARNO, among the few international Rohingya-run rights organizations, has been condemned as a pro-militant group by Myanmar’s government. Officials have repeatedly alleged that “foreign terrorist organizations” have nurtured extremism within Rohingya villages. Even the Western media have played along by stoking fears of the Islamic State’s imminent rise in Myanmar.

For sure, al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the Islamic State have made weak overtures toward the tormented Rohingya. But despite years of fretting over a great jihadi uprising in the Rohingya’s homeland, this menace has yet to manifest on any serious scale.

Videos posted online, in which Rohingya militants vow jihad, show a gang of men holding fewer than a dozen rifles — a weapons cache exceeded by many American biker gangs.

These rebels are hardly impressive. They appear to have fared miserably in conflicts with Myanmar’s army. Official reports describe villagers with knives charging at soldiers — and getting mowed down by the dozens.

As the purge drags on, tens of thousands of Rohingya are made to suffer for the crimes of this tiny band of fighters. The military’s guns-blazing raids in Rohingya terrain amount to “collective punishment,” according to John McKissick of the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Worse yet, he told the BBC, the army has a bigger goal: “ethnic cleansing,” a potent phrase coming from the United Nations, which typically favors dry diplomatic language.

Allowing the Rohingya to surge into Bangladesh, he says, would encourage Myanmar’s army to “continue the atrocities and push them out until they have achieved their ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority in Myanmar.”

December 1, 2016

By AKIL YUNUS, RASHVINJEET S. BEDI, and NURBAITI HAMDAN

The Star Online
December 1, 2016

KUALA LUMPUR: Umno's Youth and Puteri wings have called for more urgent action on the Rohingya issue in Myanmar, even suggesting that Asean review the country's membership in the regional bloc.

Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin (pic) said the wing "demands that Myanmar's membership in Asean be reviewed."

"The principle of non-interference is void when there is large scale ethnic cleansing in an Asean member state.

"Let us raise our hands in prayer to Allah for the deliverance of the Rohingya people from injustice and ruin," he said in his policy speech, to shouts of approval from delegates at the wing's general meeting at Putra World Trade Centre here.

The Myanmar government, led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has been accused by the international community of ethnic cleansing of the minority Rohingyas for years.

"I want to unequivocally state that Umno Youth condemns and denounces to the highest level, the cruel and oppressive treatment of the Rohingya community in Myanmar that is grossly inhumane and unacceptable for any human being with a mind, heart, and soul.

"Therefore, Umno Youth demands that the Myanmar government take immediate action to stop all forms of this brutality at once," he added.

Soon after starting his speech, Khairy played a heart-wrenching video showing the suffering of the Rohingyas.

Puteri Umno urged international and regional bodies to make a stand on the violence against the Rohingyas.

Its chief, Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin, said the United Nations, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Asean should play a role to end the violence orchestrated by the Myanmar regime in the Rakhine state.

She also wants Aung San Suu Kyi, who is foreign minister, to be stripped of her Nobel Peace prize.

"Besides political action, we should also learn from these events.

"What is happening there can also happen here if we are negligent," she said at the wing's general assembly on Wednesday.

A large-scale gathering of Muslims in Malaysia is expected to take place here on Dec 4 to protest against the Myanmar government.

This is a follow-up to last Friday's march to the Myanmar embassy from the Tabung Haji complex in Ampang to hand over a memorandum voicing solidarity with the Rohingya, many of whom have fled to neighbouring countries such as Malaysia.

Violence in Rakhine, Myanmar for the past few weeks has resulted in at least 86 people being killed and more than 30,000 being displaced.

Human rights groups have accused the military and border guard forces of raping Rohinya women, torching houses and killing civilians, although this has been denied by the Myanmar government and military.

Considered to be stateless, often subjected to arbitrary violence and forced labour in Myanmar, the Rohingya are considered by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

As of October this year, there are 54,586 Rohingya refugees registered with the UNHCR in Malaysia, although unofficial estimates put the number at three times as high.

By Al Jazeera
December 1, 2016

Bangladesh turns away Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar crackdown as the UN decries "pattern of violations".

Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims may be victims of crimes against humanity, the United Nation's rights agency has said, as former UN chief Kofi Annan arrived to the country for a visit that will include a trip to the conflict-ravaged region of Rakhine.

The army has carried out a bloody crackdown in the western state and thousands of the Muslim minority have flooded over the border into Bangladesh this month, making horrifying claims of gang rape, torture and murder at the hands of security forces.

Some 30,000 have fled their homes and analysis of satellite images by Human Rights Watch found that hundreds of buildings in Rohingya villages have been razed.

Myanmar has denied allegations of abuse, saying the army is hunting "terrorists" behind raids on police posts last month.

The government has lashed out at media reports of rapes and killings, and lodged a protest over a UN official in Bangladesh who said the state was carrying out "ethnic cleansing" of Rohingya.

Al Jazeera's Florence Looi, reporting from a camp for displaced people in Myanmar's Sittwe, said human rights investigators and journalists have been blocked from accessing the areas where massacres are alleged to have happened.

"The Myanmar government has denied that these allegations of abuse have happened, but at the same time, they haven't been giving people access to these areas," she said.

"Many people we've spoken to say they aren't very hopeful that the [UN] commission will be able to acheive anything."

On Tuesday, the UN human rights agency said Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya could be tantamount to crimes against humanity, reiterating the findings of a June report.

Eight boats attempting to cross the Naf River separating Rakhine from southern Bangladesh were pushed back on Monday after six were refused entry on Sunday, Colonel Abuzar Al Zahid, the head of the border guards in the Bangladeshi frontier town of Teknaf, told AFP. 

Dhaka says thousands more are massed on the border, but has refused urgent international appeals to let them in, instead calling on Myanmar to do more to stop people fleeing.

In the past two weeks, Bangladeshi border guards have prevented more than 1,000 Rohingya, including many women and children, from entering the country by boat, officials told AFP.

More than 120,000 Rohingya have been crammed into displacement camps since sectarian violence kicked off in 2012, where they are denied citizenship, healthcare and education and their movements are heavily curbed.

'Pattern of violations'

"The government has largely failed to act on the recommendations made in a report by the UN Human Rights Office... (that) raised the possibility that the pattern of violations against the Rohingya may amount to crimes against humanity," the UN human rights agency said in a statement.

Amid the mounting crisis, former UN chief Kofi Annan on Tuesday began a week-long visit to Myanmar that will include a trip to northern Rakhine

Myanmar's Suu Kyi in August appointed her fellow Nobel laureate to head a special commission to investigate how to mend bitter religious and ethnic divides that split the impoverished state.

Annan has expressed "deep concern" over the violence in Rakhine, which has seen thousands of Muslims take to the streets across Asia in protest.

But Aye Lwin, a Muslim member of the Rakhine commission, defended Suu Kyi's handling of the crisis.

"What she has inherited is a dump of rubbish, a junk yard," he told AFP, pointing out the army retains control of security and defence under a constitution written under the former junta.

"Her hands are tied - she can't do anything. What she is doing is trying to talk and negotiate and build trust" with the army, he added.

Myanmar has refused to recognise Rohingya minorities as citizens for generations [Reuters]

By Al Jazeera

December 1, 2016

Fortify Rights says "systematic violations" have been "overlooked" by Western powers.

A rights group monitoring the welfare of the Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar have called on the international community to take action in order to prevent a "genocide" from taking place in the country.

The Rohingya, which number about one million among Myanmar's predominantly Buddhist 52 million population, have lived in Myanmar for generations.

However, most people view them as foreign intruders from neighbouring Bangladesh which, while hosting many Rohingya refugees, refuses to recognise them as citizens.

Dozens of Rohingya Muslims have been killed since early October, when the army launched a crackdown after an attack killed nine police officers.

According to UN estimates, 30,000 people have fled in the recent violence, and some refugees have accused the Myanmar military of committing rights abuses, including torture, rape and murder.

"I think it is reasonable right now to be talking about genocide prevention in Myanmar," Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, told Al Jazeera on Thursday.

"We do know that widespread and systematic human rights violations have been perpetrated for a very long time, and there's been a very grave uptick of those since October.

"We've seen genocidal rhetoric coming out of state media in recent weeks. It should spur some action."

Smith also criticised the Western government's inaction, saying many are "fairly intoxicated with this narrative of political reform" to the extent that the Rohingya situation is "overlooked".

His comments came after Al Jazeera learnt Bangladesh authorities had been turning back Rohingya men at the border, while allowing in women and children based on their need.

More than 10,000 people have already crossed into Bangladesh in the last two months, a UN report had said.

Al Jazeera's Maher Sattar, reporting from Cox's Bazar near the Myanmar border on Thursday, said that "due to humanitarian concerns, some people are being allowed" in. 

"There is no real criteria, it is more an ad-hoc decision-making process, where border guards see someone, and they feel that this person is really suffering, it's usually women and children, and they let them through," he said citing border guards.

"But most of the men get turned back."

But "on the whole" the Bangladesh government remain "antagonistic" towards Rohingya refugees, pushing them back to Myanmar, he added.

Those of have managed to cross the border into Bangladesh have sought shelter at an unofficial Cox's Bazar refugee camp, where there are 200,000 Rohingya refugees already.

The situation is being described as dire, as the previous batch of refugees are unable to extend help to those who have just arrived to seek shelter.

"There's not much to give. They are refugees themselves," he said.

Across the border in Myanmar's Rakhine State, Al Jazeera's Florence Looi, reporting from Sittwe, said local Rakhine organisations have refused to meet a commission led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, which is investigating alleged human rights abuses against the Rohingya.

Almost all Rohingya live in western Myanmar's Rakhine.

Annan's team is due in Sittwe on Friday and local organisations said they are unable to meet the commission because they used the term "Rohingya", which is not an officially recognised minority in the country.

On Tuesday, the UN OHCHR said Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya could be tantamount to crimes against humanity, reiterating the findings of a June report.

Habibullah, a Rohingya resident in Sittwe, told Al Jazeera that his family, which was living in another part of Rakhine, were forced to flee after their homes were allegedly burned by soldiers.

He said that he later received reports that his grandfather managed to escape to Bangladesh, while his uncle and cousin are feared to have died.

Authorities have denied the allegations of abuse, but have so far refused access into the area affected by the violence.

Many International aid workers have also had to leave because their travel permits have not been renewed.

Nyi Pu, chief minister of the Rakhine state, said officials are trying to resolve the situation.

"Our government is handling all of the problems in Rakhine, fiercely and precisely. Precisely means we deal with terrorism, in accordance with the rule of law," he told Al Jazeera.

By Maaz Hussain 

Voice of America

November 30, 2016

Rohingya Muslims who have sought refuge in Bangladesh say they are desperate to stop living as refugees and return to their homeland in Myanmar.

“The Rohingyas have been seeking temporary shelter in Bangladesh only to save their lives from a genocide-like situation in Myanmar. For most of us, life as refugees is very hard in Bangladesh. Arakan (Rakhine), where our Rohingya community has lived for centuries, is our ancestral homeland. We want to go back to Arakan,” said Mohammad Shaker, a Rohingya leader in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh.

Nurul Islam, a Britain-based Rohingya rights activist and community leader, said whenever anti-Rohingya violence erupts in Myanmar, the international community has taken a keen interest to see that they get safe passage to other countries. But he alleges outside powers do not follow up to help the refugees return to their homeland.

“It appears many in the international community think if all Rohingyas are evacuated from Myanmar, the problem of our community will be solved. They are wrong,” said Islam, chairman of Arakan Rohingya National Organization. “The Rohingya crisis will never be resolved until our community members are able to return to their homeland in Arakan.”

Long-standing problem

Since the Rohingya Muslims were first targeted by large-scale ethnic violence in 1978, the religious minority community has fled persecution and economic hardship in Myanmar by leaving for Bangladesh and other countries.

Currently, there are up to half a million Rohingyas in Bangladesh, with over 90 percent of them living as illegal refugees, mostly in decrepit shanty-colonies scattered across southeastern Bangladesh.

With no support from the Bangladesh government or the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), most of the refugees do menial jobs, have no access to basic services, and live hand-to-mouth.

Most complain that in Bangladesh their life is full of hardship and their life back in Myanmar was more comfortable.

“After the Rakhine Buddhists burnt my house, with my two children and wife I fled to Bangladesh four years ago. I do odd day-wage jobs to support my family. Often I go without job. I live in a ramshackle shack and I think I can never escape this life of poverty here,” said Mohammad Ismail, a 38-year-old Rohingya. “I had my own farmland, I also owned a shop and I was quite well-off. If the situation there changes I want to return to Arakan.”

Current crisis

Since a Myanmar military crackdown began in Rakhine state seven weeks ago following the killing of 9 policemen in an armed attack blamed on Rohingya militants, several thousands more Rohingya men, women and children have landed in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh’s home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said that “on humanitarian ground” some of the Rohingyas fleeing the current violence have been provided refuge.

“We shall try to host these people as long as possible. Then we shall start a dialogue with Myanmar so that they can return to their home. We hope Myanmar will take them back, eventually,” Kamal said.

But Rohingya community leader Islam alleged the ongoing violence against the Rohingyas in Rakhine is “state-sponsored.” 

“The Burmese security forces are entering the Rohingya villages and indulging in killings, rape and arson in ways as violent as possible, as we have seen in the past weeks. This level of indescribable torture is aimed at terrifying the entire community to an extreme level so that all Rohingyas flee the country,” Islam told VOA. “No Rohingya refugee can dare return to Burma in such situation. But, the final line from us is that we want to return to our homeland in Arakan.”

Investigations and pressure

The Myanmar government has said it is setting up a “national level committee” to investigate conditions and allegations of abuses amid international pressure about rising violence and a humanitarian crisis in northern Rakhine state.

Although the current government has said little else about the current situation, it has long denied allegations of abuse and persecution. For decades, Myanmar officials have said most the Rohingya are recent migrants from Bangladesh, and the government generally refers to them as Bengali.

Myanmar’s state counselor and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has faced growing criticism for failing to tackle the violence, as the military campaign has triggered the displacement of tens of thousands.

The committee follows on the Rakhine State Advisory Commission, in place since August, under former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, who recently expressed “deep concern” over violence.

Penny Green, a professor of law and globalization at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) said as long as institutionalized discrimination, widespread and state sanctioned hate crime and segregation characterize life for the Rohingya in Myanmar, they will continue to flee Myanmar.

“The voluntary return of the Rohingya refugees to Myanmar will only be possible if Myanmar confronts its genocidal crimes, punishes perpetrators and restores full civil, economic, social and political rights to the Rohingya,” said Green, who is the director of QMUL’s International State Crime Initiative. 

She said pressure must be brought to bear on Aung San Suu Kyi’s government. 

"Sanctions, boycotts and divestment have been successful in confronting some of the world’s worst state crimes. We should all be urging our own governments not to engage with the Myanmar government until it ceases its genocidal practices,” she said.

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

Press release

30 November 2016

Widespread rape of Rohingya women as a weapon of ethnic-cleansing

On Friday 25 November, at about 5 a.m. around 500 Myanmar cruel armed forces – most of them local Buddhist Rakhine goons dressed in uniform without badge -- had cordoned San They Pyin hamlet of Longdon village-tract in Maungdaw Township. About one hundred of them entered the village and seized and removed nearly 100 women and teenage girls to school field, stripped them naked under gun point and lined them up in lying position and raped. Then they made them walk along the village pathway in nude. Some of the women who defied the inhumaneness were slaughtered. The onslaught lasted until 5 p.m. But five beautiful women were not released and were sexually molested whole night by a group of savage soldiers in their camp whereupon three of them were slaughtered. 

So far more than 500 innocent villagers were killed, in addition to wholesale destruction of everything by arson attacks, from dwelling houses, mosques and religious buildings to rice, paddy and food products. Terrible stench has spread in places where people could not bury the dead bodies which become food for foxes and other animals. 

The local Buddhist Rakhine goons, under the instruction of their extremist leaders, are actively involved in killing, looting, raping and perpetrating other atrocity crimes side by side with the marauding soldiers. 

Rape is being used as a weapon of ‘Rohingya ethnic-cleansing’. Shutting up the area to international journalists and observers facilitate the government to destroy the Rohingya people without the knowledge of the outside world, while preventing humanitarian aids has caused serious starvation to the victims of mass atrocity crimes. People are dying of shortage of food and lack of medical treatment. 

We reiterate our request that the International community, UN and powerful countries, and Myanmar’s neighbours should intervene now to save the defenseless Rohingya community from total destruction. 

For more details, please contact: 

U.K.: Ronnie +44-7783118354 

Japan: Zaw Min Htut +81-8030835327

Australia: Dr. Hla Myint +61-423381904

USA: Dr. Mohammed Habib Ullah +1-4438158609

Canada: Nur Hasim +1 (519) 572-5359

Bangladesh: Ko Ko Linn: +880-1726068413

Email: info@rohingya.org

www.rohingya.org

By Shafiqul Alam

AFP

November 30, 2016

By Sir Geoffrey Nice, Francis Wade

Foreign Policy

November 30, 2016

The world can no longer look away from the intensifying assault on Burma’s Rohingya minority.

Last fall, Burmese voters elected their first democratic government in half a century. That inspired hope that the country’s long history of violence and oppression was finally taking a turn from the better.

Now, just one year later, that promise has given way to dread. In a small pocket of western Burma, a new phase has begun in what threatens to become the genocide of the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority.

Government security forces have responded with widespread violence to a series of coordinated attacks by militant Rohingya on police outposts since October 9. The military has created a 20 kilometer-square “operation zone” barring all independent journalists from the area. Despite the restrictions, numerous reports have emerged of rapes, torture, and extrajudicial killings of Rohingya civilians by the police and army as they sweep through villages in search of militants.

The Rohingya have been refused citizenship by successive Burmese governments, who assert they are illegal Bengali immigrants. Control measures applied only to Rohingya have, for years, severely limited their access to healthcare and education. More than 120,000 already live in displacement camps following waves of violence in 2012 and 2013 in which ethnic Buddhist Rakhine razed their neighborhoods across Rakhine State.

A recent escalation in the latest violence has raised the official death toll since the October crackdown to 134, although Rohingya advocacy groups put it at more than 420. Despite Bangladesh’s refusal to take refugees, several hundred are believed to have fled to camps there. A number who crossed the Naf River separating the two countries in the middle of November were gunned down mid-river. While a number of security personnel have been killed in skirmishes, the overwhelming majority of deaths have been Rohingya. The government has claimed that all are militants, but with independent media completely barred from the region, the claims have been impossible to verify.

In recent decades, scholars of genocide have identified several likely indicators of mass killings. Several of those signs are now clearly in evidence in western Rakhine: The systematic dehumanization of the target group; their isolation inside camps and barricaded ghettos; and violent attacks on them involving the participation of security forces. These trends have intensified in recent weeks with the amplification of a narrative that singles out the Rohingya as a menacing alien presence in Burma. The new civilian government, elected in April amid jubilation that Burma was finally charting a passage towards democratic rule, has shown a worrying tolerance toward these ominous developments — at times borderingt on outright complicity.

The blanket exclusion of independent journalists from the area in recent weeks has created a black hole in which security forces can attack villages, carry out arbitrary arrests, and block the movements of Rohingya, who are unable to leave their homes to access markets or to reach medical care. Satellite imagery released by Human Rights Watch shows that 1,250 Rohingya buildings in five villages have been destroyed by recent arson attacks. The government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, has responded by saying that the Rohingya are burning their own homes to garner international sympathy.

Presidential spokesman U Zaw Htay told journalists in late October that the government had initially deliberately blocked aid to Rohingya who had fled police and military sweeps to force them to return to their villages, where they could be investigated for possible involvement in the October attacks. This appears to be an attempt at starving them into submission, and suggests that the government believes all Rohingya to be suspects.

This latest eruption of violence fits uneasily with the optimistic narrative of a changing Burma. In April 2016, the National League for Democracy, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, was sworn into government. She immediately renewed efforts to broker ceasefires with warring ethnic armies in the north and east of the country, and later appointed former UN chief Kofi Annan to head an advisory commission to investigate and address human rights violations in the violence-torn Rakhine State.

Despite the worsening crisis, Suu Kyi continually refuses to be drawn on the plight of the Rohingya. At best, she calls repeatedly, but vaguely, for rule of law to be respected in Rakhine State. She asked the U.S. Ambassador to Burma in May 2016 to refrain from using the word “Rohingya” lest it imply recognition of a group that the state in Burma long ago deemed to be an illegal presence in the country, and to whom it has refused citizenship and all associated state protections.

The growing volume of criticism directed at the Nobel laureate’s position mirrors the increasing dangers facing the Rohingya. Since the violence of 2012 and 2013, when Rohingya and ethnic Buddhist Rakhine attacked each other in bouts of vicious bloodletting, Rohingya have been increasingly contained inside villages, camps, and barricaded ghettos. Their 1.3-million-strong population is allowed access to only one adequately equipped hospital in the state, and is completely barred from attending higher education. The latest violence will ensure a further tightening of those restrictions, with the UN warning that 160,000 Rohingya have been without aid since October 9.

It was hoped that Suu Kyi’s government might improve conditions for the Rohingya, but recent events cast doubt on this. Demanding greater security for the maligned group would be politically costly. The ultra-nationalist Buddhist lobby in Burma has repeatedly branded the Rohingya as “terrorists” and “Islamizers,” and public opinion is pitched wholeheartedly against their being granted greater protections. Any criticism from Suu Kyi of the military’s actions in Rakhine State would be interpreted as a sign that she sympathizes with the Rohingya, and her support could fall. Accordingly, her National League for Democracy has made no attempt to rein in the hate speech. Nor has it called publicly for any control measures on the group to be removed.

Meanwhile, rhetoric from officials has grown more ominous. It has dehumanized Rohingya in precisely the ways that, as we now know, historically pave the way for mass violence against marginalized groups. The Home Affairs Minister Kyaw Swe recently described the Rohingya presence as “an invasion” of “rapid Bengali breeders,” language that cast them as animals. When Aung Win, head of a governmental commission set up to investigate the October 9 attacks, declared that “all Bengali villages are military strongholds,” he cast the group as outsiders deserving of attack. Later he told the BBC it was highly unlikely that troops had raped Rohingya women on the grounds that they “are very dirty.”

State media has weighed in too. On November 26 an opinion piece in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper warned that the country was “facing the danger of the human fleas” that “we greatly loathe for their stench and for sucking our blood.” The Nazis had used the analogy of “fleas” to describe the Jews. An earlier opinion piece on November 1 was entitled “The Thorn Needs Removing If It Pierces!” It went on to speak of “trespassers” on Burma soil, and similarly warned of the threat they allegedly pose to the country’s sovereignty. This lightly veiled call, in print, for the cleansing of the Rohingya — published without government disapproval — suggests an alignment between the civilian government, the military, and ultra-nationalist Rakhine groups that will tolerate the very worst of humanitarian excesses against the Rohingya.

By attacking the police outposts, a small fraction of the Rohingya population may have sealed the fate of the entire community. Punishment of the Rohingya has always been collective, despite the fact that collective punishment is illegal under international law. Groups tend to resort to armed conflict when institutional channels for negotiating grievances are closed off, and the decision to attack may have reflected a sense of resignation that, even in a democracy, the Rohingya would forever remain a pariah group. The response by the government and security forces — the targeting of an entire identity, rather than individuals who may have committed wrongdoing — marks a key stage in the turn to mass violence.

Today we know enough about the conditions that give rise to genocide that no one in power can justifiably claim ignorance. An understanding of these processes is assumed among all modern leaders, Aung San Suu Kyi included. The democratic mandate handed to her civilian government a year ago has resulted in that most pernicious of democratic outcomes — a tyranny of the overwhelming majority against which a small and vulnerable population is now bracing itself. Rather than providing a pathway to harmony after decades of conflict, Burma’s transition has unleashed popular hatreds that no institution in the country seems either able or willing to rein in. Suu Kyi should know that inactivity in the face of genocidal actions can carry moral, legal, and even criminal responsibility.

In the photo, a Rohingya refugee from Burma carries the body of a six-month-old boy who died in a Bangladeshi refugee camp on November 26.

Photo credit: MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP/Getty Images

By Reuters

November 30, 2016

The reputation of Aung San Suu Kyi's government in Myanmar is at stake amid international concerns over how it is dealing with violence in the country's divided northwest, a senior United Nations official warned on Tuesday. 

The conflict in Myanmar's Rakhine State has sent hundreds of Rohingya Muslims fleeing across the border to Bangladesh amid allegations of abuses by security forces. The crisis poses a serious challenge to Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, who swept to power last year on promises of national reconciliation.

In a statement, Adama Dieng, the U.N.'s special adviser on the prevention of genocide, said the allegations "must be verified as a matter of urgency" and urged the government to allow access to the area. 

"If they are true, the lives of thousands of people are at risk. The reputation of Myanmar, its new Government and its military forces is also at stake in this matter," he said. 

"Myanmar needs to demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law and to the human rights of all its populations. It cannot expect that such serious allegations are ignored or go unscrutinized," he said. 

Soldiers have poured into the area along Myanmar's frontier with Bangladesh, responding to coordinated attacks on three border posts on Oct. 9 that killed nine police officers.

Myanmar's military and the government have rejected allegations by residents and rights groups that soldiers have raped Rohingya women, burnt houses and killed civilians during the military operation in Rakhine.

The violence, the most serious bloodshed in Rakhine since hundreds were killed in communal clashes in 2012, has renewed international criticism that Suu Kyi has done too little to alleviate the plight of the Rohingya minority, who are denied citizenship and access to basic services.

"The government needs, for once and for all, to find a sustainable solution to the situation of the Rohingya Muslims and other religious and ethnic minorities in Myanmar, a solution that is in full compliance with the international human rights standards that the government has pledged to respect," Dieng said.

RB News

November 30, 2016

Amsterdam, Netherlands -- Yesterday, the Dutch parliament voted in favor of a resolution put forth by MP Tunahan Kuzu (DENK). In the resolution, the parliament recognizes that approximately 800.000 Rohingya in Myanmar are not recognized as civilians by the Myanmar government. The resolution asks from the Dutch government to increase its political pressure on Myanmar – via the European Union and the United Nations – to improve the situation of the Rohingya.

When the resolution was submitted on November 24th the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Bert Koenders immediately underlined it’s importance. He stated that there is a “serious problem” in regards to the Rohingya in Myanmar, something he witnessed with his own eyes when he visited the country earlier this year.

The direct consequence of the resolution is that the members of parliament have now officially given the ministry of foreign affairs the task of increasing the political pressure on Myanmar via the European Union and the United Nations. Over the past few years, sanctions against Myanmar have been weakened or even cancelled and trade missions have increased, also by the Netherlands. This obviously did not help to improve the situation of the Rohingya. In fact, currently the world is witnessing the worst violence against the Muslims in Myanmar since 2012.

“The fact that this resolution was supported immediately by Minister Koenders and had now also been accepted by the parliament is good news,” says Nourdeen Wildeman, president of the as-Salaamah wal’Adaalah Foundation from the Netherlands. This foundation was launched in 2013 with the sole purpose of supporting the Rohingya in their plight via humanitarian aid, awareness projects and political lobby. “However, this is only the first step towards specific actions which should be performed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We will closely monitor the follow-up of this resolution by the Dutch government.”

The anti-islamic ‘Freedom Party’ of Geert Wilders voted against the resolution.

Note to Correspondents: Statement by Adama Dieng, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide on the situation in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar

New York, 29 November 2016 – The United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, expressed alarm at reports of the deteriorating security, human rights and humanitarian situation in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. Following attacks by armed assailants against border security posts in October 2016, the response of the military has reportedly been characterized by excessive use of force and other serious human rights violations against civilian population, particularly the Rohingya Muslim population, including allegations of extrajudicial executions, torture, rape and the destruction of religious property. “These allegations must be verified as a matter of urgency”, stated Adama Dieng. “If they are true, the lives of thousands of people are at risk. The reputation of Myanmar, its new Government and its military forces is also at stake in this matter.” 

The Special Adviser stressed that “the current restrictions on access to northern Rakhine State, which prevent verification of the allegations, are contributing to suspicion and alarm. Denying the allegations without allowing for their verification is counterproductive.” Mr. Dieng urged the Myanmar Government and the military to heed requests by the United Nations – and many others around the world – to authorise access and an immediate and thorough independent investigation into incidents reported in northern Rakhine state since October 2016. “If the allegations are found to be true, the Government must take immediate steps to stop them, prevent further violations and remedy the situation. Those found responsible for human rights violations must be punished. Failure to do so will only increase the risk of very serious international crimes that Myanmar has an obligation to prevent and punish under international law.”

Adama Dieng reminded the new Government of Myanmar of the trust placed in the Government by the international community as Myanmar transitions to democracy, noting that there have been significant steps forward in that regard. However, the Special Adviser underlined that “Myanmar needs to demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law and to the human rights of all its populations. It cannot expect that such serious allegations are ignored or go unscrutinised. Wherever and whenever these types of allegations are reported in the world, it is the duty of the international community to remind States of their responsibilities to their populations and their obligations under international law. Myanmar is no exception.”

Adama Dieng also took the opportunity to urge the Government of Bangladesh not to close its borders to refugees fleeing Myanmar. “Closing the border, deporting refugees or failing to provide assistance, exposes these populations to further violence that could, in the worst case, constitute international crimes”, the Special Adviser warned.

Adama Dieng concluded by saying that “the current violence did not come out of thin air. It is taking place against a background of very deeply rooted discrimination against specific sectors of the population and a failure to put in place conditions that would support peaceful coexistence among the different communities in Rakhine State. The Government needs, for once and for all, to find a sustainable solution to the situation of the Rohingya Muslims and other religious and ethnic minorities in Myanmar, a solution that is in full compliance with the international human rights standards that the Government has pledged to respect”. 

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For media queries please contact: 

Claudia Diaz, Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect

http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser/

Phone: +1 917-367-2061; Email: diazc@un.org

November 29, 2016

We the delegates in the emergency meeting of Muslims scholars and NGO activists in the Asean region and beyond, on the 29th November 2016, after deliberating the issues and plight of the oppressed Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar conclude the following decisions :

1. In light of the past and current and continuation of oppression against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar that has persisted, beginning as far back as from the British rule of 1824 to 1948, the meeting stresses its affirmation that the root cause of the plight of the Rohingya stems from the denial of their historical roots as the sons and daughters of the land known before as Arakan .

2. Affirming that the reinstatement of the rights of the Rohingya as citizens of Myanmar which was denied in 1982, under the Citizenship Act, who are subsequently denied of all socio economic, religious, political and cultural rights is the very fundamental solution to the plight of the Rohingya Muslims,

3. Condemning the continuous violent oppression against the Rohingya Muslims, the inhuman and barbaric treatment on the innocent women and children, their imprisonment, torture and extra judicial murders by the security and militias targeting them, destruction of villages and properties and ultimately denial of the human rights through forced eviction and persecution,

4. Affirming that there is enough evidences of a recognisable cases of a full genocide operation executed by the security forces against the Rohingya Muslims, leading to their massive extermination and depopulation , featured by thousands of them presently forced to live in IDP camps in the Rakhine state, massive exodus by sea to neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia,

5. Strongly opposing the policy of condoning religious hatred and intimidation, targeting Rohingya Muslims in particular and Burma Muslims in general with the intention of creating perpetual animosity amongst the dominant Buddhist community towards Muslims and Islam in Myanmar,

6. Taking cognisance on the extremist religious Rakhine leaders that have become the perpetrators and the driving force to execute mass killings, arsoning of homes and mosques, depriving human rights, violating international law on the rights of minorities in a country, inflicting pain and endless sufferings on the Rohingya, which is condoned by the government of Myanmar,

7. Reintegrating the condemnation issued in the OIC Mecca Summit of 2012 on the policy of violence exercised by the Government of the Union of Myanmar against Rohingya Muslim which are in violation with the principles of human rights and values and the international laws, and had adopted in this regard the recommendations of the Executive Committee meeting at the level of permanent representatives which was held at the Organization of Islamic cooperation on 5th August 2012,

8. Taking serious note on the additional sufferings of the victims of suppression on the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, when their exodus has been exploited by human trafficking syndicates as they try to take refuge for safety in neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia.

We thus declare :

Base on the Quranic verse of Surah Al Hajj : 39. “To those against whom war is made, permission is given (to fight) for they have been oppressed, and verily Allah is well able to assist them.”

1. We call on all Muslims world wide to answer the call of protecting and the defense of the oppressed Rohingya Muslims and the dignity of Islam as a legitimate religion within the Union of Myanmar,

2. We remind the Muslim ummah to strengthen their unity and show of strong solidarity and brotherhood amongst them, and to reflect the bond by extending every possible assistance to the victims of genocide in Myanmar.

3. We demand that all Muslim leaders unite with a forceful voice to prevail upon the Myanmar government to stop the injustices and the barbaric genocidal treatment on the Rohingya Muslim minority,

4. We urge that, based on the Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Genocide , that the Myanmar government, must be prosecuted through the International Criminal Court for crime against humanity.

5. We call on all organizations; religious, human rights, legal and political, to mobilize the public and governmental organizations , humanitarian agencies; national, regional and international, to organize an international campaign to pressure the Myanmar government to concede to the demands of the people to halt the atrocities on the Rohingya and reinstate their citizens right as people of Arakan,

6. We urge that all Muslims in the world must take heed of the gravity of the plight of the oppressed Rohingya and to bear witness to the annihilation of a group of community and therefore duty bound to render support both at the humanitarian level and advocacy and the political level.

7. We call on Muslim leaders to play a role in all international forums to pressure Myanmar to stop the oppression.

8. We urge the UN and Asean and the international community for urgent intervention. The world cannot bow to the non intervention policy since the problems of the injustice against the Rohingya is spilling over to the neighboring countries and creating a regional instability .

9. We call all ulama dan ulama movements at national , regional and national to urge their government to deploy peace troops to protect the security and lives of the Rohingya Muslims.

10. Call on the Human Rights Committee of the OIC to activate initiatives to protect the rights of the Rohingya through the mechanism within OIC.

11. We urge prominent political figures in Asean to voice the plight of the Rohingya with a view to raise the rights of them to get citizenship rights as a fundamental rights.

Original here.