UN Rights Chief Urges Myanmar Leader to Ease Plight of Rohingya
The U.N.’s top human rights official, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, is urging Myanmar’s leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, to use her moral authority to ease the plight of the country’s disenfranchised Rohingya community. Aung San Suu Kyi has come under mounting criticism from the international community for her failure to speak out on […]
Myanmar: Who Are the Rohingya?
More than 65,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar since a bloody military campaign against purported militants began in October, according to a U.N. report. Most are living in makeshift camps and refugee centers. The Rohingya have endured a decades-long plight and are routinely described by human rights organizations as the “most oppressed people […]
Myanmar says it will act against police after video shows beating of Rohingya Muslims
Myanmar’s government said Monday that it would take action against police officers who were shown in a video beating villagers in western Rakhine state, where tens of thousands of minority Muslims are fleeing a military crackdown. The statement was a rare official acknowledgment of abuses in Rakhine, home to a large Muslim population known as […]
Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh Vow Never to Return to Myanmar
Authorities in Dhaka have demanded that Myanmar repatriate tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who crossed the border to escape what they say is persecution, and are now living illegally in Bangladesh. Myanmar says it will accept a small fraction of the refugee population now in Bangladesh, but the Rohingya themselves say they are unwilling […]
Rohingya in Rakhine state suffer government retaliation
When Faizul* fled the smouldering remains of his village in Myanmar’s Northern Rakhine state, he barely noticed the shards of wood that punctured every extremity of his body. He just wanted to escape the bullets raining down from a helicopter above. But by the time he reached Bangladesh, a shrapnel wound on his right leg […]
Myanmar state media alludes to Rohingya Muslims as ‘human fleas’
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 […]
Myanmar to Probe Allegations of Abuse Against Rohingya
The Myanmar government is to set up a “national level committee” to investigate conditions and allegations of abuses amid international pressure from rising violence and a humanitarian crisis in northern Rakhine state. Myanmar’s state counselor and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has faced growing criticism for failing to tackle the violence, as a military […]
Myanmar’s army kills 69 ‘attackers’ in Rakhine state
Nearly 70 “violent attackers” have been killed by Myanmar’s security forces in northern Rakhine state over the past week, the army said, claiming the dead were members of an armed Rohingya group. Ten policemen and seven soldiers were also killed in clashes, the military added. The announcement takes to 102 the tally of deaths of […]
Rebel Tensions Rise With Myanmar Army’s Offensive
Under the scorching midday sun, a drill sergeant for the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) shouts commands at around 100 young soldiers, some barely out of their teens. The rebels, mostly male, struggle to keep formation. They’re exhausted when they return to their barracks at a training school near Laiza, a town in a mountain valley […]
Myanmar arms non-Muslim civilians in Rakhine
Authorities in Myanmar say security forces have begun arming and training non-Muslim residents in the north of Rakhine state to counter an allegedly growing threat from fighters belonging to the ethnic Rohingya minority group. Human rights advocates say the move could lead to more conflict and abuses against civilians in Rakhine. Colonel Sein Lwin, Rakhine […]