Anniversary of Rohingya crisis marked in Bangladesh camps, Myanmar

[rooster59]

Anniversary of Rohingya crisis marked in Bangladesh camps, Myanmar

By Zeba Siddiqui

 

Banners are seen as Rohingya refugee women take part in a protest at the Kutupalong refugee camp to mark the one year anniversary of their exodus in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, August 25, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

 

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Refugees in Bangladesh held demonstrations and prayers on Saturday to mark the passing of a year since the outbreak of a conflict in western Myanmar's Rakhine state that drove hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from their homes.

 

Across the border in Myanmar, the government said security patrols had been increased in the conflict area ahead of the anniversary for fear of further violence. Members of the mostly Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group and Hindus from Rakhine state said they would hold events to remember those killed by Rohingya militants in attacks that triggered the crisis.

 

Thousands of refugees, from children to the elderly, marched prayed and chanted slogans in events across the sprawling camps in southern Bangladesh. Many wore black ribbons to commemorate what they said was the start of the "Rohingya genocide".

 

"We prayed the morning prayers inside our house over the sound of bullets. We were so scared," said Aisha, 47, one of dozens of women at a gathering in the Kutupalong camp, recalling the outbreak of the conflict.

 

"Today marks 365 days since that day. So I want to say, we want justice." 

 

After the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked 30 Myanmar police posts and a military base in the early hours of Aug. 25, 2017, Myanmar troops swept through villages. Around 700,000 Rohingya have since fled, according to United Nations agencies.

 

Rohingya who crossed the border reported killings, rapes and arson carried out by security forces, in what the U.N.'s top human rights official said seemed to be a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

 

The government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has denied allegations of atrocities made by the refugees, saying that security forces lawfully suppressed Muslim militants in Rakhine.

 

Government spokesman Zaw Htay told Reuters on Friday that Myanmar did not tolerate human rights abuses, and had set up a commission of inquiry that included two veteran international diplomats to look into the Rakhine crisis.

 

International pressure on Myanmar has been growing, however. U.N.-mandated investigators are set to publish a report on the crisis on Monday and the United Nations Security Council will hold a briefing on Myanmar on Tuesday.

 

In a statement ahead of the anniversary, 132 sitting parliamentarians from five other countries in Southeast Asia issued a statement calling for Myanmar officials to face trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

 

The ICC is currently considering whether it has jurisdiction in the crisis. Bangladesh is a member of the court, but Myanmar is not.

 

FEARS OF MORE VIOLENCE

 

Myanmar had stepped up police patrols in northern Rakhine state fearing fresh attacks by militants around the anniversary, government spokesman Zaw Htay said.

 

"We are very, very concerned about the possibility of terrorist attacks and we've already picked up security enforcement," said Zaw Htay.

 

ARSA said on Saturday it would "continue our struggle for our right to exist".

 

The group had "come to existence only to defend, salvage and protect Rohingya people" from the Myanmar government and military, it said in a statement attributed to its chief, Ata Ullah, and posted on a Twitter account previously used by it.

 

GRAPHIC: One year on, no end in sight https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/MYANMAR-ROHINGYA/010072393P3/index.html

 

In the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe, the state's biggest political party, the Arakan National Party, held a ceremony to commemorate security personnel and Rakhine and Hindu people they say were killed by Rohingya insurgents in the attacks.

 

In Myanmar's main city, Yangon, another group said it was holding a prayer ceremony at a Hindu temple later on Saturday.

 

Myanmar's government said ARSA was responsible for the deaths of non-Muslim villagers as well as security personnel last year. The group denies targeting civilians.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-08-26

[yellowboat]

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

The government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has denied allegations of atrocities made by the refugees, saying that security forces lawfully suppressed Muslim militants in Rakhine.

For years, this woman gave the whole world hope.   Now that she has shown what she really is, we can only feel despair.   She is just a shameless power grabber. 

[cooked]

8 hours ago, yellowboat said:

For years, this woman gave the whole world hope.   Now that she has shown what she really is, we can only feel despair.   She is just a shameless power grabber. 

Your evidence for that, apart from the MSM?

This is the anniversary of an armed rebellion in the Rakhine, planned, coordinated and ordered by foreign powers that want to get their hands on Rakhine oil and gas, at the same time declaring that they want an independent Islamic state. The same thing is happening in Assam and the CHT but you won't have read about that in the MSM, will you?

It is also the exact anniversary of Kofi Anan's peace plan for the Rakhine being announced.

Neither ASSK nor Myanmar asked for her to be adulated by naive idealists. She has the full support of the Myanmar people.

How would you feel if 30 police posts were attacked overnight in your province?

 

[yellowboat]

11 minutes ago, cooked said:

Your evidence for that, apart from the MSM?

This is the anniversary of an armed rebellion in the Rakhine, planned, coordinated and ordered by foreign powers that want to get their hands on Rakhine oil and gas, at the same time declaring that they want an independent Islamic state. The same thing is happening in Assam and the CHT but you won't have read about that in the MSM, will you?

It is also the exact anniversary of Kofi Anan's peace plan for the Rakhine being announced.

Neither ASSK nor Myanmar asked for her to be adulated by naive idealists. She has the full support of the Myanmar people.

How would you feel if 30 police posts were attacked overnight in your province?

 

So everything you just mentioned is justification for ethnic cleansing ?  Sorry, warring on women and children has no justification.  It is just utterly shameful, barbaric in this modern age.  Congrats, you have proven the main streamers right in this instance.  

[keysersoze276]

Bangladeath camps?

 

[cooked]

6 hours ago, yellowboat said:

So everything you just mentioned is justification for ethnic cleansing ?  Sorry, warring on women and children has no justification.  It is just utterly shameful, barbaric in this modern age.  Congrats, you have proven the main streamers right in this instance.  

Armed rebellion. Yet another violent attempt to take over the Rakhine by these people, that are there illegally. Do you actually know anything about this corner of the world, and how the Roros have killed many many thousands of non-Muslims since 1942 when they killed at least 20 000? What were the Tatmadaw  supposed to do, sit down and have a nice chat? Kofi Anan tried that and on the date of his announcing his proposals they attacked police posts. Plenty of evidence that kids as young as 12 were participating in attacking non-Muslim villages. Innocent?

They knew very well what they were doing, and what they intended to do got done to them.

Do you know how many people have been killed in Southern Thailand since the troubles started down there? 6500 I believe. Violent Islamic expansion is occurring in Assam, Kashmir and the CHT but the innocent women and children being persecuted there are of no interest because there's no oil there.

[yellowboat]

2 hours ago, cooked said:

Armed rebellion. Yet another violent attempt to take over the Rakhine by these people, that are there illegally. Do you actually know anything about this corner of the world, and how the Roros have killed many many thousands of non-Muslims since 1942 when they killed at least 20 000? What were the Tatmadaw  supposed to do, sit down and have a nice chat? Kofi Anan tried that and on the date of his announcing his proposals they attacked police posts. Plenty of evidence that kids as young as 12 were participating in attacking non-Muslim villages. Innocent?

They knew very well what they were doing, and what they intended to do got done to them.

Do you know how many people have been killed in Southern Thailand since the troubles started down there? 6500 I believe. Violent Islamic expansion is occurring in Assam, Kashmir and the CHT but the innocent women and children being persecuted there are of no interest because there's no oil there.

Wonderful, and attacking women and children is really going to change things for the better.   Sorry, there is no excuse for ethnic cleansing, and creating a refugee crisis in a neighboring country.  

[simple1]

10 hours ago, cooked said:

Your evidence for that, apart from the MSM?

This is the anniversary of an armed rebellion in the Rakhine, planned, coordinated and ordered by foreign powers that want to get their hands on Rakhine oil and gas, at the same time declaring that they want an independent Islamic state. The same thing is happening in Assam and the CHT but you won't have read about that in the MSM, will you?

It is also the exact anniversary of Kofi Anan's peace plan for the Rakhine being announced.

Neither ASSK nor Myanmar asked for her to be adulated by naive idealists. She has the full support of the Myanmar people.

How would you feel if 30 police posts were attacked overnight in your province?

 

What foreign powers? None of what you say justifies ethnic cleansing, rape as a tool of war, murder of civilians, mass burning of villages and so on - all are War Crimes. Do you also support war crimes by the Myanmar government against ethnic Christian tribes over decades, or only against ethnic Muslims?

[cooked]

3 minutes ago, simple1 said:

What foreign powers? None of what you say justifies ethnic cleansing, rape as a tool of war, murder of civilians, mass burning of villages and so on - all are War Crimes. Do you also support war crimes by the Myanmar government against ethnic Christian tribes over decades, or only against ethnic Muslims?

I see that you believe uncritically in what the MSM has been feeding you. Foreign powers.. sigh, ok one more time. The West (Soros, Petrodollar, Oil companies) doesn't like the fact that oil and gas from the Rakhine is going to China and not to the West. That's the money side of it.

There is ample proof that the order for the rebellion to start was transmitted via Whatapp from Pakistan and that ARSA were trained and financed with Saudi and Pakistan money. That's the 'religious' side of it (naive Muslims being used as a weapon to get hold of the resources, now cast aside).

I don't approve of rape etc being used as a weapon so ARSA, as well as their predecessors over many years shouldn't have been using these tactics, and calling on them to be used against all non-Muslims in the region.

Wrongs were done on both sides for sure, I am sick of the official line that Myanmar is evil and that the Roros are victims.

Please do some reading, try Jacques Leider, https://thewire.in/external-affairs/frictions-rakhine-state-less-islamophobia-rohingya-phobia, Rick Heizman for starters.

Once again I never said I approve of violence as a solution but when you start something, screaming for the death of all non-Muslims then you mustn't be surprised if the reaction is also brutal. If you have to use the army then this happens.

Christian "Tribes" as you put it. That area is ruled by brutal war lords monopolising the very lucrative opium and jade industries. Many of the inhabitants have fled to other parts of Burma where they are not discriminated against. You will find mosques, churches and temples all on the same street all over Myanmar.

Most of the "ethnic Muslims" as you put it are there illegally (Rakhine). Muslims in other parts of Burma disapprove of what the Roros tried to do and suffer no discrimination. The Roros have systematically been driving out the original inhabitants for years and they are STILL not a minority in the Rakhine, Those villages that didn't support ARSA were left untouched by the Tatmadaw.

[yellowboat]

33 minutes ago, cooked said:

I see that you believe uncritically in what the MSM has been feeding you. Foreign powers.. sigh, ok one more time. The West (Soros, Petrodollar, Oil companies) doesn't like the fact that oil and gas from the Rakhine is going to China and not to the West. That's the money side of it.

There is ample proof that the order for the rebellion to start was transmitted via Whatapp from Pakistan and that ARSA were trained and financed with Saudi and Pakistan money. That's the 'religious' side of it (naive Muslims being used as a weapon to get hold of the resources, now cast aside).

I don't approve of rape etc being used as a weapon so ARSA, as well as their predecessors over many years shouldn't have been using these tactics, and calling on them to be used against all non-Muslims in the region.

Wrongs were done on both sides for sure, I am sick of the official line that Myanmar is evil and that the Roros are victims.

Please do some reading, try Jacques Leider, https://thewire.in/external-affairs/frictions-rakhine-state-less-islamophobia-rohingya-phobia, Rick Heizman for starters.

Once again I never said I approve of violence as a solution but when you start something, screaming for the death of all non-Muslims then you mustn't be surprised if the reaction is also brutal. If you have to use the army then this happens.

Christian "Tribes" as you put it. That area is ruled by brutal war lords monopolising the very lucrative opium and jade industries. Many of the inhabitants have fled to other parts of Burma where they are not discriminated against. You will find mosques, churches and temples all on the same street all over Myanmar.

Most of the "ethnic Muslims" as you put it are there illegally (Rakhine). Muslims in other parts of Burma disapprove of what the Roros tried to do and suffer no discrimination. The Roros have systematically been driving out the original inhabitants for years and they are STILL not a minority in the Rakhine, Those villages that didn't support ARSA were left untouched by the Tatmadaw.

So some Rohingya women and some Rohingya children were spared, so that makes it okay.  Really do not see how you can rationalize warring on women and children and then creating a refugee crisis in a neighboring country.  All of what you say just points to lousy governance and ethnic cleansing. 

[cooked]

45 minutes ago, yellowboat said:

So some Rohingya women and some Rohingya children were spared, so that makes it okay.  Really do not see how you can rationalize warring on women and children and then creating a refugee crisis in a neighboring country.  All of what you say just points to lousy governance and ethnic cleansing. 

They have gone back to where they came from, and nobody wants them. https://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/bangladesh-pm-admit-rohingya-muslims-are-not-from-burma-but-illegal-migrants-who-tarnish-the-countrys-image/

You seem to have difficulty in understanding what I am saying: what is being done to them is what they wanted to do to the non-Muslims in the area. That doesn't make it right. He who lives by the sword.... did you get that? Explaining why things happen doesn't mean I am rationalising or justifying it.

Ethnic cleansing: too bloody right and good riddance.

Lousy governance: the country emerged from many years of military dictatorship quite recently and these border areas are difficult to access and remained uncontrolled to the point that people were crossing the borders as they wished. 500 000 came over in 1972. They were mainly supporters of Pakistan in the Bangladesh/Pakistan war, which Pakistan lost. Pakistan is to blame for this mess more than Myanmar. They don't care about the Roros either.

Did you read about Hindu and ethnic minorities that ARSA and their Roro friends killed before the Tatmadaw got ris of them? Probably not.

Wrong done on both sides.

In essence: wrong was done on both sides, in a civil war, civilians suffer.

[spidermike007]

23 hours ago, yellowboat said:

For years, this woman gave the whole world hope.   Now that she has shown what she really is, we can only feel despair.   She is just a shameless power grabber. 

 

Correct. She has shown her true colors. She is so hungry for power, and the trappings that come with that power, she is perfectly fine condoning mass genocide, rape, and crimes against humanity. I only wish there were a way to revoke a Nobel. She does not deserve any honors. She is showing her racism, as is the rest of that horrendous, heinous, murderous regime, posing as a democracy. 

[spidermike007]

14 hours ago, cooked said:

Your evidence for that, apart from the MSM?

This is the anniversary of an armed rebellion in the Rakhine, planned, coordinated and ordered by foreign powers that want to get their hands on Rakhine oil and gas, at the same time declaring that they want an independent Islamic state. The same thing is happening in Assam and the CHT but you won't have read about that in the MSM, will you?

It is also the exact anniversary of Kofi Anan's peace plan for the Rakhine being announced.

Neither ASSK nor Myanmar asked for her to be adulated by naive idealists. She has the full support of the Myanmar people.

How would you feel if 30 police posts were attacked overnight in your province?

 

 

No point in trying to defend any particular position here. Anytime someone uses the term MSM, they give themselves away. Bought and paid for by Trump, Fox News, and the supposed "non swamp tribe". Always remember, "truth is not truth".

Edited August 27, 2018 by spidermike007

[cooked]

1 minute ago, spidermike007 said:

 

No point in trying to defend any particular position here. Anytime someone uses the term MSM, they give themselves away. Bought and paid for by Trump, Fox News, and the supposed "non swamp tribe". Always remember, "truth is not truth".

I didn't get MY truth from Fox. You're living in a fantasy world if you think you can counterargument like that. I bet you believe Assad gassed civilians in Syria.

[spidermike007]

Although a high percentage of the party members, that like to deflect using the silly and inane term MSM, will deny that the UN has credibility, as part of their scripted war on truth, I consider a report like this to be pretty damning, and thoroughly truthful, in regard to the genocide taking place in Burma.

 

A UN report has said top military figures in Myanmar must be investigated for genocide in Rakhine state and crimes against humanity in other areas. The report, based on hundreds of interviews, is the strongest condemnation from the UN so far of violence against the Rohingya. The army's tactics are "consistently and grossly disproportionate to actual security threats", it says. It is also fiercely critical of Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, for failing to intervene to stop the violence. The situation was a "catastrophe looming for decades" says the report, and the result of "severe, systemic and institutionalised oppression from birth to death". The crimes documented in Kachin, Shan and Rakhine include murder, imprisonment, torture, rape, sexual slavery, persecution and enslavement that "undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law". In Rakhine state, the report also found elements of extermination and deportation "similar in nature, gravity and scope to those that have allowed genocide intent to be established in other contexts".

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-45318982

[cooked]

11 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Although a high percentage of the party members, that like to deflect using the silly and inane term MSM, will deny that the UN has credibility, as part of their scripted war on truth, I consider a report like this to be pretty damning, and thoroughly truthful, in regard to the genocide taking place in Burma.

 

A UN report has said top military figures in Myanmar must be investigated for genocide in Rakhine state and crimes against humanity in other areas. The report, based on hundreds of interviews, is the strongest condemnation from the UN so far of violence against the Rohingya. The army's tactics are "consistently and grossly disproportionate to actual security threats", it says. It is also fiercely critical of Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, for failing to intervene to stop the violence. The situation was a "catastrophe looming for decades" says the report, and the result of "severe, systemic and institutionalised oppression from birth to death". The crimes documented in Kachin, Shan and Rakhine include murder, imprisonment, torture, rape, sexual slavery, persecution and enslavement that "undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law". In Rakhine state, the report also found elements of extermination and deportation "similar in nature, gravity and scope to those that have allowed genocide intent to be established in other contexts".

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-45318982

Everything that the BBC has published about this has been very one sided, as is the recent UN report. There are calls for investigation of war crimes which is OK with me, but why uniquely of war crimes committed by the Tatmadaw? As far as I can see foreign powers in the past and present have caused this situation and ARSA committed many criminal acts which no nation should accept, especially as they rightly regard the Roros as illegal immigrants.

I agree that evil things have happened in the Shan states and elsewhere. I am by no means apologising for this but these are things that happen when you have a weak (corrupt) central government in a large country with areas difficult of access. History shows this in Europe and elsewhere. Myanmar is edging towards democracy and this lengthy process isn't being helped by this one sided view of Myanmar as an evil, Fascist-Buddhist country.

If 50 police stations were to be attacked overnight in southern Thailand on the eve of presenting propositions for reaching peace, non-Muslims were slaughtered, roads blocked, mines laid, militia mobilised, what do you think Thailand would do?

They have declared that they want an Islamic state in the Rakhine. Most of them are there illegally, despite what they say. Even the word "Rohingya" has NO historic basis. (One mention in 1799, uncertain reference, next one in 1059). Myanmar is united in this, even many Muslims in other parts of the country disapprove.