by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
By Arul Louis,
United Nations : The UN Security Council has widely condemned Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority, and also raised issues of terrorism and the attack on Hindus.
On Thursday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “In Myanmar, the situation has spiralled into the world’s fastest developing refugee emergency and a humanitarian and human rights nightmare.”
He also slammed the the Rohingya rebels for attacking police checkposts in Rakhine state killing 12 security personnel triggering the mass violence and the exodus of over 500,000 Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh.
“The current crisis has steadily deteriorated since the August 25 attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on the Myanmar security forces… I repeat my condemnation of those attacks.”
ARSA is a separatist organisation that wants to create an Islamic state in Rakhine and is led by Ata Ullah, a Pakistan-born ethnic Rohingya who has lived in Saudi Arabia.
The Security Council heard from all its 15 members and also Myanmar and Bangladesh, but did not take any action or pass resolutions.
Guterres said that the Myanmar military should immediately stop its operations, allow humanitarian aid to reach the affected people and allow the Rohingya Muslims to return home.
US Permanent Representative Nikki Haley accused Myanmar of ethnic cleansing.
“We cannot be afraid to call the actions of the Burmese authorities what they appear to be: a brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority.”
Most of the other Security Council members echoed her strong condemnation of the Myanmar government and Guterres’s demands.
Russia’s Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia said that according to reports, the ARSA was guilty of killing civilians and had forced Hindus flee to Bangladesh.
Zambrana, a delegate of Bolivia, called for investigation of all actions that exacerbated tensions and incited violence, noting that besides the Rohingyas there were other victims including Hindus.
Bangladesh Permanent Representative Masud Bin Momen said that reports of “Muslims killing Hindus” should be seen as the Myanmar government’s failure to protect its people.
He added that allegations and counter-allegations of atrocities must be fully investigated by the Security Council.
Myanmar’s National Security Adviser U Thaung Tun alleged that a large number of Hindu villagers have been massacred and buried in mass graves.
Egypt’s Permanent Representative Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta said that backing the rights of the Rohingya Muslims did not mean supporting violence of any related groups.
“It is important to ask: What choice are we leaving to these people, other than taking up arms to defend themselves?”
U Thaung said that the root of the crisis was terrorism and not religion and “terrorism constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security”.
He invited Guterres to visit Myanmar and said that diplomats and mediapersons will visit Rakhine next week.
Myanmar is ready to hold talks with Bangladesh on arranging the return of refugees, U Thaung said.
“Our stated willingness to discuss the issue of repatriation gives the lie to the assertion that there is a policy of ethnic cleansing on our part.”
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Nay Pyi Taw : Myanmar authorities will soon launch a national verification process for refugees who fled violence in Rakhine state to neighbouring Bangladesh, a minister declared on Thursday.
Before the move, Minister at the State Counselor’s Office U Kyaw Tint Swe will travel to Bangladesh for talks with the authorities over the process, according to Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement U Win Myat Aye.
The verification process, based on principles to which both Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in 1993, will be carried out at Taungpyo Latwe village for those who return by road and at Naguya village for those who come back by waterways, Xinhua news agency quoted the minister as saying.
Under the current plan, the verified refugees will be settled at Dargyizar village, he said.
In some Muslim communities in the state, their leaders are said to have decided not to join in the process.
However, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi urged them in her September 19 speech to respond to the process, saying that they have nothing to lose.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) extremist terrorists attacked police checkposts in Rakhine on August 25 killing 12 security personnel. Myanmar authorities ordered a crack-down which led to over 415,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh.
Besides the national verification process, Myanmar authorities are also implementing a rehabilitation and resettlement and long-term development programmes not only for Muslims but also for Rakhines, Mro, Daing-net and Mramagyi as well as the Hindu minority who fled their villages due to extremist terrorists’ attacks, officials said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood,
The New York Declaration on Refugees & Migrants was unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly on 19 Sept 2016. From India it was attended by VK Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs. Through this Declaration the world, in one voice, expressed the joint political will of all the 193 member states of UN General Assembly, who made a historic commitment to more equitably share responsibility for the world’s refugees and migrants. They made a determination, inter alia, to protect the human rights of all refugees and migrants – regardless of status, to ensure education for all refugee and migrant children within a few months of their arrival and to support the countries rescuing, receiving and hosting large numbers of refugees and migrants.
2. That way a Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) was adopted pleading to help the refugees to thrive, not just survive, thus reducing the risk of protracted stays and lessen the refugees’ dependence on humanitarian aid.
3. This Framework reaffirms that the human conscience is made by God and that’s why, irrespective of noises in some nation states driven by short term political axes to grind, the concern for human interests have broadly prevailed. India’s foreign minister Sushma Swaraj did pack off to Bangladesh a plane load of materials to address part of the basic necessities of Rohingya lives even though her party has taken a patently anti-Rohingya stand on the ab initio flimsy ground that all Rohingyas have potential to be terrorists.
4. On the other hand, implementing the CRRF spirit in its national laws, Djibouti passed a new national refugee law in January 2017 enabling its government to issue for the refugees official identification documentation, giving them better access to education and health services, right to work, access the justice system, quality education and the right to naturalization. In Ethiopia, the refugee children will now be issued birth certificates.
5. The geopolitical secret of the Rakhine state of Myanmar is by now open in the public realm. It is virtually ‘Asia’s ocean frontier’, the country is flanked by China and India with their respective long & short term interests deeply embedded in the Burmese topography and whereabouts.
6. In India, these days in TV debates, some persons ask as to why Muslim countries are not hosting the Rohingya Refugees. In this regard the following table is worth noticing:
It shows that many Muslim countries are discharging much more than their proportionate responsibility, to help out the Rohingyas.
7. Talking of the world’s best practices in treating the Refugees, it’s satisfying to know that Uganda is giving them even land to build home and to cultivate. The World Bank has granted US$2bn under IDA-18 for providing funds for developmental activities to the low income ‘refugee hosting countries’.
8. The European International Development Cooperation (DEVCO) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) are giving increasing support to the refugee hosting countries so that they can further include refugees in national development plans.
9. The UNGA has given a call for bringing together the UNHCR, governments, NGOs and the private sector and, crucially, the refugees themselves, to help them become self-reliant and contribute to their host communities’ development.
10. In India, some Rohingya Refugees have petitioned the Supreme Court asking for equal treatment like other and larger refugee communities like from Tibet and Sri Lanka. They say that if any person is found to be indulging in any anti-national activities, in that case, the law should take its course to hand out harsh punishment; but, for one black sheep the entire group should not be herded back into the jaws of Burmese anti-Rohingya atrocities that are well known to the world threatening the Rohingya lives and freedom.
11. India’s National Commission of Human Rights has also put on notice the ministry of home affairs and may intervene in the ongoing Supreme Court case in defense of Rohingyas. The UN Human Rights Commission too has appealed to India to respect the international law of non-refoulement.
12. In any case, so far, the Government of Myanmar has not announced any special concession exclusively favoring India saying that would they accept back the Rohingyas (currently in India) as Myanmarese citizens. Yet, it goes without saying, while living here in India, all the Refugees are bound to fully obey and respect the Indian law and our cultural traditions.
(Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood, President, zakatindia.org)
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Washington : Saudi King Salman has allocated $15 million (Dh 55 million) aid for Rohingya refugees fleeing persecution in Myanmar and taking refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh.
“A specialised team from the centre will be heading to Bangladesh to assess the condition of Rohingya refugees there and find out their urgent needs and provide them with relief assistance, humanitarian help and shelter,” said Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Rabiah, General Supervisor of Riyadh-based King Salman Centre for Relief and Humanitarian Aid on Tuesday.
“As per the directive of the King, the centre has carried out a number of projects, while some others are in various phases of implementation,” he was quoted as saying by the Saudi Press Agency.
Al Rabiah made the statement following a meeting with members of the National Council on US-Arab Relations and the Committee on cooperation between US Partnerships and GCC Countries at the US House of Representatives in Washington.
The Saudi Cabinet renewed the Kingdom’s calls on the international community to take urgent action to stop the attacks and to allow the Myanmar Muslim minority their basic human rights.
The Rohingya refugees began fleeing Myanmar from August 25 when Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) rebels attacked police checkposts and killed 12 security personnel, triggering a military crackdown.
At least 420,000 Rohingya have since fled to Bangladesh to escape what a senior UN official called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.
Myanmar has said its military operations in Rakhine were in response to the August attack and that the military was battling terrorists.
If the situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine state persists, UN agencies estimate the total number of refugees entering Bangladesh may hit one million.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
United Nations : The security operation targeting Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar “seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”, the UN human rights chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein has said, urging the country to end the “cruel military operation” in its Rakhine state.
More than 300,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since violence erupted there late last month. The military says it is responding to attacks by Rohingya militants and denies targeting civilians, BBC reported on Monday.
The violence began on August 25 when Rohingya militants attacked police posts in northern Rakhine, killing 12 security personnel.
Rohingyas who have fled Myanmar since then say the military responded with a brutal campaign, burning villages and attacking civilians in a bid to drive them out. Rakhine, the poorest region in Myanmar, is home to more than a million Rohingyas. They have faced decades of persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they are not considered citizens.
Hussein, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the current operation in Rakhine was “clearly disproportionate”.
“We have received multiple reports and satellite imagery of security forces and local militia burning Rohingya villages, and consistent accounts of extrajudicial killings, including shooting fleeing civilians,” he said.
“I call on the government to end its current cruel military operation, with accountability for all violations that have occurred and to reverse the pattern of severe and widespread discrimination against the Rohingya population,” he said.
Latest reports put the number of those who have fled to Bangladesh at 313,000. Aid agencies say they are in desperate need of food, shelter and medical aid and that current resources are inadequate.
—IANS
