UN urged to punish Myanmar army over Rohingya ‘atrocities’
Pressure tightened on Myanmar Monday as a rights group urged world leaders to impose sanctions on the country’s military, which is accused of driving out more than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims in an orchestrated “ethnic cleansing” campaign. The call from Human Rights Watch came as the UN General Assembly prepared to convene in New York, with […]
Why Is Myanmar Refusing A UN Probe If There Is No Rohingya Genocide?
If Myanmar has nothing to hide, why isn’t the country’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is a Nobel Peace Prize winner, allowing U.N. investigators to visit the country? When Myanmar transitioned from military rule to civilian democracy, many hoped the new government would make efforts to resolve the Rohingya Muslim crisis that […]
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 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 […]
Rohingya face Myanmar ‘ethnic cleansing’: UN official
UNHCR chief accuses country’s troops of killing men and raping women, forcing stateless minority to flee to Bangladesh. Myanmar is carrying out “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya Muslims, a UN official has said, as stories of gang rape, torture and murder emerge from among the thousands who have fled to Bangladesh. Up to 30,000 members of […]