I visited the Rohingya camps in Myanmar and here is what I saw
Cresa Pugh, Harvard University Myanmar recently claimed to have repatriated its first Rohingya refugee family. But, as an official from the United Nations noted, the country is still not safe for the return of its estimated 700,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees, who fled to Bangladesh in 2017 to escape an ongoing state-sponsored military campaign and persecution […]
UN Rights Chief: Send Alleged Crimes Against Rohingya to ICC
The highest-ranking United Nations human rights official has called for alleged crimes committed against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority population to be assigned to the International Criminal Court for prosecution. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein referred allegations of atrocities to the ICC at a Friday news conference in Geneva. “There are strong […]
‘Major challenges’ face repatriation of Rohingya Muslims
The UN refugee agency has warned ‘major challenges’ must be overcome as a plan is announced to repatriate some 1,500 Rohingya Muslims per week from Bangladesh to Myanmar. The UNHCR says the ‘right of refugees to voluntarily return home’ is essential, adding that the Rohingya must be informed about the situation in their areas of […]
UNHCR: Risk of Terrorism ‘Very, Very High’ if Rohingya Crisis Persists
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, warned Wednesday of a high risk of terrorism in Myanmar and the region if the Rohingya crisis remains unresolved. Grandi recently visited Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, which is home to some 800,000 Rohingya refugees. Among those, 450,000 refugees recently fled violence and persecution in Myanmar, while more […]
Sri Lanka calls monks who attacked Rohingya ‘animals’
The Sri Lankan government Wednesday slammed a group of radical Buddhist monks who attacked Rohingya refugees on the island as “animals”, pledging action against police who failed to protect them. Rajitha Senaratne, a cabinet spokesman, said the government condemned Tuesday’s storming of a UN safe house where 31 Rohingya refugees, including 16 children and seven […]
Activist Group Accuses Myanmar Military of ‘Crimes Against Humanity’
The activist group Human Rights Watch on Tuesday accused the Myanmar military of committing “crimes against humanity” as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims flee violence in Rakhine State. “The Burmese military is brutally expelling the Rohingya from northern Rakhine State,” said James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch. “The massacres of […]
Hasina seeks return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar
Bangladesh’s prime minister has accused Myanmar of ethnic cleansing of its Rohingya people and urged the country to allow the return of “hungry, distressed and hopeless” refugees. Sheikh Hasina told the UN General Assembly on Thursday that Bangladesh was sheltering more than 800,000 Rohingya, of whom 430,000 had arrived in the past three weeks.
Muslim man reportedly attacked by Buddhist extremists in Myanmar
Myanmar police said Tuesday they were searching for several people who attacked a Muslim man in the central city of Meiktila. Locals said members of the Buddhist extremist organization Ma Ba Tha helped instigate the violence. The man was hospitalized after a crowd threw stones at his home late Monday. The dispute was reportedly sparked […]
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 […]
The Rohingya crisis and the role of the OIC
The latest United Nations report on the Rohingya minority shocked the world yet again with descriptions of the kind of atrocities that the Myanmar security forces are perpetrating. From children cut to death, to women raped and whole villages burned, these brutal acts have been justifiably characterised as most likely amounting to crimes against humanity. […]