Rohingya Villagers Disagree to Govt’s Resettlement Plans

By Anwar M.S.January 26, 2017 

By Rohingya Eye | January 26, 2017

 

Maungdaw — The displaced Rohingya villagers at the village of Kyikanpyin in  Maungdaw Township have shown their disagreement over the Myanmar government’s plan to resettle them at a different place, it has been reported.

Earlier, the displaced villagers welcomed the promise by the Myanmar authorities of restoring them to their original places but later, in practice, the authorities are reported to  have backtracked from their promise and been planning to resettling them to elsewhere.

Two hamlets of the Kyikanpyin (Hawar Bil) village, Wapeik (Wabek) and Middle hamlet, have been severely affected by the violence of the Military and the BGP (Border Guard Police) in the name of ‘Clearance Operation.’ The Wapeik hamlet was burnt down by the military and the BGP in October 2016 in sporadic attacks, the villagers of the entire middle hamlet were expelled from their homes in the late October (2016).

On January 24 morning, the officials from the Maungdaw Township administration held a meeting with the displaced villagers of the ‘Wapeik’ and the ‘Middle Hamlet’ at the ‘Annex High School’ in Kyikanpyin.

During the meeting, the township administration officials told the Wapeik villagers of ‘restoring them to their original homes in the Wapeik and re-building it as a model village.’ The proposal was warmly welcomed by the displaced Wapeik villagers attending the meeting.

A displaced person from the Middle hamlet attending the event also said “our entire hamlet was removed in the name of ‘Operation Clearance.’ Now, we need to take in the neighborhoods, which is very inconvenient. We can’t return to our homes after the expulsion either. Our homes were plundered and some homes were destroyed too.”

In reply, the township administration team promised the villagers that they would arrange for their returns to their original homes soon. The villagers attending the meeting were happy for the positive responses from the authorities.

However, now, the displaced villagers are extremely disappointed over the authorities’ divisive plan of resettlement realizing that the actual place they (the authorities) are trying to resettle them to is a different place contrary to their promise earlier.

The current place the authorities are planning to resettle the displaced Rohingyas is located by the highway between ‘Kyikanpyin’ and ‘Zin Paing Nya’ villages. It’s a low-lying ground prone to frequently flooding in the monsoon, difficult to find drinking water in the summer and unsuitable for agriculture.

A displaced villager also added that the villagers are currently facing troubles in taking shelters in the neighborhoods and the want the authorities to restore them to their original place.

Source by: http://www.rvisiontv.com

Myanmar urged to allow aid to reach Rohingya

Final check: Anifah (centre) visiting the Plenary Hall at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre which will host the extraordinary session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers. — Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will push for the Myanmar government to take measures to improve the condition of vulnerable communities, including the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Malaysia, which is hosting the extraordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers today, will also be calling on Myanmar to allow unimpeded access for huma­nitarian aid for the Rohingya.

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said the meeting will issue a resolution which, among others, expresses concern over the acts of violence and human rights abuses towards the people of Rohingya.

“There will also be a communique to be issued calling on Myanmar to abide by its obligations under international law and prevent the worsening humanitarian crisis in Rakhine State,” he told a press conference.111111

The meeting has been convened at Malaysia’s request to discuss the plight of the Rohingya.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak will deliver a keynote address at the one-day meeting.

The OIC secretariat in Jeddah issued a statement yesterday ma­­king similar calls to Myanmar with regard to humanitarian aid.

The OIC assistant secretary-general for political affairs, Abdul­lah Abdurrahman Alim, said tragic conditions and violent crimes endured by Muslims in Myanmar since the eruption of violence in 2012 have led to the exodus and displacement of over 2.5 million people around the world.

“Inside Myanmar, the number of displaced refugees among the Rohingya Muslims have exceeded 120,000 people and they are in dire need of emergency humanitarian relief,” he said.

Abdullah added that from Oct 9 last year to Jan 5, more than 65,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh.

Abdullah said OIC groups in New York, Geneva and Brussels have held a number of emergency meetings in December to discuss the ongoing crisis.

Meanwhile, Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organi­sation Malaysia president Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani is calling on the OIC to pressure the United Nations to send its peacekeeping force to Myanmar to check human rights violations against the Rohingya civilians.

He claimed that the presence of UN peacekeepers would also indirectly stop the Rohingya community from seeking refuge in other countries.

Read more at http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/01/19/myanmar-urged-to-allow-aid-to-reach-rohingya/#YAIdQItWq7x6ejWH.99

Rohingya teen loses application over immigration documents

BY AKIL YUNUS

SEPANG: The magistrate’s court here has dismissed an application by a Rohingya Muslim teenager to set aside a charge of not possessing valid immigration documents.

The 15-year-old boy, who was arrested in Putrajaya on Dec 11, has been charged under Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act for failing to produce a valid UNHCR card.

Magistrate Sharifah Muhaymin Abd Khalib fixed Feb 24 for mention of the case, pending filing of a motion by the accused to the High Court.

Aziatul Afrizan Alias acted for the prosecution while the boy was represented by Collin Arvind Andrew of the Bar Council’s Legal Aid Centre.

Andrew said he would be filing the application to the Shah Alam High Court on Thursday, on grounds that Rohingya asylum seekers, especially children, should not be prosecuted on account of their immigration status.

During Wednesday’s proceedings, he argued before Sharifah that Rohingya children should not be prosecuted even if they are not registered with UNHCR as they are asylum seekers by default.

He cited Article 22 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the fourth preamble of the Child Act 2001, which guarantees protection for all children without distinction or exception.

“This includes asylum seeking children, particularly the Rohingyas.

“They have suffered so much hardship coming into this country and must be distinguished from all other unlawful migrants,” he said.

He told The Star Online later that should the High Court allow his client’s application, it would set an important precedent that all Rohingya children cannot be prosecuted based on their immigration status.

Andrew said that the High Court affidavit would be affirmed by the older brother of his client, who is a registered UNHCR card holder.

He added that the Foreign Ministry had been made aware of his client’s plight, taking into consideration the Government’s recent pledge to provide protection and humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya refugees, who are fleeing persecution in their homeland of Rakhine in Myanmar.

Source by:http://www.thestar.com.my

Bangladesh Official Voices Regret Over Report on Rapes of Rohingya Women

Jesmin Papri
Dhaka
2017-01-24

A Rohingya refugee holds her child in a refugee camp in Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, Nov. 26, 2016.

AFP

A Bangladeshi minister who oversees humanitarian relief efforts expressed sadness upon learning of allegations that one in three Rohingya women interviewed at refugee camps had reported being raped by Myanmar security forces before fleeing to Bangladesh.

Minister of Disaster Management Mofazzel Hossain Chowdhury Maya said that he and other officials had no direct knowledge of such abuses, but assured that he would look into these claims.

“If it has happened, then it is really pathetic and inhuman. But we are not aware about this condition/experience of Rohingya women,” the minister told BenarNews on Tuesday.

In an article published last week by BenarNews, 17 of 54 recently arrived Rohingya women who were interviewed by a correspondent at refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh, reported that Myanmar security personnel had raped them during a military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Widespread allegations have emerged since the crackdown began in early October that Myanmar government forces have sexually assaulted Rohingya woman and carried out targeted killings and other atrocities against members of the country’s stateless Muslim minority. The BenarNews report marked the first time that specific numbers of rapes were cited based on random surveys of refugees. The government in Naypyidaw has refuted these allegations.

“We will try to [find out] about this and will discuss this among ourselves to determine what is doable on this issue from our end,” the minister said, adding that Bangladesh was “trying to draw the attention of the international community regarding the disaster created by Myanmar.”

Myanmar ‘solely responsible’

An official who chairs Bangladesh’s Human Rights Commission blamed Myanmar for allowing atrocities in Rakhine, but he did not say whether his agency would investigate claims that Rohingya women had been raped.

“Whatever happened with Rohingya, Myanmar is solely responsible for all those incidents. Rohingya who entered into Bangladesh, if they were in Myanmar, then they would have died,” Kazi Reazul Haq, chairman of the autonomous government-appointed commission, told BenarNews.

He said the government should treat the refugees on “humanitarian grounds within our capacity,” adding, “the government is already trying to do so accordingly.”

At least 65,000 Rohingya have crossed the border into the Cox’s Bazar district of southeastern Bangladesh since the Myanmar military launched a crackdown in Rakhine following the killings of nine policemen by suspected militants, according to U.N. figures. The new Rohingya arrivals add to a refugee population in Cox’s Bazar that totals at least 300,000, according to Bangladeshi government estimates.

“The international community should come forward to solve this issue,” Haq added, saying it should put pressure on Myanmar to acknowledge the rights of Rohingya to citizenship in their home country.

OIC meeting

Delegates from 57 member-nations of the Muslim world’s largest inter-governmental body, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) last week held a special meeting in Kuala Lumpur, where they called on predominantly Buddhist Myanmar to end the violence against the Rohingya in Rakhine and hold perpetrators of alleged human rights abuses accountable.

Shahriar Alam, Bangladesh’s state minister for Foreign Affairs, headed his country’s delegation at the extraordinary meeting of the OIC’s Council of Foreign Ministers.

He told BenarNews that Bangladesh reported to the OIC “that we are trying to increase bilateral relationship with Myanmar, and we have also offered them our eagerness to support Myanmar in solving Rohingya crisis. But we did not get any positive response from them.”

He also told that “based on recommendations from all member countries, a resolution has also been agreed in the OIC meeting, which will be conveyed to Myanmar authority.”

The OIC meeting followed a series of bilateral talks in Dhaka between Bangladesh and Myanmar officials earlier this month, in which both sides agreed to hold further discussions about the fate of the 65,000 newly arrived Rohingya refugees. Bangladesh has asked that Myanmar take them back.

Meanwhile, representatives of the Dhaka office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), an international humanitarian body that runs camps for unregistered Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, did not respond to questions sent by BenarNews via email on Monday.

Source by: http://www.benarnews.org

That’s Me, A Rohingya.

A Rohingya girl selling food at the internally displaced persons camp for Rohingya people outside Sittwe in the state of Rakhine, Myanmar. — (Photo: Reuters)

Ro Mayyu Ali

RB Poem

January 26, 2017

That’s Me, A Rohingya.

When I was born,
I’m not a baby like you.
Without a birth certificate
I’m like just a dead.

When I’m one-year-old,
I’m not a child like you.
Without a nationality
I’m like just a pet.

When I’m in school,
I’m not a student like you.
Without a Burmese face
I’m like just a future-barren.

When I’m in another village,
I’m not a resident like you.
Having approval for overnight,
I’m like just a loony-bin-detainee.

When I pass over my town,
I’m not an inhabitant like you.
Holding Form-4 authorization,
I’m like just a nomad.

When I’m in university,
I’m not a fresher like you.
Being denied a professional major,
I’m like just an invalid.

When I try to approach with my peoples,
I’m not accepted like you.
Being suffered from apartheid and chauvinism
I’m like just a quarantined.

When I wish to get married,
I’m not a fiance like you.
Having approval for marriage,
I’m like just an alien.

When I intend to repair my earthen hut.
I’m not allowed to do like you.
Facing tangible denials,
I’m like just an invader.

When I arrange a small trade,
I’m not a vendor like you.
Being ongoing restricted and confiscated,
I’m like just a pauper.

When I apply for a civil service,
I’m not a candidate like you.
Receiving a motivated rejection,
I’m like just a segregatee.

When I’m hospitalized in a state-run clinic,
I’m not a favoured-patient like you.
Being marginalized and discriminated,
I’m like just an oustee.

When I bestow to follow belief in,
I’m not a faith like you.
Being restricted for worship and demolished mosques,
I’m like just a non-man-kind.

While I’m of an orchestrated riot,
I’m not a survivor like you.
Without an insurance for safety,
I’m like just a ripe-victim.

When a New Year turns in,
I’m not a civillian like you.
Being under the colorful decades-long operations,
I’m like just an inventory-item.

Even I live in my country where I was born,
I can’t name it my own like you.
Without an identity,
I’m like just an immigrant.

Even I breath the air of this sky,
I’m not a human being like you.
Without a reliable undertaker,
I’m like just a loner.

Even I see the sunrise,
I’m not a living-kind like you.
Without a fertile hope for tomorrow,
My life is like just a sandy-castle.

Despite apex of inhumanities
And dire of immoralities
I’m quite surrounded in
My skin remains trembling
Just to feel once the essence of full freedom
My heart remains hoping
Just to walk once like a man in my world

Indeed, no one nowadays is like me.
The only one as alike as
That’s surely myself
Perhaps, I’m none other.
Just a Rohingya!

 

See more at: http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/01/thats-me-rohingya.html#sthash.KUiIGX3k.dpuf