The report, “The Nightmare Returns: Karen hopes for peace and stability dashed”, was to be released at the Seven Fountains Centre on Chiang Mai province’s Huey Kaew Road, accompanied by an exhibition and panel discussion.

Shortly before the event was due to start Wednesday afternoon, local police told the organiser not to go ahead with the activity, a representative of the Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN) said. “They gave no reason. They just said we couldn’t do it,” said a NPSN staff member.

Local police in Chiang Mai could not be immediately reached for comment.

In the report, obtained by The Nation, the Karen ethnic community urges the Myanmar military to honour the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement. It said more than 1,500 government troops had crossed into areas controlled by the Karen National Union (KNU).

The ethnic group planned to raise awareness about the plight of more than 2,400 Internally Displaced People recently forced from their land and homes in Mutraw’s Luthaw township by the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military). Cynthia Veliko, the regional representative of the UN Human Rights Office for Southeast Asia said her office continued to closely monitor the situation regarding rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, and has consistently urged Thailand to fully respect these rights.

“We are alarmed by the pressure exerted by security agencies which led to the cancellation of this critical event by the co-organisers. This raised worrying concerns on the space available for freedom of expression, academic freedom and the importance of dialogue on this matter,” she said.

The KNU has been fighting for autonomy against the Myanmar government since independence from Britain in the middle of the last century.

Along with other armed ethnic groups, the KNU signed the National Ceasefire Agreement with Myanmar authorities in 2015. The truce pact called on all parties to prioritise political dialogue instead of force of arms, requiring that they confine their troops within designated areas. It stipulates that the movement of armed troops in areas controlled by the other party is allowed only after obtaining prior agreement.

However, the Karen said in the report that the Myanmar government did not honour the agreement, provoking dozens of armed clashes with the armed ethnic in the KNU controlled areas. The clashes displaced thousands of people from their farming land and homes.

As the Tatmadaw is showing no sign of withdrawing from their offensive positions, the displaced Karen are now facing the spectre of protracted displacement, and severe food and physical insecurity, the NPSN report said.

It will be the highest-profile UN visit to Rakhine since the start last August of a violent military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority, which the UN and US have described as ethnic cleansing.

Mainly Buddhist Myanmar disputes the charge but has severely curtailed access to the conflict zone, blocking UN fact-finders and a rights envoy from entering the country.

After the Security Council first proposed a visit in February, Myanmar’s government said it was “not the right time” but it gave approval earlier this month for the visit by the 15 council ambassadors.

The crackdown has driven some 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.

“They will come to Naypyidaw on 30th (April) and will proceed to Rakhine the next day,” a senior Myanmar official with knowledge of the trip told AFP, without providing more details.

The army’s scorched-earth campaign left hundreds of Rohingya villages razed to the ground while refugees have given consistent testimony of murder and rape.

Myanmar’s military rejects the allegations and insists the response was a justified campaign to root out members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, who killed around a dozen members of the security forces in August raids on police posts.

Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a repatriation deal for refugees to return in January but so far only one family has returned from a no man’s land between the two nations.

Several thousand Rohingya remain in the border zone, refusing to join the throngs in Bangladesh’s refugee camps but also reluctant to return until their safety and rights are secured.

Many Rohingya fear that returning to Myanmar will mean they fester for years in apartheid-like camps. In southern Rakhine some 130,000 Rohingya remain trapped in displacement camps after fleeing persecution in 2012.

The stateless group has faced decades of discrimination in mainly Buddhist Myanmar, which stripped them of citizenship.

“We will carry on waiting here until we are allowed to go back to our homes,” Rohingya leader Dil Mohamed told reporters from no man’s land through the border fence on Wednesday during a government-organised press trip.

“Our parents and grandparents are all citizens of this country… how come we are not citizens?”//AFP

Jodhpur, India – An Indian guru with millions of followers was found guilty Wednesday of raping a teenage devotee on the pretext of ridding her of evil spirits, a lawyer for the victim’s family said.

Asaram Bapu, 77, who leads hundreds of ashrams in India and overseas, was convicted at a closed jailhouse court hearing in Jodhpur, in western Rajasthan state where hundreds of police stood guard.

The white-bearded guru, who urges followers to live a pious life free of sexual desires, has always denied raping the then 16-year-old in 2013 at an ashram in the city.

He is expected to be sentenced later Wednesday.

The spiritual leader was convicted of rape and breaches of child protection laws, said Utsav Bains, a lawyer for the victim’s family, who was informed of the verdict by colleagues at the closed prison hearing.

“There was no room for the court to acquit the accused. The victim stood by her allegations despite all the intimidation. It is a great victory and the credit goes to her resilience,” said Bains.

Two of the four other co-accused were also found guilty, Bains added. The remaining suspects were acquitted.

The hearing was closed to media and the prison surrounded by tight security.

The woman, now 21, accused Asaram of assaulting her on the pretext of driving away evil forces.

The influential guru, who has been in custody since 2013, had called the trial a political conspiracy and refused to cooperate with a police investigation. A perceived reluctance to bring the charismatic leader to account sparked public outrage.

The Hindu televangelist and yoga guru once attracted huge crowds to hear his sermons but Asaram’s star power has faded following the rape charges and other controversies.

But he still commands a devoted following and several Indian states were put on high alert and thousands of extra police deployed ahead of his trial, fearing riots if “Bapuji” was found guilty.

Devotees of another self-styled Hindu guru, who was jailed in 2017 for 20 years for rape, went on a rampage that lasted days and left 38 dead.

Asaram’s followers have been accused of attacking or pressuring those who have spoken out against the controversial guru into withdrawing their allegations.

Two close aides who turned key witnesses against him were murdered in 2014 and 2015.

Asaram is also accused of raping another devotee and involvement in the killing of two students at another of his Hindu retreats.

– Controversial ‘godman’ –

The conviction comes as India reels from several horrific sexual assaults that have again underscored the country’s grim record on rape.

The gang-rape and murder of an eight-year-old and a separate assault on a teenager by a ruling party politician has sparked revulsion in recent weeks and angry marches across India.

Under pressure to respond, the government last week approved the death penalty for those convicted of raping children under 12.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi — who was criticised for a slow response to the protests — has since promised “to hang the people of demonic tendencies who misbehave with daughters”.

“There is a government in Delhi which listens to the hearts of the people and decides on the basis of it,” he told a political gathering Wednesday.

Officials from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) responded angrily Wednesday as the main opposition Congress party distributed photos of the prime minister alongside Asaram.

Asaram’s website boasts of many high-profile devotees and admirers, including Modi and other past prime ministers.

India has numerous self-styled “godmen” with legions of devoted followers but several have been embroiled in scandals in recent years.//AFP

    Fadi Mohammad al-Batsh’s corpse was set to be flown to Egypt later in the day before being transported on to Gaza for burial.

Batsh, a member of Islamist militant group Hamas and said to be a rocket-making expert, was murdered in a hail of bullets by motorbike-riding attackers Saturday as he walked to a Kuala Lumpur mosque for dawn prayers.

Family and friends of the 35-year-old have accused Israel’s Mossad spy agency of carrying out the killing but the Jewish state has denied the claims.

Hundreds of mourners marched through the capital under Palestinian flags accompanying a van holding the body, as they carried placards showing the victim’s face and chanting “God is greatest”.

The remains were taken to a mosque, where prayers for the dead were performed before about 500 mourners.

“Every Palestinian who has heard of this assassination is saddened and shocked,” Muslim Imran, chairman of the Palestinian Cultural Organisation of Malaysia, told the crowd.

“This crime, I believe, is another reflection of the nature of the Israeli occupation. They carry out crimes, massacres, not only in Palestine but also in the rest of the world.”

Earlier Wednesday police said they believed the two suspects accused of carrying out the hit were still in the country, and released a photograph of one of them.

The men were believed to have entered Malaysia in January but their nationalities were still not known, police said.

The motorbike they were allegedly riding was found abandoned Tuesday not far from where the assassination took place, and police were able to trace the photo.

It showed a man with wavy black hair, glasses and a goatee beard. Police previously released two computer-generated images of the suspects, showing two light-skinned men with beards.

Mossad is believed to have assassinated Palestinian militants and scientists in the past, but rarely confirms such operations.

Batsh’s expertise in making weapons could have made him a target — militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza regularly fire rockets at southern Israel, usually without causing casualties.

But Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman has denied claims of the Jewish state’s involvement, suggesting instead that it was a “settling of accounts” between factions of a terror group.//AFP

The Prime Minister said Dr Mahathir deserved the Best Actor Academy Award for his “unprincipled ways”.

“He’s the No 1 actor. Previously, he cursed Anwar as the most terrible person,” Najib said, referring to PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

“He used words I do not even dare to repeat. And yet he can casually meet Anwar in the courtroom and shake his hand.

“I cannot do the things he (Dr Mahathir) does. A person must have principles in politics,” Najib said at the launch of the Jerantut Barisan Nasional machinery here Wednesday.

He argued that Dr Mahathir was also being used by the DAP-led Opposition to split Malay votes.

During the event, Najib also announced the setting up of an Urban Transformation Centre in Jerantut.