The United Nations has expressed alarm over violence against Muslim Rohingya, who may be victims of “crimes against humanity”, and UN staff have said the reputation of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government is at stake, as former UN chief Kofi Annan arrived in Myanmar for a trip that will include a visit to Rakhine state.
Following attacks by armed assailants against border security posts in October, the military’s response has reportedly been characterised by excessive use of force and other serious human rights violations against the Rohingya, including allegations of extrajudicial executions, torture, rape and the destruction of religious property.
“These allegations must be verified as a matter of urgency. If they are true, the lives of thousands of people are at risk. The reputation of Myanmar, its new government and its military forces is also at stake in this matter,” said Adama Dieng, the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide.
About 30,000 people have fled their homes and analysis of satellite images by Human Rights Watch found that hundreds of buildings in Rohingya villages have been razed.
Myanmar has denied allegations of abuse, saying the army is hunting “terrorists” who are behind raids on police posts last month.
The government has lashed out at media reports of rapes and killings, and lodged a protest against a UN official in Bangladesh who said the state was carrying out “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya.
Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry’s permanent secretary Kyaw Zeya met UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) resident representative Giuseppede Vincentiis on Tuesday to explain measures reportedly taken for the stability of Rakhine State.
Meanwhile, Nay Pyi Taw reacted angrily to a statement made by a UN official regarding “ethnic cleansing”, saying the official “not only breached the code of conduct of UN personnel, but also undermined the trust and confidence placed in and the cooperation extended to the UNHCR by Myanmar”.
The government has lodged a complaint over the statement with the UNHCR in Geneva since last week, according to Myanmar Eleven.
“The current restrictions on access to Rakhine State, which prevent verification of the allegations, are contributing to suspicion and alarm. Denying the allegations without allowing for their verification is counterproductive,”
The UN official urged the Myanmar government and the military to heed requests by the UN – and many other parties across the world – to authorise access and an immediate and thorough independent investigation into incidents reported in Rakhine.
Dieng reminded Suu Kyi’s government, which took office early this year after a landslide victory in 2015 election, of the trust placed in the government by the international community as Myanmar transitions to democracy.
“Myanmar needs to demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law and to the human rights of all its populations. It cannot expect that such serious allegations are ignored or go unscrutinised,” he said in a statement.
The UN official also urged Bangladesh not to close its borders to refugees fleeing Myanmar. “Closing the border, deporting refugees or failing to provide assistance, exposes these populations to further violence that could, in the worst case, constitute international crimes,” Dieng said.
On Tuesday, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) said Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya could be tantamount to crimes against humanity, reiterating the findings of a June report.
“The government has largely failed to act on the recommendations made in a report by the UN Human Rights Office … [that] raised the possibility that the pattern of violations against the Rohingya may amount to crimes against humanity,” the UNHCHR said in a statement.
Amid the mounting crisis, former UN chief Annan on Tuesday began a week-long visit to Myanmar that will include a trip to Rakhine.
Suu Kyi in August appointed fellow-Nobel laureate Annan to head a special commission to investigate how to mend bitter religious and ethnic divides that split the impoverished state.
Annan, who won a Noble Peace Prize in 2001, has expressed “deep concern” over the violence in Rakhine, while thousands of angry Muslims have taken to the streets across Asia in protest.

Three brothers — Omar Farukh, Omar Khayer and Omar Sadeque — were still in school uniform which had the logo of their school in Myanmar. The white shirts of the boys, aged between 8 and 10, became quite dirty as they had been wearing them for over a week.

On Friday night, they along with their mother, Shamsunnahar, 34, and three younger siblings reached the Nazirartek dry fish processing zone in Cox’s Bazar town.

Their father, Hossain Ahmed, a farmer from Bar Gazobil village in Myanmar, has been missing since Myanmar police arrested him two weeks ago.

“We crossed the Naf river on Thursday morning and reached the fisheries project area near Rongikhali. There, BGB men stopped us and gave us food. Later that evening, they sent us back in our boat,” said Shamsunnahar.

However, they returned and managed to reach the unregistered Rohingya camp at Leda in Teknaf. Later, they went to Nazirartek where Shamsunnahar’s mother Rahima Khatun has been living for the last eight years.

Wrapped in a shroud, the body of a child being taken out of the unregistered Rohingya camp at Leda in Teknaf for burial by his father Jamal Hossain yesterday morning. The child died of cold-related disease hours after he along with his family reached the camp on Friday evening. Photo: Anisur Rahman
“Four of my children used to go to school. Now, I will have to work here just to survive,” Shamsunnahar told The Daily Star in front of her mother’s rented house.

The rent for an eight feet by six feet hut in Nazirartek is only Tk 400 and many of the Rohingyas who are crossing into Bangladesh from Myanmar have been living in the area.

Many Myanmar citizens, like Mariam Khatun, Fatema Begum, Khaleda Begum and Khurshida Begum, who have taken shelter there, are working as day labourers.

On the other hand, many were getting into different slums in Cox’s Bazar town, Chittagong, Bandarban and other districts, due to the absence of proper monitoring.

Contacted, Ali Hossain, deputy commissioner of Cox’s Bazar, claimed that different government intelligence agencies and law enforcers were monitoring the matter.

“But still many of them [Rohingyas] are spreading to different places because they have relatives who have been living in Bangladesh for many years. Those relatives are helping them,” he said.

However, Abu Morshed Chowdhury Khoka, president of Cox’s Bazar Civil Society, a platform of citizens in the district, claimed that the spreading of Rohingyas to different places in Bangladesh would have a negative impact on the society. “They [Rohingyas] are getting involved in crimes.” he said.

It is necessary to keep all the Rohingyas at a certain place with the help of the UNHCR,” said Khoka. He urged the government to take necessary steps in this regard.

The Rohingyas were stilling coming into Bangladesh through the Naf river despite increased vigilance by law enforcers.

Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB) said they had to send back four boats full of Rohingyas yesterday in the river.

Meanwhile, a five-month-old child died of cold-related disease early yesterday at the unregistered Rohingya camp at Leda in Teknaf. He along with family had reached the camp on Friday evening hours after crossing into Bangladesh.

“He was having severe cold and cough,” said Nur Begum, his mother.

Nur Begum said they came to the Leda camp on Friday along with 40 other Myanmar citizens.

PANIC IN RAKHINE VILLAGE

Rakhine people in Teknaf have been living in panic since the Rohingyas started to cross into Bangladesh recently.

“It is very natural that we are scared. Situation is bad in Myanmar. The wind may start blowing towards us here in Bangladesh,” said Ching Cho Aung, president of New Chang Prue Keyang in Hnila Chowdhury Para in Teknaf.

However, the government has been taking initiatives to protect them from any untoward situation.

“Every night, police are patrolling our village. Police have been deployed at the entrance of our village,” he said.

Only 120 Rakhine families are living in Hnila Chowdhury Para which is just three kilometers off the Leda Rohingya camp.

HOME MINISTER ON ROHINGYAS

Rohingyas are coming to Bangladesh crossing the Naf river though the country is overburdened by them, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said yesterday.

He was addressing a programme as chief guest in Naogaon, reports our correspondent in Dinajpur.

Later, Asaduzzaman told reporters that the Rohingyas are coming in despite the BGB working round the clock on the border to stop them. On the other hand, the government is also taking care of the Rohingyas and they are getting all kinds of support including medical treatment, he added.

BNP ON ROHINGYAS

The BNP yesterday urged the government to stand beside the oppressed and displaced Rohingyas of Myanmar, reports our correspondent.

“Every day we see news that Rohingya people are being brutally tortured and burnt to death in Myanmar. Though Bangladesh’s 90 percent population is Muslims, its government is least bother about it,” senior leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said at a discussion at the party’s Nayapaltan central office in the capital.

‘I DON’T WANT TO DIE’

For heavily-pregnant Siru Bibu, who fled by boat with four children after her husband and other relatives were allegedly killed by an army operation, the situation that has greeted them was dire.

“If it goes another week, my children will starve,” said Siru at the unregistered Rohingya camp at Teknaf.

“Anyone trying to help us is warned or being arrested. As a result, the newly arrived refugees are living in fear,” a camp elder told AFP, requesting anonymity.

“Police have arrested some of our neighbours and we heard that they were sent back across the border,” Yasmin Akhter, a 25-year-old mother who was only able to bring two of her six children to Bangladesh.

“I hope they won’t do it to us… I don’t want to die.”

Set to run until Dec. 9, the festival is hosted by Singapore’s Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) and seeks to welcome 20,000 audience members from the media and content production community.

Highlighting “the best of Asian storytelling”, the festival features a market, conferences, screenings, awards and lab activities while underlining the theme of the “rapid convergence of media and technology in propelling the industry forward in an increasingly digitized world”.

According to its official website, last year the festival saw US$263.19 million in market transactions and displayed more than 1,050 hours of Asian content to international audiences.

Members of the Singapore Media Festival advisory board and industry members pose during the opening of the 2016 festival on Nov. 23.(Singapore Media Festival 2016/File)

“IMDA brings the science of info-communications and the art of media together to create new opportunities and possibilities that allow us to build toward a future for Singapore,” IMDA chief executive Gabriel Lim stated at the opening ceremony.

Among the events lined up for the festival are the Singapore International Film Festival, Asian Television Awards, Asia TV Forum & Market and ScreenSingapore.

The Rohingyas on seven small fishing boats tried to infiltrate early in the morning. They were pushed back by the coast guards patrolling the river, which separates Bangladesh’s southeastern border from western Myanmar.

Lt Nafiur Rahman, commander of Coast Guard Teknaf station, said the Rohingyas attempted to enter Bangladesh through Naya Para No 5 Sluice Gate point under Sabrang union of the upazila.

They included 36 children, 61 women and 28 men, he told some reporters in the afternoon.

“There were 125 Myanmar nationals in seven wooden boats. They included 61 women and 36 children. We resisted them from entering our water territory,” Nafiur told AFP.

All of the passengers were Rohingya who tried to enter Bangladesh amid an uptick of violent clashes in neighbouring Myanmar’s Rakhine state, he said.

The official added that to monitor the movement of the Rohingyas the patrol by coast guards along the river has been increased.

On November 15, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) stopped 86 Rohingyas on two boats from entering Bangladesh through Hnila and Sabrang in Teknaf. They were sent back, reports the Cox’s Bazar correspondent of The Daily Star.

A senior Bangladeshi official said its border guard force on Friday turned back 82 Rohingya Muslims, including women and children, attempting to leave Myanmar, reports Reuters.

Lt Col Anwarul Azim, commanding officer of BGB in the Cox’s Bazar sector, said those turned away had been provided with food and medicines.

SUU KYI CRITICISED

Rohingyas are trying to escape the military crackdown after a recent escalation in violence in Rakhine State, say residents, adding that some of them have been gunned down while attempting to cross the river that marks the frontier with Bangladesh.

According to the UN, up to 30,000 people have been displaced by violence, half of which occurred during the last week when dozens of people died in clashes with the military.

The resurgence of violence has deepened a crisis that has already threatened to derail the new administration led by democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Information Taskforce on Rakhine, formed this week by the office of Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi has rejected the allegations against the military, known as the “Tatmadaw” in the Burmese language.

“Regarding those incidents, after asking the Tatmadaw and border guard troops in those regions, it is known that the information is absolutely not true,” said the State Counsellor Office Information Committee in a Facebook post.

The office added that the military and the border guard troops had not conducted operations near the border and were only engaged in an “area clearance operation” in the “inner part” of the state.

The UN envoy on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, criticised Suu Kyi’s handling of the crisis and renewed her appeal to investigate the allegations of abuses.

“State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi has recently stated that the government is responding to the situation based on the principle of the rule of law. Yet I am unaware of any efforts on the part of the government to look into the allegations of human rights violations,” she said.

“It would appear, on the contrary, that the government has mostly responded with a blanket denial, she said, adding that security forces “must not be given carte blanche to step up their operations”.

Reuters reports that soldiers have poured into the north of Rakhine along Myanmar’s frontier with Bangladesh, responding to attacks by alleged Muslim militants on border posts on October 9.

They have locked down the district, where the vast majority of residents are Rohingya, shutting out aid workers and independent observers.

Sixty-nine suspected insurgents and 17 members of the security forces have been killed, according to official reports, since the violence began last month.

Residents and rights advocates have accused security forces of summary executions, rape and setting fire to homes. The government and army have rejected the accusations.

Up to 30,000 people are now estimated to be displaced and thousands more affected by the October 9 attacks and the following security operation, said Pierre Peron, the spokesman of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Myanmar.

“This includes as many as 15,000 people who, according to unverified information, may have been displaced after clashes between armed actors and the military on November 12-13,” said Peron.

He added that humanitarian operations that had been providing food, cash, and nutrition to more than 150,000 vulnerable people have been suspended for 40 days.

More than 3,000 children have not received their regular treatment for severe acute malnutrition (SAM).

“Without appropriate treatment and care, many children with SAM are at risk of dying,” said Peron.

COUNTRIES in the Mekong basin are now facing a challenge to deal with the elephant in the room as one member has increasing influence over the others, international political observers told The Nation.
The competition between superpower China and the United States has also created trouble for the countries in the region.
The region, better known as Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), comprises six countries: China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Among them, China has become more wealthy and powerful over recent years while many of the others have had internal problems, and increasingly are being drawn into China’s orbit.
Countries like Thailand and Myanmar have been trapped in political instability, while Laos and Cambodia remain poor. All four heavily rely on China in terms of trade, investment and development assistance. Vietnam’s economy is expanding but it faces trouble with neighbouring China over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
At a recent meeting of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) political foundation, including alumni from all of the Mekong countries except Laos, discussions focused on each country’s current political and economic challenges, including burdens that prevent healthy partnerships.
A lack of trust among the countries was identified as a key obstacle that impeded relations and led to “fragile regional security”, analysts said. Trust has been eroded for centuries because of their “crafted” historic disputes.
Each country has written history in favour of itself. In Thailand, the national history officially taught in schools has told students that the Kingdom has always been attacked by its neighbours, most notably Myanmar. Similarly, rival countries also have the same bias including historical stories that establish competing claims over boundaries, resulting in never-ending land disputes, such as that of Thailand and Cambodia. The biased narratives have planted seeds of hatred in the minds of the students of each country.
“We have learned a distorted history which unfortunately brings us to a position where we lose faith in one another,” Nguyen Hoang Son, a Vietnamese business reporter, told The Nation during a discussion about building trust among GMS developing countries.
“Such a hostile sentiment among the population ultimately mars greater cooperation because we are sceptical of one another and not willing to coordinate on the greater strategic partnerships,” said Long Kimkhorn, president of the Khmer Youth Congress.
With sceptical viewpoints and weak strategic partnerships, countries have seen widening economic gaps in the region. Vietnam and Thailand are widely perceived as relatively bigger economies.
The disparity is regarded as a factor that has allowed the rise of China. According to Thomas Awe and Tim Wenniges, authors of the report titled “Rise and Fall of Regional Powers”, the ongoing ambitions of China emphasised Beijing’s soaring influence over the five states in the Mekong.
Beijing takes a “dominant role” in forming alliances with countries to help it in multilateral negotiations, according to a political analyst who preferred to remain anonymous.
Beijing’s influence ranges from political, military and economic dominance over the region, which is likely to bring countries into “certain dependencies” on China, according to another political observer who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
The competing influences of the world’s two powers – the newly rising China, and Western powers including the US, which have for decades pushed democracy-oriented political values into their foreign policies and engaged in regional cooperation – have pushed Southeast Asia into an unprecedented position.
One of the key solutions to this challenge, suggested by several political observers, would be to strengthen the Asean Community and enhance integration for the mutual benefit of all member nations, which could use a strong partnership to boost their domestic capabilities, the participants said.

Although Japan is not a claimant in the South China Sea, it is concerned about the safety of sea lanes and freedom of navigation in the area, said Yuki Tamura, deputy director of the Foreign Ministry’s Regional Policy Division.
“About 80 per cent of our imported crude oil as well as other shipments are transported through the South China Sea,” said Tamura, who oversees the issue.

The South China Sea issue is directly connected to the peace and stability in the region and thus a matter of justifiable concern to the international community, including Japan, he said.
Japan has serious concerns over unilateral actions over territory including large-scale reclamation, the building of outposts and their use for military purposes, Tamura said.
With the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruling in favour of the Philippines against China over its expansive territorial claims in July, Japan expected that the parties’ compliance with the award would lead to peaceful settlement of disputes in the South China Sea, he said.
While Japan wanted to see a peaceful solution based on international laws, it encouraged and supported countries in the region to bolster their defence capacity for maritime security, said another official who declined to be named. In recent years, he said, Japan had provided help under the Official Development Assistance scheme in the field of maritime security to the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia.
Last week, Japan granted two patrol vessels belonging to the Japan Coast Guard to Malaysia. “This cooperation is also expected to help promote the ‘rule of law’ at sea and to further strengthen the relations between Japan and Malaysia,” a Japanese Foreign Ministry statement said.
Japanese scholars expected their government to do more to help countries in the South China Sea boost their maritime defence capacity.
“Another thing I think Japan and the US should do is to provide anti-ship and anti-air missiles [to these countries] because if the Philippines and Vietnam deployed such defence capabilities along their coastlines, that would actually deter China from setting up military bases in the South China Sea,” said Tetsuo Kotani, a senior fellow at The Japan Institute of International Affairs.
The military balance in the region was too much in favour of China, so building up base capacity of countries in the contentious sea was a good thing, he said.
“I don’t think that is stimulating an arms race between China and Asean but, on the other hand, certain capability such as submarines would be more of a deterrent to China,” he said. “The introduction of submarines among Asean countries is very helpful for the regional military balance.”
In practice, Japan already changed its arms export policy two years ago, “so we can help build up military capability to countries in the region,” he added.

Malaysians clad in the yellow of the reformist Bersih campaign flooded Kuala Lumpur for the second time in 15 months to vent anger over allegations that billions of dollars were looted from state investment fund 1MDB, Najib’s brainchild.

Speaking to a crowd of at least 20,000 under the shadow of the capital’s giant Petronas Towers twin skyscrapers, Mahathir, 91, accused Najib of stealing public money and said Malaysia was “controlled by thieves”.

“Time has come for us to topple this cruel regime. Najib is no longer suitable to be the prime minister. He is abusing the law,” Mahathir said.

Malaysia has been seized since last year by the 1MDB scandal, which has sparked investigations in several countries.

Najib, 63, and 1MDB deny wrongdoing.

But the US Justice Department — which has filed lawsuits to seize assets it says were purchased with stolen 1MDB money — says the fund was pillaged in an audacious campaign of fraud and theft that involved an unnamed top Malaysian official.

A Malaysian Cabinet official has since admitted that individual was Najib.

Najib last year abruptly shut down Malaysian investigations, fired the attorney general and purged ruling-party critics.

Few expect him to be toppled anytime soon.

Najib on Friday condemned Bersih as an opposition plot “to unseat a democratically-elected government”.

– Rivers of yellow –

Tensions in the Muslim-majority country rose in the rally’s run-up due to threats by the “Red Shirts,” ethnic-Malay rightists who support Najib, to disrupt the demonstration, but no clashes were reported.

Police on Friday arrested Bersih leader Maria Chin Abdullah and several other figures in an apparent bid to undercut Saturday’s protest.

Amnesty International called the arrests “the latest in a series of crude and heavy-handed attempts” to silence dissent.

Defying the government pressure, rivers of yellow-wearing demonstrators flowed downtown, blowing vuvuzelas, brandishing caricatures of Najib and other 1MDB figures, and chanting “Catch the Thief-in-Chief!”

“We want a clean government. We want fair elections,” said Derek Wong, a 38-year-old real estate agent.

“We hope to see Najib removed and charged in court.”

Bersih, which means “clean” in Malay, is an alliance of scores of NGOs and civil-society groups that staged several protests over the years for electoral reform, but has now shifted focus to 1MDB.

In August 2015, it drew even larger crowds for two days of peaceful demonstrations over 1MDB.

1MDB has fuelled gloom among progressives and reform advocates who had already accused Najib of reneging on earlier promises to eliminate graft and end the 59-year-old ruling coalition’s repressive tendencies.

Critics say Najib is lurching toward autocracy and trampling rule of law to stifle the scandal as elections loom within 18 months.

Mahathir’s participation in Bersih’s 1MDB demonstrations — he also showed up last year — underlines how the scandal has upended Malaysian politics.

Mahathir ruled with a firm grip during his own 1981-2003 tenure, championing the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

But he has quit UMNO in disgust over 1MDB and formed a new opposition party.

On Saturday he sanctioned further protests against Najib, despite dealing harshly with demonstrators while he was in power.

“We should not be afraid to show our opposition to the government,” Mahathir, wearing a yellow Bersih shirt, told the crowd.

Protesters began dispersing late Saturday afternoon.