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  • Suu Kyi Can’t Be Stripped Of Nobel Peace Prize, Says Nobel institute

    Suu Kyi Can’t Be Stripped Of Nobel Peace Prize, Says Nobel institute

    The organization that oversees the Nobel Peace Prize said Friday the 1991 prize awarded to Myanmar’s Aung Sang Suu Kyi cannot be revoked.

    Olav Njolstad, head of the Norwegian Nobel Institute said in an email to The Associated Press that neither the will of prize founder Alfred Nobel nor the Nobel Foundation’s rules provide for the possibility of withdrawing the honor from laureates.
    “It is not possible to strip a Nobel Peace Prize laureate of his or her award once bestowed,” Njolstad wrote. “None of the prize awarding committees in Stockholm and Oslo has ever considered revoking a prize after it has been awarded.”

    An online petition signed by more than 386,000 people on Change.org is calling for Suu Kyi to be stripped of her Peace Prize over the persecution of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority.

    Suu Kyi received the award for “her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights” while standing up against military rulers.

    She became the country’s de facto leader after Myanmar held its first free election in 2012 and she led her party to a landslide victory.

    On Thursday, former South African archbishop Desmond Tutu urged her to intervene to stop the persecution of the Rohingya. In an open letter, he told his fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner that it is “incongruous for a symbol of righteousness” to lead a country where violence against the Rohingya is being carried out.

    Rohingya have described large-scale violence perpetrated by Myanmar troops and Buddhist mobs — setting fire to their homes, spraying bullets indiscriminately and ordering them to leave or be killed.
    Suu Kyi has dismissed the Rohingya crisis as a misinformation campaign.

     

    Source: http://www.arabnews.com

  • Spotted A Group Of E-Scooter Riders Travelling With Young Kids @ IKEA Tamp

    Spotted A Group Of E-Scooter Riders Travelling With Young Kids @ IKEA Tamp

    tomper Eugenia was near IKEA Tampines when she saw a group of e-scooter riders travelling with young kids.

    Two men and a woman were riding the e-scooters and a young boy and girl were sitting on the decks of the men’s scooters, holding on to the handlebar stem.

    This is dangerous on all levels, not to mention that nobody in the group was wearing a helmet as a safety precaution.

    “Some people shouldn’t be allowed to have kids,” said the Stomper.

     

    Source: STOMP

  • Asean No Longer Able To Handle Rohingya Issue, Says KL

    Asean No Longer Able To Handle Rohingya Issue, Says KL

    Asean is no longer able to handle the issue of Rohingya persecution in Myanmar, said Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman.

    “I think Asean can no longer handle this issue. Within Asean, I have given up hope. We had seven meetings, and Malaysia had expressed our concerns to Myanmar and they (Myanmar) promised to address the concern.

    “Until today, nothing has been done. Therefore, Malaysia may raise it at other levels, like the United Nations and OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation),” he said on Wednesday when asked to comment if Malaysia would bring up the issue of the continuing violence against the Rohingya at this month’s United Nations General Assembly.

    The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned Myanmar envoy U Sein Oo to express Malaysia’s displeasure over the latest violence in Rakhine state. In a statement that day, Mr Anifah was quoted as saying that Malaysia was gravely concerned over the “sustained violence and discrimination” against the Rohingya in Myanmar.

    Some 164,000 mostly Rohingya refugees have now crossed into Bangladesh in the last fortnight to escape fighting between militants and Myanmar’s military, the United Nations said yesterday.

    The latest data means more than a quarter of a million Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar since fighting first broke out last October.

    Those flocking into Bangladesh have brought with them harrowing testimony of murder, rape and widespread arson at the hands of Myanmar’s army. Myanmar’s government, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has, however, rejected allegations of atrocities, accusing the international media, non-governmental organisations and the UN of fabrications.

    Ms Suu Kyi on Wednesday blamed “terrorists” for “a huge iceberg of misinformation” on the strife in the north-western state of Rakhine but made no mention of the Rohingya who have fled. Yesterday, she repeated that her government was doing its best to protect everyone in Rakhine.

     

    Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/

  • Malaysia Ready To Provide Temporary Shelter For Rohingya Fleeing Violence; Coast Guard Will Not Turn The Away

    Malaysia Ready To Provide Temporary Shelter For Rohingya Fleeing Violence; Coast Guard Will Not Turn The Away

    Malaysia’s coast guard will not turn away Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar and is willing to provide temporary shelter for them, the maritime agency’s chief said on Friday.

    Rohingya insurgents attacked several police posts and an army base in Myanmar on Aug. 25. The ensuing clashes and a military counter-offensive has killed at least 400 people and triggered the exodus of more than 160,000 people to neighbouring Bangladesh.

    Malaysia, hundreds of km (miles) to the south on the Andaman Sea, is likely to see more boat people from Myanmar in coming weeks and months because of the renewed violence, said Zulkifli Abu Bakar, the director general of Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency. Malaysia is already home to over 100,000 Rohingya refugees.

    “We are supposed to provide basic necessities for them to continue their journey and push them away. But at the end of the day, because of humanitarian reasons, we will not be able to do that,” Zulkifli told Reuters, adding that no fresh refugees had been seen yet.

    Malaysia, a Muslim-majority nation, will likely house the Rohingya refugees in immigration detention centres, where foreigners without documents are typically held, he said.

    Malaysia, which has not signed the U.N. Refugee Convention, treats refugees as illegal migrants.

    Thailand has also said it is preparing to receive people fleeing the fighting in Myanmar

    There are about 59,000 Rohingya refugees registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia although unofficial numbers are almost double that.

    In 2015, mass graves were exhumed at jungle camps on the border between Thailand and Malaysia that were thought to be mainly Rohingya victims of human traffickers.

    (Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

     

    Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com

  • Tutu: If The Political Price Of Your Ascension To The Highest Office In Myanmar Is Your Silence, The Price Is Surely Too Steep

    Tutu: If The Political Price Of Your Ascension To The Highest Office In Myanmar Is Your Silence, The Price Is Surely Too Steep

    South Africa’s outspoken Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Thursday (Sep 7) castigated Aung San Suu Kyi over the Myanmar government’s treatment of its Rohingya Muslims and urged her to intervene in the crisis.

    The United Nations on Thursday said that nearly 164,000 Rohingya have escaped to Bangladesh over the past two weeks in the wake of a massive security sweep and alleged atrocities by the country’s security forces and Buddhist mobs against the Rohingya.

    Aung San Suu Kyi, feted for her years of peaceful opposition to Myanmar’s military rulers, has been urged to speak up for the Rohingya, with Muslim nations and the UN leading condemnation of her government.

    Tutu, who helped dismantle apartheid in South Africa and became the moral voice of the nation, joined in the condemnation.

    “If the political price of your ascension to the highest office in Myanmar is your silence, the price is surely too steep,” Tutu said in a statement.

    “It is incongruous for a symbol of righteousness to lead such a country; it is adding to our pain,” he said noting that “the images we are seeing of the suffering of the Rohingya fill us with pain and dread.”

    “As we witness the unfolding horror we pray for you to be courageous and resilient again … for you to speak out for justice, human rights and the unity of your people,” said Tutu.

    Witnesses in Myanmar’s Rakhine state say entire villages have been burned to the ground since Rohingya militants launched a series of coordinated attacks on Aug 25, prompting a military-led crackdown.

     

    Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com