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Tag: Myanmar

  • Myanmar Sends Troops Into Muslim-Majority Region After Deadly Attacks

    Myanmar Sends Troops Into Muslim-Majority Region After Deadly Attacks

    Myanmar has stepped up security in a Muslim-majority region near its border with Bangladesh, officials said on Monday (Oct 10), as authorities hunt for attackers who killed at least nine police officers.

    Officials believe that members of the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority launched three separate attacks in the early hours of Sunday, in which dozens of weapons and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition were seized from border police.

    Nine policemen were killed, one was missing and five were wounded. Eight attackers were killed and two captured, police said.

    The Rohingya, who are mostly stateless and are subject to severe restrictions on their movements, make up the majority of the population in the northern part of Rakhine State.

    Authorities in the township of Maungdaw on Sunday announced the extension of an existing order banning gatherings of five or more people and imposing a 7pm to 6am curfew.

    State media said the military – known as the Tatmadaw – had moved troops into the area by helicopter. Photographs on social media showed trucks full of infantry purportedly being deployed in the area.

    No detailed information has been released about the operation in the area near a border guard office at Kyiganbyin village, where as many as 90 assailants seized weapons and fled into the hills.

    “The Tatmadaw, the police force and the Ministry of Border Affairs are working together to ensure security and restore law and order,” said Min Aung, a minister in the Rakhine State government, who declined to disclose the size of the force sent to the area.

    Human rights advocates raised concerns that civilians may be caught up in the sweep. Unverified reports posted online by advocates for the Rohingya suggested that a violent crackdown may be underway.

    Ye Htut, administrator for Maungdaw, said he was not aware of the situation around Kyiganbyin village, which is under the control of security forces.

    Muslim residents of Maungdaw town closed their shops amid the heightened security presence, he said.

    “All of the security forces are deployed in Maungdaw, so we are not worried about security. Everything is fine,” Ye Htut said.

    BANGLADESH DEPLOYS BORDER GUARDS

    Matthew Smith, founder of campaign group Fortify Rights, said restrictions on the Muslim population already in place made northern Rakhine State “a police state, an apartheid state”.

    “Human rights violations in the context of counterinsurgency in northern Rakhine State are not new,” Smith said.

    “The authorities routinely accuse average Rohingya of involvement with armed extremists.”

    Authorities routinely dismiss accusations of rights abuses.

    Sunday was the bloodiest day in the state since 2012, when more than 100 people were killed in clashes between Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists. Some 125,000 people, the majority Rohingya, remain displaced.

    Myanmar’s state counsellor and foreign minister Aung San Suu Kyi – who in August appointed former U.N. chief Kofi Annan to head an advisory commission into the situation in Rakhine State – discussed the attacks with security officials in an emergency meeting on Sunday, said foreign ministry official Kyaw Tin.

    “The state counsellor instructed us to handle this issue cautiously in accordance with the law,” Kyaw Tin told reporters.

    Officials in Bangladesh said Myanmar had closed the border after the attacks.

    Bangladesh deployed additional border guards, said Mohammad Tanvir Alam Khan, a Border Guard Bangladesh commander.

    Myanmar police chief Zaw Win has said his force was investigating possible links between the attackers and rebel groups.

    Zaw Win also mentioned big drugs busts by police in the area – some 6 million methamphetamine pills were seized in September – as a possible trigger for the attacks.

     

    Source: ChannelNewsAsia

  • Kumpulan Hak Asasi Minta Myanmar Siasat Kematian Gadis Rohingya

    Kumpulan Hak Asasi Minta Myanmar Siasat Kematian Gadis Rohingya

    Para pejuang hak asasi manusia meminta Myanmar untuk menyiasat kematian seorang gadis muslim dari golongan minoriti Rohingya, yang dianiaya di negara itu.

    Gadis tersebut yang ditemui tidak berbaju dan tidak sedarkan diri berhampiran sebuah pangkalan tentera, meninggal dunia bulan ini.

    Gadis berkenaan yang dikenal pasti sebagai Raysuana berusia 25 tahun didapati di sebelah jalan raya dekat kawasan tentera di Sittwe, ibu kota bandar Rakhine di barat Myanmar, menurut para penduduk dan kumpulan hak asasi Amnesty International.

    Beliau hilang semasa berjalan di sebuah kawasan di mana lebih 100,000 penduduk kaum Rohingya tinggal di kemah-kemah sejak Sittwee berdepan dengan keganasan masyarakat pada 2012, tambah Amnesty dalam satu kenyataan pada lewat semalam (30 Ogos).

    Kebanyakan yang dipindahkan adalah golongan muslim Rohingya, golongan yang ramai di Myanmar menganggap sebagai pendatang haram dari Bangladesh.

    Mereka dihalang dari berjalan dengan bebas dan akses kepada jagaan kesihatan dan pendidikan dilarang.

    Hla Myint, seorang pentadbir Rohingya, memberitahu Reuters beliau menerima panggilan daripada seorang korporal dari unit artileri tentera dan diminta untuk mengambil Raysuana yang tidak sedarkan diri pada awal 18 Ogos lalu.

    “Beliau masih bernafas apabila saya melihatnya, tetapi beliau terbujur di lantai. Tiada pakaian di tubuhnya (selain baju dalam) tetapi seseorang menutupnya dengan selimut,” kata Hla Myint.

    Beliau dibawa ke klinik kampung di mana para atenden mendapati kesan lebam pada leher dan darah dari rahimnya, tambah Hla Myint.

    Gadis itu meninggal dunia petang itu juga (18 Ogos), menurutnya.

    Para penduduk di kawasan-kawasan golongan minoriti dan pekerja hak asasi manusia sudah bertahun menuduh tentera Myanmar menyalahgunakan kuasa termasuk merogol. Tentera Myanmar menolak seperti biasa dakwaan tersebut.

    Hal itu timbul sedang Myanmar mengadakan rundingan damai antara pemerintah dengan golongan etnik minoriti hari ini (31 Ogos) dalam satu usaha untuk menghuraikan konflik berdekad lamanya dan meragut ribuan nyawa dan membuat negara itu terbenam dengan kemiskinan.

    AFP melaporkan Setiausaha Agung Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu Ban Ki-moon yang menghadiri rundingan itu menggambarkannya sebagai detik “bersejarah” bagi negara tersebut menyusuli peralihannya ke arah demokrasi.

    Namun, hanya segelinitir menjangkakan keputusan yang kukuh daripada perundingan lima hari itu yang dianggap sebagai permulaan proses kedamaian yang boleh mengambil masa bertahun lamanya.

    Source: Berita MediaCorp

  • Man Found Hidden Under Maid’s Bed, He Wasn’t An Intruder

    Man Found Hidden Under Maid’s Bed, He Wasn’t An Intruder

    A 78-year-old female employer of a maid from Myanmar, got the shock of her life when she discovered a man hiding under her maid’s bed.

    Her dog had woken her up at midnight and led her to the maid’s room. She opened the door and was startled to find a man hiding under her maid’s bed and her maid not in the room.

    She quickly called her son-in-law for assistance as she had been home alone with her 86-year-old bedridden husband. Her daughter and son-in-law rushed over. Finding the man under the bed, the son-in-law kept the man in the room and called the police.

    The man struggled to get out of the room and the son-in-law had to use his weight to keep the door of the maid’s room shut. He heard the man inside make a call on his mobile phone, possibly for assistance from his friends. In the meantime, his father-in-law, who had already suffered from two strokes, went into shock. Thankfully his wife, a doctor, was able to stabilise him.

    When the police arrived, they got the man out of the room and he knelt on the living room floor crying and saying he was sorry. The police questioned him and then let him go as no offence had been committed.

    It turned out that the maid from Myanmar who had been with the family for six weeks had invited the man into the house.The maid denied knowing the man who is thought to be working near Bukit Timah. However, the police determined that the man had been invited into the house and had not broken in.

    The family have employed maids for over 20 years and have never experienced anything like this before. They have sent the maid back to the agency. As his father-in-law is bedridden and his elderly mother-in-law is unable to care for him alone, they will be hiring another maid soon. However, not before installing further security in the house.

    Source: http://sg.theasianparent.com

  • Mass Anti-Muslim Protests In Rakhine

    Mass Anti-Muslim Protests In Rakhine

    Myanmar’s bitterly divided Rakhine State saw mass protests yesterday as thousands of Buddhists, including monks, demonstrated in a show of opposition to a government edict referring to Muslim communities in the restive province, organisers said.

    Anti-Muslim rhetoric has spiked across Myanmar recently, with two mosques torched by Buddhist mobs in just over a week in a country where sectarian violence has left scores dead since 2012.

    Home to around one million stateless Rohingya Muslims, Rakhine State has been hardest hit by religious violence that has left tens of thousands of the persecuted minority in fetid displacement camps.

    The Rohingya are reviled by Rakhine Buddhists who refuse to recognise any shared rights to the province and instead call them “Bengalis” – or illegal immigrants from nearby Bangladesh.

    Ms Aung San Suu Kyi’s new government has sought to defuse the row over the term Rohingya, ordering officials to refer instead to “Muslim communities in Rakhine”.

    But protesters yesterday said that this term was also unacceptable as it handed Muslims recognition in a Buddhist state.

    “We reject the term ‘Muslim communities in Rakhine State’,” protest organiser Kyawt Sein said, adding that more than 1,000 people, including monks, had joined the rally in the state capital.

    Demonstrators there shouted slogans including “Protect Rakhine State”, while a protest in the town of Thandwe drew similar numbers.

    “Bengalis should be called Bengalis,” said local Rakhine youth group leader Phoe Thar Lay, adding that 17 townships across Rakhine were participating in protests yesterday.

    Most Rohingya live cut off from the Buddhist community in displacement camps or remote settlements since sectarian riots tore Rakhine apart in 2012.

    Persecution and poverty have forced tens of thousands to flee by sea, but the dangerous trafficking route south through the Bay of Bengal was closed late last year during a Thai crackdown on people smuggling.

    Ms Suu Kyi, a veteran democracy activist who championed her country’s struggle against repressive military rulers, has drawn criticism from rights groups for not taking up the cause of the Rohingya.

    Instead she has carefully sought to sidestep controversy, urging the international community to give the country “space” to unpick its sectarian problems.

    The Rohingya are not recognised by the government as an official ethnic minority.

    After a 12-day visit to Rakhine and other conflict sites in Myanmar, a United Nations rights investigator warned last Friday that “tensions along religious lines remain pervasive across Myanmar society”.

    Ms Yanghee Lee urged the country’s new civilian government to make “ending institutionalised discrimination against the Muslim communities in Rakhine State… an urgent priority”.

    On Friday, a mosque was torched by a Buddhist mob in the town of Hpakant in the far north.

    That incident came eight days after a crowd of Buddhists destroyed another mosque in central Bago, forcing the Muslim community to seek refuge in a neighbouring town.

     

    Source: The Straits Times

  • Perusuh Bakar Masjid Di Myanmar, Ketegangan Agama Memuncak

    Perusuh Bakar Masjid Di Myanmar, Ketegangan Agama Memuncak

    Sekumpulan perusuh yang menghayunkan senjata membakar sebuah masjid di Myanmar, lapor media negara itu.

    Ia merupakan serangan kedua terhadap sebuah masjid di Myanmar dalam tempoh hanya seminggu, sedang sentimen anti-Islam meluap-luap di negara yang kebanyakan penduduknya beragama Buddha itu.

    Myanmar bergelut dengan insiden-insiden rusuhan agama berdarah sejak beberapa tahun ini. Ketegangan di antara suku kaum dan sentimen tegar di kalangan penganut Buddha yang kian meningkat menjadi cabaran yang sukar ditangani pemerintah baru pimpinan Aung San Suu Kyi.

    Semalam (1 Julai), sekumpulan penduduk kampung di Hpakrant, kota perlombongan jed di utara wilayah Kachin, menggeledah sebuah masjid dengan “menghayunkan kayu, pisau dan senjata lain” sebelum membakarnya, menurut akhbar Global New Light of Myanmar.

    “Kumpulan itu langsung tidak dapat dikawal. Bangunan itu hangus dibakar oleh kumpulan perusuh itu,” lapor akhbar tersebut, sambil menambah kumpulan tersebut mengamuk setelah satu pertikaian tentang pembinaan masjid itu.

    Tiada orang ditangkap berhubung kes itu, menurut laporan itu.

    Rusuhan itu berlaku selepas satu lawatan selama 12 hari ke negara itu oleh seorang penyiasat hak asasi Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) yang memberi amaran bahawa “ketegangan antara agama terus berleluasa di kalangan masyarakat Myanmar”.

    Dalam sidang media bagi menggulung lawatannya semalam, Yanghee Lee menyeru pihak berkuasa supaya menyiasat pemusnahan sebuah lagi masjid di tengah Bago lewat bulan lalu.

    “Pemerintah mesti menunjukkan bahawa menghasut dan melakukan keganasan terhadap masyarakat minoriti etnik atau agama tidak boleh dibenarkan di Myanmar,” katanya.

    Sikap tidak bertoleransi terhadap agama lain kian meningkat di negara itu sejak beberapa tahun kebelakangan ini, dan mengancam untuk menggugat demokrasi di negara itu sejak pemerintahan junta mengundurkan diri pada 2011.

    Pihak berkuasa keberatan untuk mengenakan dakwaan kerana takut ia akan mencetuskan lebih banyak rusuhan.

    Keganasan agama yang paling dahsyat berlaku di wilayah Rakhine pada 2012, yang meragut puluhan nyawa dan memaksa puluhan ribu warga Muslim Rohingya menetap di kem-kem lusuh.

    Wilayah Rakhine kekal sebagai wilayah di Myanmar di mana hubungan antara masyarakat berlainan agama paling tegang, dengan masyarakat Islam disekat pergerakan mereka dan juga akses kepada khidmat-khidmat asas dan pekerjaan.

    Cik Lee menggesa pemerintah baru negara itu supaya menjadikan usaha menamatkan diskriminasi terhadap masyarakat Islam di wilayah itu sebagai keutamaan yang genting.

    Cik Suu Kyi, pemenang Hadiah Nobel Keamanan yang memperjuangkan usaha Myanmar menentang rejim tentera di negara itu, mengecewakan kumpulan-kumpulan hak asasi kerana tidak mengambil langkah lebih segera untuk menghuraikan isu masyarakat Rohingya.

    Source: Berita MediaCorp