File photo: A Rohingya refugee girl poses for a photograph
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are facing a triple threat of extreme weather, funding shortfalls and uncertainty about their future.
Head of the UN Migration Agency William Lacy Swing said late on Tuesday it was crucial for the world to remain focused on the crisis.
"Failure to do so would have tragic outcomes for the nearly a million Rohingya refugees sheltering in Bangladesh," said the director general of the UN Migration Agency in a statement.
He made the remarks after reviewing progress by IOM and their partners in managing the refugee settlement in Cox’s Bazar, discussions with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in capital Dhaka, and an earlier meeting with Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar's minority Muslim Rohingya refugees told a UN envoy that they are willing to return to Myanmar if their safety and citizenship are provided, according to a UN statement Tuesday.The statement came following the UN Envoy for Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener's first official visit to the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh from July 14 to 16, where more than 750,000 refugees live."In Cox’s Bazar, she visited the sprawling refugee camps and heard from the people accounts of unimaginable atrocities committed in Rakhine State," the statement noted.Video: Monsoon flood cuts off Rohingya camp in Bangladesh"Despite these serious violations of human rights, they expressed to the Envoy their hope to return home if security could be guaranteed and citizenship could be provided," it added.During her discussions on the visit, Burgener also underlined the importance of accountability for the crimes committed by Myanmar forces.Since Aug. 25, 2017, some 750,000 Rohingya, mostly children and women, have fled to neighboring Bangladesh after Myanmar forces began a crackdown on the minority Muslim community, according to Amnesty International. At least 9,400 Rohingya were killed in Myanmar's Rakhine State from Aug. 25 to Sept. 24, 2017, according to Doctors Without Borders. In a report published last December, the global humanitarian group said the deaths of 71.7 percent, or 6,700 Rohingya, were caused by violence. They include 730 children below the age of 5. The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attacks since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012. The UN has documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.
Rohingya refugees want to return to Myanmar as citizens
“The Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar are in danger of becoming the wretched of the earth, homeless and without a future,” he said.
“The world must rally to support them.
“All mothers – refugees and locals – should have access to safe, hygienic facilities to give birth and it’s profoundly worrying that funding shortages are now threatening these crucial maternity services which are making such differences to the lives of women and babies from all backgrounds.
“The world must recognize the hugely generous support that the Bangladesh government and host community here in Cox’s Bazar has offered these refugees who arrived in such desperate conditions with nothing.”
Rohingya refugees are facing new difficulties as monsoon hits the coastal areas of Bangladesh, leaving their camps inundated and cut off from the main areas. Heavy downpours have triggered severe flooding in and around Cox's Bazar, making several roads completely inaccessible. As a result, the Rohingya refugees have to walk for hours to collect food and other household essentials.
Monsoon flood cuts off Rohingya camp in Bangladesh
Since Aug. 25, 2017, some 750,000 Rohingya, mostly children and women, have fled to bordering Bangladesh after Myanmar forces began a crackdown on the minority Muslim community, according to Amnesty International.
At least 9,400 Rohingya were killed in Myanmar's Rakhine state from Aug. 25 to Sept. 24, 2017, according to Doctors Without Borders.
A Reuters reporter on trial in Myanmar said the police questioning after he and a colleague were arrested in December centred on their reporting of a massacre of Rohingya Muslims, not on secret state documents they are accused of obtaining.Wa Lone, 32, also said the police deprived him and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, of sleep for more than two days, and placed black hoods over their heads while transporting them to a secret detention site where they were held incommunicado for two weeks.In hours of testimony, delivered over two days before a court in Yangon, Wa Lone also described what he called the police "trap" to arrest him. His account was the most comprehensive challenge heard so far to the prosecution's accusation that the two journalists were detained at a routine traffic stop and found to be holding secret documents from an unknown source."During the whole interrogation, they didn't ask with interest about the secret documents found on us, but they probed our reporting of Maungdaw, Rakhine," Wa Lone told the court. "I hadn't slept for many hours but they kept interrogating me. I was exhausted."At the time of their arrest, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in the village of Inn Din in western Myanmar's Rakhine State.The killings took place during a military crackdown that United Nations agencies say led to more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh last year.The Reuters journalists are on trial for allegedly breaching the colonial-era Official Secrets Act which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years. Both have pleaded not guilty.The case has attracted global attention, with many governments calling for the reporters' release in what has come to be seen as a test of press freedom in Myanmar."WE'VE GOT THEM, SIR"Describing the night of their arrest on Dec. 12, Wa Lone told the judge and a courtroom packed with family members and diplomats that he and Kyaw Soe Oo were handcuffed by a group of men in civilian clothing outside a restaurant where they had just met a police officer who handed them some documents.As they were driven to a police station a man who appeared to be in charge called a police lieutenant colonel - whose name was visible on the man's phone screen - and told him, "we've got them, sir", Wa Lone said.Defence lawyers have previously said the evidence put forward by the prosecution showed the journalists were arrested in a sting operation by the police that was aimed at interfering with their reporting.Myanmar police spokesman Colonel Myo Thu Soe did not answer calls seeking comment on Tuesday. Lead prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung also declined to comment after the hearing.Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay has declined to comment throughout the proceedings, saying Myanmar's courts are independent and the case would be conducted according to the law. He did not answer calls seeking comment on Tuesday.Throughout his testimony Wa Lone insisted on his innocence, saying he was only carrying out his work as a journalist."I am a young person who has always tried to contribute to the development of the country," he said. "I've only ever worked for media organizations, and have never worked in other types of organizations. I am not a spy."He said police had accessed his phone and found photographs of the 10 men killed at Inn Din and his call logs to sources in the village. One of the investigators told Wa Lone they would probe the killings after they discovered the information on the phone.Six days after the journalists were arrested, the military said in a statement that security forces had found a mass grave in Inn Din and had launched an investigation. In the weeks that followed, the army made a rare admission its soldiers were involved in the murders and said it sentenced seven unnamed soldiers to 10 years in jail.The authorities have told Reuters that the sentencing was unrelated to the case against Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.REPORTING CRITICISEDWa Lone told the court that during the interrogation, an officer offered a "negotiation" over the journalists' arrest if they agreed not to publish the massacre story – an offer he said he rejected.Wa Lone also said the police criticised their reporting, questioning why they were writing about the Rohingya."They said, 'You are both Buddhists. Why are you writing about 'kalars' at a time like this? They aren't citizens'," Wa Lone said, quoting the interrogating officers. "Kalar" is a derogatory term used to describe people of South Asian origin, especially Muslims.At one point during the two weeks he was held at the detention site Wa Lone said the reporters were driven to a secluded spot while hooded, making him fear for his life.In cross-examination, prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung asked whether Reuters benefited from the reporters' work, what currency the reporter was paid in and whether the articles Wa Lone wrote were sent to Reuters headquarters in the United States.The prosecutor also asked whether Wa Lone had been aware that he was found in possession of secret documents related to the security forces. The reporter said he had not been aware of the nature of the documents handed to him minutes before he was arrested.Judge Ye Lwin adjourned the hearing until July 23, when the cross-examination will continue.
Myanmar police focused interrogation on Rohingya story
Inside a bamboo shelter on Bangladesh's eastern coast, 58-year-old Sait Banu held a dog-eared note from her husband. "If you find a good match for my daughter Una Jamin, you can arrange her wedding," he urged her in the letter."Don't worry, there is no problem in jail."The message, sent from a prison hundreds of miles away in Myanmar's Rakhine state, was the first Sait Banu had heard from her husband since he was arrested in an army sweep last August that forced more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims, including Sait Banu and her nine children, to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.Poland opposition boycotts parliament independence day centennialDuring weeks of violence that the United Nations has called "ethnic cleansing," soldiers killed, raped, and arrested thousands of Rohingya, survivors and human rights groups said. Myanmar denies the allegations.With entire villages razed and thousands believed dead, Red Cross workers say many of those stuck in Myanmar prisons have been desperate to know if their families made it to the safety of refugee camps in Bangladesh. And those on the other side of the border, unable to go back, told Reuters they are equally keen to know if their loved ones had survived.Bomb on Pakistan campaign convoy kills 10 amid tension as ex-PM Sharif's returnsScraps of paper carried between prisons in Myanmar and the camps by the International Committee of the Red Cross are a rare source of hope for families torn apart by the largest and fastest refugee influx in the region in the past twenty years, the refugees say.More than 1,600 notes have been gathered from the Bangladeshi camps since August, the Red Cross says. About 160 have been delivered to jails in Rakhine and the replies sent back to Bangladesh.Reuters saw copies of seven notes, provided by Red Cross officials and hand-written on forms bearing the letterheads of Red Cross organisations, but could not independently verify their authenticity.South Korea says scrambles jets to intercept two Russian aircraft The letters often serve as the first proof of life of loved ones. They also include snippets of family news."I've been imprisoned for three years. Please don't worry for me," one letter from a Myanmar jail reads."We're always missing you very much, and I know you're also missing us," reads another one sent from the camps in Bangladesh to a Myanmar jail."Please send a picture of everybody. I would be so happy to see you all. Give news of the children," a Rohingya man detained in Myanmar asks in a February letter delivered to his wife in the camps in Bangladesh."HOW IS MY FAMILY?"When Sait Banu's husband was arrested in their village in northern Rakhine one morning last August, she was not told why the police were taking him. "They arrested 50 men from my village that day," she said. It took place only days before Rohingya insurgents struck 30 police posts on Aug. 25.FETÖ can't be trusted, says Turkish envoy to NigeriaSpokesmen for the Myanmar government and police did not respond to calls and e-mails seeking comment on the arrests or on ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses against the Rohingya, which they have denied in the past. They also did not respond to requests for comment on the exchange of letters.Myanmar has said it has arrested 384 Rohingya on suspicion of links to the Muslim militant group, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) since last August.Turkey rescues 34 migrants stranded on island in Aegean More than 2,700 people were detained in prisons in Rakhine state's two main jails - in the state capital Sittwe and Buthidaung in the north - according to the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission, although it does not say how many of them are Rohingya.Min Tun Soe, a spokesman for Myanmar's prisons department, declined to say how many people had been arrested on accusations of ties to ARSA and said that only those formally charged were kept in the jails.With no idea where her husband had been taken, Sait Banu was forced to escape without him. "They shot and killed people, so we fled," she said, referring to Myanmar security forces.Eritrea to reopen embassy in Ethiopia's capital on Sunday In December, Red Cross volunteers near her shelter called on refugees who wanted to write to their families. She had heard from relatives that most men from her village had been sent to Sittwe prison, so she gave her husband's name and other details. Red Cross staff in Myanmar later traced him to Sittwe prison.ONLY SON ALIVEWhen Yuzana, 30, a field officer for the Myanmar Red Cross, visited the jail in February, she faced anxious questions from Rohingya detainees. "They thought I'd met their families," she said. "They asked me: "How is my family? Do you know where my wife is?"‘July 2016 defeated coup was worst act of terrorism’ The Rohingya language does not have a written form, but some of the refugees speak Burmese or English. In Bangladesh, their messages are taken down by Red Cross volunteers in English, often through a translator, while those from the prisons in Rakhine are in Burmese so they can be read by the censors.Because Myanmar censors all communications in and out of the jails, the letters are limited to family news. Rohingya cannot write about last year's violence or why they were arrested, Red Cross officials say.Min Tun Soe, a spokesman for the Myanmar Prisons Department, said it was normal practice to censor communications in the prisons."We have to check whether the information written in the letter affects the security of the prison or not," he said.On a recent afternoon, a volunteer for the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society - a Red Cross-funded organisation – at the Zadimura refugee camp read out a list of 16 Rohingya men found alive in Buthidaung jail.Among the refugees who quietly gathered around him was Oli Mian, 70, hoping to hear the name of his 35-year-old son, Mohammed Rashid, who was arrested in 2016.When Oli Mian heard his son's name, he couldn't believe it. Only when it was read out again and the family details were confirmed he realised this meant his only son was alive. His eyes welled up with tears and he walked with his wooden stick back to his shelter to tell his wife."If my son was here, I wouldn't have to stand in the long relief distribution lines for hours to get food," he said, as tears fell onto the wrinkled hands folded on his lap."I'll write to him that I want to hear his voice," his wife Roshan Begum said, also fighting back tears."I'll tell him his parents are alive."
Torn apart by violence, Rohingya families connect through letters
In a report published last December, the global humanitarian group said the deaths of 71.7 percent or 6,700 Rohingya were caused by violence. They include 730 children below the age of 5.
The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.
The UN has documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.