Naw Htoo Htoo, program director at the Karen Human Rights Group, voiced her concerns and explained to Karen News why the killing of Mohibullah has highlighted the lack of protection for human rights defenders. “We support the call for investigation into the assassination of Mohibullah and at the same time call for justice brought to his case.” Naw Htoo Htoo…
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Unknown gunmen shot and killed Mohib Ullah, 46, the chair of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH). Mohib Ullah documented atrocities committed by the Burma Army and security forces against the Rohingya people and it is known he was subject to a number of death threats for his advocacy. Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director at…
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News of Aung San Suu Kyi’s decision this week to lead Myanmar’s delegation to the Hague to defend an accusation of genocide sent shock waves through Myanmar and beyond. While her domestic supporters may be elated and offer her full support, human rights groups and Suu Kyi’s one-time international supporters are dismayed at her decision to defend what many consider…
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Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director, Human Rights Watch issued a statement following Associated Press’s reporting on the discovery of additional Rohingya mass graves in Rakhine State. Mr Robertson said on the 1 February,that AP’s reporting had raised “…the stakes for the international community to demand accountability from Myanmar. The AP’s report that Tatmadaw [Burma Army] soldiers brought along to Gu…
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A total of 21 civil society groups from inside and outside Burma are concerned that the European Union has eased its position on the plight of the country’s Rohingya people. Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK urged the EU, in a media statement released today by the civil society organisations, to maintain a more forceful position against the Burma…
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Amnesty International have reported that Burma’s military forces are waging a scorched earth campaign against ethnic Rohingya in the northwest of the country. The Amnesty International report states that “more than 80 sites set ablaze in orchestrated campaign since 25 August, more than 370,000 Rohingya fled across border in less than three weeks” and that “testimonies show attacks were planned,…
Read More » United Nation sources estimates that as many as 30,000 Rohingya have fled Burma for Bangladesh. Media reports from Bangladesh put the numbers closer to 70,000. The Rohingya from Burma’s Rakhine state in the west of the country are estimated to be just over a million in total with an estimated 400,000 taking refuge in Bangladesh. The New York based Human…
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A coalition of more than 40 human rights and civil society organisations have called for an international investigation into the situation in Rakhine State – where reports of violence against the Muslim Rohingya minority continue to emerge. Fortify Rights, a South East Asia based human rights organisation, said that the evidence pointed towards State-sponsored attacks of the Rohingya and that,…
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The New York based Human Rights Watch have issued a report claiming that satellite imagery and on the ground interviews with refugees support allegations that places “responsibility for burnings of Rohingya villages in Burma’s Rakhine State squarely with the Burmese military.” Human Rights Watch’s statement issued on 13 December said that “since October 9, 2016, at least 1,500 buildings have…
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The European Burma Network has called on the newly elected NLD government of Burma to “act swiftly” in addressing the humanitarian crisis confronting the country’s Muslim Rohingya population. “The past five years have seen a dramatic escalation of human rights abuses, repression, discrimination and violence against the Rohingya,” the EBN statement said. The Rohingya have faced mounting repression since violence…
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