In what appears to be reviving harsh practices of the former Burmese military dictatorship, police in Yangon, Myanmar arrested at least six people yesterday in the first major forced eviction of slum residents under Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government.
The government of Myanmar is proudly rolling out resettlement plans after months of violence and displacement amid a security crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in the restive northern Rakhine state. But the U.N. refugee agency has raised concerns that planned “model villages” will further stoke tensions. Others, who are being relocated to the commercial capital of Yangon, feel they have been given no option but to leave their homes.
Cyclone season is right around the corner in Bangladesh, and tens of thousands of unregistered Rohingya Muslim migrants living in makeshift camps are at risk. Since Myanmar’s military began its deadly crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in October, more than 74,000 people have crossed the border into Bangladesh, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates.
At least 30 people are dead after a day of intense fighting between Myanmar’s security forces and ethnic rebels in the town of Laukkai in northern Shan state, government officials reported Monday evening. The conflict is the worst to hit the Chinese-speaking Kokang region since 2015, stoking fears of escalation and another mass exodus of refugees into neighboring China.
Myanmar’s security operation in Rakhine state has ended, the country’s newly appointed national security adviser said on Wednesday, but military and police will stay to maintain peace. The announcement signals the end of a brutal four-month crackdown that the U.N. has said likely constitutes crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing of the state’s minority Rohingya Muslims.
A Malaysian ship docked in Yangon, Myanmar, yesterday to drop off 2,300 metric tons of humanitarian aid for Muslim Rohingya in northern Rakhine state and Bangladesh. Amid protests, accusations of political expediency and initial resistance from Myanmar and Bangladesh, the Muslim-majority nation is standing by its call to end the Rohingya crisis.
The United Nations human rights office and Human Rights Watch both released reports over the weekend detailing accounts of horrific abuses said to have been committed by security forces against Muslim Rohingya women, children and men in Myanmar.
Twenty-two humanitarian organizations in Myanmar released a joint statement Wednesday calling on the government military and armed ethnic groups to end the escalating conflict in Kachin and Shan states, protect civilians and allow the delivery of aid.
The government of Myanmar has arrested four police officers in connection with a video making rounds on social media that appears to show police beating unarmed Rohingya men.
Leaders of the the Rohingya Muslim insurgent group behind two recent deadly attacks in Myanmar have links to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, a new report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) revealed, sparking fears of further radicalization if the government fails to diffuse the ongoing violence.