Myanmar’s foreign secretary met with his Bangladeshi counterpart in Dhaka yesterday to discuss plans to repatriate Rohingya refugees. He also met with refugees in camps in southeastern Bangladesh in the days before yesterday’s meeting (Associated Press)
Rohingya leaders told Myanmar officials that they will refuse to return unless Myanmar recognizes them as an ethnic group (Reuters)
Myanmar Unprepared for Return of Rohingya Refugees
Myanmar previously promised to resettle Rohingya refugees who have fled since 2017, but a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute revealed yesterday that the country is not prepared to do so. More than 700,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar since 2017 (Australian Strategic Policy Institute)
United States Sanctions Myanmar Military Officials
Yesterday, the United States banned Myanmar’s top military commander and three officials from entering U.S. territory on grounds of extrajudicial killings of Rohingya Muslims. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States is the first government to publicly take action against Myanmar’s military leaders (Reuters)
UN: ‘Systemic Failure’ Responding to Myanmar Crisis
A new UN report highlights “serious errors” that the body committed in its efforts to address a crackdown by Myanmar security forces against Rohingya Muslims that began in 2017. The United Nations has described the Myanmar military’s actions as ethnic cleansing (Guardian)
Bangladesh Calls for Help Over Rohingya Crisis
Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen met with foreign diplomats based in Dhaka today to urge them to increase pressure on Myanmar to improve conditions in Rakhine State for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees. Bangladesh is now hosting more than 1.2 million Rohingya (Dhaka Tribune)
Reuters Reporters Released in Myanmar
Journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who spent more than five hundred days in prison in Myanmar, were released today as part of a presidential amnesty for some 6,500 prisoners. The two reporters were convicted of violating the country’s Official Secrets Act while investigating a massacre of ten men from the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine State (Reuters)
EU Extends Myanmar Arms Embargo
The European Union’s ban on arms sales to the country will stay in place at least through April 2020 (Associated Press)
Fourteen top Myanmar military and security officials are under EU sanctions for abuses against the Rohingya ethnic minority (Al Jazeera)
Prison Sentences for Reporters Upheld in Myanmar
The Supreme Court rejected a final appeal by Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were arrested in late 2017 while investigating abuses against the Rohingya ethnic minority, and upheld their seven-year prison sentences. They were charged with violating Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act (Reuters)
Myanmar Mass Amnesty Excludes Reuters Reporters
Presidential pardons for 9,551 prisoners, marking the country’s New Year, excluded two Reuters journalists serving seven-year sentences for reporting on military abuses against the Rohingya minority. They were awarded the Pulitzer Prize earlier this week (Associated Press)
Rohingya Refugees Arrive on Malaysian Shores
Forty-one people believed to be Rohingya were found by Malaysian authorities on a beach in the country’s north and detained. It is the second such group to arrive in Malaysia since last month, prompting concerns of another exodus by sea of members of the persecuted ethnic Muslim minority (Reuters)
Military Helicopter Kills Five Rohingya in Myanmar
According to local villagers and a lawmaker, a military helicopter attacked Rohingya Muslims who were gathering bamboo in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, resulting in five deaths and thirteen casualties (Reuters)
Myanmar Creates Military Court to Investigate Rohingya Crackdown
Myanmar’s army announced the official creation of a military court to investigate conduct during a 2017 crackdown on Rohingya, during which hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee from Myanmar’s Rakhine state to Bangladesh (Reuters)
Bangladesh Says No More Rohingya Refugees Will Be Accepted
Bangladesh’s foreign minister told the UN Security Council that his country can no longer accommodate refugees from Myanmar. The country hosts more than a million refugees from the country (Guardian)
U.S. Lawmakers Call for Myanmar Genocide Designation
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators called on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to designate the Myanmar military’s campaign against Muslim Rohingya as genocide. Leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee have also called for such a designation (Reuters)
Fresh Wave of Rohingya Refugees Flee by Boat
Hundreds of Rohingya fleeing Myanmar and Bangladesh in boats have reached shore or been intercepted at sea as journeys over the past month toward Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia reached a level similar to that of a 2015 exodus (Guardian)
Rohingya Refugees in Limbo in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is scheduled to repatriate 2,260 Rohingya refugees to Myanmar today, according to an October agreement between the countries, though Bangladeshi authorities said they will not force Rohingya to return against their will (Al Jazeera)
Many who were due to leave have reportedly gone into hiding (Guardian)
Pence Denounces Myanmar Violence
Meeting with Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in Singapore, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence rebuked the Myanmar military for its violent persecution of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, many of whom have fled to Bangladesh, and called for those responsible to be held accountable (Bangkok Post)
Bangladesh, Myanmar Agree to Rohingya Repatriation
Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed to begin the repatriation of the more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar. However, rights groups say that the northern area in Myanmar’s Rakhine State is not ready for repatriation. Leaders of the Rohingya community expressed that they will not return unless certain demands are met (Reuters)
Australia Levies Sanctions Against Five Myanmar Officers
Australia will freeze the assets of five military officers who are accused of overseeing the violence against Rohingya in Myanmar. These actions follow similar moves by the United States and the EU (Al Jazeera)
UN Establishes Body to Investigate Abuses in Myanmar
The UN Human Rights Council voted to set up a body to gather evidence of atrocities and rights abuses in Myanmar going back to 2011. China, the Philippines, and Burundi opposed the move (Al Jazeera)
ICC to Probe Myanmar’s Rohingya Abuses
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said yesterday that she will open a probe into the forced displacement of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh (Associated Press)
UN Fact-Finding Mission in Myanmar Releases Report
The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar published a full report of its findings on the situation in three Myanmar states. It calls on the UN Security Council to refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (OHCHR)
Myanmar Government Rejects UN Report on Rohingya Genocide
The Myanmar government rejected a UN panel’s call to prosecute top military officials on war crimes charges and said it has set up its own inquiry panel in “response to the false allegations” by the international body (Al Jazeera)
Facebook Removes Accounts Associated with Myanmar Military
Facebook removed eighteen accounts and dozens of pages linked to Myanmar military officials the company says used its service “to further inflame ethnic and religious tensions.” One account belonged to the military’s commander in chief (Guardian)
UN Accuses Myanmar Military of Genocide
A UN investigative mission has called on Myanmar to prosecute senior military officials for genocide and crimes against humanity over their involvement in a crackdown against the Rohingya ethnic minority (Al Jazeera)