Dilip Simeon's blog

Two  Reuters  journalists have each been sentenced to seven years in prison after they were found guilty breaching the official secrets act in Myanmar, prompting outcry from the international community.. Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were arrested in December while investigating the killings of Rohingya Muslims  in Rakhine State. They have been held in prison in Yangon ever since. As he was led to a police van in handcuffs, Wa Lone said: “I have no fear. I have not done anything wrong … I believe in justice, democracy and freedom.” Reuters said the verdict was “a major step backward” for  Myanmar . “Today is a sad day for Myanmar, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and the press everywhere,” Reuters editor in chief Stephen Adler said in a statement. Adler called for Myanmar to review the decision urgently. Defence lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said the verdict was “bad for our country”. Press freedom advocates, the United Nations, the European ...

NB : The Indian government, along with Russia, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, sent representatives to a military parade to mark Myanmar Armed Forces Day on March 27. This is especially shameful in the midst of a massacre of civilians - including children by the Army. Bangladeshis may recall the massacre of 1971, and the Blood Telegram by the US Consul in Dhaka. Of the Russian and Chinese  governments we may expect no respect for human rights. And the Indian government has joined this parade of contempt for humanity. This is India's conscience in the midst of a human calamity. There will be no peace in Myanmar until the criminal military regime is dismantled. And maybe Aung San Su Kyi will regret her silent complicity with the same regimes' treatment of the Rohinyas.  DS The defense chiefs from Australia, Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the US issued a joint statem...

Burma banned the latest edition of Time Magazine (July 1) for its depiction of Ashin Wirathu, whom Time called "the Burmese bin Laden." Wirathu leads the radical Buddhist group "969," which says that the country's Muslim minority threatens national security and racial purity. Violence against Muslims has resulted in 250 deaths and displaced 150,000 people in the past year. The Face of Buddhist Terror  It's a faith famous for its pacifism and tolerance. But in several of Asia's Buddhist-majority nations, monks are inciting bigotry and violence — mostly against Muslims..  His face as still and serene as a statue's, the Buddhist monk who has taken the title "the Burmese bin Laden" begins his sermon. Hundreds of worshippers sit before him, palms pressed together, sweat trickling silently down their sticky backs. On cue, the crowd chants with the man in burgundy robes, the mantras drifting through the sultry air of a temple in Mandalay, Burma...

“OLIVE’S BOYS”, they were called — the army of a thousand men who, led by a demure graduate of the Guardian Angel Convent School in northern Myanmar’s Lashio town, built the Golden Triangle, the great drug empire that rose from South East Asia’s jungles. Leading the Kokang Kakweye, or Kokang People’s Defence Force, Olive Yang ruled the region from the 1950s with steel and blood — her very public bisexual affairs with Myanmar’s top singers and movie stars evidence of her status. The government of Myanmar on Thursday signed a peace deal that it hopes will get the drug emperors into the country’s political system. The agreement — signed at a function attended by India’s National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, and other international representatives — locks seven insurgent groups into a ceasefire ahead of elections due next month. The bad news is that the biggest narco-insurgent groups — the United Wa State Army, Kachin Independence Army, and Shan State Army-North — have declined to jo...

A court in  Myanmar  has sentenced five members of a traditional theatrical troupe to a year in prison for their gibes about the military. The members of the Peacock Generation thangyat troupe were arrested in April for performances during celebrations of Myanmar’s traditional new year in which they poked fun at military representatives in parliament and military involvement in business. The military is a powerful political force in Myanmar even though the country has an elected government. Thangyat combines dance and music with verse that often has a satirical edge. The five were convicted on Wednesday under a law prohibiting the circulation of information that could endanger or demoralise members of the military. “This is an appalling verdict. Punishing people for performing a piece of satire speaks volumes about the dire state of freedom of expression in Myanmar,” said Joanne Mariner, research director for southeast Asia for the human rights organisation Amnesty Inte...

Malaysia Turns Away Boat With More Than 500 Migrants Worries Grow For Rohingya, Bangladeshi Migrants On Boats Up To 6,000 Rohingya, Bangladeshi Migrants Stranded At Sea Myanmar - Buddhist clergyman Sein Ni Ta denounces "systematic massacre" in Meiktila The United States is willing to take in Rohingya refugees as part of international efforts to cope with Southeast Asia’s stranded boat people, the State Department has said. Spokeswoman Marie Harf on Wednesday said that the US is prepared to take a leading role in any multi-country effort, organised by the United Nations refugee agency, to resettle the most vulnerable refugees. In the past three weeks, more than 3,000 people Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar and Bangladeshis trying to escape poverty have landed in overcrowded boats on the shores of various Southeast Asian countries. Aid groups say thousands more are stranded at sea after human smugglers abandoned their boats because of...

Dear President Erdoğan, We wish to draw your attention to the damage being done to the Republic of  Turkey , to its reputation and the dignity and well-being of its citizens, through what leading authorities on freedom of expression deem to be the unlawful detention and wrongful conviction of writers and thinkers. In a  Memorandum on the Freedom of Expression in Turkey  (2017), Nils Muižnieks, then Council of Europe commissioner for Human Rights, warned: “The space for democratic debate in Turkey has shrunk alarmingly following increased judicial harassment of large strata of society, including journalists, members of parliament, academics and ordinary citizens, and government action which has reduced pluralism and led to self-censorship. This deterioration came about in a very difficult context, but neither the attempted coup, nor other terrorist threats faced by Turkey, can justify measures that infringe media freedom and disavow the rule of law to such an exten...

Aung San Suu Kyi  has been told her silence over allegations of sexual violence and rape carried out against Rohingya people in Myanmar “says far more than your words”, on the third day of the international court of justice’s hearing into accusations of genocide. Prof Philippe Sands QC told the court in The Hague: “Not a word [has been said by Aung San Suu Kyi] about the women and girls of  Myanmar  who have been subjected to these awful serial violations. Madame Agent [her status in court], your silence says far more than your words.” Myanmar has not disputed at the ICJ hearing reports that 392 villages were destroyed in military clearance operations, or commented on widespread allegations of organised sexual violence and rape, the court was told. Sands was speaking for the Gambia,  which has brought the charge  that Myanmar’s military carried out mass murder, rape and destruction of Rohingya Muslim communities. It alleges there have been “extrajud...

Poppy McPherson  in Yangon Myanmar  must do more to prevent the drastic escalation of religious intolerance and violence following clashes between ultranationalist Buddhists and minority Muslims in Yangon, a senior UN envoy has said. Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, called on the year-old National League for Democracy government led by  Aung San Suu Kyi  to strengthen its efforts to curb hate speech and violence drummed up by nationalist groups.  “I have, in the past, raised concerns regarding incidents of hate speech, incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence, and of religious intolerance, and these appear to be drastically escalating,” she said. “I believe that the spread of anti-Muslim sentiments and rhetoric is not receiving the serious attention that it requires, and is too often left unchecked by the authorities. This cannot be tolerated any longer. The government must step up to take more concerted effort...

A bold new exhibition by a young Myanmar artist challenges people not to turn away from dead babies and brutalised women in conflict zones overlooked by the world’s media. The  London show , ‘Please Enjoy Our Tragedies’, is by Sai, a multimedia artist who blocks out his last name for security reasons. Some of Sai’s work will be shown at the Venice Biennale  from 23 April , as part of the European Cultural Centre’s  Personal Structures exhibition . While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine currently dominates global attention, Sai draws links between that conflict and domestic repression in Myanmar. “The same stakeholders are involved in Myanmar as in Ukraine,” he told openDemocracy. “Russia arms Myanmar’s generals and China supports them. It’s not a Ukraine problem; it’s a global problem.”… https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/myanmar-sai-artist-junta/ Silent strike empties streets in Myanmar on anniversary of coup More  posts on Myanmar

A team of volunteers from Sikh organisation Khalsa Aid reached Bangladesh-Myanmar border Sunday night to provide relief to the lakhs of Rohingya Muslim families fleeing Myanmar. Speaking to The Indian Express over phone, Amarpreet Singh, managing director, Khalsa Aid, India who has reached Teknaf, a border town in Bangladesh where the refugees are living in the camps, said that condition at the border was “miserable to say the least”. “It was our first day here today and we did a pre-assessment before launching a major relief operation. We had come prepared for providing relief to some 50,000 people, but there are more than three lakh refugees here. They are living without water, food, clothes and shelter. They are sitting wherever they can find a corner. It is raining, but people do not have anywhere to go. It is miserable to say the least. We will be providing them langar food (community kitchen) and shelter. We are arranging tarpaulins but since the number of refugees have ...

The noise of the exploding artillery shell startled me awake in the middle of a July night. Dazed, I stumbled out of bed and tried to check on the other journalists with whom I share a dormitory. As we ran outside, another shell flew overhead.  It was five months after the military takeover in  Myanmar  and three months since we had been forced to relocate from the Kachin state capital, Myitkyina, to territory held by a group known in Myanmar as an ethnic armed organisation (EAO), fighting for self-determination for an ethnic minority state near Myanmar’s border with China. Now this territory was being bombed. We were all terrified; some of my staff were crying as they looked to me for guidance and comfort. This was neither our first nor last brush with danger. Since the military seized power on 1 February 2021, small local media outlets such as mine have faced immense risks and hardships just to survive…. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/feb/02/well-...

An armed  Rohingya  group carried out at least one massacre of Hindu villagers in Myanmar’s conflict-wracked Rakhine state, an  Amnesty International  report has concluded. Ethnic conflict has convulsed the southeast Asian country in recent years, with the military accused of slaughtering members of the Muslim Rohingya minority in the majority-Buddhist country. But the new  report   from the human rights organisation suggests that a Rohingya group known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) killed up to 99 Hindu women, men and children while also abducting Hindu villagers.  “It’s hard to ignore the sheer brutality of ARSA’s actions, which have left an indelible impression on the survivors we’ve spoken to,” Amnesty International’s Tirana Hassan said in a statement. Myanmar’s government has justified a crackdown on Rohingya residents by saying they were suppressing an armed insurrection after attacks on police posts. The Ro...

The  Myanmar  military kidnapped civilians and forced them to work as human shields, attacked homes, churches and carried out massacres, according to a report that warns recent atrocities in eastern Myanmar may amount to war crimes. The report, by the Myanmar-founded human rights group  Fortify Rights , documents abuses by the country’s military in Karenni state, also known as Kayah state,  an area that has seen intense fighting  between the army and groups opposed to last year’s military coup. The military has faced strong resistance in Karenni state, and has responded with brutal violence in an attempt to crush opposition… https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/15/myanmar-military-atrocities-may-amount-to-war-crimes-says-rights-group Silent strike empties streets in Myanmar on anniversary of coup More  posts on Myanmar

Rohingya Muslims will not be able to vote in Myanmar's referendum after President Thein Sein withdrew temporary voting rights following protests. Hundreds of Buddhists took to the streets following the passage of a law that would allow temporary residents who hold "white papers" to vote. More than one million Rohingya live in Myanmar, but they are not regarded as citizens by the government. In 2012, violence between Muslims and Buddhists left more than 200 dead. The clashes broke out in Rakhine province and sparked religious attacks across the country. The so-called white papers were introduced in 2010 by the former military junta to allow the Rohingya and other minorities to vote in a general election. Thein Sein had originally persuaded parliament to grant white-paper holders the vote, but later apparently changed his mind. The announcement came just hours after demonstrations in Yangon. Those protesting resent what they see as the integration of non-citi...

More than a dozen fellow Nobel laureates have criticised Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader, for a bloody military crackdown on minority Rohingya people, warning of a tragedy “amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity”. The open letter to the UN security council from a group of 23 activists, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Malala Yousafzai, warned that the army offensive had killed of hundreds of people, including children, and left women raped, houses burned and many civilians arbitrarily arrested. It was delivered as Bangladesh announced around 50,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled the violence across its border. “Access for humanitarian aid organisations has been almost completely denied, creating an appalling humanitarian crisis in an area already extremely poor,” reads the letter, whose signatories include current and former political and business leaders and campaigners such as Yousafzai, the youngest winner of the Nobel peace prize. “Some internati...

The two children stood on the beach, at the end of the only world they knew, torn between land and sea.  They couldn't go back to their tiny Muslim village in Myanmar's northwest Rakhine because it had been devoured in a fire set by an angry Buddhist mob. In the smoke and chaos, the siblings became separated from their family. And after seven months of searching, they had lost hope of finding anyone alive. The only way was forward. Hungry and scared, they eyed a rickety wooden fishing boat in the darkness. Mohamad Husein, just 15, dug into his pocket and pulled out a little wad of money for the captain. He and his 9-year-old sister, Senwara Begum, climbed on board, cramming themselves tightly between the other ethnic Rohingya in the small hull. As the ship pushed off, they didn't realize they were among hundreds, if not thousands, of children joining one of the world's biggest boat exoduses since the Vietnam War. They only understood it wasn't safe to stay in...

Few of us expect much from political leaders: to do otherwise is to invite despair. But to  Aung San Suu Kyi  we entrusted our hopes. To mention her name was to invoke patience and resilience in the face of suffering, courage and determination in the unyielding struggle for freedom. She was an inspiration to us all. She has denied the very identity of the people being attacked, asking the US ambassador not to use the term Rohingya Friends of mine devoted their working lives to the campaign for her release from the many years of detention imposed by the military dictatorship of Myanmar, and for the restoration of democracy. We celebrated when she was awarded the  Nobel peace prize  in 1991; when she was finally released from house arrest in 2010; and when she won the general election in 2015.None of this is forgotten. Nor are the many cruelties she suffered, including isolation, physical attacks and the junta’s curtailment of her family life. But it is hard to ...

Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, who has refused to leave his post despite being fired by the junta after the February coup, has alerted the world body to a “reported massacre” by the military. Kyaw Moe Tun sent a letter to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Tuesday saying 40 bodies had been found in July in the Sagaing area of north-western Myanmar. The junta has denied the massacre in the township of Kani, while news agencies have not been able to independently verify the reports due to mobile networks being cut in the remote region. Myanmar junta accused of crimes against humanity six months on from coup The representative wrote that soldiers tortured and killed 16 men in a village in the township around 9-10 July, after which 10,000 residents fled the area. He said a further 13 bodies were discovered in the days after clashes between local fighters and security forces on 26 July. Kyaw Moe Tun added that another 11 men, including a 14-year-old boy, were ki...

Amnesty International has announced it is stripping Aung San Suu Kyi of a prestigious human rights award over her “shameful betrayal of the values she once stood for”. The Ambassador of Conscience Award is the latest in a series of accolades to be withdrawn from Myanmar’s de facto leader, who has been criticised for failing to intervene to stop a campaign of violence against the country’s Rohingya Muslims. Amnesty said it was withdrawing the award “with great sadness” because of Ms Suu Kyi’s “apparent indifference to atrocities committed by the Myanmar military and increasing intolerance of freedom of expression”. While living under house arrest in 2009, Ms Suu Kyi was named as Amnesty’s Ambassador of Conscience ”in recognition of her peaceful and non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights”. But now, half way through her term in office and eight years after being released from custody, Amnesty said it was disappointed she had not safeguarded human rights, justice or equality...