05.19.2017

A local administration official (click here) from a village in Buthidaung township in western Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state was killed by unknown assailants on Friday, while another is missing after being abducted, a township official said.

“A group of people came into Pazonchaung village and took two village officials at around 3 a.m. this morning,” Kyaw Min Tun, township administrator, told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

The official who was killed had his throat slashed 90 feet from his house, and the other one is still missing, he said, adding that the attack could be connected to extremists.

Other recent deaths possibly caused by extremists blamed for a major attack on government guard posts last October have occurred in the area.

An accidental explosion of handmade bombs in Buthidaung’s Theni village on May 4 killed two people and injured three others as victims assembled bombs, according to an announcement the State Counselor’s Office.

Security personnel who checked the village the following day found bags of potassium nitrate, sulfur, coal powder, and other materials used to make bombs near a forest. They launched an investigation of the incident.

Meanwhile, 30 civilians have been killed and 22 others have gone missing in neighboring Maungdaw township since Oct. 9, 2016, when deadly attacks on three local border guard posts occurred....

22 August 2018
By Michael Sheen

Rohingya refugee children (click here) who lack proper education in camps in Bangladesh could become a “lost generation”, the United Nations said on Thursday, a year after Myanmar’s army began a crackdown that has forced more than 700,000 people to flee the country.

The lives and futures of more than 380,000 children in refugee camps in Bangladesh are in peril, while hundreds of thousands of Rohingya children still in Myanmar are cut off from aid, said a report by the UN children’s agency (Unicef).

Bangladesh prohibits refugees from receiving formal education, because the government is concerned the predominantly Muslim Rohingya population might become a “permanent fixture”, Unicef spokesman Alastair Lawson-Tancred said.

At the outset of the refugee crisis, aid agencies set up informal learning centres for children aged three to 14, but older teenagers feel alienated and hopeless, Lawson-Tancred said.

“Unquestionably, there is a danger that we might be facing a lost generation,” he said from Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. “Sooner or later, you’re going to have large groups of disaffected youth on your hands.”...

Remarks by Kofi Annan (click here)

The International Criminal Court should begin it's work.

It is not yet safe for the Rohingya to return to Myanmar. The invitation to return to Myanmar will result in additional herding for death. I would not expect the circumstances to change.

Ethnicities: Rakhine, Rohingya, Kaman, Mro, Khami and others
Religions: Theravada, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and others

The return of 700,000 people require land with buildings or building materials with enough talent in building homes to make the return of human beings realistic. There needs to be a Mosque built in full view of those returning as an expression of safety and freedom. There is absolutely no reason for the Rohingya to trust the government of Myanmar; the trust the government and Rohingya need has to be expressed in a welcome both can believe.

There needs to be officials that are Rohingya by birth. Police and temporary leaders are to by Rohingya and not any form of Myanmar authorities. The Rohingya authorities, including law enforcement, are to be armed in the same manner found in other Myanmar settlements. The Rohingya children will require schools with classrooms staffed by born to the Rohingya ethnicity. There is to be no threat to any returning Rohingya.

Elections of local authorities have to be planned within the first year.

What concerns me as an American is the fact we have a President that has expressed openly disdain for Muslims in general. He has placed a Muslim ban on air travel without any provocation and has increasingly refused the migrants and/or refugees from Muslim countries. I am sorry to say the USA is probably worthless to these people and their tragedy. After all, the Trump White House has the motto: "I really don't care, do you?" (click here for jacket on sale for $42.39 on Amazon). Any assistance is left to the religious organizations within the USA for assistance in monies for  building supplies, sanitation, food, clothing, household needs and books for learning.

The actual peace for the Rohingya is another effort entirely. In 2012, the Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhines (Buddhists; majority) clashed causing deaths, injuries and displacement of Rohingya people. This is a classic example of how the minority population is viewed as the enemy and then officially acted upon to displace them forever.

With violent clashes underway the Myanmar government moved troops to end the violence. The military took up sides and provided enough information about the Rohingya to the government to classify these people as non-citizens. The Rohingya being driven from their homeland were officially stated to be displaced Bangladeshis and not citizens at all of Myanmar.

There will be a lengthy process in rebuilding the history of those dead, but, citizens just the same. A memorial to the dead must be displayed where government buildings stand as a reminder to the horror misplaced authority can bring.

Kofi Annan's last words regarding this crisis (see above):

We propose a ministerial-level appointment to be made with the sole function of coordinating policy on Rakhine State and ensuring the effective implementation of the Rakhine Advisory Commission's recommendations. The appointee should be supported by a permanent and well-staffed secretariat, which will be an integral part of the Central Committee on Implementation of Peace and Development in Rakhine State and support its work.

July 24, 2018
Doh Athan

The crisis in Rakhine State (click here) has dominated headlines about Myanmar for the past year. While Myanmar’s government has said it is ready to begin the process of repatriating the estimated 700,000 people who fled into Bangladesh, many in the international community argue that conditions on the ground are not conducive to returns taking place.

Last month Doh Athan travelled to northern Rakhine State to speak to local communities – both Muslims and Buddhists – as well as officials to better understand how they feel about potential returns taking place.