{"id":100510,"date":"2017-10-23T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=100510"},"modified":"2017-10-17T15:17:36","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T14:17:36","slug":"internal-report-which-the-un-head-in-myanmar-did-not-want-the-world-to-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/10\/internal-report-which-the-un-head-in-myanmar-did-not-want-the-world-to-see\/","title":{"rendered":"Internal Report Which the UN Head in Myanmar Did Not Want the World to See"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Myanmar to Rohingyas: \u201cu do not belong here – go to Bangladesh. If (not) we will torch your houses and kill you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Brutal attacks on Rohingya meant to make their return almost impossible \u2013 UN human rights report<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

GENEVA (11 Oct 2017)<\/em> \u2013 Brutal attacks against Rohingya in northern Rakhine State have been well-organised, coordinated and systematic, with the intent of not only driving the population out of Myanmar but preventing them from returning to their homes, a new UN report based on interviews conducted in Bangladesh has found.<\/p>\n

The report by a team from the UN Human Rights Office, who met with the newly arrived Rohingya in Cox\u2019s Bazar from 14 to 24 September 2017, states that human rights violations committed against the Rohingya population were carried out by Myanmar security forces often in concert with armed Rakhine Buddhist individuals. The report, released on Wednesday, is based on some 65 interviews with individuals and groups.<\/p>\n

It also highlights a strategy to \u201cinstil deep and widespread fear and trauma \u2013 physical, emotional and psychological\u201d among the Rohingya population.<\/p>\n

More than 500,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since the Myanmar security forces launched an operation in response to alleged attacks by militants on 25 August against 30 police posts and a regimental headquarters. The report states the \u201cclearance operations\u201d started before 25 August 2017, and as early as the beginning of August.<\/p>\n

The UN Human Rights Office is gravely concerned for the safety of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who remain in northern Rakhine State amid reports the violence is still ongoing, and calls on authorities to immediately allow humanitarian and human rights actors unfettered access to the stricken areas.<\/p>\n

The report cites testimony from witnesses that security forces scorched dwellings and entire villages, were responsible for extrajudicial and summary executions, rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture and attacks on places of worship. Eyewitnesses reported numerous killings, saying some victims were deliberately targeted and others were killed through explosions, fire and stray bullets.<\/p>\n

A 12-year old girl from Rathedaung township described how<\/p>\n

\u201cthe [Myanmar security forces and Rakhine Buddhist individuals] surrounded our house and started to shoot. It was a situation of panic \u2013 they shot my sister in front of me, she was only seven years old. She cried and told me to run. I tried to protect her and care for her, but we had no medical assistance on the hillside and she was bleeding so much that after one day she died. I buried her myself.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The report states that in some cases, before and during the attacks, megaphones were used to announce: \u201cYou do not belong here \u2013 go to Bangladesh. If you do not leave, we will torch your houses and kill you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Credible information indicates that the Myanmar security forces purposely destroyed the property of the Rohingyas, targeting their houses, fields, food-stocks, crops, livestock and even trees, to render the possibility of the Rohingya returning to normal lives and livelihoods in the future in northern Rakhine almost impossible.<\/p>\n

UN Human Rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, who has described the Government operations in northern Rakhine State as \u201ca textbook example of ethnic cleansing,\u201d has also urged the Government to immediately end its \u201ccruel” security operation. By denying the Rohingya population their political, civil, economic and cultural rights, including the right to citizenship, he said, the Government\u2019s actions appear to be \u201ca cynical ploy to forcibly transfer large numbers of people without possibility of return.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report indicates that efforts were taken to effectively erase signs of memorable landmarks in the geography of the Rohingya landscape and memory in such a way that a return to their lands would yield nothing but a desolate and unrecognizable terrain.<\/p>\n

Information received also indicates that the Myanmar security forces targeted teachers, the cultural and religious leadership, and other people of influence of the Rohingya community in an effort to diminish Rohingya history, culture and knowledge.<\/p>\n

To read the Full Report Go to Original \u2013 maungzarni.net<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

__________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A Buddhist humanist from Burma, Maung Zarni is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment<\/a>, <\/em>former Visiting Lecturer with Harvard Medical School, specializing in racism and violence in Burma and Sri Lanka, and Non-resident Scholar in Genocide Studies with Documentation Center \u2013 Cambodia.\u00a0 His analyses have appeared in leading newspapers including the <\/em>New York Times, The Guardian and<\/em> the Times. Among his academic publications on Rohingya genocide are <\/em>The Slow-Burning Genocide of Myanmar\u2019s Rohingyas (Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal), <\/em>An Evolution of Rohingya Persecution in Myanmar: From Strategic Embrace to Genocide, (Middle East Institute, American University), and <\/em>Myanmar\u2019s State-directed Persecution of Rohingyas and Other Muslims (Brown World Affairs Journal, forthcoming). He holds a PhD (U Wisconsin at Madison) and a MA (U California), and has held various teaching, research and visiting fellowships at the universities in Asia, Europe and USA including Oxford, LSE, UCL Institute of Education) , National-Louis, Malaya, and Brunei. He is the recipient of the “Cultivation of Harmony” award from the Parliament of the World’s Religions (2015).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GENEVA (11 Oct 2017) \u2013 Brutal attacks against Rohingya in northern Rakhine State have been well-organised, coordinated and systematic, with the intent of not only driving the population out of Myanmar but preventing them from returning to their homes, a new UN report based on interviews conducted in Bangladesh has found.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}