Tag Archives: Rakhine State

MNA Exclusive Desk: Protesters in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state demonstrated on Sunday against the planned repatriation of Rohingya Muslims from Bangladesh, referring to them as “runaway refugees”. About 100 people led by Buddhists monks marched through the state capital Sittwe holding red banners and chanting slogans, reported news agency. “All the people of the nation are responsible to protect the security of the country,” one monk said, according to a Facebook live streaming of the protest. “There will be no benefits to us or our country if we accept the Bengalis,” he added, using a derogatory term for the Rohingya ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Rohingya crisis, a severe humanitarian issue, has struck Bangladesh with around a million refugees. Myanmar army’s barbaric oppression and torture has compelled more than a million people to flee in Bangladesh from the Rakhine state of Myanmar. These people, mostly Muslims, have faced extreme torture, been victims of killings and rape and been mentally traumatised as the Myanmar military started the third phase of this torture with the help of local Buddhists in 2016. Despite their effort to stay in own country, these Rohingyas could not sustain the continuous tortures and eventually most of them left Rakhine. ...

MNA Exclusive Desk: Myanmar on Thursday pledged safe repatriation of Rohingya from Bangladesh as soon as possible despite accusations of activists claiming the government was intentionally blocking aid for refugees facing dire food shortage in Rakhine state, according to Anadolu Agency. Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a repatriation deal last November, but Dhaka claims not a single refugee has returned. The UN maintains the Myanmar government has been unable to assure safe return for the refugees, and remaining houses in entire villages have been razed to the ground in the name of development works, the Ankara-based agency said. On Thursday, Myanmar ...

MNA Exclusive Desk: Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi spoke at length about her country’s troubled western state of Rakhine at a Sydney conference on Sunday and appealed to Southeast Asian neighbours for help, Australia’s prime minister said. “We discussed the situation in Rakhine state at considerable length today,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters at the end of a summit of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Australia, much of it held behind closed doors, reports Reuters. “Daw Aung San Suu Kyi addressed the matter comprehensively at some considerable length herself… She seeks support from ASEAN and other ...

MNA Exclusive Desk: Visiting Deputy Assistant to the US President and Senior Director for South and Central Asia at the National Security Council Lisa Curtis today said the USA will remain with and stand by Bangladesh in resolving the Rohingya crisis. She made the vow while held a meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, MP, at the latter’s office this morning, reported news agency. The Donald Trump’s aide said the USA offers further assistance to deal with the upcoming challenges, especially when the monsoon is approaching soon. During the meeting, she shared her experience of visiting Cox’s ...

MNA International Desk: Three bombs exploded in different locations around Rakhine’s state capital Sittwe early Saturday morning, including at the home of a high ranking official, Myanmar police told media, adding that no deaths were reported. It is the latest violence to hit Rakhine, which is festering with ethnic tensions and has been roiled by communal violence in the north against the Rohingya and insurgencies in other parts of the state. Bombings in the state capital are rare however. The blasts took place around 4:00am (2130 GMT Friday), the officer said. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear. ...

MNA Exclusive Desk: Myanmar “feels sad” over a US decision to sanction a military general, a government spokesman said, after Washington linked the commander last week to abuses against the Rohingya Muslim minority. “This targeted sanction is based on unreliable accusations without evidence, as we have repeatedly said, so we feel sad for that,” said Zaw Htay, spokesman for Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, reported news agency. The Trump administration announced on Dec 21 that it was sanctioning Major General Maung Maung Soe, who was in charge of a crackdown on the Rohingya minority. The United States, as ...

MNA International Desk: Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrived on her first visit to conflict-battered northern Rakhine State on Thursday, reported news agency. Suu Kyi, a nobel laureate who leads Myanmar’s pro-democracy party, has been hammered by the international community for failing to use her moral power to speak up in defence of the Rohinyga. Some 600,000 of the stateless minority have fled to Bangladesh since late August carrying accounts of murder, rape and arson at the hands of the Myanmar’s army, after militant raids sparked a ferocious military crackdown. The UN says that crackdown is tantamount to ethnic ...

MNA Exclusive Desk: The inking of the investment protection agreement (IPA) between the European Union and Myanmar has been put off until an unknown date. On September 14, the Committee on International Trade of the European Parliament announced that it has postponed its visit to Myanmar, which was meant to finalise the EU-Myanmar investment agreement, according to a report published in the Myanmar Times. The committee’s chair, Bernd Lange, said that the delegation is postponed until further notice. “The EP’s International Trade Committee decided to postpone the delegation to Myanmar to an unknown date as it was clear that the ...

MNA International Desk: Myanmar’s de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi says the country is ready to welcome back ‘verified’ refugees who have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh. “We are prepared to start the verification process at any time,” Suu Kyi said on Tuesday, in her first address since the start of the latest military crackdown in Rakhine state. “As our national security adviser has assured Bangladesh, and which I can confirm now, we are ready to start the verification process at any time and those who have been verified as refugees from this country will be accepted without any problems and ...

MNA National Desk: India is sending on Friday a consignment of relief materials, an Indian high commission spokesman said in Dhaka on Wednesday, as tens of thousands of Myanmar refugees crossed into Bangladesh to evade atrocities at their home in Burma’s Rakhine state. ‘An Indian aircraft will carry the first consignment of humanitarian assistance tomorrow . . . it will land at Chittagong Airport at 11:00am,’ said the Indian spokesman. The spokesman said Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Harsh Vardhan Shringla would hand over the relief materials to Bangladesh’s Road Transport and Bridges Minister and Awami League general secretary Obaidul ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Myanmar’s military has ended a clearance operation in the country’s troubled Rakhine State, government officials said, reported news agency. The security operation had been under way since nine policemen were killed in attacks on security posts near the Bangladesh border on Oct 9. Almost 69,000 Rohingyas have since fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh, according to UN estimates. The government led by Nobel laureate Suu Kyi has denied almost all allegations of human rights abuses in Rakhine, including mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims, and said the operation was a lawful counterinsurgency campaign. Two senior officials ...