Smoke is seen rising from Burma’s Taung Pyo Let War village from across the border in Bangladesh. © 2017 Private The Burmese military is deliberately burning ethnic Rohingya villages near the Bangladesh border, Human Rights Watch said today. Such acts of arson, after forcing residents to leave their villages, appear central to the Burmese military’s ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya Muslim population in Burma’s Rakhine State. Human Rights Watch released new satellite imagery and sensory data showing that 62 villages in northern Rakhine State were targeted by arson attacks between August 25 and September 14, 2017. Human Rights Watch identified 35 of these villages with extensive building destruction from very high resolution satellite imagery, and an additional 26 villages that had active fires detected in near-real time with environmental satellite sensors. “Our field research backs what the satellite imagery has indicated – that the Burmese military is directly responsible for the mass burning of Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine State,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. “The United Nations and member countries should urgently impose measures on the Burmese government to stop these atrocities and end the forced flight of Rohingya from Burma.” Human Rights Watch conducted a detailed building damage assessment in 6 of the 35 affected villages and identified nearly complete destruction in each case. The total number of destroyed buildings was 948. Human Rights Watch released new satellite imagery and sensory data showing that 62 villages in northern Rakhine State were targeted by arson attacks between August 25 and September 14, 2017. Human Rights Watch identified 35 of these villages with extensive building destruction from very high resolution satellite imagery, and an additional 26 villages that had active fires detected in near-real time with environmental satellite sensors. Human Rights Watch conducted a detailed building damage assessment in 6 of the 35 affected villages and identified nearly complete destruction in each case. The total number of destroyed buildings was 948. On the morning of September 13, Human Rights Watch observed from Bangladesh large plumes of thick, black smoke from the Rohingya border village of Taung Pyo Let Yar in Maungdaw township. A video confirmed to have been taken from a hill overlooking the village shows several buildings burning in the unoccupied village and two large, dark-colored trucks several hundred meters away. Village residents stranded at the border described the vehicles as “military trucks” that had previously entered the village. Three villagers who observed the fires from the hill said that the smoke came from fires set in village buildings. Fatima, 50, who had fled Taung Pyo Let Yar, told Human Rights Watch that after she saw smoke rise from the village, she climbed a hill to see if her home was on fire. When she reached the top, she saw her home engulfed by a column of smoke. Other nearby homes were also burning. She said that she had fled on August 31 when trucks carrying Burmese soldiers arrived in the village. The soldiers jumped out of the trucks carrying guns, frightening her, so she ran several hundred meters into the “no-man’s land” at the Bangladeshi border. “When we see the army we just ran away from the village – hundreds ran,” Fatima said. “We just brought our children.” Mohamed Sahed, 50, climbed the same hill and said that he saw his two trucks and a car burning in front of his house, which was also consumed by fire. He said he saw at least four soldiers in the village. His son, Mohamed Shufi, 24, said that earlier that morning he and two other villagers had re-entered Burma and were heading back to their homes to get wood for cooking at their temporary camp at the border. But when they were still hundreds of meters from the village, a half-dozen Burmese soldiers spotted them and hurled rocks at them using slingshots. The three villagers ran back across the border and hid. Earlier in the week, Human Rights Watch directly observed a Burmese military patrol operating within 600 meters of Taung Pyo Let Yar. Rohingya refugees also said that they saw patrols of at least 40 Burmese soldiers operating within meters of the border fence and several hundred meters of the village nearly every day. Several people at the border said that a Burmese border guard police post was located within 200 meters of Taung Pyo Let Yar, and that since August 31, the Burmese military had routinely occupied houses in the village and used the border guard outpost. Satellite detection of multiple active fires on September 11 and 13 suggest that villages in new areas of Maungdaw township are now being targeted for destruction. Because of heavy cloud cover, it is almost certain that the actual number of fire-affected villages in the townships of Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and Rathedaung is considerably higher. UN Secretary-General António Guterres and human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein have indicated that the Burmese military’s actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Burmese government statements seemingly support these conclusions. Zaw Htay, a Burmese government spokesman, told the media that of 471 villages targeted in “clearance operations” by the military, 176 are now empty and at least 34 others partially abandoned. The Burmese military’s operations in northern Rakhine State followed a series of coordinated armed attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on August 25 against more than 30 Burmese government police stations and checkpoints, government offices, and an army base. The Burmese government alleges that Rohingya militants and villagers are responsible for burning buildings in villages across Rakhine State, but has so far failed to provide evidence of this claim. Although “ethnic cleansing” is not formally defined under international law, a UN Commission of Experts has described ethnic cleansing as a “purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.… This purpose appears to be the occupation of territory to the exclusion of the purged group or groups.” “The sightings of Burmese military vehicles and soldiers in a Rohingya village as it goes up in flames fills in some blank spaces of the overwhelming satellite imagery of destruction,” Robertson said. “Concerned governments need to convey the message to Burma’s Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and other senior commanders that they could be implicated in grave crimes unless they act swiftly to stop the atrocities and hold those responsible to account.” _________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Human Rights Watch

Myanmar said on Friday a visiting U.S. official would not be allowed to go to a region where violence has triggered an exodus of nearly 400,000 Rohingya Muslims that the United Nations has branded a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. The Rohingya have fled from western Rakhine state to neighboring Bangladesh to escape a military offensive that has raised questions about Myanmar’s transition to civilian rule under the leadership of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Patrick Murphy will voice Washington’s concerns about the Rohingya and press for greater access to the conflict area for humanitarian workers, the State Department said. Myanmar officials said he would meet government leaders in the capital, Naypyitaw, and attend an address to the nation by Suu Kyi on Tuesday. He would also visit Sittwe, the state capital, and meet the governor of Rakhine, the state government secretary, Tin Maung Swe, told Reuters, but the north of the state, where the conflict erupted on Aug. 25 would be off limits. “Not allowed,” Tin Maung Swe said, when asked if Murphy would be going to Maungdaw district, at the heart of the strife that began when Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts and an army camp, killing a dozen people. While nearly 400,000 refugees have poured across the border into Bangladesh, fears have also been growing of a humanitarian crisis on the Myanmar side, but access for aid workers and reporters has been severely restricted. Myanmar insisted on Friday it was not barring aid workers but a government spokesman said authorities on the ground might have concerns over security. Rights monitors and fleeing Rohingya say the army and Rakhine Buddhist vigilantes have mounted a campaign of arson aimed at driving out the Muslim population. A Reuters photographer on the Bangladesh side of the border said he could see huge banks of dark smoke billowing up over Myanmar territory on Friday, while international aid organizations said the refugees kept coming. “There’s really no sign that this flow of people is going to dry up,” Chris Lom of the International Organisation for Migration, said from the Bangladeshi border district of Cox’s Bazar. ”There are still, we believe, thousands of people waiting to take boats across to Cox’s Bazar.” ‘SCORCHED EARTH’ U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the U.N. Security Council have urged Myanmar to end the violence, which he said was best described as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar rejects the accusations, saying its security forces are carrying out clearance operations to defend against the insurgents of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which claimed responsibility for the Aug. 25 attacks and similar, though smaller, attacks in October. Rohingya refugees wait roadside for aid at Thaingkhali makeshift refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 14, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Friday that while Moscow was concerned “we cannot discard the fact that it was triggered by terrorist activities.” “We’re talking to the Myanmar government, of course,” he told reporters. “We are concerned with what is happening. ... We are looking forward to an early cessation of the violence and to elevating the humanitarian situation of the population.” The government has declared Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army a terrorist organization and accused it of setting the fires and attacking civilians. Ethnic cleansing is not recognized as a separate crime under international law but allegations of ethnic cleansing as part of wider, systematic human rights violations have been heard in international courts. Rights group Amnesty International said evidence pointed to a “mass-scale scorched-earth campaign” across the north of Rakhine that was unmistakably ethnic cleansing. “The evidence is irrefutable – the Myanmar security forces are setting northern Rakhine state ablaze in a targeted campaign to push the Rohingya people out of Myanmar,” said Tirana Hassan, the group’s crisis response director. The group said it had detected 80 big fires in Rohingya areas since Aug. 25. While the extent of damage could not be verified, due to access restrictions by the government, “they are likely to have burned down whole villages”. It said it also had credible reports of Rohingya militants burning the homes of ethnic Rakhine and other minorities. About 30,000 non-Muslims have also been displaced. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday he had spoken with Suu Kyi and that she said she was working to get aid to areas in Myanmar affected by violence. The generals still control national security policy but nevertheless, Suu Kyi has been widely criticized abroad for not stopping or condemning the violence. The campaign against the Muslim insurgents is popular at home. The U.N. refugee agency said the Rohingya arriving in Bangladesh were suffering “real hardship, and some of the most difficult conditions seen in any current refugee situation”. “With the influx increasing daily, UNHCR is appealing for an initial amount of $30 million for the emergency humanitarian response in Bangladesh until the end of year,” an agency spokesman said in Geneva. Bangladesh says all refugees must go home and has called for safe areas in Myanmar. Myanmar has ruled that out and says it will accept anyone who can verify their citizenship. Most Rohingya are stateless. Thousands of people demonstrated after Friday prayers in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, to denounce the treatment of the Rohingya. One protest leader said they were demanding a U.N. peacekeeping force and that Myanmar face charges in an international court. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Reuters

Afghan local police (ALP) sit at the back of a truck near a frontline during a battle with the Taliban at Qalay- i-zal district, in Kunduz province, Afghanistan August 1, 2015.© 2016 Reuters The Afghan government should reject proposals to create a new militia with inadequate training and oversight, Human Rights Watch said today. Western diplomatic sources in Kabul told Human Rights Watch that President Ashraf Ghani is considering establishing a defense unit modelled on the Indian Territorial Army, an auxiliary force comprising personnel who serve on a short-term contract basis with the regular armed forces. The NATO Resolute Support Mission is believed to support such a local security force in Afghanistan. An Afghan Territorial Army with reduced training and potentially less oversight risks being yet another abusive militia operating outside the military’s chain of command, Human Rights Watch said. If approved, the Afghan government is expected to determine the location of a pilot project by September 20, 2017. “The Afghan government’s expansion of irregular forces could have enormously dangerous consequences for civilians,” said Patricia Gossman, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Instead of creating additional local forces, which are hard to control and prone to abuses, the Afghan government with US and NATO support should be strengthening training and oversight to ensure that all forces respect the law.” In recent years, the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces have relied on militia forces such as the Afghan Local Police (ALP) to “hold” local territory reclaimed from the Taliban or insurgent groups belonging to the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP). The group is an affiliate of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) and is based in Nangarhar province. The Afghan Local Police, established in 2010, was meant to serve as a local defense force. While these forces have gained some local support as a result of recent reforms, in many localities these forces have been responsible for numerous abuses against civilians, as well as summary executions of captured combatants and other violations of international humanitarian law. The proposed Afghan Territorial Army would ultimately replace the Afghan Local Police as a defense force at the local level. There is concern that existing Afghan Local Police units could remain armed as militia forces. Instead of creating a new militia, Afghan authorities should improve the training and capabilities of its existing troops, and hold accountable those responsible for abuses, Human Rights Watch said. The inadequacy of Afghan police and soldiers has been evident in districts of Nangarhar province in which ISKP groups have carried out frequent attacks. The Indian Territorial Army, the model for this proposed defense force, has been deployed to support Indian counter-insurgency forces in Jammu and Kashmir. Territorial army personnel have been implicated in serious abuses, and its irregular status has contributed to a lack of accountability. In one prominent case, on March 8, 1996, Maj. Avtar Singh of the territorial army detained Jalil Andrabi, a human rights lawyer and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front member. Three weeks later Andrabi’s body was found floating in the Jhelum River near Srinagar. An autopsy showed that he had been killed days after his arrest. Indian authorities opened an investigation that ultimately indicted Major Singh, but state counsel asserted that Singh was not a member of the armed forces but under contract with the territorial army, and that his contract had expired and he was nowhere to be found. The Afghan government has been unable or unwilling to hold powerful strongmen accountable for abuses, including those who command Afghan Local Police units or other militias. It’s not clear how the government intends to ensure that new Afghan Territorial Army units, whose members will be paid less than their army counterparts, won’t fall into the same pattern. While the territorial army would operate under a regular army corps commander, diplomatic sources told Human Rights Watch that Afghan officials involved in the discussions have expressed concern about the force becoming used by powerful strongmen, or becoming dependent on local patronage networks. There is also concern that the new force could replicate the criminality that many Afghan Local Police units exhibited, and clash with other government forces and militias over control of territory and smuggling routes. In addition to the proposed Afghan Territorial Army, the Afghan government is considering creating a new 15,000-strong tribal militia, under the Ministry of Tribal and Border Affairs, currently headed by former governor Gul Agha Sherzai. The model for such a militia appears to be those established along ethnic lines by the late President Mohammad Najibullah in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Members of those militia forces were responsible for serious human rights abuses. “There is a long, unsavory history of using tribal and irregular militias in Afghanistan, and it has led to egregious crimes without accountability,” Gossman said. “Too often they have inflamed conflict rather than provide security.” ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Human Rights Watch

Today, 15 September, the UN General Assembly voted by 113 to 21 to include a supplementary item entitled “The Responsibility to Protect and the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity” on the Formal Agenda for its 72nd session. The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect commends the General Assembly for this decision and for embracing a substantive discussion on the norm of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). We would also like to congratulate Australia and Ghana for their leadership of this initiative. Following the January 2009 publication of the first UN Secretary-General’s report on R2P, UN member states conducted the first and only formal UN General Assembly debate on R2P. The General Assembly then decided to continue the consideration of R2P through annual informal interactive dialogues. Since 2010 the General Assembly has held eight such dialogues during which 120 member states have shared their positions on R2P. Throughout the past eight years member states have continued efforts to build consensus around R2P, trying to narrow the gap between conceptual progress and meaningful preventive action. Supporters of the norm, as well as those member states with enduring concerns, have regularly called for the General Assembly to hold formal debates on R2P. Most recently, during the eighth informal interactive dialogue on R2P on 6 September, at least 56 member states supported the inclusion of R2P on the General Assembly’s Formal Agenda. Despite lingering differences of opinion regarding effective implementation of R2P, it remains the most effective principle around which the international community can coalesce when vulnerable populations face the threat of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. In these times of global crisis - with 65 million people displaced by conflict, persecution and atrocities – we need fresh ideas on how states, and the international community as a whole, can uphold the principles and norms that safeguard humanity. Any General Assembly debate on R2P should involve consideration of how to strengthen adherence to international humanitarian and human rights law, and end impunity for mass atrocity crimes. The inclusion of R2P on the Formal Agenda of the General Assembly underlines the principled commitment of the UN membership to the prevention of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. Not every state will be pleased with today’s outcome, but no state should fear a debate about how the international community should continue to turn this commitment into action and work more effectively to prevent these most conscience shocking crimes. (c) 2017 Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

A Syrian man carries his two girls as he walks across the rubble following a barrel bomb attack on the rebel-held neighborhood of al-Kalasa in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on September 17, 2015. © 2015 Getty ‘They will kill us all,” “Ahmad,” a Syrian aid worker, told me last month, referring to the many armed parties to the Syrian conflict. We were talking about Idlib, a province in northwest Syria that is home to around 2 million people, about half of whom are displaced, and is mostly under the control of Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), widely acknowledged to be affiliated with al-Qaeda. Ahmad is from Idlib and had seen the province go through everything from airstrikes, to chemical attacks, to suicide bombers – a microcosm of the violence that was the Syrian conflict. Still, he believed the worst was yet to come. There have been announcements that Russia, Iran, and Turkey will be making progress on a de-escalation zone in Idlib as part of the Syria negotiations taking place in Astana, Kazakhstan this week. But Ahmad’s concerns about the area where he is operating highlight the fear that over the past six years of the Syrian conflict, the urgent need to protect civilians has been side-lined in most of the international negotiations. The series of de-escalation agreements aimed at securing peace have unfortunately been no exception. The talks in Astana have been the most ambitious to date. Russia has brought on board two of the key outside military actors in Syria – Turkey and Iran – to participate. In May, the Astana process produced an agreement to create four de-escalation zones – in the northern part of Homs, Idlib, East Ghouta, and southern Syria. The agreement is still being worked out, but may have been partially successful at decreasing the intensity of fighting in Syria. A top Russian general, Colonel-General Sergey Rudskoi, told the media that this round of talks in Astana will make progress on the final “de-escalation zone” in Idlib, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan believes the Astana negotiations will set the stage for political talks in Geneva. Similar promises have been made in previous rounds, but little progress has been made in protecting Idlib’s civilians. And these de-escalation zones have not been tied to any progress on key human rights priorities such as the issue of detainees and the disappeared, Earlier rounds of talks reportedly discussed a potential working group for the exchange of detained and imprisoned people, but ultimately no concrete progress was made. Ahmad’s pessimism is tied to the complicated situation in Idlib, where civilians are caught between the Syrian government’s desire to retake the province and the rise of the al-Qaeda-linked group, which now has the firmest control over the province. This makes it a threat to be neutralized in the eyes of many, including the United States and Turkey. Back in May, participants at the Astana meeting explicitly noted that attacks on terrorist groups, including HTS, would be excluded from the cease-fire. Meanwhile the number of civilians in the area continues to rise. A series of locally brokered agreements and high intensity battles elsewhere in Syria have resulted in large numbers of displaced civilians making their way to Idlib. In July 2017 alone, upward of 24,000 displaced persons arrived there from numerous locations. Aid workers we spoke to warned that Idlib is close to reaching capacity in terms of its ability to cope with incoming waves of displaced people. HTS has solidified control over the area and a source has reported concerns that HTS fighters have interfered with aid deliveries. The risks are compounded by border closures by Turkey and an increased deployment of Turkish military on the borders, a potential signal from Turkey that it is unwilling to take in any more Syrians. “Whatever happens, no one will be able to leave Idlib,” Ahmad told me, describing the limited options for people to flee. The Astana participants should take this complexity into account as they negotiate the fate of Idlib and possibly broker a de-escalation agreement Turkey and all the parties to the conflict should allow civilians fearing for their lives in Idlib to flee the fighting, and enter Turkey, if they want to. Any such agreement should not serve as a cover to forcibly return refugees to Syria. For the Astana process to make real progress on protecting civilians, negotiations need to tackle core human rights issues underlying the conflict, including those detained and disappeared by the Syrian government. The Astana backers – Russia, Turkey and Iran – and others who have a vested interest in seeing the Syrian conflict end should urge the groups they back to reveal the fate of people they are holding and allow independent monitors into their detention facilities. For Astana to be successful, it should pave the way for an independent institution in charge of investigating the fate and whereabouts of the disappeared, as well as unidentified human remains and mass graves in Syria. There is no doubt that most people would like to see an end to the Syrian conflict, which has claimed so many lives. However, any solution that does not address the core issues underlying the conflict is a band-aid on a gaping wound that is bound to start bleeding again. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Human Rights Watch

Rohingya Muslim refugees wait for relief on the Bangladesh side of the border after fleeing violence in western Myanmar, Sept. 11, 2017. NurPhoto/SIPA USA/Press Association. All rights reserved. My heart has broken. Many times, in many ways over the past twenty days. It has been splintered, hammered, shattered, parched, starved and numbed beyond recognition. As a human rights advocate who has worked on the Rohingya issue for about ten years, I have experienced my fair share of despair in the face of the many atrocities this community has endured. Through my work, I have become familiar with an ever-growing list of violations against them, which have increasingly convinced me that the Rohingya – widely recognised as the most persecuted minority in the world – are the victims of crimes against humanity and genocide. Not a conclusion I arrived at lightly, but one which I have grappled with over time. Even so, nothing prepared me for the last twenty days. I lack the vocabulary to process, let alone describe what has been happening in Rakhine state. Such extreme expressions of hatred, bigotry and violence are beyond my comprehension. The thought of being at the receiving end, beyond my imagination. What words do I know to capture the agony of a two-year-old being burnt alive, her parents forced to watch. Or a teenager gang-raped by a horde of men, just after her father has been shot point blank? How can I even begin to describe the sheer fatigue of a man forced to walk for a week, gun-shot wounded, without any food, while carrying his grandmother? Or the all-encompassing loss of a woman – home burnt, family killed, dignity torn to shreds? Can my imagination be wild enough to understand the courage of a mother who gives birth to her baby while fleeing blood thirsty genocidaires, or the desperation of another whose starving, traumatised and fatigued body cannot produce breastmilk for her infants? What about the nine-year-old child who overnight became the sole protector of her one-year old brother, and had to carry him across borders to safety? Or the disabled man who crawled on all fours for days to escape his persecutors? Or the woman, who within touching distance of the relative safety of Bangladesh, treads on a landmine planted by the Burmese army? What words in what language can describe the sense of betrayal that must be felt by the countless IDPs who are starving to death because international humanitarian aid no longer reaches them? Possibly over 400,000 refugees in twenty days. 20,000 a day. Almost a thousand an hour. Each of them scarred, starving, traumatised, hunted, degraded, persecuted, fatigued. Each of them denied their identity, branded liars, systematically persecuted, deemed too ugly to be raped by the Burmese state, its propaganda machine and murderous mobs. And not for the first time. The Rohingya have been beaten down, detested, dehumanised, destroyed. Over and over and over and over again. There is a genocide happening before our eyes. If only we can bear to look. The Rohingya genocide The Rohingya genocide didn’t begin on 25 August 2017, or September 2016, or even June 2012. It has been steadily going about its business as the world went about its own, for many decades. Under international law (the UN Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute), genocide is defined as killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction, imposing measures to prevent births or forcibly transferring children of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group with the intention of destroying the group in whole or in part. For over 40 years, the Burmese state has been engaged in wholescale persecution of the Rohingya; denial and deprivation of their nationality; denial of their history and identity; restrictions on marriage and children; forced malnutrition and forced labour; restrictions on education, healthcare and movement; arbitrary arrests and killings; all with the cumulative intent of denying their participation in society, driving them out and destroying them. This systemic and structured persecution has been interspersed with waves of acute violence carried out by state and non-state actors alike – in 1978, 1991, 2012, 2015; and has been fuelled by the most vitriolic propaganda campaign which has brainwashed a country into reviling and fearing the most vulnerable and downtrodden among them. For too long, the calls of human rights actors have been ignored, dismissed, muted. For too long, other labels have been used so as not to offend. ‘Inter-communal violence’ cried the world in 2012, when the state apparatus lined up with Rakhine extremists to kill, plunder, drive out and displace hundreds of thousands of Rohingya: ‘genocide’ and ‘crimes against humanity’ whispered the activists who saw a deathly 40-year-old pattern. Genocide never happens in isolation, nor is it inevitable. It is denied, enabled, enforced; through lies, complicity, counter-narratives, propaganda, turning a blind eye, weighing human life against economic and geopolitical gain. For genocide to be possible, the right environment has to be carefully cultivated over many years. For it to actually be carried out, the rest of the world has to be too divided, conflicted, selfish or indecisive to – even for a short moment in time – come together to protect those under fire. In the Rohingya genocide, we see all these ingredients and more. Statelessness The arbitrary denial and deprivation of Rohingya’s Burmese nationality has played a pivotal role in how they are perceived and treated. Rohingya have faced targeted exclusion and persecution at least since the 1970s; but it was the 1982 citizenship law which entrenched their statelessness. The Rohingya were denied citizenship because they are an unwanted minority. Once made stateless, this was used to reinforce the dominant narrative that they are not from Burma, that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Their statelessness was drawn on to deny their identity (they are Bengali, there are no Rohingya) and their history. It became the justification for the suffocating restrictions imposed on them. It mattered not, that there was no international law or historical basis for any of this. The jihadist terrorist narrative Myanmar justifies its brutalisation of the Rohingya, by pointing to the ‘jihadist’, ‘terrorist’ ARSA. It is a convenient narrative that feeds off a wider global islamophobia. The state – and particularly the military – is intent on painting the Rohingya as violent extremists for two reasons. First, to attribute state crimes against the Rohingya to the Rohingya themselves. Second, to garner domestic and international support for the terror that the military is unleashing. The amateurish propaganda footage of the state, of clearly non-Rohingya torch bearers setting houses alight has been dwarfed by the testimony from among the over 400,000 refugees who have fled to Bangladesh, as well as the few reports that have been possible for independent reporters within Rakhine state. There is no doubt that the ARSA are a violent group, though their size and capacity appears to be grossly exaggerated. And while violence is never the answer, it is worth bearing in mind that members of many minority groups, including others in Myanmar, have resorted to armed resistance in the face of much less than has been meted out to the Rohingya over the decades. It is also important to note that ARSA’s public demands have been for equal rights and protection of the Rohingya, an independent UN investigation and accountability for perpetrators. Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi is increasingly criticised for her position on the Rohingya. However, many of these criticisms still flatter. She is implored to break her silence. She is called upon to exercise her moral authority to ease the Rohingya pain. She is sympathised with for being in an impossible position. She is given more latitude than a slowly turning oil tanker. Her pedestal may not be as shiny or tall as it used to be, but world powers are still propping it up. She shields their inaction, as she shields army action. The ever-diminishing sense is that things cannot be so bad if she has not spoken out. There is however, another way of perceiving her. She has not been silent. She has used her voice to stoke hatred against the Rohingya, to ridicule the testimonies of survivors of genocide. To accuse humanitarian actors of colluding with terrorists. To justify the denial of the Rohingya identity. she is only silent in her unwillingness to speak the name ‘Rohingya’. And so, she no longer has any moral authority to speak of. She is a failed leader, who is watching her country burn, her people turn against their neighbours, her military perpetrate the most unspeakable and atrocious crimes and who has taken a calculated and cynical decision to stand with the oppressors. The military These oppressors are first and foremost, the Burmese military, which is led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. The testimonies of victims have consistently and repeatedly identified the military as the primary perpetrators. Rakhine mobs have also played a crucial, violent role. But the Burmese military, which still controls the country and which has set itself the objective of finishing its unfinished business from 1942 is the all-powerful hand that is orchestrating the unspeakable violence. Pushing the Rohingya out is not only ideological, it is also economic. Plans for a special economic zone in Maungdaw are already in the public domain. Ownership of burnt land reverts to the state. Natural gas pipelines and the extractive industries are lucrative beyond belief. The military, stands to profit immensely from its crime against humanity. Fake news In the absence of a strong presence of media or independent monitors, accusations of fake news are commonplace. The propaganda front is as important as ever, to whet the appetite for genocide and to deflect and deface any critical attention. The same state which denied UN investigators entry and does not allow journalists free access to the affected area, is seeking to benefit from the resultant near impossibility to verify testimonies. All news that exposes its hand is deemed to be fake. The state is also producing its own fake news, forcing those under its control to enact burnings, so the Rohingya can be blamed for committing mass harakiri. It is terrifying that despite the sheer weight of evidence, countless Burmese choose to believe the state version, and even international actors do not disregard it completely. And so, legitimacy is being given to the lies that perpetuate genocide. The international community This crisis has yet again highlighted the failures of the UN to rise above partisanship, bureaucracy and ineffectiveness, despite the consistent and increasingly louder warnings and pleas of its Human Rights Office. The international community appears finally, slowly, to be being jostled out of its slumber of complicity and indifference. Too slow to prevent the unimaginable suffering of so many, and it is still unclear if any decisive action will be taken. It is unthinkable that the Burmese military continues to benefit from arms trade and training from many of the world’s super powers. That even after the genocide began, they were mooted as a viable option to don the blue helmets of UN Peacekeeping forces. The genocide of the Rohingya has proven without doubt and at great cost, that the world was too hasty to lift sanctions on Myanmar and congratulate it for its democratisation gains, while lining up to do trade with the mineral rich country. Such are the times we live in though, that such proof alone isn’t enough to guarantee a stronger, more principled international response. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Open Democracy

Twenty-seven U.S. Representatives—from more than a dozen states—have recently joined H.Res.220 as cosponsors in a new wave of bipartisan backing for genocide prevention legislation that seeks to apply the lessons of the Armenian Genocide in preventing renewed atrocities across the Middle East, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). The eternal flame at the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan (Photo: Rupen Janbazian) These most recent additions come in large part as a result of the leadership of Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Congresswoman Jackie Speier and in the wake of more than 80 Congressional meetings—held in district offices across America this past summer—organized by the ANCA Eastern and Western regional offices, dozens of local ANCA chapters, and hundreds of community activists. “We would like to thank Congresswoman Jackie Speier for her exceptional outreach to her Congressional colleagues in support of H.Res.220, and, of course, to recognize the remarkable work of local ANCA chapters and activists this summer to educate their legislators about this bipartisan genocide prevention legislation,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We would like, as well, to express our special appreciation to the measure’s lead authors, Representatives David Trott and Adam Schiff, and all those—both on and off Capitol Hill—working to ensure that the lessons of the U.S. response to the Armenian Genocide inform and improve our present-day U.S. genocide prevention policy.” Recent additions to the list of H.Res.220 cosponsors include the following Representatives: Bass, Karen (D-Calif.-37) Capuano, Michael E. (D-Mass.-7) Conyers, John, Jr. (D-Mich.-13) Courtney, Joe (D-Conn.-2) Doggett, Lloyd (D-Tex.-35) Gabbard, Tulsi (D-Hawaii-2) Hanabusa, Colleen (D-Hawaii-1) Kaptur, Marcy (D-Ohio-9) Kennedy, Joseph P., III (D-Mass.-4) Khanna, Ro (D-Calif.-17) Kihuen, Ruben J. (D-Nev.-4) Krishnamoorthi, Raja (D-Ill.-8) Lee, Barbara (D-Calif.-13) Lewis, John (D-Ga.-5) Lowenthal, Alan S. (D-Calif.-47) Maloney, Carolyn B. (D-N.Y.-12) Moolenaar, John R. (R-Mich.-4) Nadler, Jerrold (D-N.Y.-10) Neal, Richard E. (D-Mass.-1) Nolan, Richard M. (D-Minn.-8) Perlmutter, Ed (D-Colo.-7) Rice, Kathleen M. (D-N.Y.-4) Roybal-Allard, Lucille (D-Calif.-40) Schakowsky, Janice D. (D-Ill.-9) Soto, Darren (D-Fla.-9) Suozzi, Thomas R. (D-N.Y.-3) Tonko, Paul (D-N.Y.-20) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The Armenian Weekly

The U.N. refugee agency says Central African Republic is seeing the highest number of people fleeing deadly violence since the beginning of the country's conflict four years ago. The agency told reporters in Geneva on Friday that more than half a million people have fled the impoverished country as violence surges to levels similar to those at the height of the fighting in 2014. Another 600,000 people are displaced inside the country. Hundreds of people have been killed since largely sectarian fighting erupted in May in areas that previously had been spared. Thousands of Muslims have been sheltering in churches in some areas, while others in Central African Republic have reported rapes and killings. The U.N. says many of the newly displaced people can't reach badly needed aid. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 StarTribune

Millions of dollars in aid money pledged to get Syrian refugee children in school last year did not reach them, arrived late, or could not be traced due to poor reporting practices. In a report released today, “Following the Money: Lack of Transparency in Donor Funding for Syrian Refugee Education,” Human Rights Watch tracks pledges made at a conference in London in February 2016. We followed the money trail from the largest donors to education in Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan, the three countries with the largest number of Syrian refugees, but found large discrepancies between the funds that the various parties said were given and the reported amounts that reached their intended targets in 2016. The lack of timely, transparent funding contributed to the fact that more than 530,000 Syrian children in those three countries were still out of school at the end of the 2016-2017 school year. Donors and the refugee-hosting countries that neighbor Syria agreed at the London conference to enrol all Syrian refugee children in “quality education” by the end of the 2016-2017 school year – and to provide the needed funds. According to the six donors that pledged the biggest sums – the European Union, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Norway – their contributions alone exceeded the overall 2016 target of US$1.4 billion for education inside Syria and for refugee-hosting countries in the region. Yet, education budgets in countries hosting refugees were substantially underfunded. Of the funding that was delivered, much came late, rather than well before the school year as London conference participants had agreed. As of early September 2016, funding for education in Jordan was still 69 percent short of targets under a UN-coordinated aid plan, and 47 percent short in Lebanon. The failure to deliver aid before the school year limits school systems’ capacity to hire and train teachers, purchase textbooks, and plan student intake, with the result that fewer Syrian children are able to realize their right to education. In seeking to identify the source and impact of these funding shortfalls, our research revealed several underlying problems: A lack of consistent, detailed, timely reporting by donors, which often made it difficult or impossible to determine how much support individual donors have given for education in each host country, and when it arrived. Lack of information about the projects donors are funding, and their timetables. Public fund-tracking reports, databases, and other mechanisms often lack enough information to assess whether the projects being funded addressed the key obstacles to education for Syrian children, Inconsistent information about school enrollment, making it difficult to assess progress. Data are often based on different criteria, were collected at different times, or may account only for enrollment at the beginning of the school year rather than continued attendance. Inconsistent education targets and goals set by donors and host countries. The London conference co-hosts announced that all participants had agreed to enroll all Syrian children by 2017, but the Lebanese government announced a 5-year educational plan at the conference that will still leave more than 156,000 Syrian children out of public schools by 2021. In the face of these challenges, there are several things Sweden, and the larger donor community, could do. As a large donor both bilaterally and through the EU, Sweden should seek to ensure that there is more detailed, comprehensive information on education aid to assess whether donors have met their own pledges and provided aid in a timely way, and whether the activities being funded address key obstacles that are keeping thousands of Syrian refugee children out of school. Sweden, as well as other donors, implementing agencies, and host governments need to know what programs are being funded to coordinate their efforts and avoid gaps or overlaps in aid. Greater transparency could help to show why enrollment goals are being missed, identify the responsible parties, and pressure them to improve. It could pinpoint the extent to which host country policies, as opposed to insufficient donor funding, are keeping children out of school. Any earmarking of funding for education should not result in shifting funding from other urgent needs, or tying the hands of implementing agencies or host country governments that may be best-placed to assess where resources are needed. Also, more funding may not help if host countries’ policies undermine children’s access to school. In some provinces in Turkey, for instance, Syrian refugees can face indefinite delays getting the identification card that children need to enroll in public schools. Lebanon has issued virtually no work permits to Syrian refugees, and many refugee families cannot afford school-related costs. But in cases in which donors have pledged to support educational goals, failure to meet those pledges may undermine budgeting and planning education programs, harming the children whose access to school hangs in the balance. Donors should meet their own commitments for the amounts pledged, and ensure that their funding is more transparent, targeted, and timely. To prevent a lost generation of Syrian children and help realize their right to education, the government should redouble the efforts to ensure that Sweden, EU, other donors and host countries improve transparency and accountability. They should publish up-to-date, detailed information on all funding committed, and received, to support education for Syrian and vulnerable host community children in Syria and neighboring countries, including multi-year commitments and disbursal dates. They should also renew efforts to identify and overcome barriers that have thwarted universal enrollment for Syrian refugee children, revising policies accordingly, and publish data on school enrollment and attendance that are comparable, up-to-date, disaggregated by age and gender, and that account for dropouts. Sweden, other donors, and host countries have promised that Syrian children will not become a lost generation, but this is exactly what is happening. More transparency in funding would help reveal the needs that aren’t being met so they could be addressed and get children into school. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Human Rights Watch

The Rome-based Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal to hear the allegations and evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against Myanmar’s religious and ethnic minorities including Rohingyas, Kachin, Ta’ang and Myanmar Muslims. The entire proceeding will be webcast live at https://tribunalonmyanmar.org and live tweets can be followed at https://www.twitter.com/myanmartribunal. Expert Witnesses Dr. Gregory Stanton Dr. Gregory Stanton is Research Professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia. He was the President (2007 – 2009) and First Vice President (2005 – 2007) of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS.) Dr. Stanton is the founder (1999) and chairman of Genocide Watch (http://www.genocidewatch.com), the founder (1981) and director of the Cambodian Genocide Project, and is the founder (1999) and chairman of the Alliance Against Genocide, which has 65 member organizations in 24 countries. Dr. Stanton served in the State Department (1992-1999), where he drafted the United Nations Security Council resolutions that created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. In 1994, Stanton won the American Foreign Service Association’s prestigious W. Averell Harriman award for “extraordinary contributions to the practice of diplomacy exemplifying intellectual courage,” based on his dissent from U.S. policy on the Rwandan genocide. He wrote the State Department options paper on ways to bring the Khmer Rouge to justice in Cambodia, and drafted the rules of procedure for the Khmer Rouge tribunal. He holds a BA (Oberlin College), MTS (Harvard Divinity School), MA and Ph.D. in Anthropology (U. of Chicago), and J.D. (Yale Law School.) KYAW WIN Kyaw Win is a human rights activist, born and brought up in Rangoon, Burma (Myanmar). Kyaw Win graduated with a BA (Hons) in Business Management with an Accounting pathway from the University of Westminster in London. He lives in the United Kingdom with his family. In 2009 Kyaw Win joined the Burmese Muslim Association, where he became head of the Information Committee and obtained a position as Secretary. One of the requirements of his position was to establish an exhaustive network of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), diplomats and media outlets. His role also consisted of advocating within the international community for Muslims in Myanmar and highlighting the most pressing aspects of their plight. ​I n 2014 Kyaw Win founded the Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN) in London. In 2015 the organization was officially registered in London as a legal entity. In his position as Executive Director of BHRN he leads several different teams inside of Myanmar who are documenting human rights violations, breaches of religious freedom and the spread of hate speech and anti-Muslim violence. BHRN is operating throughout Myanmar including in Rakhine State, where rights violations are most egregious. BHRN publishes press releases, reports and statements on developing situations while using an experienced and trusted ground network to ensure reliable information that helps raise awareness of the persecution of the Rohingya People. Kyaw Win has spent several years raising awareness within the international community regarding religious intolerance and persecution of minorities in Myanmar. He has given several public talks and spoken at various conferences to raise awareness of the plight of the Rohingya and other Burmese Muslims. He has also given interviews to various media outlets and participated in debates on Burmese politics and religious issues. Kyaw Win is the author of several articles on these issues, including pieces features in The Asia Times and New Mandela, which examined the spread of religious persecution in Myanmar and its root causes. Maung Zarni A long-time Burmese human rights activist, Maung Zarni is Non-resident Research Fellow with the (Genocide) Documentation Centre – Cambodia. Three generations of his extended family, including the late great uncle who was deputy head of the military-controlled Administration of Northern Rakhine’s Rohingya population in 1961 and 1962, has served in Myanmar Armed Forces since its founding in 1942. Between 2004 and 2008, Zarni initiated and led a Track II Initiative to end the international isolation of his country, which he ended when the Burmese junta blocked emergency aid to the Cyclone Victims. He has written extensively on the Burmese affairs including democratic transition, peace process, transnational activism, Islamophobia and Rohingya genocide. With Alice Cowley, he co-authored “The Slow Burning Genocide of Myanmar’s Rohingya,” Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal (Spring 2014), An Evolution of Rohingya Persecution in Myanmar: From Strategic Embrace to Genocide”, the Middle East Institute, American University (April 2017) and Reworking the Colonial-Era “Indian Peril”:Myanmar’s State-directed Persecution of Rohingyas and Other Muslims​”, Brown Journal of World Affairs (Forthcoming, December 2017). He has organized international conferences on the plight of Rohingyas at the London School of Economics (2014), Harvard University (2014), Norwegian Nobel Institute and Oxford University (2015), and initiated the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Myanmar in 2013 He taught sociology of education at National-Louis University in Chicago, and has held teaching, research, leadership and visiting fellowships at the Rockefeller Foundation, Georgetown, UCL Institute of Education, Oxford, LSE, U. of Malaya, University of Brunei and Harvard. Maung Zarni holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and an MA from the University of California at Davis. As a student, he founded and led the then pioneering Internet-based Free Burma Coalition out of Madison, Wisconsin in 1995-1998. Razia Sultana Razia Sultana is a Rohingya lawyer who practices law in Chittagong Court System, Bangladesh. She holds a BA and LLB from Bangladesh and has received training in humanitarian law & human rights at the diploma level from Canada. Based on her interviews with Rohingya rape victims in 2017, she authored the report entitled “No need to cover our faces: the Rohingya Rape Victims of the Burmese Military”, (Burma Task Force, USA, 2017) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Peoples Tribunal On Myanmar

Months after lawmakers in the House unanimously passed a resolution promising to help Iraq's persecuted Christians and other minority communities, members of the Senate have still not acted on the bill. In June, the House passed HR 390, also known as the Iraq and Syria Genocide Accountability Act, directing the State Department to provide relief to hundreds of thousands of displaced people, including Christians, Yazidis and Muslims in war-torn Iraq. Three months later, none of the Senate's 100 members has acted, leaving the future of Iraq's minority faith groups in limbo. "The time has now come for the world's greatest deliberative body to act," said Kenneth Starr, a former U.S. solicitor general and federal judge. In March, after the State Department determined that ISIS had committed genocide against Christians in Syria and Iraq, Starr says the U.S. has still done little to help those suffering for their faith. "For many months, the U.S. government has been idle in the face of this historic crisis," Starr wrote in a Washington Post editorial. "Except for limited emergency funding from the government of Hungary, of all places, humanitarian relief has come almost entirely from private charities in the United States and around the world." Shortly before the U.S invaded Iraq in 2003, there were about 1.4 million Christians living in Iraq. Now there are only 250,000. "If something bold is not done by the United States and the international community, I believe we will see the end of Christianity in the cradle of Christendom and a loss of religious and ethnic diversity throughout the region," said former Rep. Frank Wolf, who served more than three decades in Congress. Wolf warns that ignoring the plight of religious minorities in Iraq could have regional consequences and cannot continue to go unanswered. "This could result is further destabilization across the Middle East such as the Iranian effort to establish a land bridge to Iraq, Syria and to the Mediterranean and present a threat to U.S. national security interests," said Wolf. Despite being driven from Mosul, ISIS is still determined to eliminate Christianity in Iraq and the broader Middle East. "Their goal of eliminating Christians and other minorities from countries like Iraq remains within reach," said Carl Anderson of the Knights of Columbus. "A century ago, during and following World War I, our government donated $25 million in aid (in WWI dollars) working with Church groups and individuals to assist the Christian minority that had been targeted for genocide in Armenia, Mesopotamia (Iraq), Persia (Iran), etc.," Anderson wrote in an opinion piece for The Hill. "Americans a century ago understood that those targeted for genocide by the Ottomans deserved some priority in American aid. We understood the same about the Jewish community targeted by the Nazis. We understood the principle again in Darfur," he added. "Why are things different with ISIS?" Anderson asks. "The Christian, Yazidi and Shi'ite communities of Iraq and Syria have faced an evil every bit as hateful and genocidal as these previous episodes." Congressman Chris Smith has seen first-hand the devastating consequences of ISIS' reign of terror. "ISIS murders, tortures and enslaves religious and ethnic minorities as part of its ideology and recruitment," says Smith, a U.S. Representative for New Jersey's 4th Congressional District. For decades, Smith has been a consistent voice on behalf of persecuted religious groups around the world. "Even if ISIS is defeated militarily in Iraq, if it succeeds in purging religious and ethnic minorities from their homelands, terrorist radicalization, recruiting and violence will be fed for generations," Smith warned. "Aiding these genocide survivors is an essential element of countering this threat," he added. Smith has made several trips to Iraq visiting with ISIS victims. "When I met with surviving Christian families in Erbil, they told me suffering had strengthened their faith and they still believed the United States would not abandon them," Smith said. "They need our help now. Will we give it?" ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 CBN News

The remains of six people suspected to be Bosniak war victims have been discovered in a mass grave near the eastern Bosnian town of Vlasenica, and the bones of several more found in Koricanske Stijene. A commemoration in 2012 for those killed in the Koricanske Stijene massacre. Photo: BIRN. The Bosnian Institute for Missing Persons told BIRN on Wednesday that the remains of six people, presumed to be Bosniak war victims, have been found in a mass grave near Vlasenica, although the exhumation is not over yet. “We expect we could find a larger number of Bosniaks killed in this region in 1992,” said the institute’s spokesperson, Lejla Cengic. The remains will be transferred to the Commemorative Centre in Tuzla for DNA analysis. An exhumation is also continuing at Koricanske Stijene in central Bosnia, the site of a massacre by Bosnian Serb police in 1992. The Institute for Missing Persons said that the incomplete skeletons of several people have been found so far in the mass grave, which was discovered last month. They will also be sent for DNA testing. In August 1992, the Interventions Squad of the Prijedor police shot about 200 men at Koricanske Stijene. So far, 11 former policemen from Prijedor have been convicted of the murders. Previous exhumations in the area uncovered the remains of 117 victims; the rest remain missing. The whereabouts of about a third of the 30,000 people who were reported missing as a consequence of the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina still remains unknown. Despite the fact that over 20 years that have passed since the war, mass graves continue to be discovered. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 BIRN