About two months ago I wrote the following piece, which was the outgrowth of a number of novels I read that had stirred especially powerful emotions in me. It is likely I am not alone in my reactions given the excruciatingly cruel stories of horror, humiliation, and damage resulting from the human penchant to indulge harsh, discriminating attitudes of racism and bigotry. I felt the need to reflect on how the stories stirred for me the personal and unbelievable but redeeming story of my mother enduring and overcoming her experience of genocide at the hands of the Turks at the turn of the last century. The piece I wrote also stimulated memories about the sting of prejudice in my own life. But the essay languished in my computer: I was not sure what to do with it, or what forum it was best suited to. The recent events in Charlottesville and the failure of our President to lead the outcry of indignation and advance a healing voice for the damage that had been inflicted motivated me to revisit my work. I hope the following stimulates us to think and act in ways that will effectively counter hatred and bigotry. Like most of us, I read for pleasure and comfort. . . but lately what I’ve been reading is more about pain and dismay. Recently I was reminded of the novel Five Smooth Stones, by Ann Fairbairn having just finished reading Judi Picoult’s book, Small Great Things. Both stories powerfully pierce the psyche as they delve into racism in “us and them.” The reader is drilled on the cruelties of racism, experiencing it almost firsthand. Both novels take the reader beyond the overt damage and malice into the never-ending daily insidious intricacies of what racism does to those who are its target. These novels remind that even the most tolerant among us are blind and insensitive to so many of the elusive, gnawing aspects of racism and bigotry. In this respect, racism is like addiction: it is more about the pain and suffering than it is about the drug. That is, it’s more about the cruelty and agony than the attitude. I want to elaborate about the pain and cruelty of racism and bigotry. Looking back over the last couple of years of my leisure reading, it jumps out at me how many of the books I read for “pleasure” were embedded in contexts of racism and anti-Semitism. I put pleasure in quotes, because were it not for the beautiful writing and sensitive insights, one might wonder what pleasure there could be in the painful story lines. In the Lost Wife, Alyson Richman, tells a poignant love story and chronicles the systematic dissolution and suffering of Jewish society through the lives of those who traipsed from Prague to the concentration camps. Robert Harris’ fictionalized story, An Officer and a Spy, tells of the Dreyfus affair, in which the Captain's banishment from French society is permeated by anti-Semitism. And James Carroll’s Warburg in Rome describes the post-World War II experiences of Jews who survived Nazi purges only to suffer further insensitivity, cruelty, and prejudice during resettlement in Europe and American society. And in John Grisham’s Sycamore Row and Leonard Pitts’ Freeman, racism pervades American society. Beyond the expectable recoil and anger such stories evoke, my reactions go deeper for special reasons of my own. With each of these novels, I wanted to cry out in rage or weep. My intense reactions are fueled by recent and remote experiences that weigh on me more at certain times than others. I am a first generation ethnic whose mother lived through the first genocide of the twentieth century at the hands of Turkish Ottomans who either dispersed or massacred one third of the Armenians as a people in that part of the world. Unlike so many who survived the Armenian genocide, who tried to bury and not to vocalize, to forget, and who therefore suffered in silence and perished internally, my mother was different. She emerged less scarred, optimistic, and resilient. She shared her stories about the events, nightmarish and forbidding as they were, with friends and family—including her children, even at an early age. Not without significance, we were brought up with a grim folklore about her experiences, in which many of her stories were embedded in a sort of gallows humor. Truly she was a survivor. I am not quite sure if she was either born resilient, or her capacity to talk about and share her experiences fostered her resilience. These remote memories fuel my intermittent emotionality about my readings and current happenings. Scholars who study genocide and the holocaust speak of the intergenerational transmission of the rage and anguish that stem from the torment of trauma endured in previous generations. I do not escape that fate. And I would be remiss if I failed to mention the sting I periodically felt at being the target of subtle and no-so-subtle ethnic slurs and prejudice growing up, called names like “grease ball,” or Katzman with the obvious anti-Semitic connotations, and the discomfort with the condescension of the Waspy members of my church towards me as an ethnic. And then in my late teens I cannot recall if I was amused or shocked when I heard that some kids in the aftermath of the 1967 Arab-Israeli six-day war beat up an Armenian boy believing he was an Arab. Perhaps my musings are too personal and irrelevant to what is going on in the world, but I think not. Whether on a global or individual level, the damage, wounds, and suffering that result from bigotry, trauma, abuse, and neglect are on a continuum but they leave a deep imprint on our spirit, bodies, and psyche. Our worst destiny is when we don’t recognize, react, and act. The horror of these experiences mounts and weaves its way into our being in countless and damaging ways when we fail to be aware, acknowledge, consider, and react with appropriate indignation, intolerance, and remediation. The worst and most obvious manifestations of bigotry and abuse are the countless ways trauma survivors and PTSD victims suffer, or the unrelenting sense of dysphoria many of these individuals feel. Often, trauma survivors try to cope with substances of abuse. Or they externalize their rage and inflict their suffering and torment on others. Hope for better lives and a better world happens when we share our experiences of pain and suffering. Sharing can pull us together. Otherwise we tear ourselves and each other apart. ___________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Psychiatric Times

The Myanmar government has evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers amid ongoing clashes in north-western Rakhine state, the government said, while thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled across the border to Bangladesh. The death toll from the violence that erupted on Friday with coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents has climbed to 98, including 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, the government said. The clashes, the worst since at least October, have prompted the government to evacuate staff and thousands of non-Muslim villagers from the area. Fighting involving the military and hundreds of Rohingya across north-western Rakhine continued on Saturday with the fiercest clashes taking place on the outskirts of the major town of Maungdaw, according to residents and the government. The attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered in the region since last October, when a similar but much smaller Rohingya attack prompted a brutal military operation beset by allegations of human rights abuses. The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in mainly Buddhist Myanmar has emerged as the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi. On Friday she condemned the raids in which insurgents wielding guns, sticks and homemade bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base. The Nobel peace prize laureate has been accused by some Western critics of not speaking out for the long-persecuted Muslim minority, and of defending the army’s counteroffensive after the October attacks. Win Myat Aye, Myanmar’s minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, said late on Saturday that 4,000 “ethnic villagers” who had fled their villages had been evacuated, referring to non-Muslim residents of the area. The ministry is arranging facilities for non-Muslims in places including Buddhist monasteries, government offices and local police stations in major cities. “We are providing food to the people cooperating with the state government and local authorities,” said Aye. He was unable to describe the government’s plans to help Rohingya civilians. “It is very difficult to say – this is a conflict situation so it is very difficult to say who is right or wrong,” he said. Panic-stricken Rakhine residents in ethnically mixed or non-Muslim towns have readied knives and sticks to defend themselves. Many were stranded in their villages located in Muslim-majority areas as clashes continued and some roads had been mined, residents said. “The clashes continued all day yesterday on the main road, there are a lot of landmines. I don’t think local authorities have enough food for all the people. The price of commodities is rising day by day,” a local journalist from Maungdaw town said on Sunday. Bracing for more violence, thousands of Rohingya – mostly women and children – were trying to forge the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh and the land border as gunfire could be heard from the Myanmar side, Bangladesh border guards said. Around 2,000 people have been able to cross into Bangladesh since Friday, according to estimates by Rohingya refugees living in the makeshift camps on the Bangladeshi side of the border. Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said it was concerned that thousands of “unarmed Myanmar nationals” had assembled near the border to enter the country. Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar to Bangladesh since the early 1990s and there are now around 400,000 in the country, where they are a source of tension between the two nations who both regard them as the other country’s citizens. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The Guardian

Two headlines from Radio Dabanga today tell us a great deal about the future of camps for displaced persons inside Darfur. The UN Security Council resolution gutting the UN/African Union “hybrid” Mission in Darfur (June 30, 2017), along with the impending permanent lifting of U.S. economic sanctions on the NIF/NCP regime in Khartoum (October 2017), provide the backdrop for what will certainly be a dramatic increase in attacks by militia forces and regular Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) on camps for the displaced: • Darfur displaced commemorate 2008 ‘Kalma camp massacre’ | Radio Dabanga | August 27, 2017 | NYALA | https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/darfur-displaced-commemorate-2008-kalma-camp-massacre On Friday, thousands of displaced people commemorated the ninth anniversary of the ‘Kalma camp massacre.’ In August 2008, a group of militiamen and members of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police (Abu Tira) raided Kalma camp for the displaced near Nyala, capital of South Darfur. (See below) • Militiamen surround South Darfur camp, shoot student | Radio Dabanga | August 27, 2017 | NIERTETI | https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/militiamen-surround-south-darfur-camp-shoot-student A university student was shot at Nierteti’s Northern Camp in Central Darfur on Thursday. Speaking to Radio Dabanga, a camp elder reported that militiamen began firing into the air over the Northern Nierteti Camp for the displaced on Thursday evening. “Abdelwahab Hasan Hamid was seriously hit by bullets, and had to be taken to Nyala for treatment,” he said. The elder said that a large group of militants in vehicles and on motorcycles and horses began gathering north and west of the Nierteti Northern Camp since Sunday, after one of their colleagues went missing in the area. [The “missing man” explanation by the militia is pure pretext: “missing” men, or livestock, are constantly being used by militia forces as an excuse for extortion or violence against IDP, who would be far too fearful to hold either Arab men or livestock in camps—ER] International memory on such matters is short, but the first notable attack on an IDP camp in Darfur occurred at Aro Sharow in September 2005—twelve years ago. It was unusually well-reported, as I indicated in a dispatch at the time, citing the assessment of Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, Special Representative of the Chairperson of the AU Commission on Darfur (see “A Final Solution for Darfur: The View from Khartoum: Preserving the genocidal status quo works to consolidate NIF power,” October 9, 2005 | http://wp.me/p45rOG-oG/): On 28 September 2005, just four days ago, some reportedly 400 Janjaweed Arab militia on camels and horseback went on the rampage in Aru Sharo, Acho and Gozmena villages in West Darfur. Our reports also indicate that the day previous, and indeed on the actual day of the attack, Government of Sudan helicopter gunships were observed overhead. This apparent coordinated land and air assault gives credence to the repeated claim by the rebel movements of collusion between the Government of Sudan forces and the Janjaweed/Arab militia. This incident, which was confirmed not only by our investigators but also by workers of humanitarian agencies and nongovernmental organizations in the area, took a heavy toll resulting in 32 people killed, 4 injured and 7 missing, and about 80 houses/shelters looted and set ablaze. The following day, a clearly premeditated and well-rehearsed combined operation was carried out by the Government of Sudan military and police at approximately 11am in the town of Tawilla and its Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in North Darfur. The Government of Sudan forces used approximately 41 trucks and 7 land cruisers in the operation which resulted in a number of deaths, massive displacement of civilians and the destruction of several houses in the surrounding areas as well as some tents in the IDP camps. Indeed, the remains of discharged explosive devices were found in the IDP camp. During the attack, thousands from the township and the IDP camp and many humanitarian workers were forced to seek refuge near the AU camp for personal safety and security. (Transcript of press conference by Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, Special Representative of the Chairperson of the AU Commission on Darfur, Khartoum, October 1, 2005) (emphases added) Many of the fires reported constantly in the camps are of an extremely suspicious nature; investigations of possible arson are never undertaken by the police, the army, or UNAMID Such attacks continued, perhaps most notoriously on Kalma camp, the commemoration of which Radio Dabanga cites. At the time of the attack, I wrote (with Mia Farrow) in The Wall Street Journal about what was reported in the immediate aftermath of this attack, for which no one was held accountable by the Khartoum regime: “Now Sudan Is Attacking Refugee Camps,” The Wall Street Journal, 6 September 2008 | Eric Reeves and Mia Farrow | http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122065894281205691.html?mod=googlenews_wsj At 6am on the morning of August 25, Kalma camp, home to 90,000 displaced Darfuris, was surrounded by Sudanese government forces. By 7am, 60 heavily armed military vehicles had entered the camp, shooting and setting straw huts ablaze. Terrified civilians—who had previously fled their burning villages when they were attacked by this same government and its proxy killers the Janjaweed—hastily armed themselves with sticks, spears and knives. Of course, these were no match for machine guns and automatic weapons. By 9am, the worst of the brutal assault was over. The vehicles rolled out leaving scores dead and over 100 wounded. Most were women and children. The early morning attack ensured that no aid workers were present as witnesses. Doctors Without Borders did manage to negotiate the transportation of 49 of the most severely wounded to a hospital in the nearby town of Nyala. But beyond this, aid workers have been blocked from entering the camp. Military vehicles have now increased in number and massed around Kalma. They have permitted no humanitarian assistance to reach the wounded. People already hard hit by recent floods and deteriorating sanitary conditions have received no food, water or medicine since Monday. The dead cannot even be buried with the white shrouds requested by the families of the victims. How can such brazen cruelty be inflicted upon our fellow human beings? How is it that a military assault on displaced civilians in a refugee camp creates barely a ripple in the news cycle? How does such outrageous human destruction prompt so little outrage? How is it that those who have been tasked with protecting the world’s most vulnerable population have failed—and failed, and then failed yet again—in their central responsibility? What does this say about the United Nations and the powerful member states? How have we come to such a moment? Such questions can be answered by looking at our response to Darfur’s agony over the past six years. Any honest assessment would be as shocking and dispiriting as the assault on Kalma itself. The international response to massive crimes by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and his cabal has been simply this: We accommodate and acquiesce, with the contrived hope that these tyrants might grow weary of their task, or that paper agreements can somehow have meaning without a sustained and powerful international commitment backing them. The Kalma massacre is a part of Khartoum’s larger genocidal campaign. Since 2003, 80 – 90 percent of Darfur’s African villages have been destroyed, and more than 2.5 million survivors have fled to squalid camps across Darfur, eastern Chad and the Central African Republic. Hundreds of thousands have died. Khartoum’s next goal is to shut down camps in Darfur, and force people out into the desert where they cannot survive. The homes and fields that once sustained so many of Darfur’s people are ashes now, or they have new occupants—Arab tribes from Darfur and as far away as Chad, Niger and Mali. The message of the Kalma massacre is chillingly clear for Darfuris. But this assault on civilians in full view of the international community raises the question of what the massacre says about the rest of us. The only message we have sent to the Sudanese government is that they can now attack the camps and the world will watch and do nothing. [ Ms. Farrow has just returned from her 10th trip to the Darfur region. Mr. Reeves is author of A Long Day’s Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide (The Key Publishing House, 2007) ] Given the total absence of accountability for the countless attacks on IDP camps, large and small, we should have no doubt that dismantling the camps is Khartoum’s “end game” in Darfur; indeed, it has long been such. It is difficult to overstate how threatening the environment will be for those forced from camps for the displaced Although it received almost no international attention at the time of its announcement in September 2010, the Khartoum regime’s “New Strategy for Darfur” was—among other things—a blueprint for removing UNAMID, compelling humanitarian organizations to convert their efforts to “development” projects—even as relief needs were increasingly compelling—and closing the camps because of “peace in Darfur” (see “Accommodating Genocide: International Response to Khartoum’s ‘New Strategy for Darfur,'” Dissent Magazine, October 8, 2010 | http://wp.me/p45rOG-AN/). The policy of camp closings was even more formally announced by regime Second Vice-President Hassabo Mohamed Abdelrahman in December 2015—a little over a year and a half ago: In a speech delivered before the representatives of former rebel groups and IDPs in El-Fasher, North Darfur on Monday, [Second Vice-President Hassabo Mohamed Abdelrahman] said Darfur has “completely recovered from the war and is now looking forward to achieve a full peace, stability and development.” “IDP camps represent a significant and unfortunate loss of dignity and rights of citizens in their country” he said and called on the displaced “to choose within no more than a month between resettlement or return to their original areas.” He further reiterated his government’s commitment to take all the measures and do the needful to achieve this goal, stressing that “the year 2016 will see the end of displacement in Darfur.” Abdel Rahman told the meeting that he has just ended a visit to Karnoi and Tina areas in North Darfur, adding the two areas which were affected by the conflict have totally recovered. He said his visit with a big delegation to the two areas “is a message sceptics in the fact that security and stability are back in Darfur”… (Sudan Tribune, December 28, 2015 | El Fasher, North Darfur) [emphases added] Hassabo Mohamed Abdelrahman Khartoum will no doubt hold back the worst of the SAF attacks on the camps, but will continue to sanction militia attacks such as Radio Dabanga has regularly reported for years. Many of the fires reported in camps are also certainly the work of militia arsonists, although arson is a notoriously difficult crime to prove, especially without eyewitnesses or sophisticated forensic resources of a sort that simply don’t exist in any camp in Darfur. UNAMID has long proved completely hopeless in investigating camp fires (along with the massive sexual violence against African girls and women, a topic that Khartoum has declared off limits; see “Continuing Mass Rape of Girls in Darfur: The most heinous crime generates no international outrage” | January 2016 | http://wp.me/p45rOG-1QG/ ; Arabic translation of this report | http://wp.me/p45rOG-1Rr/]. Africa Many tens of thousands of African girls and women have been the victims of sexual violence over the past fourteen years Eventually, however, when it judges the moment auspicious—when further UNAMID deployments out of Darfur have been completed and U.S. sanctions have been fully and finally lifted—the Khartoum regime will unleash attacks that will be greater in scale and designed to complete the “dismantling” of the camps that Vice-President Hassabo Mohamed Abdelrahman spoke of. And the fate of those displaced from their locations of tenuous security, and equally tenuous humanitarian relief? They will be abandoned in an environment marked by extraordinarily levels of ethnically-targeted violence, by the collapse of a humanitarian operation that depends on the fixity of camps for the provision of what is still grossly inadequate food, clean water, sanitation, and medical care. The camp populations—overwhelmingly, virtually entirely—are from the African tribal populations of Darfur, and they have seen their farmlands violently seized by militia forces, some from Chad, Niger, and Mali—Arab militia forces that Khartoum has paid in kind: military efforts in return for the land of displaced persons. There are constant reports of the violence that face African farmers who seek to cultivate or return to their lands; see | “Changing the Demography”: Violent Expropriation and Destruction of Farmlands in Darfur, November 2014 – November 2015″ | http://wp.me/p45rOG-1P4 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 SUDAN Research, Analysis, and Advocacy

Myanmar brutal joint forces of army, BGP and Hlun Thein along with Rakhine extremists have been conducting aggressive arms attack on Rohingya civilians in Maungdaw and Rathedaung again today. According to report, several Rohingya civilians have reportedly been killed in heavy gun fire of Myanmar joint forces in many villages of Rathedaung and Maungdaw. Most of them have been slaughtered by Rakhine extremists and forces. The joint forces have launched arson and arms attack on the Rohingya residents since early morning of 26 August today where a mosque and a Madrasa have been burnt to ashes in Myinthlut (Merulla). The Rohingya people of Shilkhali and Kyan Taung village under Rathedaung have completely been displaced owing to arson attacks who are taking shelter in the forest now where they may face maximum danger as well. More than 1,000 homes have been torched and nearly 50, 000 people have been displaced since yesterday. Rakhine extremists are also attacking them with the help of Myanmar security forces for which the Rohingyas have no alternative ways to survive there. It is learnt that the joint forces are attacking the Rohingya civilians in Shab Bazar and Sammonapara of Maungdaw North and Minthlut of south where multiple people reported to have been killed in indiscriminate gun shots. The Rohingyas have fallen prey to Myanmar security forces and Rakhine extremists and now they have no option to survive as both the armed forces and the Rakhine extremists are attacking them. The heartbreaking Rohingyas urge international community and concerned to come forward to helping them rescue from atrocities of Myanmar brutal forces and Rakhine extremists. Otherwise, not a single Rohingya can survive in western Arakan, the villagers say. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________(c) 2017 Arakan Times

Thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims were trying to cross from Myanmar into Bangladesh on Saturday, following an attack by Rohingya militants in western Myanmar that left 89 people dead in a dramatic escalation of communal violence that has plagued the region. The militants launched the attacks overnight Thursday on more than two dozen police and border outposts. The office of Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said military and border police responded to the attacks — which left 12 security personnel and 77 Rohingya dead — by launching “clearance operations.” Advocates for the Rohingya on social media have been reporting many army raids on villages, including killings and the burning down of homes. They have also posted videos they say show villagers who have fled to the mountains for safety. The accounts, from activists who have given generally reliable information in the past, are impossible to independently verify because the government bars journalists and other outsiders from entering the region without permission. Mohammad Nur, a Rohingya leader at an unregistered camp in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district, told The Associated Press by phone that he had heard that some 100,000 Rohingya had gathered along the border to try to enter Bangladesh, but the number could not be confirmed. Nurul Kabir, a Rohingya man from Buddhist-majority Myanmar, said many Rohingya started fleeing their villages on Thursday morning after Myanmar soldiers and Buddhists started entering their areas. Kabir said he rescued a 4-year-old boy from a road on his way to the border. “He was crying, he was alone,” he said. “I asked him where are your parents, and he was just crying. I took him and brought him with me.” Roshida Khatun, 40, crossed into Bangladesh on Saturday morning along with more than 30 other Rohingya. Khatun told The Associated Press that she left behind her entire family along the border in Myanmar after she lost track of her whereabouts on Friday night. She said that she and hundreds of others started walking to reach the border after her village was attacked by Myanmar soldiers. She reached Amtoli, a border village in Bangladesh’s Bandarban district, at around 11 a.m. Saturday after a nearly 40-hour journey. “I have left everything behind,” Khatun said. “My husband died 11 years ago, and now I have nobody. I have lost my entire family this time.” She said many others were still waiting to enter Bangladesh. “If they are not allowed in they will die,” she said. Farid Alam, a Bangladeshi who lives in Amtoli village, through which many Rohingya have crossed the border, told the AP on Saturday that over last two days, at least 2,000 Rohingya had entered Bangladesh. “The patrol in my area is not that tight often, especially during changing of shifts,” he said. Bangladeshi authorities would not confirm how many Rohingya had entered Bangladesh. Ali Hossain, a top government official in Cox’s Bazar, said Friday that authorities were on alert in the wake of the new violence in Myanmar. He said that “Bangladesh is already overburdened” and “is unable to take more Rohingya.” “That’s the order we have gotten from the Ministry of Home Affairs,” Hossain said. “We have done enough and sheltered hundreds of thousands despite our limited resources.” Nur, the Rohingya leader, said Bangladeshi authorities had asked him and his associates to “discourage” their people in Myanmar from leaving the country. The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration said recently that around 87,000 Rohingya had crossed the border and entered Bangladesh since last October, when a new string of violence broke out in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. A militant group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, took responsibility for the Thursday night attacks on more than 25 locations, saying they were in defense of Rohingya communities that had been brutalized by government forces. Suu Kyi called the attacks “a calculated attempt to undermine the efforts of those seeking to build peace and harmony in Rakhine state.” The United States urged authorities to avoid a response that would inflame the tensions. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the attacks underscored the importance of the government implementing recommendations of a commission chaired by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, which published its final report on Thursday recommending that the government act quickly to improve economic development and social justice in Rakhine state to resolve violence between Buddhists and the Rohingya. The clashes were deadlier than an attack by the militants on three border posts last October that killed nine policemen and set off months of brutal counterinsurgency operations by Myanmar security forces against Rohingya communities in Rakhine. Human rights groups accused the army of carrying out massive human rights abuses including killing, rape and burning down more than 1,000 homes and other buildings. The army’s abuses fueled further resentment toward the government among the Muslim Rohingya, most of whom are considered by Myanmar’s Buddhist majority to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and are denied citizenship and its rights. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The Washington Post

A group of Rohingya refugees takes shelter at the Kutuupalang makeshift refugee camp, after crossing the Myanmar-Bangladesh border today in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, August 26, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain REUTERS Thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar are trying to cross the border with Bangladesh, Bangladeshi security officials said on Saturday, as fresh fighting erupted in Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine state. The death toll from widespread attacks staged by Rohingya insurgents on Friday has climbed to 96, including nearly 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, the government said, prompting it to evacuate staff and villagers from some areas. The attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since last October, when a similar offensive prompted a major military sweep beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses. The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in mainly Buddhist Myanmar has emerged as the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who late on Friday condemned the morning raids - in which insurgents wielding guns, sticks and homemade bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been accused by some Western critics of not speaking out for the long-persecuted Muslim minority, and of defending the army's counteroffensive after the October attacks. Some 3,000 Rohingya arrived at the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh on Saturday, Manzurul Hassan Khan, a Bangladeshi border guard commander, told Reuters. "About 500 Rohingya, mostly women and children, spent the last night in a marshy area waiting to cross over," said Khan. "We protected them the whole night. Today they went back." Reuters reporters saw hundreds of Rohingya crossing into Bangladesh near the border village of Gumdhum as gun shots could be heard from the Myanmar side. They could be seen squatting in a marshy area, hiding in the bushes from border guards. "We managed to escape the shooting in Myanmar and tried to enter Bangladesh. We waited all night after we were pushed backed by Bangladesh border guards last night. This morning, we managed to enter somehow," said Hamid Hossain, 42, who crossed into Bangladesh on Saturday with a group of three families. A 25-year-old man whose relatives said he had been shot by Myanmar security forces on Friday died as he was carried to Bangladesh for treatment. He was buried near a refugee camp close to the border on Saturday, according to camp resident Mohammed Shafi, who said he witnessed the burial. Bangladesh's foreign ministry on Saturday said it was concerned that thousands of "unarmed Myanmar nationals" had assembled near the border to enter the country. Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar to Bangladesh since the early 1990s and there are now around 400,000 in the country, where they are a source of tension between the two nations who both regard them as the other country's citizens. FIGHTING IN MAUNGDAW In Myanmar, the government said there had been several large clashes involving hundreds of Rohingya across northwestern Rakhine on Saturday. The fiercest fighting took place on the outskirts of the major town of Maungdaw, near the Alodaw Pyae Buddhist monastery. Maungdaw resident Nay Myo Lin, 27, told Reuters by telephone that security forces opened fire on scores of what appeared to be Muslim men with guns near the monastery. "Police shot at them to break up the group and then the men shot back in the direction of the entrance gate of the city," said Nay Myo Lin. "As the fighting went on throughout the day, I was stuck in the monastery and didn't dare to go out. When the sound of gunshots stopped, I ran to my house," he said. Fearful Rakhine Buddhist residents in Maungdaw town gathered in homes while men stood guard by the windows, said Ohmar Lin, a female resident of the town. "We don't go out of the house, but I am ready to fight - we are prepared with knives and sticks to protect ourselves if they come here," she said. The United Nations security team has sent an internal update to staff about the clashes, seen by Reuters, saying that Myanmar government officials had assured the U.N. "about their readiness to provide troops to secure our compounds if it becomes necessary". The government said in a statement that: "Extremist Bengali terrorists are attacking using man-made mines ... swords, sticks, guns. They also killed Islamic religious people of their own faith who were village administrators." The term "Bengali" is seen as derogatory by many Rohingya as it implies they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, although many can trace family in Myanmar for generations. EVACUATION The Myanmar army operation last year was heavily criticised internationally amid reports of civilian killings, rape and arson that a United Nations investigation said probably constituted crimes against humanity. Suu Kyi is blocking the U.N.-mandated probe into the allegations. Aid workers and monitors worry that the latest attacks, across a wider area than October's violence, will spark an even more aggressive army response and trigger communal clashes between Muslims and Buddhist ethnic Rakhines. Nearly 200 people were killed and around 140,000 displaced in communal violence in the state in 2012. In a statement late on Friday, Suu Kyi "strongly condemned" "brutal attacks by terrorists on security forces in Rakhine State". "I would like to commend the members of the police and security forces who have acted with great courage in the face of many challenges," she added. The government said it had evacuated officials, teachers and hundreds of villagers to army bases and main police stations. "Some will be evacuated by helicopters and some will be taken out by the security forces," a military source based in Rakhine told Reuters. The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) which instigated the October attacks claimed responsibility for the offensive, presenting it as a defence against the Myanmar army. Myanmar declared ARSA, previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, a terrorist organisation in the wake of the attacks. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Reuters

Myanmar security forces fired mortars and machine guns at terrified Rohingya villagers fleeing northern Rakhine State for Bangladesh on Saturday, according to an AFP reporter and a border official at the scene, as clashes which have killed scores continued for a second day. The fighting, concentrated around remote border villages, is between suspected Rohingya militants and Myanmar security forces, but is increasingly sweeping in civilians -- from the Muslim minority as well as local Buddhists and Hindus. Rakhine State has become a crucible of religious hatred focused on the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, who are reviled and perceived as illegal immigrants in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Violence has left at least 92 dead since Friday, according to an official toll, and forced thousands of Rohingya to flee towards Bangladesh. But authorities there have refused to let most of them in, with thousands of people, mainly women and children, stranded along the "zero line" border zone. On Saturday an AFP reporter at Bangladesh's Ghumdhum border post counted over a dozen mortar shells and countless machine gun rounds fired by Myanmar security forces in nearby hills onto a large group of Rohingya desperately trying to cross. It was not immediately clear if any were hit, but civilians scattered to evade the barrage. "They have fired on civilians, mostly women and children, hiding in the hills near the zero line," Border Guard Bangladesh's (BGB) station chief Manzurul Hassan Khan confirmed. "They fired machine guns and mortar shells suddenly, targeting the civilians. They have not consulted with the BGB," he added. Unwanted by Myanmar, the Rohingya are unwelcome in Bangladesh, which already hosts tens of thousands of refugees from the Muslim minority who live in squalid conditions in the Cox's Bazar area. In desperate scenes, many of the Rohingya displaced on Friday have been left without shelter in no-man's land between the two countries, or forced to return to villages enveloped by clashes between militants and security forces. Hundreds did make it across the porous border early Saturday when border patrols were relaxed due to heavy rains, an AFP reporter witnessed, with some swimming across the Naf river which separates the two countries. Bangladesh's foreign ministry summoned Myanmar's charge d'affaires and expressed "serious concern" at the possibility of a large-scale influx of Rohingyas following the latest violence. - 'No security' - The current flare-up came after a Myanmar government-commissioned report led by former UN chief Kofi Annan into the roots of the Rakhine troubles. It urged Myanmar's government to swiftly find a pathway to citizenship for the roughly one million-strong Rohingya minority and ease suffocating restrictions on work and travel. Violence erupted early on Friday as scores of men purportedly from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), ambushed Myanmar police posts. Using knives, some guns and homemade explosives they killed at least a dozen security forces. The fightback has seen at least 77 Rohingya militants killed, according to the office of Myanmar's de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi -- the highest declared single day toll since ARSA emerged as a force last year. The group says it is fighting to protect the Rohingya from abuses by Myanmar security forces and the majority-Buddhist Rakhine community who they accuse of trying to push them out. Attacks on police posts last October sparked a wave of deadly "clearance operations" by Myanmar's army and forced some 87,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. The UN believes that military crackdown may have amounted to ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya. The army denies the allegations, which included civilian killings and mass rape. On Saturday residents of outlying villages fled to the town of Maungdaw, only to be greeted with more violence there. Ethnic Rakhine Buddhists armed themselves with knives and sticks as tension soared in a town that has repeatedly been the epicentre of religious violence since 2012. With panic spreading, scores of Hindu villagers also fled to Maungdaw after rumours that they too were a target for the militants. "There is no security in the villages," Buthon, a Hindu man in Maungdaw told AFP. The government has declared ARSA a terrorist organisation. Myanmar says the group is headed by Rohingya jihadists who were trained abroad but it is unclear how large the network is and they appear to be using homespun weapons in addition to guns seized during their raids. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Daily Mail

Attack on Rohingya have intensified in the areas of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung where reports of extrajudicial killings, torching villages, explosion of mine bombs have been reported up till now. In Dumbai, Maungdaw Military mine bomb and shooting killed 9 people including women and children and injured more than 30 Rohingyas, where as in Kyi Kan Pyin around 11 civilians came under attack. In the southern Maungdaw’s Myint Hlut around 200 homes were burnt down by armed authorities in collaboration with Rakhine extremists especially from the NaTaLa resettlement. According ground sources, In Chain Khali the village is burnt down to the ground and around 500 civilians were under severe attack where a few of managed to escape. In the IDP around 200 homes are destroyed to ground. All the peoples have resorted to nearby mountains and hilly areas. In Zay Di Pyin of Rathedaung, the Rakhines have blockaded the Rohingya Hamlet since late July and even the Muslims were not allowed to go for food and work. Yesterday a dozen of people were killed. The historical village of Zay Di Pyin is burnt down. In the Taungbazar, Buthidaung region there are reports of slaughtering and shooting on around 100 Rohingyas. Around 10,000 people are displaced throughout the region. Thousands others are force to flee to Bangladesh where Bangladesh authorities have restricted the border. The escapees are generally women, children and elderlies. In every attack now and before, there are reports of Rakhines’ involvement in anti-Rohingya attacks, but still Rohingya are refraining from counter attacks. Reportedly, the Rakhines in their majority areas are cooperating armed authorities in conducting violent attacks against Rohingya civilians, and it may lead to reciprocal actions and communal riots, according to local ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 RVision

At least 89 people including a dozen security forces were killed as Rohingya insurgents besieged border posts in northern Rakhine State. The atrocities by Myanmar’s army during the recent crackdown are still haunting the country’s Rohingya Muslims, triggering a fresh exodus of refugees to Bangladesh. Among the latest arrivals, one identified as Musa by his companion died at Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) from a gunshot wound sustained during the crackdown. The 22-year-old was from Maungdaw in Rakhine state of Myanmar. Another injured Rohingya man, who called himself Mukhtar, on Saturday told the Dhaka Tribune that he, Musa and another trespassed into Bangladesh after a group of army men with heavy weapons swooped on their village all on a sudden on Thursday night. “They shot dead a villager. We were injured in the gunfire,” he said. The third Rohingya was admitted to a hospital at Ukhiya upazila in Cox’s Bazar. “The army men were firing indiscriminately at us. We were running helter-skelter to save our lives. Only two of us managed to escape the atrocities, and two died on the spot. Initially, we took shelter in a nearby hill after fleeing our village with severe injuries. To avoid being caught by the army men, we later left the hill and crawled into another village,” the shell-shocked survivor narrated the horrors of the night, lying on a CMCH bed. “The villagers provided us with food, water and shelter. Later, we crossed into Bangladesh with the help of agents from the two sides. Scores of Rohingya people, mostly women and children, are still agonisingly waiting to take shelter in Bangladesh,” he said. At least 89 people including a dozen security forces were killed as Rohingya insurgents besieged border posts in northern Rakhine State, according to The Hindu. The state is bisected by religious hatred focused on the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, who are reviled and perceived as illegal immigrants in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Fearing further persecution, Mukhtar said he did not want to return home. Standing beside the bullet-hit youth, Jahara Begum, who identified Mukhtar as her son-in-law, said that on information she received and whisked him off to the hospital. “I live in a registered Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar. I am worried as many of our relatives are still passing their days in utter insecurity,” added Jahara. Contacted, CMCH Director Brig Gen Md Jalal Uddin said the two Rohingya youths were admitted to the hospital with gunshot injuries early Saturday. “Both of them received bullet injuries two days back in Myanmar. Of the two, one by the name of Musa succumbed to his injuries at the hospital,” said Jalal. Asked about Mukhtar’s condition, he said: “Mukhtar sustained injuries in the chest. He is showing symptoms of poor consciousness level. We will take decision about surgery after conducting some tests. “We are hopeful of giving him proper treatment if his health condition does not deteriorate.” The body of Musa has been kept at the hospital morgue. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Dhaka Tribune

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Eight police officers and an immigration officer were killed during a series of coordinated attacks against police in Myanmar's western Rakhine State, authorities said Friday. At least 20 police outposts and an army base were targeted, the committee said. Authorities alleged that an estimated 150 insurgents attempted to storm the base but "soldiers fought back." The bodies of 16 insurgents have been recovered, the State Counselor Office's Information Committee said on Facebook. "Fighting remains in some locations and a combined forces of the Tatmadaw (Myanmar armed forces) and police forces are still waging an attack against the extremist terrorists," the committee said. The violence erupted hours after the release a long-awaited report into the treatment of Rohingya by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, led by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The report warned unrest in the state could spiral out of control unless concrete action is taken soon. "Tensions remain high and they risk becoming worse," Annan said. "The status quo cannot continue." The attack was significantly bigger than one in October 2016, which sparked the latest round of unrest in Rakhine State, according to Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson. "This was a significant attack," Robertson told CNN. "Clearly, it doesn't help to have the security issue come right up front again so soon after the launch of the report." Claim of responsibility An insurgent group known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, formerly known as Harakat al-Yaqeen -- or "Faith Movement" -- claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter. "This is a legitimate step for us to defend the world's persecuted people and liberate the oppressed people from the hands of the oppressors!" the group said. Rakhine State is home to Myanmar's Rohingya community, ethnic Muslims who have long faced persecution in the Buddhist-majority country, especially from the country's Buddhist extremists. The Rohingya are not formally recognized as citizens -- the Myanmar government does not even use the term Rohingya, referring to the group as "illegal immigrants" from neighboring Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country. State media has published columns in which Rohingya "terrorists" are referred to as "detestable human fleas." The majority of Rohingya have been in Myanmar for multiple generations.Commission findingsThe Rakhine Advisory Commission was set up last year to analyze the situation in Rakhine State and issue recommendations. Its findings were published Thursday."Unless concerted action -- led by the government and aided by all sectors of the government and society -- is taken soon, we risk the return of another cycle of violence and radicalization, which will further deepen the chronic poverty that afflicts Rakhine State," Annan said upon announcing the commission's finding.The commission recommended, some of which include:Ensure full and unimpeded humanitarian access to the region as well as full and regular media access.Ensure freedom of movement for all people of Rakhine State, regardless of religion, ethnicity and citizenship.Abolish different types of citizenship and re-examine links between citizenship and ethnicity.Ensure that all verified citizens of Myanmar enjoy the all the benefits associated with citizenship.Clarify the status and rights of people living in the country that aren't citizens, including those who are stateless.Plan to close internally displaced persons camp and help people return in a voluntary, safe and dignified manner.Encourage local participation in decision making and state developmentInvest in infrastructure Government operations Violence in Rakhine State has occurred in fits and starts in recent years, with the latest outbreak beginning in the wake of numerous attacks by militants on several government border posts in October 2016. The Myanmar military responded with a series of security operations to find what it claimed were terrorists hiding among the Rohingya population. Thousands fled across the border to neighboring Bangladesh, where refugees told stories of their villages being burned, mothers and daughters being raped and friends being summarily executed. Yanghee Lee, a UN special rapporteur told CNN in March that crimes against humanity may have been committed. "When there's 77,000 people running away from their home towns, leaving everything ... the international community should really step up to the plate," she told CNN. The government has denied many of the allegations leveled against the military -- including those of human rights abuses -- and says it's investigating others. The charges are difficult to corroborate, as most international media and aid organizations have been heavily restricted from traveling to the region. 'The Rohingya Alan Kurdi': Will the world take notice now? Human Rights Watch and other humanitarian groups lauded the recommendations. "The Commission has developed an impressive set of common-sense, focused recommendations that if fully implemented could bring the sort of progress that has been missing in Rakhine State for decades," Roberston said. But the rise of ARSA, the first Rohingya group to take up arms in decade, has fueled worries that extremists on both sides could further damage the situation -- making the report's implementation all the more urgent said Robertson. "We're going to see these kind of flare-ups and efforts by extremists on all sides to try to derail these recommendations," he said. Suu Kyi's court The commission was formed at the request of Aung San Suu Kyi, the State Counselor of Myanmar and the country's de facto leader. Suu Kyi, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent campaign against the military junta that ruled the country for decades, came to power after her party won a landslide victory in the country's 2015 elections, though the military still wields a significant amount of power. International humanitarian groups have so far expressed disappointment in Suu Kyi's response to the situation, alleging that she has not done enough to stymie the unrest and protect the Rohingya population. Suu Kyi has denied some of the more severe allegations made by rights organizations, including that ethnic cleansing is occurring in the region. "Rather than deal with ongoing atrocities, the government tried to hide behind the Advisory Commission," said Matthew Smith, the CEO of human rights group Fortify Rights. "The Commission responded with concrete recommendations to end violations, and the government should act on them without delay." Outside observers are also concerned that authorities could ignore some of the report's findings in favor of a similar inquiry by the Myanmar government, which Human Rights Watch called "inept." Robertson says now that the commission's findings are now public, "the ball is now in Suu Kyi's court." "We want to see a firm agreement to implement these recommendations, to say very clearly what's going to be done," he said. "The statement so far has been, we'll implement what we can depending on the situation on the ground. You couldn't get more vague than that." ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 CNN

Armed military troops and police force travel in trucks in Rakhine State in October 2016. Responding to the attacks by Rohingya militants in Burma which have left at least 71 people, including 12 security personnel, dead, Josef Benedict, Amnesty International’s Deputy Campaigns Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said: “These attacks are a dangerous escalation in violence and could put ordinary people in Rakhine State at risk, in particular as tensions have been reaching a boiling point in the region recently. We urge all sides to show the utmost restraint and ensure that ordinary people are protected from human rights violations and abuses. “The investigation into these criminal acts must be prompt, thorough and effective, and comply with international human rights standards. Any prosecutions must respect fair trial rights and not result in the death penalty. “This cannot lead to repeat of last year’s vicious military reprisals responding to a similar attack, when security forces tortured, killed and raped Rohingya people and burned down whole villages. Although the government has an obligation to protect people, this cannot be seen as giving the army a blank cheque to commit atrocities against parts of the population. “It is crucial that the government makes every effort to address the long-standing and systematic discrimination in Rakhine State, which has left people trapped in a cycle of violence and destitution. As a first step, authorities must push forward with implementing recommendations outlined in the recent report by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State.” Background Following fatal attacks on police outposts by Rohingya militants in northern Rakhine State in October 2016, Myanmar authorities launched major security operations in the area. Amnesty International documented wide-ranging human rights violations against the Rohingya during these operations, including unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment, rape and other sexual violence, as well as destruction of homes and property. The organisation concluded that the Myanmar security forces may have committed crimes against humanity. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ © 2017 Amnesty International