Habib Siddiqui

YANGON, Myanmar — For Myanmar’s army, the campaign of atrocity it has waged to drive  hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims  out of the country is no innovation. The force was born in blood 76 years ago and has been shedding it ever since. Its founders, known as the Thirty Comrades, established the army in 1941 with a ghoulish ceremony in Bangkok, where they drew each other’s blood with a single syringe, mixed it in a silver bowl and drank it to seal their vow of loyalty. The army that they formed led the nation to independence in 1948. But except for a brief, initial period of peace, it has spent the last seven decades warring with its own people. The army, known as the Tatmadaw, seized power from the civilian government in Burma, as the country is also known, in 1962. The military killed thousands of protesters to keep power in 1988 and suppressed another popular uprising, the Saffron Revolution, in 2007. In constant fighting with ethnic minorities, the T...

The Danish parliament voted this week to exclude Jewish settlements in the West Bank from bilateral agreements with Israel. In addition, it was decided that government guidelines against investing in projects over the Green Line by both public and private bodies would be strengthened.  The resolution passed by a majority of 81-22, with all parties in the Danish parliament voting in favor, except for the far-right Danish People's Party. The move saw Denmark adopt UN Resolution 2334 , wherein settlements are defined as a violation of international law, and a distinction is made between Israel within the Green Line, and Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The same view is held by the European Union in all multilateral agreements with Israel. In addition, the resolution expresses support for a "black list" of Israeli companies operating in the territories being formulated by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The decision was ra...

Bill Richardson is a former governor of New Mexico and a former United States ambassador to the United Nations. He is the founder of the Richardson Center for Global Engagement. Here below his view is presented. === For the past two months, I have served on an international panel designed to help the Myanmar government arrive at just and reasonable policies for its conflict in Rakhine state, including its long-suffering Rohingya minority . This week  I resigned . The reason: I have little confidence in the body’s ability to address the critical challenges facing the region and the country. Aung San Suu Kyi , the country’s effective leader, is isolated and unwilling to listen to constructive criticism. Her government is focused on getting things done quickly instead of getting them done right. If Myanmar, also known as Burma, is to have any hope of preventing a further downward spiral to the crisis in Rakhine state and restoring its international reputation, immediate and dramati...

Reported by Nurul Islam Hasib from Ukhia, Tekhnaf  bdnews24.com   Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has sent a special delegation with relief materials to Cox’s Bazar as he focused on humanitarian aspects of the Rohingya crisis. “Our Prime Minister is very much concerned about the whole humanitarian issue that those Rohingya [people] facing here,” Malaysian Armed Forces Chief General Raja Mohamed Affandi Raja Mohamed Noor said. “He [PM] sent us this morning that shows how he cares about the humanitarian aspect of the plight of Rohingya. We are proud of this,” said Noor who is leading the delegation along with an acclaimed Malaysia-born Hollywood actress Michelle Yeoh. Along with Yeoh, also a UNDP goodwill ambassador, the General visited the Kutupalang Rohingya camp and Malaysia Field Hospital in Ukhia on Saturday to evaluate the impact of the aid to date. According to the Malaysian prime minister’s office, the visit is also to ensure...

By Habib Siddiqui Last week, Davos - the mountain resort, which sits high up in the eastern Alps of Switzerland in Graubunden – welcomed more than 2,500 movers and shakers - business, political and academic leaders from around the globe. They came to attend the yearly World Economic Forum (WEF), scheduled for January 23-26. It was the 48 th forum to date. As the U.S. dollar continued to plunge (losing approx. 17% of its value in a year) against the Euro and the news of his personal lawyer brokering a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels (whose real name is Stephanie Clifford) in October 2016 to prohibit her from publicly discussing the alleged affair before the election surfaced, President Donald Trump arrived without Melanie by his side at Davos. His speech was the most widely-anticipated moment at this year's event . It was the first time since Bill Clinton in 2000 that a sitting U.S. leader joined the Davos elite. Trump told the audience: "We c...

by Ariel Dorfman There were certain words that Chileans were hoping that Pope Francis would say  during his three-day visit  to our country last week. They were hoping he would denounce the sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic clergy, and particularly the offenses perpetrated by a corrupt and malevolent priest named  Fernando Karadima . They were also waiting for Francis to condemn the hierarchs in the Catholic Church who had silenced and humiliated the victims and helped to cover up Karadima’s crimes. Above all, my compatriots wanted the pope to publicly chide Bishop Juan Barros,  who had been Karadima’s protégé  and, according to reports (denied by Barros), had witnessed his mentor’s pedophilia. The issue of Barros mattered symbolically because the pope himself, in 2015, had appointed  this collaborator of Karadima’s as the bishop of Osorno, a city in southern Chile, in spite of angry complaints from the congregation. In  an op-ed ...

Tegucigalpa (AFP) - Hundreds of women protested Thursday in Honduras against Juan Orlando Hernandez, who is preparing to begin his second presidential term Saturday after winning November's disputed vote. In commemorating the Day of the Honduran Woman, some 1,000 women protestors marched in Tegucigalpa, demanding leftist candidate Salvador Nasralla be declared the winner. Some carried crosses emblazoned with the names of those who died in protests that erupted following the November elections, with thousands taking to the streets claiming Nasralla's victory. Hernandez narrowly won the contentious vote over Nasralla, prompting supporters of the leftist Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship to take to the streets in protest. Manuel Zelaya, who was overthrown in 2009 and now coordinates the opposition alliance, marched alongside the women and called on the populace to protest Saturday's inauguration ceremony.

By Lubka Mieresova   As we commemorate  International Holocaust Remembrance Day (27 January) and remember the millions of people murdered by the Nazi regime, we must also pause and reflect. When we say never again, what we really mean is: hopefully, it won’t happen again. We hoped and hoped, and, in the meantime, the Cambodian genocide happened, Rwanda happened, Bosnia happened, and Darfur happened . We repeatedly failed to prevent mass atrocities and let down those who have relied on us, both on our voices and our actions. Not that long ago we were presented with another challenge, “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” as the situation in Myanmar was referred to by the UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein. On one hand, we saw Myanmar rejecting all allegations of ethnic cleansing or genocide , on the other hand, many academics ,  have clearly labelled the situation as “genocide”. Slow-Burning Genocide      ...