Habib Siddiqui

Susan Hutchinson - 27 Sep, 2019 We have now passed the anniversary of the ‘clearance operations’ that saw nearly a million of Myanmar’s Rohingya flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. The violence included rape, other forms of sexual violence, arson, torture and a range of physical violence and harassment that amounted to genocide of a unique ethnic and religious group. Prospects for individual, criminal accountability for the genocide seem slim. But a movement in Canada is seriously agitating for their government to take the government of Myanmar to the International Court of Justice to hold the state accountable for its role in the genocide. Because Myanmar isn’t a state party to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and China and Russia have been acting to prevent the Security Council referring the matter to the ICC, no individuals can be charged with genocide at that court. The ICC is only able to pursue related investigations into forced deportation . But that doesn’t mean St...

Bangladesh government is increasingly behaving like a reluctant host. I am ashamed of saying this because I know that its people are better than what's happening to the Rohingyas now encamped in Cox's Bazar, disconnected from the rest of the world via phone and internet. It's like detention. Really shameful and inexcusable for a government that under international pressure allowed the Rohingyas to cross into Bangladesh from the killing fields in Myanmar. That gesture of Sheikh Hasina endeared her, some hoping, perhaps including some within her cabinet, that she may get nominated for the prestigious Nobel Prize. Obviously, that award never came through, and her government's bilateral agreement with the Myanmar government was too weak and too immature to create a conducive situation for repatriation of those who survived the genocide. Her government has failed to generate the kind of international support, esp. from next door India and China, both with their own Muslim p...

B y Hirubalan V P , Former Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN Political-Security Community Department On 22 August 2019, Myanmar’s authorities launched a third repatriation attempt to facilitate the return of displaced Rohingya Muslims. The government dispatched buses to Cox’s Bazaar tasked with bringing back some 3,000 Rohingya refugees to their place of abode in Rakhine State. Not a single refugee boarded the transportation provided. Unlike the first two repatriation attempts, this third attempt was of heightened significance. A team from ASEAN was at the Myanmar reception centres to witness the repatriation exercise. For Myanmar, the presence of ASEAN officials was an opportunity to validate its preparations for the repatriation exercise and to affirm that Myanmar was serious in facilitating the return of the displaced Rohingya. In this sense, the presence of ASEAN officials had good public relations value for Myanmar. Reactions to the failed repatriation attempt have been var...

UALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 -- The international community needs to be more coherent in urging international bodies to pressure the Myanmar government to act on resolving the Rohingya humanitarian crisis that has erupted in Rakhine state since 2017. Professor in the Department of Government and Civilisation at the Faculty of Human Ecology of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Prof Dr Zaid Ahmad, said the global bodies must coerce Myanmar in order to force the country to act. “The world needs to put pressure on Myanmar. It may be through economic pressure or diplomacy as the last resort. "The UN and ASEAN need to go out of their way to call on Myanmar to come up with a solution to the Rohingya crisis," he said when contacted by Bernama International News Service, today. The Rohingya crisis once again attracted the attention of the world when Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahahtir Mohamad, in a high-level event billed 'Rohingya Crisis - A Way Forward' at UN headquarters in New Y...

Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on H.R. 3190, Burma Unified through Rigorous Military Accountability Act (BURMA Act) of 2019.  Congratulations! A big thank you to everyone who called, emailed, met with their U.S. representative in support of this bill, and joined us on the lobby days twice. While we celebrate this we can not stop. The Senate is where the real fight is. The House and Senate are negotiating a final bill in considering the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  The next step is for a conference committee to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the NDAA.  Our bill is already on the NDAA. Let's make sure it stays there. Jim Inhofe , Oklahoma, Chairman Roger Wicker , Mississippi Deb Fischer , Nebraska Tom Cotton , Arkansas Mike Rounds , South Dakota Joni Ernst , Iowa Thom Tillis , North Carolina Dan Sullivan , Alaska David Perdue...

Rights activists have welcomed remarks by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad [1] in which he refers to the targeting of Myanmar’s Rohingya [2] as “genocide” and “institutionalised terrorism”, but have called on his government to reassess its own treatment of refugees. “What took place were mass killings, systematic rape and other gross violations of human rights [that] resulted in Rohingya fleeing the country on masse,” Mahathir told a high-profile event on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, as he described violence against the community in Rakhine state by military forces and Buddhist extremists. Two years on, has the world forgotten the Rohingya children? [3] He slammed the Myanmar [4] government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi [5] , for being unwilling to take any action to “resolve the crisis” – and the United Nations [6] for its “deafening” silence. He also praised the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) fo...