Rohingya prosecution for traveling without permission

 Myanmar remains an apartheid state that denies even travel rights to the Rohingya people. See the report below:

The General Administration of the Military Council of Buthidaung Township issued a local order yesterday stating that the Rohingya living in Buthidaung Township, Rakhine State, will be prosecuted if they travel without documents from November 25.
 
In the township, outside the district; The order also states that travel to states and regions without a Form 4 permit will not be allowed.
 
Rohingya authorities told RFA that the order was sent to Rohingya village administrators yesterday.
 
A Rohingya village administrator, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said the order was valid for two months from November 25, making it more difficult for the Rohingya.
 
"If Muslims are going to cross-border districts or other mainland countries, they have to carry Form 4," he said. Failure to do so will result in prosecution under Section 188 of the Penal Code. The local order was then approved two months ago. Our difficulties are endless. We are very upset. Everyone is worried. I'm sad
 
To get a Form 4 travel permit, you need to have a household list; With the recommendation of the village administrator, townships, It has to be picked up at the district immigration office and can not be easily retrieved at any time.
If our people have to take Form 4 alone, it is oppression.
 
He said some Rohingya were having difficulty obtaining a Form 4 because of the destruction of their household lists during the conflict and the inclusion of family members who had fled to Bangladesh.
 
He said that if there is an emergency medical situation, it will be very difficult to travel.
 
An unidentified Rohingya was detained in Buthidaung Township for security reasons. A RAF official said the order was a deliberate crackdown on the Rohingya.
 
"People are chickens, It cannot be burned like a bird. People have to travel and do whatever it takes. Maungdaw is the city we are close to. When you go, you have to take Form 4. It is very difficult to take it once. Of the other races, no one is allowed to take Form 4. If our people have to take Form 4 alone, it is oppression. It's really sad. You do not have to be human to be human. "
 
Local Rohingya have been traveling in Rakhine State since the 2017 conflict with Form 4, and said they regretted the restrictions, although they were allowed to travel freely in some areas last year.
 
This type of travel permit (4) requires you to travel within 15 days. They also have to pay 2,000 kyats.(Photo: AFP) Rohingyas visit a refugee camp in Bangladesh on October 10, 2017.
 
Aung Thaung Shwe, a former Pyithu Hluttaw (People's Assembly) member from Buthidaung Township, pointed out the need to facilitate the movement of documents to allow freedom of movement in accordance with the rules.
 
Aung Thaung Shwe said he wanted everyone to be able to move freely and live in accordance with human rights.
 
"It is not enough to just issue a letter of restriction," he said. Behind the letter, we need to help these people to be able to move freely in the way they set out. For example, asking for money should not be the beginning. You need to make it easy for them to get the documents they say. If it is not done intentionally, it can be said that it is intentionally limited. We don't want this kind of restriction in one place. I want everyone to be able to move around freely in this area. In line with human rights. "
 
RFA tried to contact Buthidaung Township Administrator Kyan Aye to find out more about the restrictions on Rohingya travel to Buthidaung Township, but to no avail.
 
The local ordinance states that some Muslims are traveling without permission, which could jeopardize township security and the rule of law.
 
Buthidaung, Rakhine State More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since the military cleared the area during the 2017 conflict in Maungdaw Township.
 
The refugees are still being held in refugee camps in Bangladesh, where they have not been able to return to their homes.

From Auschwitz to Myanmar

 

Title: From Auschwitz to Myanmar

Chaired by Professor Rafal Pankowski of Poland and Co-founder of Never Again! Coalition. NEVER AGAIN Association – Stowarzyszenie NIGDY WIĘCEJ | Facebook

In his presentation entitled “From Auschwitz to Myanmar”, 26 November 2021, FORSEA Co-founder Dr Maung Zarni shared his thoughts on the recurring genocides around the world, despite the Genocide Convention of 1948 and the Security Council being tasked to maintain peace in the world. (Zarni begins talking at 1:10

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Symposium "Identifying and countering Holocaust distortion: Lessons for and from Southeast Asia", 26th November

NEVER AGAIN Association - Stowarzyszenie NIGDY WIĘCEJ was Live

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India arrests prominent Kashmir rights activist

 

India's top anti-terrorism investigation agency on Monday arrested a prominent human rights activist in restive Indian-administered Kashmir after raiding his home and office, his wife said.

Personnel from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Khurram Parvez in the main city of Srinagar, his wife Samina told AFP. They also confiscated Parvez's mobile phone, laptop and some books, along with her cell phone.

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"They said it's a case of 'terror funding'," she said.

Parvez, 42, is the program coordinator for a widely respected rights group in the disputed territory, the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), and chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD).

The NIA did not immediately issue a statement about the arrest or raids, but an arrest warrant seen by AFP shows that Parvez was arrested under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

"I'm hearing disturbing reports that Khurram Parvez was arrested today in Kashmir & is at risk of being charged by authorities in #India with terrorism-related crimes," tweeted Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders.

"He's not a terrorist, he's a Human Rights Defender."  

NIA officers searched the JKCCS offices for more than 14 hours.

Video: Muslim residents in India's Kashmir fear new detention law (Dailymotion)

The NIA also raided Parvez's home and office in October last year, seizing research materials, phones and computer hard drives.

The rights group has monitored violence in the region for more than three decades and has exposed rights violations by Indian government forces including torture, extra-judicial killings and unmarked mass graves in numerous reports.

Last week, it criticised security forces for killing civilians during a controversial shootout with alleged rebels in Srinagar whose bodies were hurriedly buried by Indian police in a remote graveyard without their families present.

Following an outcry and protests by families of three of the victims, authorities exhumed two of the bodies and returned them to their families.   

At least 2,300 people have been arrested under the UAPA -- a vaguely worded law which effectively allows people to be held without trial indefinitely -- in the Indian-controlled territory since 2019, when New Delhi cancelled the region's partial autonomy and brought it under direct rule.

Almost half of them are still in prison, and convictions under the law are very rare.

During the last couple of years, tension has steadily risen in the highly militarised territory that is also claimed by Pakistan, which controls a part of it.

The Himalayan region was divided between the arch-rivals during their first war over its control soon after independence in 1947.

Since 1989, rebel groups have fought some 500,000 Indian soldiers deployed in the territory, demanding independence or its merger with Pakistan.

Tens of thousands of civilians, and rebels have died in the conflict so far.

India's Prime Minister Modi and Myanmar’s Military Junta

 

Michael Martin

Adjunct Fellow (Non-resident), Southeast Asia Program

November 22, 2021

Is India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi a friend or foe of Myanmar’s military junta? Prior to the military coup on February 1, 2021, Modi and his senior officials expressed support for democratic reforms in Myanmar. Since the coup, however, the actions of Modi’s government appear to be designed to curry favor with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and his military junta, the State Administrative Council (SAC).

 

On November 12, 2020, Modi sent a congratulatory tweet to Aung San Suu Kyi and her political party, the National League for Democracy, for its victory in Myanmar’s parliamentary elections. In his tweet, Modi wrote, “The successful conduct of polls is another step in the ongoing democratic transition in Myanmar.”

On the day of the coup, the Modi government gave out a more mixed message. A press statement issued by India’s Ministry of External Affairs stated, “India has always been steadfast in its support to the process of democratic transition in Myanmar. We believe that the rule of law and the democratic process must be upheld.” However, the ministry stopped short of condemning the coup, instead indicating that it had “noted the developments in Myanmar with deep concern.”

During the 10 months since Min Aung Hlaing and the military tossed out the civilian half of Myanmar’s hybrid civilian-military regime, Modi’s government has taken several actions to foster friendly relations with the new military junta while continuing to make statements in support of “the restoration of democracy in Myanmar” and condemning “any use of violence” in the country.

On March 18, 2021, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs instructed the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, and Nagaland to take “appropriate measures” to stop the inflow of Burmese refugees from neighboring Chin State. At the time, there were an estimated 1,000 Chin refugees in Mizoram. Since then, the number of Chin refugees in India has reportedly increased to more than 10,000 people, with another 30,000 trapped along the border.

Modi’s government has implemented various measures to minimize or obscure the growing humanitarian crisis along its border with Myanmar’s Chin State. International humanitarian organizations have been effectively barred from providing help to the Chin refugees in India, as well as the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Chin State. India’s Ministry of External Affairs has stalled the issuance of exit visas to Chin refugees who otherwise have the necessary documents to emigrate to the United States and other nations. Representatives of the Chin-American community indicate that the more than 40,000 refugees and IDPs are in desperate need of basic necessities such as shelter, clothing, food, and water, as well as Covid-19 vaccinations, but Modi’s government is blocking such aid.

In addition, India was among just eight nations to attend Myanmar’s Armed Forces Day on March 27, 2021, an annual military parade held to pay respect to Myanmar’s military. When asked, India’s Ministry of External Affairs confirmed that its embassy’s military attaché had attended the event. The only other nations to send official representatives to the military parade were Bangladesh, China, Laos, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The military allegedly killed more than 90 protesters on the day of the parade, adding to the more than 500 protesters in the first two months after the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma.

Besides attending military parades, the Modi government has also sold military weapons to Myanmar since the coup. Indian arms manufacturer Bharat Electronics Ltd. reportedly exported a remote-controlled air-defense station to Myanmar in July 2021. The Indian government is the majority owner of Bharat Electronics and could have stopped the arms sales. Other major owners include U.S. investment firms Goldman Sachs Asset Management and the Vanguard Group. Only a month before, the UN General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution opposing the flow of weapons into Myanmar. India abstained on the resolution.

Modi has several reasons why he may want to maintain friendly relations with Myanmar’s military junta. India shares a 1,000-mile-long border with Myanmar, and it likely prefers that the border not become hostile such as those with China and Pakistan.

In addition, the border areas of Myanmar allegedly are being used by separatist groups, such as the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), to stage attacks in India. Prior to the 2021 coup, the Indian and Myanmar militaries conducted joint operations to reportedly clear out militant groups operating in both India and Myanmar. India’s military may be concerned that the Chin National Defense Force may inspire a resurgence of a Naga independence movement, just a few months after signing a peace agreement with one faction of the NSCN. Many Chin see the Naga as part of the Chin ethnic community and as such may see themselves sharing a common struggle.

Finally, India has economic interests in maintaining cordial relations with Myanmar’s military. Myanmar has natural resources, including natural gas, petroleum, and rare earth metals, that would be useful for India’s high-tech industry. The restoration of a stable central government in Myanmar is also vital for the completion of India’s Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project (which runs through the Myanmar states of Chin and Rakhine) and the Trilateral Highway Project (which is supposed to extend from India to Thailand). Myanmar’s military may be willing to provide India greater access to those natural resources if India continues to provide weapons and opposes calls for sanctions on the SAC.

Siding with the SAC is not without its risks for the Modi government. UN special rapporteur on Myanmar Tom Andrews and about 500 human rights organizations have warned that the Myanmar military’s current offensive in Chin State could lead to widespread atrocities and a mass exodus of Chin into India, similar to the flight of the Rohingya in 2017. India’s support for the Myanmar military could contribute to a major refugee crisis in India.

Also, most of the natural resources India seeks in Myanmar are located in the states of Kachin, Rakhine, and Shan, and in many cases are in areas controlled by ethnic armed organizations (EAOs). Control over those natural resources has been one of the driving forces behind Myanmar’s seven-decades-long civil war. The intensification of the civil war precludes access to these natural resources for now. Plus, the EAOs may not be willing to allow Indian companies to invest or buy natural resources from their ethnic states in the future.

In addition, it is uncertain if the Myanmar military will succeed in securing control of the country in the months ahead. The EAOs and the newly emerged People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) reportedly are inflicting heavy casualties on the Myanmar Army, not only in the ethnic states but also in central Burma, the heartland of the Burman majority. There are also periodic reports of officers and soldiers of the Myanmar military defecting to the EAOs and PDFs. The outcome of Myanmar’s civil war is far from certain.

Finally, Modi’s response to the military coup in Myanmar has generated tensions in relations with the Biden administration. One week after the coup, Biden and Modi were reportedly unable to come to a common view on the situation in Myanmar. The two governments continue to disagree on the best way to respond to the coup. This could hinder progress on other issues in bilateral relations.

Michael F. Martin is an adjunct fellow (non-resident) with the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Groveland Four: US judge clears men wrongly accused of rape after 72 years

 Four black men who were wrongly accused of raping a white teenager in the US have been cleared of the charge more than 70 years later.

They were accused of abducting and raping the girl in the central Florida town of Groveland in 1949.

Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd and Ernest Thomas - known as the Groveland Four - were pardoned by the state of Florida in January 2019.

None of the accused men lived to see themselves exonerated.

They were aged between 16 and 26 at the time.

Thomas was hunted down by a posse of more than 1,000 men shortly after the alleged incident and was shot hundreds of times.

The three others were beaten in custody, before being convicted by all-white juries. Samuel Shepherd was later shot and killed by a sheriff while travelling to a retrial.

Irvin narrowly escaped execution in 1954 and his sentence was commuted to life with parole. One year after he was paroled, in 1969, he died.

Greenlee, also sentenced to life, was paroled in 1962 and died in 2012.

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A judge in Florida dismissed the indictments of Ernest Thomas and Samuel Shepherd, and set aside the convictions and sentences of Charles Greenlee and Walter Irvin.

Their families were emotional upon learning of the news, saying it might spark a re-examination of other similar convictions.

"We are blessed. I hope that this is a start because lot of people didn't get this opportunity. A lot of families didn't get this opportunity. Maybe they will," said Aaron Newson, Thomas' nephew, who broke into tears as he spoke. "This country needs to come together."

Media caption,

African Americans in New Orleans on the state of race relations (2018 report)

Carol Greenlee, the daughter of Charles Greenlee - who was 16 at the time and the youngest of the suspects - cried and fell into the arms of those next to her when she heard the decision.

"If you know something is right, stand up for it," she said later. "Be persistent."

The local state attorney, Republican Bill Gladson, initiated the move last month to have the men officially exonerated.

"We followed the evidence to see where it led us and it led us to this moment," he said after the hearing, which took place in the same courthouse where the original trials were held.

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,

Three of the men were convicted by all-white juries

In 2017, Florida's state government issued a "heartfelt apology" to the families of the four men and recommended their posthumous pardons.

The men's story was the subject of the book Devil in the Grove, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013.

From Pegasus to Blue Wolf: How Israel’s ‘Security’ Experiment in Palestine Became Global BY RAMZY BAROUD

 The revelation, a few years ago, that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been conducting mass surveillance on millions of Americans has reignited the conversation on governments’ misconduct and their violation of human rights and privacy laws.

Until recently, however, Israel has been spared due criticism, not only for its unlawful spying methods on the Palestinians but also for being the originator of many of the technologies which are now being heavily criticized by human rights groups worldwide.

Even at the height of various controversies involving government surveillance in 2013, Israel remained on the margins, despite the fact that Tel Aviv, more than any other government in the world, uses racial profiling, mass surveillance and numerous spying techniques to sustain its military occupation of Palestine.

In Gaza, two million Palestinians are living under an Israeli blockade. They are surrounded by walls, electric fences, underground barriers, navy ships and multitudes of snipers. From above, the tannaana, the Arabic slang word Palestinians have for unmanned drone, watches and records everything. At times, these armed drones are used to blow up anything deemed suspicious from an Israeli ‘security’ perspective. Moreover, every Palestinian wishing to leave or return to Gaza—with only a few who are allowed such privilege—is subjected to the most stringent ‘security’ measures, involving various government intelligences and endless military checks. This applies as much to a Palestinian toddler as it does to a terminally-ill woman.

In the West Bank, Israel’s security ‘experiment’ takes on many other manifestations. While the Israeli objective is to entrap people in Gaza, its aim is to control the everyday life of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Aside from the 1,660 kilometer-long Apartheid Wall in the West Bank, there are many other walls, fences, trenches and various types of barriers that are aimed at fragmenting Palestinian communities in the West Bank. These isolated communities are only connected through an elaborate system of Israeli military checkpoints, many of which are permanent and many more are erected or dismantled depending on the ‘security’ objectives on any given day.

Much of the surveillance occurs daily at these Israeli checkpoints. While Israel uses the convenient term ‘security’ to justify its practices against Palestinians, actual security has very little to do with what takes place at these checkpoints. Many Palestinians have died, many mothers have given birth or lost their newborns while waiting for Israeli security clearance. It is a daily torment, and Palestinians are subjected to it because they are the unwitting participants of a very profitable Israeli experiment.

Luckily, the news of Israel’s undemocratic practices is becoming increasingly known. On November 8, The Washington Post revealed an Israeli mass surveillance operation, which uses ‘Blue Wolf’ technology to create a massive database of all Palestinians.

This additional measure gives soldiers the chance to, using their own cameras, take pictures of as many Palestinians as possible and match “them to a database of images so extensive that one former soldier described it as the army’s secret ‘Facebook for Palestinians.’”

We know very little about this new ‘Facebook for Palestinians’, aside from what has been revealed in the news. However, we know that Israeli soldiers compete to take as many photos of Palestinian faces as possible, as those with the highest number of photos could potentially receive certain rewards, the nature of which remains unclear.

While the ‘Blue Wolf’ story is receiving some attention in international media, it offers nothing new for Palestinians. To be a Palestinian living under occupation is to carry multiple permits and magnetic cards, to pass various clearances, to have your photo taken regularly, to have your movement monitored, to be ready to answer any question about your friends, your family, co-workers and acquaintances. When that is impractical, because, say, you live under siege in Gaza, then the work is entrusted to unmanned drones scanning sky, earth and sea.

The reason that ‘Blue Wolf’ is receiving some traction in the media is that Israel has been recently implicated in one of the world’s greatest espionage operations.

Pegasus is a type of malware that spies on iPhones and Android devices, to extract photos, messages, emails and record calls. Tens of thousands of people around the world, many of whom are prominent activists, journalists, officials, business leaders and alike, have fallen victim to this operation. Unsurprisingly, Pegasus is produced by the Israeli technology firm, the NSO Group, whose products are heavily involved in the monitoring of and spying on Palestinians, as confirmed by the Dublin-based Front Line Defenders, and as reported in the New York Times on November 8.

Sadly, the Israeli unlawful and undemocratic practices became a subject of international condemnation when the victims were high-ranking personalities, the likes of French President Emmanuel Macron and others. When Palestinians were on the other end of Israeli spying, surveillance and racial profiling, the story seemed unworthy of reporting.

Worse, for many years, Israel has promoted its sinister ‘security technology’ to the rest of the world as ‘field-proven’, meaning that they have been used against occupied Palestinians. Not only did such a declaration raise a few eyebrows, the tried and tested brand allowed Israel to become the world’s eighth-largest arms exporter. Israeli security exports are now utilized in many parts of the world. They can be found at North American and European airports, at the Mexico-US border, in the hands of various world’s intelligences, at European Union territorial waters—largely to intercept war refugees and asylum seekers.

Covering up Israel’s unlawful and inhuman practices against the Palestinians has proven a liability on the very people who justified Israeli actions in the name of security, including Washington. On November 3, the Joe Biden Administration decided to blacklist the Israeli NSO Group for acting “contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.” This is a proper measure, of course, but it fails to address the ongoing Israeli violations against the Palestinian people.

The truth is, for as long as Israel maintains its military occupation of Palestine, and as long as the Israeli military continues to see Palestinians as subjects in a mass ‘security experiment’, the Middle East—in fact, the entire world—will continue to pay the price.