Bangladesh on right track to achieve MDGs, says Danish PM

NEW YORK, Sept 24 (UNB): Denmark 's Prime Minister (PM) Lars Lokke Rasmussen Thursday said that Bangladesh was on the right track for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) within 2015, the deadline set by the United Nations.

The Danish PM made the appreciation during a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the sidelines of the 65th session of the UN General Assembly.

" Bangladesh is on the right track," he said and assured that Denmark would increase its support and financial assistance for Bangladesh to achieve MDGs.

Rasmussen expressed his willingness to move on to "business partner" from "development partner" in view of Bangladesh 's rapid development in trade and economic sectors.

The PM had also bilateral meetings with her counterparts and senior government leaders of the Netherlands, Malaysia and Myanmar Thursday.

All the heads of governments and government leaders congratulated Hasina on Bangladesh 's MDGs achievements under her leadership.

Climate change figured prominently during the bilateral talks while the Danish PM agreed with Sheikh Hasina that the last COP 15 climate conference held in Copenhagen could not produce the expected results.

Both the PMs observed that the developed nations did little in fulfilling whatever commitments they made on the critical issue of the climate change though one year had already passed since the Copenhagen summit.

Hasina said that Bangladesh had taken a "stand alone" policy caring little about the external adaptation fund as it created its own "Adaptation Fund" to negate the onslaughts of the climatic phenomenon while it welcomed developed nations contribution to the fund.

"But the fact remains that we need resources to negate the impacts of the climate change," the PM said.

During the meeting with Netherlands PM Dr Jan Peter Balkenende, Hasina sought the Dutch supports for dredging of major rivers in Bangladesh to stop excess flooding and face adverse impacts of the Himalayan glacier melting caused by global warming.

She also sought the Dutch assistance for land reclamation in river banks and coastlines through sharing experience and expertise and to halt the river erosion.

Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win called on Sheikh Hasina when she categorically stated that the Myanmar government "in the spirit of good neighbourly relations" should take back the remaining Rohingya refugees who were already cleared by them for repatriation.

The PM noted that Dhaka-Yangon ties took a "new trajectory" since her government took the office more than one and a half years ago and expected that the bilateral ties would be enhanced in the future with increased connectivity and particularly through construction of the proposed tri-nation road links involving Bangladesh, Myanmar and China.

Source: http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=112804&date=2010-09-25

Crackdown against illegal Myanmar immigrants launched

Aizawl/Agartala, Sep 19 (IANS) The Mizoram government has launched a crackdown against Myanmar nationals living in the state without documents, officials said Sunday.

'The Mizoram Armed Police in the past two days have apprehended 52 Myanmarese from Aizawl and outskirts where (they) have set up colonies,' a police spokesman said.

The official said the illegal entrants would be pushed back soon to Myanmar.

The number of Myanmarese living in different parts of Mizoram has now been estimated at around 50,000.

The Mizoram government with the permission of the union home ministry has given entry passes and temporary stay permits to Myanmarese, who work in jewellery shops, vehicular service centres, shops, restaurants and cloth factories and at construction works.

'However, a large number of Myanmar citizens illegally took entry into the state and have been staying in Mizoram,' the police official said.

Aizawl Superintendent of Police Lalbiakthanga Khiangte said the home ministry recently told the Mizoram government that the Myanmar-Mizo nationals without valid entry permits could cross the Indo-Myanmar border and travel a maximum of 16 km into northeastern state for trading.

Khiangte said the police crackdown was launched as some immigrants recently indulged in crime, including drugs related deeds.

Meanwhile, the Tripura Police have also apprehended seven Myanmarese, including four women, in Agartala after they sneaked in from Bangladesh.

'They entered the Indian territory through Sonamura border in western Tripura,' a police official said.

'During preliminary questioning, the Myanmarese told police that they tried to go to other parts of India through Tripura and Assam to find jobs,' the official said.

'Rohingya Muslims have been fleeing their country to escape atrocities by members of the rival community in Myanmar,' said one of the arrested men, Tayub.

He told the police: 'We are not allowed to travel from one village to another without permission from the army. We are not even allowed to marry without the permission of the authorities.'

Since mid-1990s, over 225,000 Myanmarese have taken shelter in the Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh. They are believed to have taken shelter in Bangladesh to escape religious oppression by the Myanmar government.

India's four northeastern states of Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh together share a 1,643 km unfenced border with Myanmar.

Source: http://sify.com/news/crackdown-against-illegal-myanmar-immigrants-launched-news-national-kjtqkeajjhj.html

Strangers by sea: A tale of Canada’s boat people

Check out this Globe and Mail article "Strangers by sea: A tale of Canada’s boat people " at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/strangers-by-sea-a-tale-of-canadas-boat-people/article1672734/?service=email.

This message was sent from the IP address '10.220.2.44'.

Myanmar nationals arrested in Tripura

India Blooms News Service
Agartala, Aug 1 (IBNS): Police arrested two Myanmar nationals- Rohingya Muslims- Sunday from a hotel in Agartala in Tripura.

Both Rohingya Muslims from Mongolo area of Myanmar had entered through Teknaf of Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh and then crossed into Tripura by the Sonamura border.

The arrested identified as Mohammad Tayub (29) and Saho Alam (20) informed police that they had crossed the border from Bangladesh and intended to go to Delhi before reaching to Jammu in search of work.

“From here we were to go to Jammu. But first we would have gone to Delhi and from there to Jammu for working there with a cousin of mine.

We cross through Teknaf (Mayanmar-Bangladesh border) and from there we have two roads, one through Manipur but it is long and difficult. So we prefer this (through Tripura) as it is easier this way,” said Mohammed Tayub, one of the arrested.

He said the minority Muslim Rohingya’s are fleeing to avoid the atrocities by the majority Buddhist in army controlled Myanmar.

The Rohingya's are denied even the most basic rights and are not considered citizens of that nation. They are not allowed to travelfrom one village to another within the state without permission. They are denied government every after having required qualifications and even they are not allowed to marry without the permission of the authority.

Both were produced before the court in the afternoon.

There are an estimated 2 million Rohingya; slightly less than half still live in northern Rakhine state. Several hundred thousand more were driven out by the military in two separate purges — one in the late 1970s and another in the early 1990s.

Some now work in the Middle East while others remain in camps in neighbouring Bangladesh. Many have even crossed into India.

At present more than one lakh exiled Myanmar’s population have taken refuge in India, fighting for the restoration of democracy in their country.

Myanmar's government which consists of mainly the Buddhist community says that the Rohingya people belong to Bangladesh.

Many Rohingya were brought to Myanmar from South Asia by the British while the entire region was part of colonial India. Rohingya's claim that have been living in Myanmar for almost 200 years.

Source: http://www.indiablooms.com/NewsDetailsPage/newsDetails010810j.php

Appeal to protect the Rohingya Burmese Refugees in Malaysia

Press Release: Our Ref: ST-002/2010 Dated: July 29, 2010 Appeal to protect the Rohingya Burmese Refugees in Malaysia Today, the plights of Rohingya (Arakanese) refugees in Malaysia are being ignored by every concerned quarter for their belief, which is a total of negligence to the real cause. Fact that, no quarter is eager to take measureable step to support the Rohingya vulnerable refugees, having an offer from the Malaysian Government that it will allow the refugees to do odd jobs. Some quarters try to implicate that the Rohingya refugees are receiving helps from Muslim Malaysian government which is not bound to respect the rights of refugee protection regardless of race or religion and thus the government simply says that the refugees are illegal in the country. In the current context of refugee advocacy, issue of Rohingya falls into a missing chapter, which is only because of denial of the citizenship rights by the Burmese military ruler with a systematic policy towards ethnic cleansing. By this option, many quarters apply the issue into statelessness for whom, no facility or right is left, except slavery. In modern form of salvation, some of the Rohingya refugees have already ended over 30 years in Malaysia, who reached to 3rd generation but their fates remained unchanged. It is undeniable that the Rohingya refugees are facing humanitarian challenges in Malaysia for their living, livelihood, medication and employment. In times of their illegal employment, they meet with unavoidable accidents that result to breaking hands, legs, bones, head injuries and etc for which no compensation or assistance is available as they are considered useless animals or scrub human being. At the same times, Malaysian public hospitals are keen to develop training manual but face serious troubles in language variety. Currently, hundreds of Rohingya refugees are facing challenges to pay house rents and to have daily food adequately as they are unable to work in any sector for the reasons of their long-term illness and inability to do odd jobs. In such situation, they are suffering from severe diseases with extreme poverty for which no appropriate medication is available because of their failure to unbearable hospital bills. Inevitably, some of the elderly people, children and widows go out from their rental house to roadside to beg money or food for their survivals and to pay house rent but they are not free from law enforcement agencies' operation and thus get arrest and have to serve detention. In time of getting release by UNHCR intervention, they need to pay bribe to UNHCR interpreters. Otherwise, have stay in the cage of over crowded detention camp. Besides, many intellectuals including responsible human rights advocates are trying to brand the Rohingya refugees as economic migrants in order to gain personal advantage, rather presenting the cause appropriately. Some quarters always try to misguide the genuine Rohingya refugees, the victims of gross human rights abuses and enslavement in countries of their refuge. Therefore, request may be made to every concerned quarter to work with genuine Rohingya refugee community and dedicated Rohingya refugee representatives. As of our commitment for the betterment of Rohingya Burmese refugees in Malaysia and ready to work together with every concern quarter in order to ensure the basic rights of Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. Some links are provided for your kind information: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=132820 http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2010/4/7/central/5890954&sec=central http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/4/9/nation/6019717&sec=nation http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2010/4/7/central/5973474&sec=central http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2010/4/7/central/5973484&sec=central http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/4/7/starprobe/6002469&sec=starprobe http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/4/7/starprobe/5998216&sec=starprobe Coordinating Committee Arakan Rohingya Refugee Committee (ARRC) Malaysia For further query, please contact: Mr. Mohammad Sadek, H/p: +60163094599

Burma: Genocide against Ethnic Minorities

Several academics and think tanks have pointed out that the Burmese Junta meets most of the criteria for crimes against humanity or genocide in its treatment of ethnic minorities. However there a few options for the international community to prevent further escalation, the most promising might be the investigation of the International Criminal Court.

Below is an article published by the Democratic Voice of Burma:
Readers of this website should need no convincing of the seriousness of ongoing human rights violations against minority ethnic groups in Burma. Medicins Sans Frontieres has described Burma’s ethnic Rohingya minority has one of the world populations “most in danger of extinction” and leading scholars, including William Schabas, president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, have suggested that the Muslim group may be victims of crimes against humanity, a sentiment that has been echoed by multiple other bodies.

Numerous human rights and legal advocacy groups have similarly said that Burma’s other ethnic minorities – the Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Mon, and Shan – are also seriously threatened by the ruling junta, which has held power in various forms since 1962.

In the past decade and a half, there has been significant progress in our understanding of genocide and how to prevent it, mainly as the result of our failures to do so. One of the most crucial lessons learned from this bitter experience is that, from the standpoint of saving human lives, the question of whether or not a situation meets the legal definition of genocide is beside the point. And the point, for those in the field of genocide prevention today, is not how to stop genocide once it has begun, but rather how to prevent it from happening in the first place.

To that end, the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, based in New York, operates a genocide prevention program targeting the women and men in government who shape and implement the policies that determine whether or not a society will tip over the edge into mass slaughter. Key to the program is the forging of a community of policymakers to support one another in their everyday work. Given that some of those who take part come from countries that are at risk of genocide, or perhaps even in the midst of one, we do not take a position on whether or not the situation in any particular country constitutes genocide. To do so would defeat our purpose, since the countries that are most at risk of genocide are the very ones we most hope to attract.

This is important because, up until now, there has been no community of prevention between the level of grassroots activism and the officialdom of national governments and the UN. And research has shown that the more connected a country is to the rest of the world – especially economically and politically – the less likely it is that conflict there will escalate into genocide. Some of the other risk factors for genocide, according to US political scientist Barbara Harff, include a prior history of genocide, ethnic and religious divisions within society, exclusionary ideology, and autocratic rule.

Burma has all these in spades. Other researchers may look to different indicators, but the pattern is unmistakable. Most genocide scholars and human rights groups agree there has already been one genocide in Burma since 1962 – that of the Rohingya – and there is ample evidence to suggest that government killings of other ethnic groups constitute at least crimes against humanity, if not full-blown genocide.

US political scientist Ted Robert Gurr recently published a brief paper titled ‘Options for the Prevention and Mitigation of Genocide: Strategies and Examples for Policy-Makers’. His analysis and recommendations are grounded in the most recent experience of the international community as well as the most up-to-date scholarship. Other, more comprehensive attempts to address the issue have come from Minority Rights Group International, which focuses on UN policy; the Genocide Prevention Task Force, focusing on US policy; and the Will to Intervene Project, which looks at both US and Canadian policy.

There are several drawbacks, however, to all of these approaches. One is that they tend to stress intervention over prevention, which tilts the balance toward short-term military solutions and away from longer-term, political or economic approaches. The second is that they view the solution as coming from outside the country at risk, as opposed to from within.

In any case, history clearly suggests that it would be naïve to expect direct action by the international community to prevent genocide in Burma anytime soon. Perhaps the most promising avenue for change at the moment is the recently created International Criminal Court (ICC), which is empowered to investigate and prosecute genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. In 2009, the former UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma called on the UN security council to investigate crimes against humanity in Burma with an eye to referring the case to the ICC. And earlier this year, the British government issued a statement saying that it would support a referral of Burma to the ICC by the UN Security Council. The wheels of international justice grind slowly, though. The question is, can they grind quickly enough for Burma’s ethnic minorities?

Alex Zucker is Communications and Development Officer of the New York-based Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation.

Refugee groups condemn Australian PM's asylum policy

Refugee groups condemn Australian PM's asylum policy, story released by Press TV on July 9, 2010

Source: PressTV