Rohingya Muslims "persecuted" after Myanmar crackdown

Myanmar security forces killed, raped or carried out mass arrests of Rohingya Muslims after deadly sectarian riots in the northeast in June, a rights group said on Wednesday, adding the authorities had done little to prevent the initial unrest.

Aid workers were blocked and in some cases arrested, and Rohingyas bore the brunt of a government crackdown in Rakhine state after a week of arson and machete attack by both ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingyas, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report.

Based on 57 interviews with Rakhines and Rohingyas, the report seeks to shed light on a conflict that exposed deep-rooted communal animosity and put the spotlight on promises by the civilian government in office since 2011 to protect human rights after decades of brutal army rule.

Read more: Reuters

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UN finally turns towards atrocities against Muslims in Myanmar

The United Nations spotlight has finally fell on Myanmar. By taking note of human rights excesses and killings of Muslims in the Southeast Asian country, the world body has made a decent beginning.

This is a welcome development after a prolonged criminal silence over the mayhem that the Buddhist population was unleashing over the Muslim minority in Rohingya. The UN human rights chief Navi Pillay’s institution of an independent investigation to probe into the abuses that has seen hundreds of Muslims slaughtered and more than 80,000 displaced in Rakhine state should get to its logical conclusion. 

The silence and aloofness of the democrats, including Noble laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has literally disappointed not only the Burmese but also the world at large. It is high time she comes out of her self-carved domain of political and ethnic exigency and speaks out in favour of the discriminated community. 

Read more: Khaleej Times

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Muslims Worried About Fate of Burma's Rohingyas Muslims

M

uslim groups worldwide are increasing pressure on the Burmese government to stop human rights abuses committed against ethnic Rohingya Muslims. 

The plight of the technically stateless group in Burma's western Rakhine state has long been a concern of the global Muslim community. But attention has intensified in recent weeks after longstanding tensions erupted between the Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, leaving dozens dead and tens of thousands displaced.

Rights groups such as Amnesty International say Rohingyas are the victims of state-sanctioned violence and discrimination in a country that has a long history of mistreating ethnic minorities.

 

Read more: VOA

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Pakistan decries Myanmar Genocide

Pakistan has expressed concern over the recent ethnic violence in Myanmar, where dozens of Muslims – have been killed.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Moazzam Ali Khan, during the weekly news briefing on Thursday said: “We are concerned about the situation but there are reports that things have improved there.”

The spokesman hoped that the authorities in Myanmar would take necessary steps to control the situation.

Recent clashes in western Myanmar between Buddhist ethnic Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya have left dozens dead and tens of thousands homeless. Last week, Amnesty International said hundreds of people, mostly men and boys, have been detained in sweeps of areas heavily populated by the Rohingya.

Read more: Express Tribune

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French President Sarkozy orders new genocide law draft

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered his government to draft a new law punishing denial of the Armenian genocide after a top court struck down a previous bill.

The Constitutional Council earlier ruled the law backed by Mr Sarkozy infringed on freedom of expression. The bill, which covers the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I, was passed by both houses of the French parliament.

Turkey has welcomed the ruling. The legislation had strained relations between the two countries.

Read more: My Global News

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Turkey accuses France of committing genocide in Algeria

[ via The Independent ] 24 Dec

In a tit for tat move, Turkey responded to French genocide allegations with a charge of its own yesterday, accusing France of committing genocide during its colonial occupation of Algeria.

Killing of countless by French forces in Algeria

On Thursday, French lawmakers passed a Bill making it a crime to deny that the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks constituted genocide.

The deepening acrimony between the two strategic allies and trading partners could have repercussions far beyond the settling of accounts over some of the bloodiest episodes of the past century.

Read more: Independent

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Turkey retaliates over French 'genocide' bill

[ via BBC News Europe ] 22 Dec

The Turkish prime minister has announced measures against France after MPs passed a bill criminalising denial of the 1915-16 Armenian "genocide".

Turkey - France relations gone sore over French Genocide Bill

Ankara is recalling its ambassador and freezing political visits as well as joint military projects, including exercises, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

The bill was passed by the French National Assembly on Thursday and is due to go before the Senate next year. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has publicly opposed it.

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Khmer Rouge killers weren't 'bad people'

[ Calgary Herald ] 6 Dec

Khmer Rouge leaders, under whose rule as many as two million people died, were not "bad people," the regime's "Brother No. 2" said Monday.

Nuon Chea, 85, told a UN-backed tribunal that Cambodia's neighbour Vietnam was to blame for the genocide.

"I don't want the next generation to misunderstand history," he told the trial of three former leaders of the communist movement that ruled from 1975 to 1979. "I don't want them to believe the Khmer Rouge are bad people, are criminal. Nothing is true about that."

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