“On the day of the heavy rain, the landslides occurred. People died. Only a body was recovered yesterday among the bodies that are difficult to recover. I haven’t heard anything today,” said U Thaung Zan, secretary of Hpakant Township National League for Democracy (NLD).

Floods, landslides, and river bank collapses continue to take place due to heavy rain.

“Most of them (the deceased) were in their 40s. Both men and women were included. Most of the recently recovered bodies are miners so most of them are men. Four women were included. Over ten bodies have been recovered. A total of 14 bodies have been recovered including a two-year-old child,” U Thaung Zan continued.

Missing people have been reported and over 60 houses and roads have been damaged due to heavy rain since June 22, according to him.

“Some bodies were recovered after they fell inside the water or creek but some people fell suddenly inside the earth and some of them were caught in the river bank collapse so they fell deep inside as if they have been covered with cement and their bodies can’t be recovered. There are also people who were crushed to death after their houses collapsed. We can’t estimate the number of missing people. Most of the recovered bodies are ownerless. Around seven or eight people have been injured,” he added.

Local residents said flash floods, river bank collapses, house collapses, and landslides triggered by heavy rain that occurred at the same time in Hmaw Wan, Seik Mu, Hpar Pyin, Hway Khar, Hpakant, and Lone Khin areas under Hpakant Township since June 22. The Uru Creek was also flooded due to heavy rain.

“It’s sunny today, but it rained a little in the afternoon so we are worried. The Uru Creek has returned to normal now. All the roads have been damaged. Even my house has collapsed. Some houses collapsed entirely while only half the structure of some houses has collapsed. The river bank near my home is collapsing now. We are worried about the rain,” said U Naw Taung from Hpakant.

Myitkyina resident U Zee Sar said travellers had to spend the night on the road after heavy rain caused flooding in Shahtu Zup Village, which led to flooding on Hpakant-Myitkyina Road.

“We couldn’t leave the whole day yesterday due to flooding at Shahtu Zup Village, Hpakant Township. We had to spend the night on the road. We arrived back to Myitkyina today. All the travellers travelling to Hpakant or Myitkyina had to spend the night on the road,” said U Zee Sar.

Local residents said over ten people have been killed in the landslides in Seik Mu Village last May.

Local residents and miners have been frequently killed in floods, landslides, and river bank collapses in Hpakant jade mine area every year.</s>China will fund Myanmar 3 billion Burmese kyat to crack down on drug crimes in Myanmar !</s>Approximately 80 percent of the 10,000 Myanmar Muslims living near the Thai border are "stateless", a London-based rights group said Tuesday.

The Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN) interviewed 36 Myanmar Muslims on their struggle to survive on the margins of their host and home countries from March to May in the Thai city of Mae Sot.

The group said most of the refugees do not have a citizenship document, and as a result, they are unable to acquire work permits and end up working illegally.

"This is a clear violation of Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- to which Burma [Myanmar] is a signatory -- which states that all people are entitled to a nationality and must not be arbitrarily denied...a nationality," the group said in a report.

The Thai government set a deadline for the worker registration of Myanmar Muslims of June 30 which includes proof of identity from Myanmar.

As Muslims of Myanmar face systematic discrimination from Myanmar's authorities, they cannot obtain this verification.

The report added that Myanmar Muslims without official paperwork not only face fines but also deportation and prohibition from applying for a Thai work permit for two years.

"Without the adoption of a citizenship scheme based on human rights norms and a new, democratic, federal Constitution that removes the military from any political role in the country, Burma's [Myanmar] most marginalized will continue to struggle to live with dignity within and outside the country’s borders," it added.</s>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Senior Myanmar military officials, including the commanders of its defense services and army, should face trial for crimes against humanity over the treatment of Rohingya minorities, Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday.

Amnesty called for the United Nations Security Council to refer the report’s findings to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and impose a “comprehensive arms embargo” on the Southeast Asian country and financial sanctions against senior officials.

Contacted late on Tuesday, neither the Russian delegation to the United Nations, currently presiding over the UN Security Council, nor the Myanmar Mission to the United Nations were available for comment.

A spokesman for the Myanmar government also was not available for comment.

About 700,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh from largely Buddhist Myanmar since a military crackdown last August that the United Nations has called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

A separate Reuters special report reut.rs/2yLzrsV on Tuesday gave a comprehensive account of the roles played by two light infantry divisions in the offensive against the Rohingya.

Amnesty, which began its investigation in September, said in its report that the “military-led operations ... amounted to an orchestrated campaign of murder, rape, torture, and destruction aimed at punishing the Rohingya population in northern Rakhine State and at driving them out of the country.”

It named Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the commander of Myanmar’s Defense Services, and his deputy and commander of the army, Vice Senior General Soe Win, and commanders of specific units that “committed many of the worst atrocities.”

The report also named eight other military members and three members of the Border Guard Police.

Amnesty said these people should face justice “for their command responsibility, their direct responsibility, or both.”

A spokesman for the Myanmar military was not available for comment.

In Myanmar, Rohingya are widely called “Bengali,” which they see as a derogatory term implying they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Despite many Rohingya tracing their roots in Myanmar back generations, they have been denied citizenship.

Amnesty called on Myanmar to halt restrictions on freedom of movement and restore citizenship to the Rohingya.

In February, Reuters reported on the killing of 10 Rohingya men and boys by Rakhine Buddhists and security forces in the village of Inn Din.

Two Reuters journalists were jailed in December in Myanmar while reporting that story and remain in prison in Yangon, facing up to 14 years behind bars for allegedly violating Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act.

Myanmar has rejected most accusations of wrongdoing and has said it launched a legitimate counter-insurgency operation after attacks against its military by Rohingya militants last August.

In Myanmar there is no civilian oversight of military justice. The International Criminal Court, the world’s first permanent war crimes court, does not have automatic jurisdiction over Myanmar because it is not a member state.

However, the ICC has already been asked to consider a separate case dealing with Myanmar allegedly deporting Rohingya to Bangladesh, which is an ICC member state.

The ICC did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours in The Hague.

If the UN Security Council referred Amnesty’s findings to the ICC, it would also grant the court jurisdiction to investigate.</s>Australia has dismissed calls to cut ties with Myanmar's military despite a push for its top security chiefs to face trial in the International Criminal Court.

Amnesty International is leading the push to have 13 of Myanmar's military and police officials put on trial for atrocities allegedly committed against Rohingya Muslims following a military crackdown that has forced more than 702,000 people to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Amnesty has called on Australia to follow countries including the United States and Britain in cutting ties with Myanmar's military and place sanctions on the 13 security officials allegedly implicated in the murder, rape and torture of Rohingya people.

But Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says there are no plans to change Australia's relationship with Myanmar's military, which sees Canberra deliver $400,000 in funding to the Tatmadaw defence forces for training in humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, peacekeeping and English classes.

"Our defence engagement is strictly limited to non-combat areas such as disaster relief and English-language training, and is designed to help promote positive change in Myanmar, which is in Australia's interest," Ms Bishop said in a statement to AAP.

"We have an arms embargo on Myanmar and do not conduct joint exercises."

Since the military crackdown began last August, the United Nations has described the situation as a "textbook case of ethnic cleansing".

The European Union and Canada earlier this week imposed sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, on seven of Myanmar's senior military chiefs.

The sanctions also included an extended arms embargo and ban on training any, or cooperating with, Myanmar's defence forces.

Ms Bishop said Australia already has some sanctions in place in relation to Myanmar, but they could be extended.

"Our policy settings on Myanmar, including the possibility of targeted sanctions, are under constant review," she said.</s>China believes Myanmar now ready to take back Rohingyas</s>Dr Nehginpao Kipgen

On May 31, the Myanmar government announced it will establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate human rights violations and related issues following attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a Muslim militia, on Myanmar security posts in August last year.

The president’s office said the commission will consist of three people, including an international member who will be assisted by local and international legal and technical experts. Since then, the issue has been widely debated inside Myanmar, primarily on the inclusion of an international member in the commission. On June 6, Sai Kyaw Moe from the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) submitted an urgent proposal in the Lower House of the parliament urging that the commission be formed only with local experts in order to show respect for the sovereignty of the state and integrity of its citizens.

The lawmaker argued that “If we accept foreign intervention in the internal affairs of our country, it will only increase and undermine the sovereignty of our country over time. So, I call for it [forming the commission with local eminent persons] in consideration of national interests.”

The proposal even suggested that the commission be headed by the State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi herself. In case she is too busy with other pressing issues, the task be assigned to former military generals who were also parliamentary speakers — Thura Shwe Mann, who is now chairman of the Legal Affairs and Special Cases Assessment Commission, and Khin Aung Myint, who is now a lawmaker in the Upper House

Though the concern of the USDP lawmakers is understandable and has a valid point, the scale and nature of Rohingya crisis has been so pervasive that the necessity of outside help and support becomes inevitable. At the least, there are three important reasons why internationalisation of the Rohingya crisis can no longer be avoided at this stage.

Scale and nature of violence

The first reason is due to the scale and nature of violence. Because of the massive exodus of refugees, the Rohingya crisis has gotten unprecedented media coverage and international attention, especially since the Aug 25 attacks.

The Rohingya conundrum is more so intense and complex largely because of the historical nature of the problem as well as due to the controversy surrounding the questions of ethnic identity and citizenship.

From 1975-2017, there have been at least six waves of refugee movements from Myanmar into Bangladesh. The refugee issue was first taken up by the Bangladesh government to the Myanmar authorities following the arrival of about 3,500 refugees from Myanmar in 1975.

Subsequently between May and June of 1978, over 200,000 refugees from Myanmar crossed over to Bangladesh. Meetings and discussions were held between the two countries for a possible solution but no significant progress had been made. While the Myanmar authorities maintained that the refugees were illegal immigrants who tried to avoid immigration checks, the Bangladesh government insisted that they were not their citizens and they should be repatriated to Myanmar.

Another waves of violence occurred in June and October of 2012 which led to several deaths and exodus of several thousands of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh, which was followed by violence in October 2016 and again in August 2017. The latest round of violence has forced out about 700,000 people from the Rohingya community into Bangladesh.

Moreover, the different interpretation of ethnic identity and citizenship issues of the Rohingya people by the Myanmar government and the Rohingya community entails the intervention of international scholars and legal experts.

Myanmar’s own initiative

The second reason is due to Myanmar’s own initiative. In August 2016, the Myanmar government formed a nine-member state advisory commission on Rakhine, chaired by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.

Among others, the commission recommended citizenship verification, rights and equality before the law, documentation, the situation of the internally displaced and freedom of movement, a ministerial-level appointment to coordinate the effective implementation of the commission’s recommendations.

A year later in September 2017, the government established a 10-member advisory board for the committee for implementation of the recommendations on Rakhine state to advise on enacting the findings of the Kofi Annan commission’s recommendations. However, the credibility of the board was tarnished when one of the board members, Bill Richardson, resigned on Jan 24 this year citing that “…this advisory board is a whitewash” and would not like to be part of “a cheerleading squad for the government”.

Since the government has involved the international community on the Rohingya issue in the past, it is now difficult for Myanmar to avoid or ignore the presence of international members in its initiatives, including advisory body or investigative commissions.

UN pressure

The third reason is due to pressure from the UN Security Council which sent its delegation to Bangladesh and Myanmar from late in April. The council members urged the Myanmar government to conduct a transparent investigation into alleged human rights abuses in northern Rakhine or face the potential of military officials being referred to the International Criminal Court, and to speed up repatriation of hundreds of thousands of the Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh with the help of UN agencies.

The international community’s pressure led to the signing of a tripartite agreement between Myanmar and two UN agencies — United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) — on June 6 which would provide a framework for UNHCR and UNDP to be given access to Rakhine state, including to refugees’ places of origin and areas of potential return that has not been permitted since violence broke out in August last year.

The urgency and severity of the Rohingya crisis is evident by the fact that key members of the National Defence and Security Council (the country’s highest decision-making body) — including the president, state counsellor, army chief and other senior Myanmar officials — met at the presidential palace in Nay Pyi Taw on June 8 to discuss the latest developments in the restive Rakhine state.

Such high-level meeting was the first since President Win Myint took office in late March, and only the second since the National League for Democracy-led government took power more than two years ago.

While it is understandable about the concerns of national security and sovereignty as argued by USDP lawmakers, it may now be too late to oppose the presence or intervention of the international community. In other words, it may now be even counterproductive to ignore the internationalisation of Rohingya crisis.

Nehginpao Kipgen, PhD, is Associate Professor and Executive Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Jindal School of International Affairs, OP Jindal Global University. He is the author of three books on Myanmar, including ‘Democratisation of Myanmar’</s>BEIJING (Reuters) - China believes that Myanmar is now ready to take back hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims sheltering in Bangladesh who have fled violence in the former Burma, the Chinese government’s top diplomat told his Bangladeshi opposite number on Friday.

Since August 2017, about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled a military crackdown in mainly Buddhist Myanmar, many reporting killings, rape and arson on a large scale in the western state of Rakhine, U.N. and other aid organisations have said.

In May, the United Nations said it had struck an outline deal with Myanmar aimed at eventually allowing them to return.

Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi said that on Thursday he met minister of Myanmar’s State Counsellor Office Kyaw Tint Swe in Beijing, and heard a report from him on how Myanmar was trying to resolve the repatriation issue.

“I strongly felt that the Myanmar side has already prepared to receive these people who have entered Bangladesh to take refuge,” Wang said, speaking to reporters with Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali at his side.

“We really hope to see that the return process, especially the first batch of returnees, can be realised as quickly as possible,” Wang said.

China will provide help and play a constructive role, and China has already provided pre-fabricated houses to Myanmar for those who return, and for Bangladesh China has provided tents and other humanitarian supplies, he added.

“We would like to see and believe that with the hard work of Bangladesh and Myanmar, this repatriation process can begin as soon as possible.”

China has close relations with Myanmar, and has backed what Myanmar officials call a legitimate counter-insurgency operation in Rakhine.

Ali said he had detailed talks with Wang about the Rohingya.

“In this regard we have sought China’s support in ensuring a conducive environment in Rakhine state for early repatriation of these displaced people back to their homeland,” he said.

“China has assured (of) her continued support in resolving this issue. I think we have received tremendous support from China on how to resolve this problem.”</s>NEW DELHI — Heavy rains in the hills of northeast India triggered a landslide that swept away a house, killing 10 people, police said.

Press Trust of India news agency, quoting police officials, said the Monday night landslide occurred in Mizoram state. Police said 14 people lived in two apartments inside the home.

Four people were rescued after the landslide. One of those rescued was injured.

This story has been corrected to show that landslide was Monday night.</s>Amnesty International is urging Australia to cut financial ties with Myanmar's military and back moves to take 13 of the country's most senior security officials to court over atrocities committed against Rohingya Muslims.

The international human rights group has unveiled a major report naming top military and police officials allegedly implicated in the murder, rape and torture of Rohingya people.

Amnesty wants countries including Australia to support a push to have the officials tried by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity, committed amid a military crackdown that has forced more than 702,000 Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh since August.

Human rights lawyer and Amnesty crisis campaigns Co-ordinator Diana Sayed says Australia needs to end its $400,000 funding deal with Myanmar's military and impose sanctions on the 13 security officials.

The European Union, Britain, the United States, France and Canada have already cut ties with Myanmar's military in response to the Rohingya refugee crisis.

However Australia's $400,000 program remains in place, with the money earmarked for training in humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, peacekeeping and English classes.

"It's just outrageous that Australia maintains this relationship which all other countries have been very unequivocal in cutting," Ms Sayed told AAP as the report was released on Wednesday.

"It's not a big amount of money but it is symbolic. It will make sure we are on the right side of history when it comes to a consistent approach on human rights."

Since the crackdown began, the Myanmar military has been accused of committing rapes, murders and razing Rohingya villages.

The United Nations has described the situation as a "textbook case of ethnic cleansing". Myanmar denies the accusations.

While Labor has described Australia's military ties with Myanmar as "totally untenable", Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in April insisted it was appropriate for Canberra to provide money to Myanmar's military for training, peacekeeping and English classes.

Australia has also donated $70 million to help the Rohingya who have fled to the Cox's Bazaar refugee camp in Bangladesh, and has earmarked $76.9 million in official development assistance for Myanmar this financial year.

Ms Sayed said Amnesty wants Australia to make sure checks and balances are in place to ensure the aid money is not "propping up an apartheid state".

In its report, Amnesty sets out what it says is the evidence the ICC needs to prosecute 13 Myanmar security officials allegedly implicated in atrocities.

Among those named is Myanmar's army chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who in April met Australia's Ambassador to Myanmar Nicholas Coppel in Nay Pyi Taw for talks about bilateral co-operation in defence services and the situation in Rakhine State.

Also named was Vice Senior General Soe Win, whom Australia's Army Chief Lieutenant Angus Campbell held frank talks with at a military conference in Seoul last September.
A landslide killed 14 people in northern Myanmar.