Myanmar forces resume 'clearance operations' after two Buddhists killed in Rakhine state</s>Rohingya Muslims watch Myanmar police, who are providing security following nearby unrest, in Shwe Zarr village near Maungdaw township in western Myanmar's Rakhine state, Sept. 6, 2017.

Myanmar forces are conducting new “clearance operations” in violence-wracked northern Rakhine state following two separate attacks on ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, while ongoing fighting between an ethnic armed group and government troops continues to drive hundreds of villagers from their homes in other areas.

Security forces are conducting the operations along Pyu Ma creek after six unidentified men attacked and abducted two ethnic Maramagyi men from Kyein Chaung (Middle) village in northern Rakhine Maungdaw district as they were fishing on Monday evening, Myanmar’s Commander-in-Chief’s Office said in an online statement issued Thursday.

The six men who spoke Bengali and arrived by boat took the pair to the creek’s west bank and attacked them. Maung Tha Hla, who sustained five knife wounds, and Saw Tun Oo, who was covered in bruises, managed to escape to Upper Pyu Ma, a Rakhine village on the opposite bank of the creek, the statement said.

As the village administrator and several residents arrived to help them, the attackers fled along the creek to the Nat River, it said.

In a separate case, two ethnic Rakhine men were found dead with their throats slashed on the bank of Pyu Ma creek less than 5,000 feet from the north of Upper Pyu Ma, an ethnic Rakhine village, after they went fishing on Monday evening.

When the two men — Maung Tun Aye from Upper Pyu Ma village in Maungdaw township and Maung Maung Than from Ohn Chaung village in Rathedaung township — did not return, security forces, village administrators, and residents searched for them and found them dead, the statement said.

And on Dec. 16, a teenage girl from Maungdaw’s Thit Taw village was found dead with her throat slit about two miles away after she went missing the previous day while tending cattle, the online journal The Irrawaddy reported.

Local residents said the Myanmar Army appointed more border guards to the area following the incidents, but half the villagers from Pyu Ma have fled out of fear for their safety following the killings.

Residents are fearful because the slayings occurred less than a mile from the community, said San Win, a Nga Khu Ya village resident who attended the funeral of the two murdered men on Thursday.

'Waiting to do this'

Maungdaw district, where Nga Khu Ya village is located, was at the epicenter of a brutal crackdown — also referred to as “clearance operations” — by the military on Rohingya communities following deadly attacks on police outposts by a Muslim militant group in August 2017.

The village was burned down during the campaign of violence in northern Rakhine, which included indiscriminate killings, torture, rape, and arson, and drove more than 725,000 Rohingya across the border to Bangladesh.

The Myanmar government has denied its troops were responsible for atrocities committed against the Rohingya, despite extensive reports and evidence to the contrary that have led the United Nations, rights groups, and other nations to say the campaign amounted to ethnic cleansing, genocidal intent, or genocide itself.

“There is a Muslim village on the other side of Pyu Ma Creek,” San Win told RFA's Myanmar Service. “People are saying that Muslims from this village have been waiting for chance to do this, and that they did it when they had the chance.”

“The villagers are frightened because they can come into the village anytime,” he added. “Only a few people from two or three houses still live here, and they said they are going to leave, too.”

‘Ethnics must be very careful’

Kyaw Win, a villager from Long Ton village adjacent to Pyu Ma village, said ethnic Rakhine residents are often killed by Muslims in the region.

“We have border guards in the region, but not enough to take care of every village,” he told RFA. “There are no security guards in Pyu Ma village.”

Tun Hla Sein, a lawmaker who represents Maungdaw township constituency in the lower house of the national parliament, said most villages, but not all, have security guards to help ensure security.

“Local ethnics have to be very careful,” he said. “When the refugees return from Bangladesh, there will be some who want to live peacefully in Rakhine, but there might also be some who will try to create problems in the region.”

“We have to live together with them because we lived together with them before, but we have to be careful,” he said.

Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement 13 months ago to repatriate Rohingya refugees who want to return voluntarily to Myanmar and who are verified as eligible to return, though the program has yet to begin.

Fighting displaces more villagers

Meanwhile, fighting between the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar military has prompted more than 400 villagers from Rakhine’s Kyauktaw township to flee to safety, local residents said.

They are now staying temporarily in the township’s Kan Saut, Thalu Chaung, and Ngazinyine Khing villages, they said.

They have been fleeing since Dec. 18 when the government army began attacking the AA with heavy weapons.

Maung Thein Sein, a lawmaker from Kyauktaw township, told RFA that the two sides engaged in fighting in Twin Pyannya village on Thursday.

Representatives from the Arakan National Party (ANP), which represents the interests of ethnic Rakhine people in the state, are providing rice to the displaced villagers, Kan Saut, the head of Thinkha Kyaw village, told RFA.

The ANP has requested that Kyauktaw township’s administrator provide the displaced residents with emergency assistance, he said.



Reported by Tin Aung Khine and Min Thein Aung for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.</s>The operations come after two ethnic Rakhine Buddhist men were found dead

YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar forces are conducting new rounds of "clearance operations" in conflict-hit Rakhine state after 4 local Buddhists were attacked and two killed, the commander-in-chief's office said Thursday, December 20, with one of the incidents blamed on Rohingya Muslims.

The violence occurred around the evening of December 17 along Pyu Ma creek in northern Rakhine state's Maungdaw township, the same area where forces waged a bloody crackdown against the Rohingya last year.

More than 720,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after Myanmar launched clearance operations in August 2017, and UN investigators want the country's top brass prosecuted for genocide for alleged abuses carried out during the expulsion.

Myanmar said it was defending itself against Rohingya militants who attacked police posts and has denied almost all claims of atrocities.

But the commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing's office said in the statement posted to his official website Thursday that security forces were active again and had been carrying out "area clearance operations along Pyu Ma Creek."

The post said the activity was sparked after two ethnic Rakhine Buddhist men did not return from fishing and were later found on the creek bank with their throats slit.

On the same day two members of another ethnic Buddhist minority were attacked while fishing along the creek by 6 men "speaking Bengali language," but they escaped and were treated at a local hospital.

The post said authorities did not know the identities of the attackers.

Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as one of its national races and refers to them as Bengali to falsely imply they are newly arrived immigrants from Bangladesh. (FAST FACTS: Who are the Rohingya?)

Tensions are high in northern Rakhine as the government seeks to kickstart a repatriation process but Rohingya in Bangladesh have refused to take part without being guaranteed rights, citizenship and safety.

The Rohingya still in Rakhine are increasingly isolated, and several boats full of men, women and children trying to flee the state have been stopped in recent weeks and turned around.

The minority has long been persecuted and subjected to apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine, with lack of access to healthcare and freedom of movement curtailed.

Many fear that in their absence Myanmar is changing the landscape of their former homes for good, erasing all signs of their local history. – Rappler.com</s>YANGON
• Myanmar forces are conducting new rounds of "clearance operations" in conflict-hit Rakhine state after four Buddhists were attacked and two killed, the commander-in-chief's office said yesterday. One of the incidents was blamed on Rohingya Muslims.

The violence occurred on Monday evening along Pyu Ma creek in northern Rakhine state's Maungdaw township, the same area where forces had waged a bloody crackdown against the Rohingya last year.

More than 720,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after Myanmar launched clearance operations in August last year, and United Nations investigators want the country's top brass prosecuted for genocide for alleged abuses carried out during the expulsion.

Myanmar said it was defending itself against Rohingya militants who attacked police posts and has denied almost all claims of atrocities.

But commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing's office said in a statement posted on his official website yesterday that security forces were active again and had been carrying out "area clearance operations along Pyu Ma Creek".

The post said the activity was sparked after two ethnic Rakhine Buddhist men did not return from fishing and were later found on the creek bank with their throats slit.

On the same day, two members of another ethnic Buddhist minority were attacked while fishing along the creek by six men "speaking Bengali language", but they escaped and were treated at a local hospital. The authorities said they did not know the identities of the attackers.

Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingya as one of its national races and refers to them as Bengali to falsely imply that they are newly arrived immigrants from Bangladesh. Tensions are high in northern Rakhine as the government seeks to kick-start a repatriation process, but Rohingya in Bangladesh have refused to take part without being guaranteed rights, citizenship and safety.

The Rohingya still in Rakhine are increasingly isolated, and several boats full of men, women and children trying to flee the state have been stopped in recent weeks and turned around.</s>Human Rights Watch has called on Myanmar to disband its latest independent commission tasked with investigating allegations of abuse against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, charging it is "unwilling to seriously investigate alleged grave crimes against ethnic Rohingya."

A statement issued by the New York-based human rights organization singled out Aung Tun Htet, a member of the commission, who said in March that Myanmar has a "clear conscience" and that "there is no such thing in our country, as ethnic cleansing, and no genocide," as reported by dpa. HRW asserted that this statement demonstrated the commission member's clear bias.

The four-member commission, established by the Myanmar government in May, has been routinely criticized by observers for being a political tool that they claim will not lead to justice or accountability for rights abuses and instead delay efforts at justice.

On Dec. 12, Rosario Manalo, chair of the Independent Commission of Enquiry, told reporters at a news conference that the commission had found "no evidence" to support allegations of abuse by the Myanmar military in the first four months of their investigation.

The Myanmar military stands accused of "genocide" and "crimes against humanity" by numerous international organizations, including the U.N., Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Fortify Rights, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, describing evidence of rights abuses in numerous reports.

Lately, a key U.N. committee overwhelmingly approved a Turkish-backed resolution last month, strongly condemning the continuing "gross human rights violations and abuses" against Rohingya Muslims who are treated as outsiders in Myanmar and were victims of a brutal campaign by the country's military. The resolution reiterated "deep distress" at reports that unarmed Rohingya are still being subjected to excessive use of force and rights violations by Myanmar's military and security forces, including killings and rapes. It expressed "grave concern" at the findings of the U.N. fact-finding mission on Myanmar, which concluded that some top Myanmar military leaders should be prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Rohingya. Rohingya Muslims are the most persecuted minority in the world according to U.N. figures and continue to suffer from oppression under the Myanmar government, the army and Buddhist extremists. Over the past decade, thousands of Rohingya have been killed since violence broke out in 2008, causing hundreds of thousands to flee their homeland for Bangladesh, Malaysia and other countries in the region. Although the numbers are contested, it is known that thousands of people have been killed in the last few years, while more than a million had to flee. The Myanmar army has set Rohingya villages on fire, bulldozing many of them and even uprooting trees and destroying farms to make the area uninhabitable.</s>Buddhists found with throats slit in Rakhine in Myanmar: Silent murders ignored

In recent days, suspected Muslims in this part of Myanmar appear to have killed more Buddhists in Rakhine. Of course, police investigations are ongoing but the cutting of throats resembles the brutal way that ARSA (Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) Islamists butcher in Myanmar. Therefore, the international media will ignore once more these murders – or, if reported, a spin will emerge – despite the brutal ways these Buddhists were killed.

It is known that three recent attacks; all bearing the hallmarks of suspected Islamist attacks have taken place in recent days. This will once more bring fear to all non-Bengali Muslim communities in Rakhine because various Buddhist ethnic groups and others feel threatened by the duality of the Bengali Muslim land grab and Islamization. After all, events in the Chittagong Hill Tracts highlight the same twin force in Bangladesh, where the mainly indigenous Buddhist ethnic groups have faced enormous brutality at the hands of outsiders.

The Irrawaddy reports, “Police and locals searched for the two, and found them dead with their throats cut near the creek, Maungdaw Township administrator U Myint Khaing told The Irrawaddy.”

In another brutal murder, a girl of only thirteen years of age in the vicinity of Maungdaw Township was found with her throat slit. If, like suspected that Islamists were behind these brutal killings in Rakhine, then this follows a similar pattern that blights the Chittagong Hill Tracts and Southern Thailand. Hence, a silent religious cleansing of mainly Buddhists by Muslims that is massively underreported in the international media. This cleansing is based on fear, terrorism, wanton violence, and the flow of rapidly changing demographics.

In a past article by Modern Tokyo Times, it was stated, “The government of Myanmar faces untold pressure to accept Bengali Muslims back into Rakhine in Myanmar because of the utter bias of certain Western and Islamic nations. Yet, if Myanmar is pressured then Buddhists, Hindus, and Tribal people have much to fear in Rakhine. This is based on Islamic terrorism and institutional religious hatred emanating from Sharia Islamic law that seeks to crush non-Muslims in this part of Myanmar. Similarly, when the demographic time bomb reaches majority status in Rakhine, then will the same pressures emerge in another part of Myanmar based on Islamization? Indeed, Buddhists and other minorities in Rakhine only need to look at events in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and parts of Southern Thailand to see how Buddhists have been treated and the demographic reality that entails. In the case of Southern Thailand, then this scenario is happening despite the armed forces of this nation protecting Buddhists and Buddhist monasteries from Islamist forces.”

The latest brutal murders in Rakhine are following the silent murders of Buddhists and other non-Muslims in this part of Myanmar. These brutal murders have happened for a long time but the international community has neglected them.

Modern Tokyo News is part of the Modern Tokyo Times group

DONATIONS to SUPPORT MODERN TOKYO TIMES – please pay PayPal and DONATE to sawakoart@gmail.com</s>(New York) – Myanmar should disband its commission of inquiry into abuses in Rakhine state because it is clearly unwilling to seriously investigate alleged grave crimes against ethnic Rohingya, Human Rights Watch said today.

At a news conference on December 12, 2018, Rosario Manalo, chair of the Independent Commission of Enquiry, stated that the commission had found “no evidence” to support allegations of human rights abuses in the four months since it officially opened its investigation. Her statement shows that the commission is disregarding evidence and testimony collected by United Nations fact-finders, the United States State Department, and international human rights organizations since violence broke out in Rakhine State in 2016.

“The Myanmar commission’s dismissal of the extensive documentation of gross human rights abuses against the Rohingya makes abundantly clear that it is not serious about seeking justice,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “The UN Security Council should stop giving credence to this commission and refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.”

The UN Security Council, which has been negotiating its first resolution on the Rohingya crisis, should view the chair’s comments as further evidence that Myanmar’s commission is not a viable path to justice for victims of abuses.

Some of the available evidence that the commission is ignoring is contained in the following reports:
• None The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar issued a 444-page report on September 18 detailing crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide by Myanmar’s security forces in Rakhine State and serious human rights abuses in Shan and Kachin States;
• None The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a “flash report” in February 2017 documenting extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, arbitrary detention, torture, and other abuses by Myanmar security forces in Rakhine State after an attack on security posts in August 2016;
• None The US Department of State issued a report on September 24 detailing widespread and systematic human rights abuses against the Rohingya in Rakhine State;
• None Human Rights Watch has documented the widespread use of sexual violence against the Rohingya in Rakhine State, a massacre in the village of Tula Toli, and the widespread destruction of Rohingya villages in Rakhine State;
• None Amnesty International has documented serious human rights abuses by the military in Rakhine State and identified some of the military units and officers responsible for atrocities; and
• None The US Holocaust Memorial Museum and Fortify Rights issued a joint report in November 2017 documenting abuses by security forces including murder, rape and other sexual violence, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances, and forced displacement.

“The record of Myanmar military abuses against the Rohingya is detailed and voluminous,” Adams said. “What more do Security Council members need to know to call for justice and accountability for grave international crimes?”

The four-member commission, set up by the Myanmar government in May, is the eighth domestic commission created since violence broke out in Rakhine State in 2012. None of these commissions have led to justice or accountability for human rights abuses such as extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, and arson. Manalo, the commission’s chair, is a former deputy foreign minister of the Philippines. The commission also includes Kenzo Oshima, a former permanent representative of Japan to the UN, and two domestic commissioners chosen by the government.

One Myanmar member of the commission, Aung Tun Thet, has repeatedly demonstrated his bias, saying in March that Myanmar has a “clear conscience” and that “there is no such thing in our country, in our society, as ethnic cleansing, and no genocide.” He also serves as chief coordinator of the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine, which was formed in October 2017, and was a member of the 2016 national commission that rejected the findings of a UN report in its entirety. The other Myanmar commissioner, Mya Thein, is a former chair of Myanmar’s Constitutional Tribunal.

The UN Fact-Finding Mission found that Myanmar’s military justice system has long failed to address the military’s massive human rights violations, while the civilian criminal justice system lacks independence and the capacity to respect fair trial standards. It examined eight ad hoc inquiry commissions and boards created to address abuses in Rakhine State since 2012 and concluded that “none meets the standard of an impartial, independent, effective and thorough human rights investigation.” It said that the government’s current Commission of Enquiry “will not and cannot provide a real avenue for accountability.”

The Fact-Finding Mission also concluded that the Myanmar government has proven itself “unable and unwilling” to investigate and prosecute crimes under international law. This conclusion is important because the International Criminal Court, as a court of last resort, can only step in when it determines that justice in national courts is not possible.

After claiming they could find no evidence themselves, the commission asked victims to submit evidence with supporting audio and video recordings no later than January 2019. This proposal raises serious concerns about the security of those who might come forward. The government has not set up a victim and witness protection system, yet the commission stated that it will conduct “private interviews” with people who come forward to “verify their authenticity.”

With government representatives on the commission and the military officers implicated in egregious abuses still in command, victims and witnesses are likely to be at risk. Some witnesses who have previously provided information about abuses have faced reprisals, while Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been imprisoned for their role in exposing a massacre in Rakhine State.

“Security Council members should call out the Commission of Enquiry for the diversionary and delaying tactic that it is,” Adams said. “Waiting for this commission to finish its work is a waste of time that will only further delay accountability for grave human rights abuses against the Rohingya.”</s>In the first major breakthrough since 2011, the Myanmar Army had declared a unilateral ceasefire against various rebel groups fighting in different parts of the nation. The proclaimed ceasefire includes de-escalation of troop mobilisation. The move towards a unilateral ceasefire was decided upon to facilitate un-hindered negotiations with the ethnic rebel groups.

READ MORE: Myanmar Govt Launches Investigation into Human Rights Abuses in Rakhine

The Myanmar Army has formed a negotiations team led by Lt. General Yar Pyae and includes senior and regional commanders. The team will discuss issues with rebel groups, especially the prominent ones like the Arakan Army in northern Rakhine state.

READ MORE: Bangladeshi Failure to Inform Rohingya of Repatriation Hampers Return — Envoy

Myanmar Army did not impose a sixth principle "to march towards a democratic country in accord with the 2008 Constitution".

In last few days over 700 people have been displaced by clashes between the Myanmar Army and the Arakan Army (AA) in northern Rakhine State.

A study conducted by the Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security (MIPS) says that there were 44 clashes in November — 21 between ethnic armed groups and the army, and 23 between ethnic armed groups themselves.</s>More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar's Rakhine state for neighbouring Bangladesh since August last year, when attacks on security posts by Rohingya insurgents triggered a military crackdown that the United Nations, the United States, Britain and others described as ethnic cleansing.

"We are deeply concerned that despite clear evidence of genocide amassed by the Department's own report ... that the Department has not made a formal determination that the crime of genocide has been committed," said a letter to Pompeo from the senators, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

In September, leaders of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee called on the Trump administration to declare the military campaign a genocide, days after a State Department report stopped short of that description.

A declaration of genocide by the US government could have legal implications of committing Washington to stronger punitive measures against Myanmar's government, which is led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. This has made some in the Trump administration wary of issuing such an assessment.

The areas where the Rohingya lived in Myanmar's western Rakhine State before the army ousted them were being dramatically transformed, making their return increasingly unlikely, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

The senators asked Pompeo to provide a formal determination about the actions of Myanmar's military.

"There is no question that the violence in northern Rakhine State – intended to terrorise, drive out, and exterminate Rakhine's Rohingya population – meets the definition of genocide," the letter said.

Led by Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the letter was also signed by Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Susan Collins and Democratic Senators Ed Markey, Tim Kaine, Ben Cardin and Jeff Merkley.

Failing to officially label the actions a genocide would "deny truth-telling and accountability" for the Rohingya and "... would leave an indelible stain on our nation's legacy of promoting and advancing human rights, dignity, and accountability," the letter said.

The United Nations Security Council is mulling a resolution that the council could consider further steps, including sanctions, if there was not enough progress made by Myanmar in returning refugees, diplomats said.
Myanmar's military announces it will resume "clearance operations" in Rakhine State after a recent spike in attacks by unidentified assailants. In the past week, two Rakhine fishermen and a teenager were found murdered after they were reported missing, while two Maramagyi villagers were kidnapped and stabbed but managed to escape their abductors.