How long have the Rohingyas to suffer?

[Abz2000]

-“I regret Myanmar’s decision to refuse the fact-finding mission,” Lee said in reference to the UN body appointed by the Human Rights Council to investigate rights violations in conflict areas in Myanmar, the participants of which have seen their applications for visas refused.....-




........Lee expressed dismay that her visit was marked by many restrictions, with authorities providing “the excuse of short notice” in denying her access to sites, and her sources reportedly facing intimidation by special branch police officers.




Those who met with her, Lee said, were “photographed, questioned before and after meetings, and in one case, even followed.” This, she added, was “unacceptable.”




“I am disappointed to see the tactics applied by the previous government still being used,” the Special Rapporteur said.




https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burm...rges-myanmar-accept-fact-finding-mission.html

August 3, 2017 7:16PM EDT

UN: Myanmar’s Threat to Block Fact-Finding Mission
Stand Up to Bullying Tactics of Visa Denial


A Myanmar border guard police officer stands guard in Tin May village, Buthidaung township, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar July 14, 2017. © 2017 Simon Lewis/Reuters

(Geneva) – The United Nations needs to insist on its ability to carry out a mandated fact-finding mission on Myanmar, Human Rights Watch said today, releasing a series of questions and answers on the topic.
In March 2017, the UN Human Rights Council established a fact-finding mission to investigate alleged human rights abuses in Myanmar. Since then, however, various Myanmar government officials have publicly said the government plans to block these efforts by denying visas to mission members. The mission will officially begin its work in August.

Myanmar’s threat to block the UN Fact-Finding Mission from entering the country will only end up harming the government’s standing on human rights.
John Fisher
Geneva Director
“Myanmar’s threat to block the UN Fact-Finding Mission from entering the country will only end up harming the government’s standing on human rights,” said John Fisher, Geneva director. “Even if the mission doesn’t get access, we’re confident that they will carry out their work and produce a report that advances justice for the victims of human rights abuses in Myanmar.”

If Myanmar follows through on its threats and refuses to provide visas to the mission members, it will be joining an ignominious group of pariah states, including North Korea, Syria, Eritrea, and Burundi, that have denied Human Rights Council-authorized fact-finders’ access to their countries.

Human Rights Watch is issuing the Q&A to emphasize the need for the Fact-Finding Mission’s work, to clarify the scope of its mandate, and to highlight the government’s attempts at obstruction.

The document answers basic questions about the mission and its mandate, the current human rights situation in Myanmar, and the likely effect of visa denials on the mission.

“The United Nations needs to stand up to Myanmar’s bullying tactics of threatening visa denials,” Fisher said. “The Burmese military has long avoided any accountability for its widespread and serious abuses. Granting entry to the Fact-Finding Mission would send a signal that the government is prepared to work collaboratively with the international community to help identify perpetrators of serious crimes, and deter future crimes by all parties to Myanmar’s armed conflicts.”

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/08/03/un-myanmars-threat-block-fact-finding-mission

On March 24, 2017, the UN Human Rights Council authorized a three-member Fact-Finding Mission to Myanmar.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who leads the country’s civilian government as state counsellor and also serves as foreign minister, has stated that the UN’s decision to establish an independent international inquiry was not “in keeping with what is actually happening on the ground.” Kyaw Tin, deputy minister of foreign affairs, said on June 30 in parliament that, “We will order Myanmar embassies not to grant any visa to UN fact-finding mission members.”

Even if the UN team is not granted access to the country, the mission intends to work from abroad and produce a written report by March 2018.

Why did the Human Rights Council set up a Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar?

The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution creating the Fact-Finding Mission because it was concerned about the recent serious allegations of human rights abuses there.
In a March resolution, the Council pointed to a February 2017 report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that found that crimes against the ethnic Rohingya community in northern Rakhine State “seem to have been widespread as well as systematic, indicating the very likely commission of crimes against humanity.”
As a part of their violent crackdown on the community since October 2016, Burmese security forces burned at least 1500 buildings in predominantly Rohingya areas, raped or sexually assaulted dozens of women, and committed extrajudicial executions. Human Rights Watch released satellite imagery showing the destruction caused by the arson of these buildings. Human Rights Watch also conducted research among Rohingya who fled into neighboring Bangladesh, documenting the kinds of human rights abuses that Burmese security forces inflicted on them.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/08/02/qa-united-nations-fact-finding-mission-myanmar

MANDATE
The Human Rights Council on 24 March 2017 decided (through Resolution A/HRC/RES/34/22) to dispatch urgently an independent international fact-finding mission, to be appointed by the President of the Human Rights Council, to establish the facts and circumstances of the alleged recent human rights violations by military and security forces, and abuses, in Myanmar, in particular in Rakhine State, including but not limited to arbitrary detention, torture and inhuman treatment, rape and other forms of sexual violence, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary killings, enforced disappearances, forced displacement and unlawful destruction of property, with a view to ensuring full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims, and requests the fact-finding mission to present to the Council an oral update at its thirty-sixth session and a full report at its thirty-seventh session.

MEMBERS
The Commission is composed of:​

Mr. Marzuki Darusman (Indonesia), Chair of the Fact-Finding Mission
Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy (Sri Lanka), Member
Mr. Christopher Dominic Sidoti​ (Australia), Member
DOCUMENTATION
Human Rights Council Resolution A/HRC/RES/34/22 on the situation of human rights in Myanmar
24 March 2017

PRESS RELEASE
Human Rights Council President announces appointment of Marzuki Darusman as Chair of Myanmar Fact-finding Mission
27 July 2017

President of Human Rights Council appoints Members of Fact-finding Mission on Myanmar
30 May 2017

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/MyanmarFFM/Pages/Index.aspx

It seriously looks as if the burmese regime steered or used the september 25 2017 incident as a means of attempted justification for regime crimes, an excuse to deter investigation, and also as a way of killing potential witnesses (including village leaders) who could give testimony of the crimes commited in the past few years.

‘And then they exploded’:

How Rohingya insurgents built support for assault
Rohingya leaders and some policy analysts say Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's failure to tackle the grievances of the Muslim minority, who have lived under apartheid-like conditions for generations, has bolstered support for the militants.
By: Reuters | Yangon |
Published on: September 7, 2017 12:38 pm


A Rohingya man carrying his belongings approaches the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Bandarban, an area under Cox's Bazar authority, Bangladesh, August 29, 2017. (REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File Photo)

(RELATED NEWS
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Welcome the refugee
Share Myanmar’s concern over Rakhine violence, says PM Narendra Modi)


When the former UN chief Kofi Annan wrapped up his year-long probe into Myanmar’s troubled northwest on August 24, he publicly warned that an excessive army response to violence would only make a simmering conflict between Rohingya insurgents and Myanmar security forces worse. Just three hours later, shortly after 8 pm, Rohingya insurgent leader Ata Ullah sent a message to his supporters urging them to head to the foot of the remote Mayu mountain range with metal objects to use as weapons.
A little after midnight, 600 km northwest of the country’s largest city Yangon, a rag-tag army of Rohingya militants, wielding knives, sticks, small weapons and crude bombs, attacked 30 police posts and an army base.
“If 200 or 300 people come out, 50 will die. God willing, the remaining 150 can kill them with knives,” said Ata Ullah in a separate voice message to his supporters. It was circulated around the time of the offensive on mobile messaging apps and a recording was subsequently reviewed by Reuters.
The assault by Ata Ullah’s group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), was its biggest yet. Last October, when the group first surfaced, it attacked just three police border posts using about 400 fighters, according to Myanmar government estimates. The Myanmar army is now estimating up to 6,500 people took part in the August offensive.
Its ability to mount a much more ambitious assault indicates that many young Rohingya men have been galvanized into supporting ARSA following the army crackdown after the October attacks, according to interviews with more than a dozen Rohingya and Rakhine villagers, members of the security forces and local administrators. The brutal October response led to allegations that troops burned down villages and killed and raped civilians.
The crisis in ethnically-riven Rakhine state is the biggest to face Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and her handling of it has been a source of disillusionment among the democracy champion’s former supporters in the West. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to Myanmar authorities on Tuesday to end violence against Rohingya Muslims, warning of the risk of ethnic cleansing, a possible humanitarian catastrophe, and regional destabilisation.
Rohingya leaders and some policy analysts say Suu Kyi’s failure to tackle the grievances of the Muslim minority, who have lived under apartheid-like conditions for generations, has bolstered support for the militants.
The Plight Of Rohingya Refugees Living In India

Major counteroffensive
The fledgling militia has been transformed into a network of cells in dozens of villages, capable of staging a widespread offensive. Myanmar’s government has declared ARSA a terrorist organisation. It has also accused it of killing Muslim civilians to prevent them from cooperating with the authorities, and of torching Rohingya villages, allegations the group denies. The latest assault has provoked a major counteroffensive in which the military says it killed almost 400 insurgents and in which 13 members of the security forces have died.
Rohingya villagers and human rights groups say the military has also attacked villages indiscriminately and torched homes. Myanmar government says it is carrying out a lawful counter-terrorism operation and that the troops have been instructed not to harm civilians. Nearly 150,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25, leading to fears of a humanitarian crisis. Some 26,750 non-Muslim villagers have also been displaced inside Myanmar.
Suu Kyi has said she would adopt recommendations of Kofi Annan’s panel that encouraged more integration. She has also previously appealed for understanding of her nation’s ethnic complexities. In a statement on Wednesday, she blamed “terrorists” for “a huge iceberg of misinformation” on the strife in Rakhine. She made no mention of the Rohingya who have fled.
Suu Kyi’s spokesperson, Zaw Htay, could not be immediately reached for comment. On Monday, however, he told Reuters Myanmar was carrying out a counterterrorism operation and taking care of “the safety of civilians, including Muslims and non-Muslims.”


“Not how humans live”.

In an interview with Reuters in March, Ata Ullah linked the creation of the group to communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine in 2012, when nearly 200 people were killed and 140,000, mostly Rohingya, displaced. “We can’t turn the lights on at night. We can’t move from one place to another during the day,” he told Reuters in previously unpublished remarks, referring to restrictions placed on the Rohingya population’s behaviour and movements. “Everywhere checkpoints: every entry and every exit. That’s not how humans live.”
A Rohingya community leader who has stayed in northern Rakhine said that, while the rest of Myanmar enjoyed new freedoms under Suu Kyi after decades of military rule, the Muslim minority have been increasingly marginalized. Support for the insurgents grew after the military operation last year, he said. “When the security forces came to our village, all of the villagers apologised and asked them not to set the houses on fire – but they shot the people who made that request,” he said.
“People suffered because their sons got killed in front of them even though they begged for mercy, their daughters, sisters were raped – how could they live without constantly thinking about it, that they want to fight against it, whether they die or not.” Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the villagers’ accounts. Last month, a Myanmar government probe – led by former head of military intelligence and now Vice President, Myint Swe – rejected allegations of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during the crackdown last year.
Rohingya refugees walk on the muddy path after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Teknaf, Bangladesh, September 3, 2017. (REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain)
Cell network
Villagers and police officers in the area say that ARSA had since last October established cells in dozens of villages, where local activists then recruited others. “People shared their feelings with others from the community, they talked to each other, they told their friends or acquaintances from different regions – and then they exploded,” said the Rohingya community leader.
Rohi Mullarah, a village elder from the Kyee Hnoke Thee village in northern Buthidaung, said the leaders sent their followers regular and frequent messages via apps like WhatsApp and WeChat, encouraging them to fight for freedom and human rights and enabling them to mobilize many people without the risk of being caught going into the heavily militarised areas to recruit. “They mainly sent phone messages to the villagers, they didn’t … move people from place to place,” he said. He said his village was not involved in the insurgency and even posted a signboard in front of it that said any militants would be attacked by the villagers if they attempt to recruit people.
Many Rohingya elders have for decades rejected violence and sought dialogue with the government. While ARSA has now gained some influence, especially among young, disaffected men, many Rohingya elders have condemned the group’s violent tactics.........

http://indianexpress.com/article/wo...support-for-assault-myanmar-refugees-4832324/

 

[Abz2000]

Thailand’s death camps may be the most horrifying places in Southeast Asia
GlobalPost
May 15, 2015 · 10:30 AM UTC
By Patrick Winn


rohinyga-1.jpg
Rohingya migrants jump to collect food supplies dropped by a Thai army helicopter from a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman sea on May 14, 2015. Credit: Christophe Archambault


Editor's note: The names of the former captives of illegal prison camps featured in this story have been changed to protect them from retaliation from human trafficking syndicates.


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BANGKOK, Thailand — The horrors of the transatlantic slave trade are not resigned to history. They've been revived on creaky boats plying the Bay of Bengal.

In 2015, there is a trade in human cargo that evokes the barbaric middle passage to America in the 1700s. The chattel isn’t African captives but men and women called Rohingya, a Muslim ethnicity fleeing apartheid in Myanmar.

The Rohingya’s desperation makes them easy prey for traffickers who promise passage to Malaysia, a Muslim-majority nation, for only $100. Instead, they’re crammed onto boats for a voyage to secret prisons in Thailand.

The trip can take weeks. Roasting under a tropical sun, the seafaring captives are often permitted only a handful of rice each morning. They may get a few swigs of water every other day. Those who starve to death are simply tossed into the surf.


For those who survive, more agony awaits. The Rohingya are smuggled onto Thailand’s beaches and forced into hidden jungle prison camps. Then the torture begins — daily beatings (and, for many women, rape) until relatives cough up more than $2,000 to spare their lives.

These death camps, and the boats that supply them, are perhaps the most dreadful places in all of Southeast Asia.

“We were beaten morning and night,” says Hanif, 23, a scrawny Rohingya man who was stuck in a camp just nine months ago. He is now living illegally in Bangkok’s outskirts.

“They’d beat us to convince our families to pay the ransom,” Hanif says. “They’d also beat us randomly just to keep us weak so we couldn’t escape.”

Hanif is one of half a dozen death camp survivors interviewed by GlobalPost in Thailand. Their accounts are universally gruesome. All endured beatings, starvation and disease in the hidden prisons. All witnessed deaths at sea as well as in camps, where bodies are dumped into mass graves.

“Women in the camps have it especially bad,” says Salima, 30, who wasted away in a camp for months with her two children. “Maybe the guards spared me because I have kids. But younger girls were often handpicked and led into the jungle. They would return in pain asking, ‘Why? Why did I come to this terrible place only to lose my dignity?’”

SIR ANWAR

Rohingya migrant women cry as they sit on a boat drifting in the sea off the coast of Thailand on May 14.
In the camps, the captive Rohingya sleep in mud, under plastic tarps, inside wooden cages. Their food supply is a trickle of soggy rice. Every twitch, every plea for food, can be grounds for overseers to lash captives with bamboo rods.

The violence is used to impose maximum fear. Traffickers want their captives to be genuinely terrified when they press mobile phones to their faces and force them to call their relatives. The overseers will initially request ransoms as high as $4,500 but often settle for about $2,000. These are incredible sums for families who are already struggling under state-sanctioned apartheid back home.

The indignities don’t stop there. According to Hanif and other former captives, they were groomed to treat the kingpin of the trafficking syndicate that enslaved them as a revered figure. The man’s name, they say, was Anwar.

“We were forced to call him ‘Sir Anwar,’” Hanif says. “We had to stand up straight and salute him. We were taught to show him honor.”

Equally shocking is the fact that Thai authorities have known about the camps for years.
As relatives back home in Myanmar scramble to raise cash — usually by selling off farmlands and resorting to loan sharks — the prisoners waste away. Their limbs become skinny as twigs. Purplish welts begin to cover their bodies.

“My children’s bodies started to shrink,” says Salima, whose kids were around 4 and 6 years old when she was imprisoned just one year ago. “At one point, the guards asked if I was ready to throw my kids away.”

The lives of Salima and her two children were spared for $2,200. But others succumb to torture and the elements before their families can fulfill traffickers’ demands. Just like on the boats, corpses accumulate in the camps, and bodies pile up in mass graves.


OVERDUE CRACKDOWN

Muslim Rohingya asylum seekers standing inside a cell at the immigration detention center in Phang Nga, southern Thailand.
Almost every detail emerging from Thailand’s death camps is shocking. But equally shocking is the fact that Thai authorities have known about the camps for years.

“There are actually camps still operational here in Thailand,” says Matthew Smith, founder of Fortify Rights, a nonprofit watchdog group that has specialized in documenting the plight of Rohingya Muslims. “We’ve even documented camps that held upwards of 2,000 people with captives moving in and out on a daily basis.”

“Authorities have known about these camps for a long time,” says Smith, who recently testified about the Rohingya trafficking crisis to the US Congress. “The problem isn’t a lack of knowledge. The problem is a lack of political will to stop this.”

Thailand — like most countries — treats the Rohingya as an unwanted nuisance. That is unlikely to change: The military government’s official policy upon spotting Rohingya at sea is to offer food and fuel so they can make it to Malaysia.

Unofficially, some Thai authorities have received kickbacks from traffickers for allowing camps to proliferate. As far back as two years ago, the military acknowledged soldiers’ direct involvement in Rohingya trafficking but claimed — as top brass often do — that the corrupt officers only amounted to a few “bad apples.”

Only now are authorities exposing these death camps with vigor.

“For years, we’ve warned the government so they can crack down. And they’ve been silent,” says Maung Kyaw Nu, chairman of the Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand. “Why does the government only take action now? After we’ve lost so many lives? They could have done this years ago and prevented so much tragedy!”

Ongoing raids have turned up nearly 80 Rohingya prison camps along with dozens of corpses in mass graves. A purge of Thai officialdom connected to the trade has resulted in more than 60 arrest warrants so far. Panicked traffickers, fearful of getting arrested, have abandoned incoming boats and left an estimated 8,000 people adrift at sea. Boats packed with hundreds of Rohingya (as well as Bangladeshis) have already drifted onto the shores of Malaysia and Indonesia.

Police have also locked up at least one alleged trafficking kingpin. His name is Anwar. Former captives speaking to GlobalPost were shown his photo, which was taken in police custody. They say he’s the same Anwar who operated their jungle camps.

“That’s him,” says Sabir, a 24-year-old who was living in the camps less than a year ago. “He’s a blood sucker.”

MASS EXODUS

A boat crammed with scores of Rohingya migrants — including many young children — was found drifting in Thai waters on May 14.
By now, the ruthless nature of Rohingya trafficking syndicates is known to all — including Rohingya living on their native lands in Myanmar.

But their attempts to escape via the Bay of Bengal will likely continue. All of the Rohingya interviewed by GlobalPost were aware that the sea journey might kill them. Their decision to accept this risk is a testament to their bleak lives in Myanmar.

“We already live so close to death back home,” Salima says. “We’re mistreated by police. We’re unable to feed ourselves. Women get, you know, dishonored. We think, ‘Well, I might as well risk dying at sea.’”

In Myanmar, Rohingya have endured oppression for decades. Even Rohingya with long family histories in Myanmar are written off as Muslim invaders from neighboring Bangladesh. Their ability to marry, work and travel is restricted by authorities. More than 150,000 have been violently routed into refugee camps where food and medicine is scarce and death is routine.

Even those living outside these squalid camps are frequently preyed upon by soldiers and police. “We’re always forced to work for police, as porters, for zero pay,” says Hassam, 38, who was smuggled into Thailand within the last 12 months. “How can I feed my kids if I’m always working like a slave for someone else?”

The Rohingya mass exodus into the Bay of Bengal may be the largest refugee migration in Southeast Asia since the Vietnam War. And yet, according to Smith, the true number of Rohingya who’ve fled is “significantly higher than current estimates.”

Fortify Rights believes that a commonly cited United Nations figure of 130,000 Rohingya fleeing by sea since 2012 is far too low and doesn’t cover waves of departures from some of the most persecuted towns and cities in Myanmar. According to Smith, the number could be as high as 250,000.

As this nightmare has played out, the Rohingya crisis has gone from obscurity to a cause célèbre in the West. Last year, it also prodded the United States to plunge Thailand into its lowest human-trafficking ranking — a black mark shared by North Korea and Zimbabwe.

Pressure from the White House is at least partly responsible for Thailand’s ongoing raids on death camps and arrests of complicit officials, Smith says. “Thailand is realizing it needs to clean up its act,” he says. “But we’ve seen this in the past. A few arrests are made and there’s a failure to convict. Authorities should realize that the international community is watching and expects more.”

As for the fate of traffickers captured by authorities, the Rohingya interviewed by GlobalPost have a suggestion.

“Put them to death,” says Salima, as her fellow Rohingya nod along. “Then take all the money they made and give it to us.”

This story is presented by The GroundTruth Project.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-05...-may-be-most-horrifying-places-southeast-asia





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- - - Updated - - -



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Thailand convicts traffickers after 2015 mass graves discovery


Bodies were found in southern Songkhla province where authorities said hundreds of migrants had been held captive

This article is 1 month old Oliver Holmes in Bangkok
Wednesday 19 July 2017 11.10 BST Last modified on Wednesday 19 July 2017 23.35 BST

A Thai judge has found dozens of people guilty, including senior army general, in the country’s largest ever human trafficking trial following the discovery two years ago of mass graves in a squalid jungle camp where hundreds of migrants had been brutally exploited.

Cages, watchtower and 37 graves: inside an abandoned migrant camp in Malaysia
Read more
Sentencing began on Wednesday morning for 102 people, including 21 government officials, and was still continuing 12 hours later. Most of the 62 found guilty so far were brought to trial on charges of forcible detention leading to death, trafficking, rape and belonging to organised transnational criminal networks.

Police opened the case after more than two dozen bodies were discovered in a shallow grave in southern Songkhla province in 2015. Authorities said the victims had been held captive by people-smugglers who kept migrants as hostages for ransom.

The case led to a crackdown on smuggling networks that brought people from Myanmar and Bangladesh to Thailand. But government action resulted in a secondary crisis in which smugglers, fearing arrest, abandoned boatloads of migrants. The UN refugee agency estimated hundreds died at sea, primarily as a result of starvation, dehydration and beatings by boat crews.

Q&A
Who are Myanmar's Rohingya?

Show
The court heard on Wednesday how many Rohingya, a Muslim minority persecuted in Myanmar, and Bangladeshis paid people smugglers to reach Thailand. When they arrived, the court heard, they were detained in bamboo pens and had to beg their families to pay a ransom for their release.

The desperate calls were often made as the victims were being beaten to prove that the captors were serious in their demands for money – roughly 100,000 to 160,000 Thai baht (£2,280-£3,650). The migrants were told to tell their families that their throats would be sliced if the money did not arrive.

Dozens of victims, eating infrequent meals of rice, were given wristbands and regularly counted to make sure none had escaped. Several of the defendants at the trial were camp guards who were armed with guns and knives and paid less than £10 a day.


Rescue workers and forensic officials dig out skeletons from shallow graves following the discovery of an abandoned jungle camp in May 2015. Photograph: Madaree Tohlala/AFP/Getty Images
The mammoth, two-year trial – its verdict more than 500 pages long – included testimony from more than 200 witnesses, uncovering what appears to be a highly organised network of people-smuggling across Thailand and Malaysia. Much of the witness testimony was from former camp detainees.

The highest-profile defendant was Lt Gen Manus Kongpan, who was found guilty of multiple human trafficking charges, an extremely rare occurrence in a country controlled by a military elite.

Another senior figure to be handed a sentence was Patchuban Angchotipan, a wealthy businessperson and former provincial official known as Ko Tor or “Big Brother Tor”. The court referred to Patchuban as a “big boss” and found him guilty of trafficking children under 15, among other charges. Witnesses said that whenever there was a problem in transportation of the captives, Patchuban would be called.

Many of the 102 defendants were arrested by police following the discovery of the camps and eyewitness testimony. Several of the higher-ranking officers handed themselves in.

Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher on Thailand at Human Rights Watch, said the convictions are a “major step” in combat human trafficking in Thailand and should set the tone for other ongoing cases.

“This should send a strong message that regardless of their status and affiliation, no one is above the law. Impunity of trafficking gangs is now being stripped off.”

The court heard that at least two of the victims who survived the gruesome treatment were aged under 15 and the youngest was a 12-year-old boy.

The trial was plunged into disrepute in December 2015 when the most senior police investigator in the case fled the country to seek political asylum in Australia. He said he feared for his life after influential figures in the Thai government, military and police who were implicated in trafficking wanted him killed.

Maj Gen Paween Pongsirin was appointed to lead the investigation into the grim discovery but told Guardian Australia and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that “from the beginning” he was under pressure not to pursue the perpetrators too enthusiastically.


Maj Gen Paween Pongsirin on the banks of the Yarra river in Melbourne. Photograph: Meredith O'Shea for the Guardian


Fortify Rights, a non-profit rights group based in south-east Asia, said that while the case “marks an unprecedented effort by Thai authorities to hold perpetrators of human trafficking accountable, the trial was beset by unchecked threats against witnesses, interpreters, and police investigators”.

The group said it had documented how Thai authorities detained ethnic-Rohingya witnesses and allegedly physically assaulted witnesses in the trial. Six assailants, who had identified themselves as police officers, abducted and threatened a witness in early 2016, Fortify Rights said, adding that interpreters involved in the investigation and trial had also received multiple threats.

Rights groups were also dismayed when Lt Gen Manas Kongpan, and three of his witnesses delivered their testimony in closed-door sessions, purportedly to preserve state secrets.

“Thailand has a long way to go to ensure justice for thousands who were exploited, tortured, and killed by human traffickers during the last several years,” said Amy Smith, the executive director of Fortify Rights.

“While these irregularities would not necessarily invalidate the verdict, they raise concerns about whether this trial was fair and in line with international standards.”

The US state department last month kept Thailand on a tier 2 watchlist, just above the lowest ranking, in its annual Trafficking in Persons Report, for a lacklustre effort to combat the trade.

Thailand’s government denies trafficking syndicates are still operating.

In the months after the corpses were discoveredin Thailand, Malaysian authorities said they had found close to 20 camps with more than 100 bodies in mass graves, pointing to a network of detention camps along the forested border area between the two countries.

Due to Thailand’s drawn-out legal procedures, the exact sentences for the defendants may not be disclosed until later this week.

Additional reporting by Phakarat Ryn Jirenuwat

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ns-of-traffickers-after-mass-graves-discovery

 

[Abz2000]

Between 2,000 and 3,000 Muslims were killed in Myanmar's Rakhine state in last 3 days, the European Rohingya Council (ERC) says
HABER MERKEZI
28 AUGUST 2017, 04:56
ANADOLU AGENCY

The Myanmar army killed between 2,000 and 3,000 Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine in the last three days, Anita Schug, a spokeswoman for the European Rohingya Council (ERC) said on Monday.

“The number of massacres carried out by the army against Muslims in Rakhine exceeds the one in 2012 and those in October last year. The situation has never been this bad. In Rakhine, we face a slow genocide,” said Schug.

Noting that between 900 and 1,000 Muslims were killed on Sunday in the Saugpara village of Rathedaung city of Rakhine alone, Schug said that only one boy survived the massacre.

Video: Myanmar declares praying Rohingya Muslims 'terrorists'

Around 3,000 Muslims killed

Anita Schug, who works as a medical doctor in Switzerland, said that between 2,000 and 3,000 Rohingya Muslims were killed in Rakhine’s various villages in the last three days, according to the activists in the field and local sources. Schug highlighted that the Myanmar army is behind the massacres.

More than 100,000 civilians have been displaced, Schug added. She also said that 2,000 Rakhine Muslims were trapped at the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, and that the Bangladesh-side of the border was sealed by the government.

Video: Muslim Rohingya girl faces unprecedented cruelty

'Evacuations are vital’

The ERC spokesperson pointed out that the native Buddhist people occupied the Anaukpyin and Nyaungpyingi villages, and added:

“These people [Rohingya Muslims] wrote a letter to the Myanmar government saying that they are innocent and are not involved in any crime. They requested the government to lift the siege, and to be immediately evacuated from the village. However, the Myanmar government did not even respond to them. Although we do not know the exact number, hundreds of people’s are in danger in these villages.”

Noting that 100 villagers were taken to an unknown place from Rathedaung’s Auk Nan Yar village on Aug. 23, Schug said that they feared these people were killed.

The entire international community should take action as soon as possible, particularly the United Nations, to stop the massacre in Rakhine, Schug added.

Video: A plea from Rohingya Muslims: We’d rather die than go back!

After the Myanmar government issued the order to shoot, army forces started to attack the Rakhine state. The Myanmar army burnt and destroyed the villages where Rohingya Muslims lived, and killed thousands of innocent people. More than 700 schools, madrasahs and houses were destroyed, according to reports.
Due to the increasing attacks recently, over 20,000 civilians had to leave their settlements, local sources reported. A total of 60,000 Rohingya Muslims took shelter in the mountain regions near the border, as they are denied access to Bangladesh.

http://m.yenisafak.com/en/world/nearly-3000-rohingya-muslims-killed-in-the-last-three-days-2787305


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Mere coincidence?


By Subir Bhaumik
On Saturday, 26 August 2017

Is it mere coincidence that the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) went on a huge pre-dawn offensive attacking 19 police stations and one army camp in Northern Rakhine barely six hours after former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan presented his Rakhine Commission report on Thursday?

The ARSA has said in its Twitter message that their attack was to break the blockade by security forces of Rohingya dominated areas that forced them into "defensive action".

The message said that the blockade has reduced towns like Rathidaung and Buthidaung to "near starvation".

There is no independent corroboration of such allegations - the barring of media by the Myanmar authorities has made it impossible to check on that.

But while there could be some truth in allegations that the Tatmadaw was blocking food supplies, why did the ARSA have to wait to launch the attacks -- the biggest since October -- until Kofi Annan had presented his Rakhine commission report to the President and State Counselor and addressed the media conference?

The coincidence is too striking to be overlooked.

The Annan report,made public with its strong conclusions, internationalised the Rakhine State issue in a big way. It was covered across the world as journalists from the major global media were present at the media conference at the Sule Shangrila Hotel in Yangon on Thursday evening. The press especially in Muslim-predominant countries covered the event in a big way.

The ARSA had surely planned the strike if what they say is to be believed. If the northern Rakhine 'blockade' was the cause behind the pre-dawn offensive, the timing was clearly influenced by the Annan Committee report going public. .......


http://www.mizzima.com/news-opinion/mere-coincidence

 

[OmAbdullah]

Again sister WE are the problem of such things. Go look at so called Muslims, they celebrate this sickness called nationalism. No Muslim reads, no Muslim takes a time to think..Muslims are simply NOT interested in religion, as it is the religion of their FOREFATHERS..not their religion.

Allah for sure will replace those with people who love Allah and Allah will love them back.

"Here you are - those invited to spend in the cause of Allah - but among you are those who withhold [out of greed]. And whoever withholds only withholds [benefit] from himself; and Allah is the Free of need, while you are the needy. And if you turn away, He will replace you with another people; then they will not be the likes of you." Qur'an 47:38

We Muslims have become the joke, because we are thieves, we are liars, we are filthy minded, we are greedy, we are envious of one another, we do not care about environment, we do not care about fellow human being be it a Muslim or another person of another faith. This you can see very clearly for example when it is the case of reverts. Those brothers and sisters are left alone in their houses all alone, because when we so called Muslims get home on eid we pick up culture and its habits not Islam and its practices. WE are the DISEASE that needs a cure. The cure is right in front of our eyes, but we do not care for the cure.

So what is left then? All i see is every one is for himself. But even that being the case, i try to work on myself because when i look in to the mirror i do not see a practicing Muslim, i see the root cause of many problems we as a Ummah have. I spit on myself for being the root cause but as Allah has given me time to change as He has not taken my soul yet, i try to change, step by step. However to do that, is you must be ready to look in to the mirror and be disgusted by the person you see and admitting indeed that you are the root cause..because that person that you see is he/she ready to offer their life without a question asked when truth has come? Has that person in the mirror you see removed all the filth in his/her heart? I for once when i look in to the mirror, i see a lot of disgust that i must get rid of in my heart. I do not see a warrior..i do not see a hero or a servant of Allah.. i see simply the root cause.

So start with yourself, before you end up being one that Allah replaces. Do not assume you will die as a Muslim.

I am always ready to discard any disobedience to Allah and Allah's Messenger salla Allaho alaihi wa sallam if the things are in my hands. If those are not in my hands then I Pray to Allah to bring the Islamic system to us in my life. I believe that Allah's Promises are very true. Allah says that Allah does not put a burden on a sole which the sole cannot bear. When I see myself in the mirror of my wisdom and conscience, I find my heart clean (Alhamdulillah and masha-Allah). I weep to Allah to help. I also found the ahadeeth of Muhammad salla Allaho alaihi wa sallam about the fitan of this era. During these fitan we are ordered to shut our doors and mouths. And Allah knows the best.


My heart cries but I have power and control on myself only. To others I can advise and preach. Beyond that I cannot do anything. Then I cry and pray to Allah to make us all the followers of the Holy Quraan and the Sunnah, aameen.

 

[M.I.A.]

Not really a coincidence..


Both parties have been planning to improve the situation of the people.

But the authority to do so is debateable.

You have to win twice to win..

Or at least win the first time..

Its always been the way, but it's hard to fake.

Sorry to spout rubbish.


As i always say..

Most battles are won and lost long before any battlefield is reached.

..Knowing that doesnt make anything easier though.

..
And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient,


..
Its all been done before..

Maybe not in a way we can understand though.

 

[Abz2000]

About 164,000 Rohingya Muslims have poured into Bangladesh from Myanmar's Rakhine state since violence erupted two weeks ago. They say the military and Rakhine Buddhists are destroying their villages to drive them out after attacks by Rohingya militants on police posts.
The government rejects this, saying the militants and Muslim residents are burning their own villages. But the BBC's South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head says he saw a Muslim village that had just been set on fire, apparently by a group of Rakhine Buddhists.

Here he describes what he witnessed:

I am part of a group of journalists invited by the Myanmar government to see the situation on the ground in Maungdaw. The conditions for us joining this trip are that we stay in the group and do not go off independently, and we are taken to places the government chooses for us.
Requests to go to other areas of interest, even nearby, were rejected as being unsafe.
We were returning from a visit to the town of Al Le Than Kyaw, south of Maungdaw, which is still smoking, suggesting houses have been recently set alight.
The police said it was the Muslim inhabitants who burned their own homes, although most fled after militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked the police post in the town on 25 August. While there we saw at least three columns of smoke in the distance to the north, and heard sporadic automatic weapons fire.
Tales of horror from Rohingya who fled
Myanmar conflict: The view from Yangon
Rohingya militants - who are they?
On our way back we saw a large column of smoke rising from a cluster of trees in the rice fields - usually a sign of a village.

We got out and raced across the fields to reach it. We could see the first buildings in the village ablaze, but only just. Houses in these villages burn to ash in 20-30 minutes. It was obvious the fires had just been lit.

As we walked in, a group of young, muscular men carrying machetes, swords and sling-shots were walking out. We tried to ask them questions but they refused to be filmed.
However, my Myanmar colleagues did speak to them away from the cameras and they said they were Rakhine Buddhists. One of them admitted he had lit the fires, and said he had help from the police.

As we walked further in, we saw the Madrasa (Islamic religious school) with its roof only just on fire. Flames licked up the sides of another house opposite; within three minutes it was an inferno.
There was was no-one else in the village. These men we saw were the perpetrators. Household goods were strewn across the path; children's toys, women's clothing. We saw one empty jug reeking of petrol and another with a little fuel left in it in the middle of the path.
By the time we walked out, all the burned houses were smouldering, blackened ruins.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41189564




Update: Some of the many eyewitness accounts of massacres (link to full article below) :



Massacre at Tula Toli:
Rohingya recall horror of Myanmar army attack


Thursday 7 September 2017 14.17 BST Last modified on Thursday 7 September 2017 16.27 BST




It was the fast-flowing river that doomed the inhabitants of Tula Toli.

Snaking around the remote village on three sides, the treacherous waters allowed Burmese soldiers to corner and hold people on the river’s sandy banks. Some were shot on the spot. Others drowned in the current as they tried to escape.

Zahir Ahmed made a panicked dash for the opposite bank, where he hid in thick jungle and watched his family’s last moments.

“I was right next to the water,” he recalled in an interview a week later at a refugee camp in neighbouring Bangladesh, his eyes bloodshot and his shirt stained with sweat and dirt.

Ahmed said teenagers and adults were shot with rifles, while babies and toddlers, including his youngest daughter, six-month old Hasina, were thrown into the water.

Ahmed cried as he described seeing his wife, children, and grandchildren die, meticulously naming and counting them on both hands until he ran out of fingers........

Full article:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...illagers-recall-horror-of-myanmar-army-attack

 

[Simple_Person]

I am always ready to discard any disobedience to Allah and Allah's Messenger salla Allaho alaihi wa sallam if the things are in my hands. If those are not in my hands then I Pray to Allah to bring the Islamic system to us in my life. I believe that Allah's Promises are very true. Allah says that Allah does not put a burden on a sole which the sole cannot bear. When I see myself in the mirror of my wisdom and conscience, I find my heart clean (Alhamdulillah and masha-Allah). I weep to Allah to help. I also found the ahadeeth of Muhammad salla Allaho alaihi wa sallam about the fitan of this era. During these fitan we are ordered to shut our doors and mouths. And Allah knows the best.


My heart cries but I have power and control on myself only. To others I can advise and preach. Beyond that I cannot do anything. Then I cry and pray to Allah to make us all the followers of the Holy Quraan and the Sunnah, aameen.

You made me realize an important lesson that i had forgotten. Jazakallahu khairan.

I stop this discussion.

 

[keiv]

Full article:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...illagers-recall-horror-of-myanmar-army-attack

You read these things and wish there was something you can do. Starting protests temporarily brings attention to the situation, but governments don't care and people quickly forget and carry on with their lives. Donating money, clothes, food, water and so on are just band-aids to the situation. You hear the stories about kids that are only months old, teenagers, and the elderly being drowned, shot, and decapitated in front of their families. Homes being ransacked and camp sites being ambushed. I can't even imagine what these people are going through or anyone around the globe whose suffering similar conditions. If you try to picture yourself and your family in these situations, you can't help but start to tear up while your blood boils in anger. I swear it feels like the matrix. You feel as though you are assigned to do something but don't know it yet. You have the motivation and willpower to want to do something, but just don't know what to do or where to begin. It's a horrible feeling indeed.

 

[M.I.A.]

https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/lif...ffered-rs-1-billion-to-help-rohingya-muslims/

Ironically we dont believe in the matrix.. we believe in the creator of it.

No special snowflakes.

 

[Sakina'141]

I can't believe the lack of response from the international community completely ignoring Rohingya peoples injustice, oppression, persecution and torture.

The none existance response/actions from so called major world leaders and UN is absolutely unacceptable and immoral. So much for establishing democracy & fighting for human rights. The world is in such a mess because rich are too busy enjoying comfortable life, only caring about themselves and making money whilst ignoring people like the Ronhingya who are oppressed, tortured and unjustly treated by racists/nationalists of their own country. It is completely unacceptable for the world leaders to allow this to continue. They especially have responsibility to fight for justice and providing refuge and Aid to such people. How can anyone be a leader of any country and do nothing and say nothing about such immoral, inhumane & unjust treatment of fellow human beings.

Some petitions that people would want to sign to wake up our leaders to take action & not ignore the suffering and extreme injustice:

Take Aung San Suu Kyi to International Criminal Court (ICC) over genocide in Rohingya:
https://www.change.org/p/jeremy-cor...-of-justice-over-ethnic-cleansing-of-rohingya

Urge the UN & Muslim World to protect Rohingya Muslims in Burma:
https://www.change.org/p/united-nat...im-world-to-protect-rohingya-muslims-in-burma

Recognize the Rohingya as a minority group in Myanmar and restore full citizenship rights.
https://www.change.org/p/myanmar-pr...n-myanmar-and-restore-full-citizenship-rights

Stop Genocide of Rohingya Muslims. Put Sanctions on Myanmar.
https://www.change.org/p/united-nat...-of-rohingya-muslims-put-sanctions-on-myanmar

Also, please donate to provide food and shelter for Rohingya people via link (Rohingya Emergency Apeal) on my signature.

JazakAllah khair

 

[rozyred]

I would go for the first one....

 

[Abz2000]

Appears that certain very rich companies and banks with strong links with the British and American governments have heavily invested money in Burma, and that china and russia too are thinking about investments - and that the u.n is a hollow tool for show - and that real decisions are based not on justice, but on the interests of people who have clout - the big and corrupt usurers getting into the market hate Muslims and see them as unviable customers/slaves and this is something to take into account when facing the barrage of spin and rhetoric.


The UN leadership in Myanmar tried to stop the Rohingya rights issue being raised with the government, sources in the UN and aid community told the BBC.
One former UN official said the head of the UN in Myanmar (Burma) tried to prevent human rights advocates from visiting sensitive Rohingya areas.
More than 500,000 Rohingya have fled an offensive by the military, with many now sheltering in camps in Bangladesh.
The UN in Myanmar "strongly disagreed" with the BBC findings.
In the month since Rohingya Muslims began flowing into Bangladesh, the UN has been at the forefront of the response. It has delivered aid and made robust statements condemning the Burmese authorities.
But sources within the UN and the aid community both in Myanmar and outside have told the BBC that, in the four years before the current crisis, the head of the United Nations Country Team (UNCT), a Canadian called Renata Lok-Dessallien:
tried to stop human rights activists travelling to Rohingya areas
attempted to shut down public advocacy on the subject
isolated staff who tried to warn that ethnic cleansing might be on the way.
One aid worker, Caroline Vandenabeele, had seen the warning signs before. She worked in Rwanda in the run-up to the genocide in late 1993 and early 1994 and says when she first arrived in Myanmar she noticed worrying similarities.


Media captionMyanmar: Who are the Rohingya?
"I was with a group of expats and Burmese business people talking about Rakhine and Rohingya and one of the Burmese people just said 'we should kill them all as if they are just dogs'. For me, this level of dehumanisation of humans is one sign that you have reached a level of acceptance in society that this is normal."
UN demands access amid Myanmar 'nightmare'
Myanmar postpones diplomats' Rakhine visit
For more than a year I have been corresponding with Ms Vandenabeele, who has served in conflict areas such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Rwanda and Nepal.
Between 2013 and 2015 she had a crucial job in the UNCT in Myanmar. She was head of office for what is known as the resident co-ordinator, the top UN official in the country, currently Ms Dessallien.
The job gave Ms Vandenabeele a front-row seat as the UN grappled with how to respond to rising tensions in Rakhine state.
Back in 2012, clashes between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists left more than 100 dead and more than 100,000 Rohingya Muslims in camps around the state capital, Sittwe.
Truth, lies and Aung San Suu Kyi
'Torture' of Myanmar Muslim minority - UN
Since then, there have been periodic flare-ups and, in the past year, the emergence of a Rohingya militant group. Attempts to deliver aid to the Rohingya have been complicated by Rakhine Buddhists who resent the supply of aid for the Rohingya, at times blocking it and even attacking aid vehicles.
Image copyrightREUTERS
Image caption
Some Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine state have been razed
It presented a complex emergency for the UN and aid agencies, who needed the co-operation of the government and the Buddhist community to get basic aid to the Rohingya.
At the same time they knew that speaking up about the human rights and statelessness of the Rohingya would upset many Buddhists.
So the decision was made to focus on a long-term strategy. The UN and the international community prioritised long-term development in Rakhine in the hope that eventually increased prosperity would lead to reduced tensions between the Rohingya and the Buddhists.
Top UN official in Myanmar to be changed
'Mass Hindu grave' found in Rakhine state
Reality Check: Fake photos of Myanmar violence
For UN staff it meant that publicly talking about the Rohingya became almost taboo. Many UN press releases about Rakhine avoided using the word completely. The Burmese government does not even use the word Rohingya or recognise them as a distinct group, preferring to call them "Bengalis".
During my years reporting from Myanmar, very few UN staff were willing to speak frankly on the record about the Rohingya. Now an investigation into the internal workings of the UN in Myanmar has revealed that even behind closed doors the Rohingyas' problems were put to one side.

Where have the Rohingya fled to


Multiple sources in Myanmar's aid community have told the BBC that at high-level UN meetings in Myanmar any question of asking the Burmese authorities to respect the Rohingyas' human rights became almost impossible.
Who will help Myanmar's Rohingya?
Ms Vandenabeele said it soon became clear to everyone that raising the Rohingyas' problems, or warning of ethnic cleansing in senior UN meetings, was simply not acceptable.
"Well you could do it but it had consequences," she said. "And it had negative consequences, like you were no longer invited to meetings and your travel authorisations were not cleared. Other staff were taken off jobs - and being humiliated in meetings. An atmosphere was created that talking about these issues was simply not on."
Repeat offenders, like the head of the UN's Office for the Co-ordination for Humanitarian Assistance (UNOCHA) were deliberately excluded from discussions.
Ms Vandenabeele told me she was often instructed to find out when the UNOCHA representative was out of town so meetings could be held at those times. The head of UNOCHA declined to speak to the BBC but it has been confirmed by several other UN sources inside Myanmar.
Ms Vandenabeele said she was labelled a troublemaker and frozen out of her job for repeatedly warning about the possibility of Rohingya ethnic cleansing. This version of events has not been challenged by the UN.
Attempts to restrict those talking about the Rohingya extended to UN officials visiting Myanmar. Tomas Quintana is now the UN special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea but for six years, until 2014, held that same role for Myanmar.
Speaking from Argentina, he told me about being met at Yangon airport by Ms Dessallien.
"I received this advice from her - saying you should not go to northern Rakhine state - please don't go there. So I asked why and there was not an answer in any respect, there was just the stance of not trying to bring trouble with the authorities, basically," he said.
"This is just one story, but it demonstrates what was the strategy of the UN Country Team in regards to the issue of the Rohingya."
Mr Quintana still went to northern Rakhine but said Ms Dessallien "disassociated" herself from his mission and he didn't see her again.
One senior UN staffer told me: "We've been pandering to the Rakhine community at the expense of the Rohingya.
"The government knows how to use us and to manipulate us and they keep on doing it - we never learn. And we can never stand up to them because we can't upset the government."
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Many Rohingya fled by night into Banglsdesh leaving everything behind
The UN's priorities in Rakhine were examined in a report commissioned by the UN in 2015 entitled "Slippery Slope: Helping Victims or Supporting Systems of Abuse".
Leaked to the BBC, it is damning of the UNCT approach.
"The UNCT strategy with respect to human rights focuses too heavily on the over-simplified hope that development investment itself will reduce tensions, failing to take into account that investing in a discriminatory structure run by discriminatory state actors is more likely to reinforce discrimination than change it."


There have been other documents with similar conclusions. With António Guterres as the new secretary general in New York, a former senior member of the UN was asked to write a memo for his team in April.
Titled "Repositioning the UN" the two-page document was damning in its assessment, calling the UN in Myanmar "glaringly dysfunctional".
In the weeks that followed the memo, the UN confirmed that Ms Dessallien was being "rotated" but stressed it was nothing to do with her performance. Three months on Ms Dessallien is still the UN's top official there after the Burmese government rejected her proposed successor.
"She has a fair view and is not biased," Shwe Mann, a former senior general and close ally of Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, told me. "Whoever is biased towards the Rohingyas, they won't like her and they will criticise her."
Ms Dessallien declined to give an interview to the BBC to respond to this article.
The UN in Myanmar said its approach was to be "fully inclusive" and ensure the participation of all relevant experts.
"We strongly disagree with the accusations that the resident co-ordinator 'prevented' internal discussions. The resident co-ordinator regularly convenes all UN agencies in Myanmar to discuss how to support peace and security, human rights, development and humanitarian assistance in Rakhine state," a statement from a UN spokesperson in Yangon said.
On Tomas Quintana's visits to Rakhine, the spokesperson said Ms Dessallien had "provided full support" in terms of personnel, logistics and security.
Ten ambassadors, including from Britain and the United States, wrote unsolicited emails to the BBC when they heard we were working on this report, expressing their support for Ms Dessallien.
There are those who see similarities between the UN's much-criticised role in Sri Lanka and what has happened in Myanmar. Charles Petrie wrote a damning report into the UN and Sri Lanka, and also served as the UN's top official in Myanmar (before being expelled in 2007).
He said the UN's response to the Rohingya over the past few years had been confused and that Ms Dessallien hadn't been given the mandate to bring all of the key areas together.
"I think the key lesson for Myanmar from Sri Lanka is the lack of a focal point. A senior level focal point addressing the situation in Myanmar in its totality - the political, the human rights, the humanitarian and the development. It remains diffuse. And that means over the last few years there have been almost competing agendas."
So might a different approach from the UN and the international community have averted the humanitarian disaster we are seeing now? It's hard to see how it might have deterred the Burmese army's massive response following the 25 August Rohingya militant attack.
Image copyrightAFP
Image caption
Bangladesh says it is struggling to cope with the refugees
Ms Vandenabeele said she at least believed an early warning system she proposed might have provided some indications of what was about to unfold.
"It's hard to say which action would have been able to prevent this," she told me. "But what I know for sure is that the way it was done was never going to prevent it. The way it was done was simply ignoring the issue."
Mr Quintana said he wished the international community had pushed harder for some sort of transitional justice system as part of the move to a hybrid democratic government.
One source said the UN now appeared to be preparing itself for an inquiry into its response to Rakhine, and this could be similar to the inquiry that came after the controversial end to Sri Lanka's civil war - and which found it wanting.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41420973

 

[AbdurRahman.]

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