Despite successful elections, Myanmar's Rohingyas languish in dreadful conditions: UN

Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya continue to languish in "dreadful conditions" with children dying because they are refused healthcare, the UN has warned, adding that the Muslim minority risked being forgotten in the afterglow of recent elections.

The comments were made by a senior UN official following a visit to western Rakhine state, where the Rohingya have been targeted by violent attacks and state-sanctioned discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, earning a reputation as one of the world's most persecuted peoples.

More than 100,000 Rohingya are languishing in camps in Myanmar's west after communal unrest in Rahkine state left villages torched and scores dead in 2012. (Courtesy of Firstpost)

Rohingya Muslims: The world’s most persecuted minority

Rohingya Muslims are considered to be the most persecuted minority in the world. This fact is recognized by the United Nations and by almost all human rights organizations. Several prominent international human rights activists have noted that Rohingya Muslims have been subjected to massive ethnic cleansing in Myanmar (formerly Burma), a predominantly Buddhist country in Southeast Asia.

The military government in Myanmar has deprived these hapless people of their citizenship after considering them to be illegal residents who migrated from Bangladesh irrespective of the fact that they are an ethnic community who have been living in the northwestern Rakhine state since the 8th century CE. (Courtesy of Saudi Gazette)

NLD to impose Shan and Rakhine chief ministers

The National League for Democracy will appoint the chief ministers to all regions and states, even in Rakhine and Shan states where it did not have a parliamentary majority, said Win Htein of the NLD's executive committee.

He twice told a press conference that regional and state chief ministers would all be appointed by the NLD.

The NLD has secured a majority of seats in 12 out of the 14 regions and states but there is much criticism over plans to appoint the chief ministers of Shan and Rakhine states. The NLD won only eight seats in the Rakhine parliament and one seat representing the Chin minority. Meanwhile, it took 21 seats in Shan State with two more representing Inthar or Padaung nationals.

Sai Nyunt Lwin, general secretary of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, said: “We can assume that the give-and-take plan did not materialise. I don’t know why exactly. We shall not be included in choosing the chief minister. Apart from Rakhine and Shan states, the NLD would certainly fill the chief minister posts in 12 regions and states. Rakhine and Shan states are a separate matter.” (Courtesy of Eleven Myanmar)

Aung Naing Oo, The Patient Peace Advocate

“The armed conflict has been a waste of money, a waste of time and a waste of energy,” U Aung Naing Oo said of the various wars waged in Myanmar since it gained independence nearly 70 years ago. “It is not economically productive, so if we want to catch up with other countries in the region, we need to end the war as soon as possible,” he said.

For the past four years, U Aung Naing Oo has been contributing to the effort to end the fighting through his work at the Myanmar Peace Center, where he is the director of the peace dialogue program. The MPC was established by President U Thein Sein in 2012 to facilitate dialogue between the government and ethnic armed groups.

It has achieved some success, but not the legacy of an inclusive national peace accord that U Thein Sein had hoped to clinch before his term ends on March 31. In October, eight armed ethnic groups signed a nationwide ceasefire agreement with the government. Some of the country’s largest and most powerful armed ethnic groups refused to sign and fighting continues, notably in Kachin and northern Shan states. (Courtesy of Frontier Myanmar)

A global mind: Refugee crisis is more than just Syrians

If all of the displaced people in the world were placed into one country, the group would form the 24th largest country in the world.

Katie Morris
Katie Morris
There are approximately 60 million people who have been forced to leave their homes as a result of civil war, genocide or extreme poverty. One of the groups getting the most attention is Syrian refugees, who are contributing to the largest exodus ever from a single country. The hardships these Syrians face are brutal and people need to know what is happening to them.

Yet, there’s another group of refugees that is suffering just the same and is receiving little attention. It’s a minority Muslim group called the Rohingyas and it has been cited as one of the world’s most persecuted minority groups. (Courtesy of The Brown and White)

China Moves to Revive Its Sway in Myanmar

China is trying to rekindle its influence in Myanmar by building a deep-water port here, presenting an early test for the incoming government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in balancing local objections against ties with the country’s top economic partner.

The project, which includes a special economic zone, would help Beijing’s effort to extend its presence in the Indian Ocean and in South Asia and restore the privileged position it once enjoyed under Myanmar’s former military junta. (Courtesy of WSJ)

Emirates to fly daily from Dubai to Yangon and Hanoi

Emirates is to increase its capacity to Southeast Asia with a daily service to Yangon in Myanmar and Hanoi in Vietnam, beginning from August 3.

The new service will expand the airline’s network in Southeast Asia to 12 cities (including Cebu and Clark in the Philippines which start on March 30) in seven countries.

“Emirates’ first air service to Myanmar supports the country’s Tourism Master Plan to target 7.5 million tourist arrivals by 2020 and for Hanoi, the service will provide additional options for Vietnamese to travel to Dubai and Emirates’ global network of destinations, while also making it easier for overseas Vietnamese and the growing number of tourists to travel to Vietnam,” said Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ divisional senior vice president, strategic planning, revenue optimisation & aeropolitical affairs. (Courtesy of The National)