Showing posts with label Myanmar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Myanmar. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

International Court Of Justice Says Genocide Case Against Myanmar May Move Ahead

 In The Gambia v. Myanmar, (Intl. Ct. Justice, July 22, 2022), the United Nations International court of Justice rejected various procedural defenses raised by Myanmar to the suit against it alleging genocide against the Rohingya. Among other things, it held that Gambia has standing to bring the lawsuit, saying in part:

112. It follows that any State party to the Genocide Convention may invoke the responsibility of another State party, including through the institution of proceedings before the Court, with a view to determining the alleged failure to comply with its obligations erga omnes partes under the Convention and to bringing that failure to an end.

113. The Court acknowledges that Bangladesh, which borders Myanmar, has faced a large influx of members of the Rohingya group who have fled Myanmar. However, this fact does not affect the right of all other Contracting Parties to assert the common interest in compliance with the obligations erga omnes partes under the Convention and therefore does not preclude The Gambia’s standing in the present case.

AP reports on the decision.

Friday, November 15, 2019

International Criminal Court Authorizes Investigation Into Persecution of Rohingya By Myanmar

Yesterday, in a 58-page decision (full text), a 3-judge Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court sitting at The Hague authorized an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya Muslims by Myanmar. The Court's press release summarizes the decision:
The Chamber concluded that the Court may exercise jurisdiction over crimes when part of the criminal conduct takes place on the territory of a State Party. While Myanmar is not a State Party, Bangladesh ratified the ICC Rome statute in 2010. Upon review of the available information, the Chamber accepted that there exists a reasonable basis to believe widespread and/or systematic acts of violence may have been committed that could qualify as the crimes against humanity of deportation across the Myanmar-Bangladesh border and persecution on grounds of ethnicity and/or religion against the Rohingya population..... 
Noting the scale of the alleged crimes and the number of victims allegedly involved, the Chamber considered that the situation clearly reaches the gravity threshold. According to the supporting material, an estimated 600,000 to one million Rohingya were forcibly displaced from Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh as a result of the alleged coercive acts. Noting the victims' views, the Chamber agreed with the Prosecutor that there are no substantial reasons to believe that an investigation into the situation would not be in the interests of justice.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Gambia Sues Myanmar In International Court of Justice Over Rohingya Genocide

The International Court of Justice announced this week that the Republic of Gambia has instituted proceedings against Myanmar alleging actions taken and condoned against Rohingya Muslims violated the Genocide Convention. The full text of Gambia's Nov. 11 Application Instituting Proceedings is available from the ICJ's website. Myanmar Times reports on the filing of the case.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Baptist Leader Sued In Myanmar Over Meeting With Trump

According to The Irrawaddy, in Myanmar a member of the military's northern command stationed in Kachin province filed a lawsuit Monday in the Myitkyina Township Court against a Baptist pastor for his remarks at a White House meeting. In July, Kachin Baptist Convention President Rev. Dr. Hkalam Samson attended a U.S. State Department meeting of victims of religious persecution from around the world. As part of the event, he and others met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.  Irrawaddy reports:
The legal complaint cites a live broadcast of the conversation between the religious leader and the US president on the Facebook page of World News Now....
... Samson told Trump there was no religious freedom in Myanmar and that oppression and torture were still common in the country, where fighting between ethnic armed organizations and the Myanmar military continues despite a return to civilian rule. 
He also requested Trump support Myanmar’s transition to “genuine” democracy and federalism. 
... Samson also thanked the US for imposing sanctions against Myanmar military commander-in-chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing and other leaders over extrajudicial killings of Rohingya Muslims. The sanctions bar the officers from entry to the US.

Friday, August 02, 2019

Court in Burma Dismisses Blasphemy Suit Against U.S. Ambassador

Yesterday in Myanmar, a township court dismissed a lawsuit that had been filed against the U.S. Ambassador and two others, charging that a picture posted on Facebook defamed Buddhism. Irawaddy reports:
Nationalist monk U Parmaukha filed the lawsuit against US Ambassador Scott Marciel, the artist who painted the picture and the person who posted the picture on the official Facebook page of the US Embassy in Yangon. The image was of a painting done for an environmentally themed art exhibit the embassy hosted in July.
The US Embassy in Yangon on Friday promoted the “Insight Out Art Exhibition” of young artists on its Facebook page with a painting that depicts a silhouette of Buddha wearing a gas mask in the foreground while factories belching smoke are seen in the background.
Chapter XV of the Myanmar Penal Code outlaws various offenses against religious feelings.

Thursday, August 01, 2019

Myanmar Body Outlaws Ultra-nationalist Buddhist Organization

Radio Free Asia reports that in Myanmar (Burma), the 47-member government appointed council that regulates Buddhist clergy has declared the ultranationalist (and anti-Muslim) Buddha Dhamma Parahita Foundation (BDPF) to be illegal.  The Sangha Maha Nayaka (Mahana) declared the BDPF an illegal association and ordered the removal of all of its signage by Sept. 13.  The action was taken against BDPF after it publicly criticized the ruling National League for Democracy government.

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Myanmar Military Incited Rohingya Genocide Through Fake Facebook Accounts

In an article posted yesterday, the New York Times reports that the genocide and ethnic cleansing directed at Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar was incited online by Myanmar military personnel:
Members of the Myanmar military were the prime operatives behind a systematic campaign on Facebook that stretched back half a decade and that targeted the country’s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority group..... The military exploited Facebook’s wide reach in Myanmar, where it is so broadly used that many of the country’s 18 million internet users confuse the Silicon Valley social media platform with the internet. Human rights groups blame the anti-Rohingya propaganda for inciting murders, rapes and the largest forced human migration in recent history.
While Facebook took down the official accounts of senior Myanmar military leaders in August, the breadth and details of the propaganda campaign — which was hidden behind fake names and sham accounts — went undetected. The campaign ... included hundreds of military personnel who created troll accounts and news and celebrity pages on Facebook and then flooded them with incendiary comments and posts timed for peak viewership.

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

UN Report Says Investigate Myanmar Generals for Genocide

On Monday, the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar released a Report (full text) recommending that Myanmar’s top military generals must be investigated for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes directed at the minority Rohingya people.  CNN has more on the report.

Thursday, January 04, 2018

USCIRF Praises US Sanctions Against Burmese General

In a Dec. 21 press release, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the first sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.  this week, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a press release focusing particularly on sanctions imposed on a Burmese army general for his abuses directed at Rohingya Muslims. USCIRF said in part:
USCIRF has long called for targeted sanctions against violators of religious freedom....  Tools that could be used include the Global Magnitsky Act, the Treasury Department’s “specially designated nationals” (SDN) list, and other provisions under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).
Specific to Burma, USCIRF praises the inclusion of General Maung Maung Soe in the list of sanctioned individuals.  As the former head of the Burmese Army’s Western Command, he oversaw military operations in Rakhine State and myriad human rights abuses that resulted in more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing the country since 2016.

Saturday, October 03, 2015

Class Action Filed Against Burma's President By Persecuted Rohingyas

As reported by Reuters and Courthouse News Service, this week a coalition of 19 Muslim American organizations and a Rohingya Muslim who previously lived in the State of Rakhine in Myanmar filed a class action lawsuit against the President of Burma (Myanmar) and several other current or former government officials of Myanmar or Rakhine state.  The complaint (full text) in Burma Task Force v. Sein, (SD NY, filed 10/1/2015), filed in federal district court in New York, alleges that defendants violated the Torture Victims Protection Act and the Alien Tort Claims Act, contending:
The Rohingya people numbering over 1.3 million is a Muslim minority living in western Myanmar. Although they are living in the country for generations they are denied citizenship and basic necessities including basic healthcare, work and schooling. They are  primary targets of hate crimes and discrimination amounting to genocide fueled by extremist nationalist Buddhist monks and Thein Sein government....
In 1982, the Burman supremacist government stripped most Rohingya of their citizenship. They were re-named “Bengalis,” and reclassified as foreign to Myanmar. Rohingya speak a different language and are not “Bengalis,” a different ethnic group that lives mostly in Bangladesh. Their only common identity is that both groups are Muslim.

Friday, November 07, 2014

NYT Surveys Increasing Persecution of Rohingya By Myanmar

The New York Times in a lengthy article posted yesterday surveys the increasing persecution of the Rohingya Muslims by the government of Myanmar. Here is an excerpt:
The Myanmar government has given the estimated one million Rohingya people in this coastal region of the country a dispiriting choice: Prove your family has lived here for more than 60 years and qualify for second-class citizenship, or be placed in camps and face deportation.
The policy, accompanied by a wave of decrees and legislation, has made life for the Rohingya, a long-persecuted Muslim minority, ever more desperate, spurring the biggest flow of Rohingya refugees since a major exodus two years ago.