Wanderlust

Tag: rohingya muslims

  • Twitter’s Jack Dorsey solutions critics of Myanmar meditation retreat

    Jack Dorsey, Twitter Image copyright Getty Pictures

    Twitter boss Jack Dorsey has responded to grievance of his 10-day meditation retreat in Myanmar, announcing: “i don’t realize enough and wish to be informed extra.”

    Ultimate 12 months, Myanmar’s military introduced a violent crackdown after Rohingya militants attacked police posts.

    Since then heaps of people had been killed and over 700,000 Rohingya refugees have fled the u . s ..

    Mr Dorsey stated he was once “acutely aware of the human rights atrocities” in Myanmar, also referred to as Burma.

    But he brought that the commute had been “only private” and had focused most effective on his meditation follow.

    Image copyright Twitter

    Mr Dorsey stated he had been requested by means of Twitter customers to explain what the social media company was doing about the main issue in Myanmar.

    He tweeted Twitter was a way for people to “undergo witness to the plight of the Rohingya and other peoples and groups”.

    “We’re actively working to address rising issues,” he mentioned.

    Birthday retreat

    Mr Dorsey had previously published tweets about a vipassana meditation retreat he had taken to have fun his birthday.

    Vipassana is a Buddhist meditation way mentioned to offer practitioners with higher perception into their internal selves.

    Describing Myanmar as an “completely beautiful u . s .”, Mr Dorsey had encouraged any of his 4 million followers who were and willing to commute there and check out it for themselves.

    The UN has described Myanmar’s operation in opposition to the Rohingya as a “textbook instance of ethnic cleansing” and says senior officials need to be investigated and attempted for genocide.

    The army has in the past cleared itself of all wrongdoing and rejects the UN’s allegations.

    Criticism of Mr Dorsey’s collection of vacation destination came in briefly to the social media platform.

    Symbol copyright Twitter

    “Writing what’s effectively a unfastened tourism advert for them at this time is reprehensible,” one Twitter consumer wrote in response to Mr Dorsey’s tweets.

    “The tone-deafness here’s… wow,” another user mentioned.

    “this is a particularly irresponsible recommendation,” one response reads. “Does he pay no attention to the inside track and the outcry on his personal platform?” they delivered.

    Others have spoke back positively, with one Twitter person writing: “Glad you were given to revel in Myanmar – it is an out of this world place with even more implausible people.”

    However any other wrote: “Dude – simply stop.

    “You Might Be just making it worse.”

  • Myanmar’s jailed reporters and Suu Kyi’s silence

    Wa Lone (L) and Kyaw Soe Oo (R) Image copyright EPA Image caption The verdict against Wa Lone (L) and Kyaw Soe Oo (R) has been widely condemned

    The jailing of two Reuters reporters in Myanmar has left the journalism community asking whether their former rights champion has turned her back on a free press, writes the BBC’s Nick Beake in Yangon.

    For the journalists of Yangon this is personal.

    Many were close friends of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. And many now feel one false move and they could be joining them in the notorious Insein prison here in Myanmar’s former capital.

    “Insane” is how the jail is pronounced, and for many in the press, it reflects a chaotic legal farce which has played out over the past nine months – one that’s culminated in two young journalists being found to have been useful to “enemies of the state” and handed a seven year prison sentence.

    Reuters journalists jailed over secrets act

    Not that their wives regret their choice of careers. Not for one moment.

    Image copyright Reuters Image caption Aung San Suu Kyi has also been accused of ignoring violence against the Rohingya

    “I loved and respected her so much,” Pan Ei Mon said. “But she said our husbands were not reporters because they violated the nation’s secrets, and I am very devastated by that.”

    Reporters held ‘for investigating killings’ What next for Myanmar after damning report? Seeing through the official story in Myanmar

    Ms Suu Kyi used to champion the rights of journalists. She certainly benefited from their coverage of her long fight for democracy while she suffered years of house arrest.

    When it was time for my own question to the wives, I asked what their message to Ms Suu Kyi would be – as someone who the Burmese authorities had also kept apart from the man she loved (her late British husband Michael Aris).

    Image copyright Reuters Image caption Chit Su Win fights back tears as she hugs her daughter, Moe Thin Wai Zan

    Chit Su Win told me she’d rather address her mother to mother.

    “My daughter asks me – doesn’t daddy love me anymore? Doesn’t daddy live with us anymore?”

    “As a mother, I feel devastated. I tell her daddy is working. I try to be strong for my daughter. I feel very depressed, but I steel myself, because if I am depressed, who will care for my daughter?”

    ‘All of you are at risk’

    As the mother of the nation, Ms Suu Kyi generated huge hope when her National League for Democracy (NLD) party triumphed in free elections in 2012, after five decades of brutal military rule.

    Image copyright Reuters Image caption These are the men whose deaths the Reuters journalists were investigating

    One of the many painful ironies of this case is that the army later admitted its soldiers were culpable.

    The military’s wider crackdown on what it called Bengali “terrorists” last autumn – following attacks on security posts – forced three quarters of a million Rohingya into neighbouring Bangladesh. They remain there in the sprawling and depressing camps of Cox’s Bazaar.

    Who are the Rohingya? The story not being talked about in Myanmar Image copyright Getty Images Image caption More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled violence in Myanmar in the last year

    Last week in a blistering assessment, UN inspectors said the top generals should stand trial for genocide and accused Ms Suu Kyi of failing to use her “moral authority” to stop the violence.

    Myanmar rejects UN ‘genocide’ accusation Blow by blow: How a ‘genocide’ was investigated

    Now Ms Suu Kyi’s accused of failing to stand up for reporters, as well as the Rohingya.

    “All of you are at risk,” Khin Maung Zaw, the leading lawyer for the Reuters pair told the hushed room of journalists back at the press conference.

    He declared the verdict a black day for Myanmar and a major setback for a free press and the country’s transition to democracy.

    Image copyright EPA Image caption The 7Day Daily paper printed a black front page after the journalists verdict was announced

    Many wonder who will be next.

    Aung Naing Soe is one Burmese journalist who knows what it’s like to feel the heat of the regime in the new Suu Kyi era. Earlier this year he served a two month sentence for operating a drone near the parliament in the capital, Naypyidaw.

    Image caption Aung Naing Soe says the jailing of the Reuters journalist was “personal”

    “It’s really heartbreaking for us to come and cover this kind of event” he tells me.

    “I do not want to see tears from the wives of these journalists anymore. We have covered a lot of heartbreaking things but this is more personal. They are my colleagues, my friends.”

    Suu Kyi ‘should have resigned’ on Rohingya

    He’s worried that the public has been poisoned against journalists by online campaigns which characterise them as “betrayers of the state” and that there will be no popular backlash against any further attacks on the freedom of the press.

    In some countries, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo would have been given a prize for their investigative journalism. Not here. Not in Suu Kyi’s Myanmar.

    Image copyright Reuters Image caption Wa Lone (L) and Kyaw Soe Oo have continually maintained their innocence

    As state counsellor, a role she created for herself because the 2008 Constitution denies her the presidency, Ms Suu Kyi runs Myanmar’s NLD civilian government.

    She has the power to issue a pardon and set these journalists free. If she’s even considering that, she certainly hasn’t shown it.

    Su Myat Mon is a reporter who focuses on women’s rights and social affairs.

    Image caption Su Myat Mon says being a journalist in today’s Myanmar does frighten her

    “I was extremely disappointed with the verdict and with the NLD too. They’re a democratic government. They used to believe the media was for something, that it did something positive for democracy.”

    Is she scared to be a journalist in Myanmar now?

    “It does make me frightened,” she replies.

    “I can be arrested at any time if the government doesn’t like my reports. This verdict affects me: my emotions and the work I do.”

    Would she consider giving up the job, I venture? Su Myat Mon looks at me straight in the eye:.

    “I love this job. I may fear being arrested, but I still have my spirit. And, don’t forget, there’s nothing wrong with being a journalist. It is not a crime.”

    (more…)

  • Myanmar rejects UN accusation of ‘genocide’ in opposition to Rohingya

    Sabikul Nahar poses for a photo with a kid at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on December 19, 2017 Symbol copyright Getty Images Symbol caption The Rohingya are one of many ethnic minorities in Myanmar

    Myanmar has rejected a UN report which referred to as for high Burmese military figures to be investigated for genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

    Government spokesman Zaw Htay mentioned the country didn’t agree with or settle for “any resolutions made by way of the Human Rights Council”.

    China had in advance additionally decried the UN file, saying hanging force on Myanmar was once “no longer useful”.

    Zaw Htay mentioned Myanmar had zero tolerance for human rights violations.

    His observation is the first response to the extraordinary UN file, which used to be published on Monday.

    Symbol copyright AFP/ Getty Images Symbol caption Loads of heaps of Rohingya persons are now living in refugee camps like this one in Bangladesh

    The Army launched a crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state ultimate 12 months after Rohingya militants carried out deadly attacks on police posts.

    Thousands of individuals have died and more than SEVEN-HUNDRED,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh.

    can we ever see Myanmar’s army leaders within the dock? what’s genocide and why is the term so hardly used?

    There have additionally been well-liked allegations of human rights abuses, together with arbitrary killing, rape and burning of land over a few years.

    Symbol copyright AFP Image caption Army leader Min Aung Hlaing also had his Facebook account banned

    “we’ve many inquiries to be raised regarding the removing of those Fb money owed,” said Zaw Htay to the worldwide New Mild. “Why did they ban… and how can we retrieve these debts?”

    He agreed with UN’s statement that “for most users, Facebook is the web”.

    Why Facebook banned an army chief

    Zaw Htay additionally said that the federal government had “made enquiries” to Fb, including that plans had been “underway” to succeed in an settlement among the government and Fb.

    Fb is certainly one of the biggest social media systems in Myanmar, with greater than 18 million users.

    It used to be the first time Facebook has banned any u . s .’s army or political leader.

    (more…)