Myanmar separatist group Arakan Army leader Renin Su nabbed in Rangamati

Source BDnews, 14 Oct

Photo taken from Facebook.

Police in Rangamati in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts say they have nabbed Renin Su, a top leader of the Myanmar separatist group, Arakan Army.

Rajsthali police OC Wahidullah Sarkar said on Wednesday that Su was arrested from an under-construction mosque at Islampur around3am.
The operation to nab Renin Su was jointly conducted by BGB's Major Shabbir Ahmed, Major Kamal Pasha and OC Wahidullah Sarkar.
Renin Su is now in police custody at the Rajsthali Police Station.
The separatist leader is a medical graduate who has lived in Netherlands.
For the last few years, he has been living in Rangamati since he married a local Marma tribal girl.

He has a house in Rajsthali, police said.
Bangladesh security agencies say Renin Su has since then been a commander of the separatist Arakan Army.

On Aug 24, guerillas of the Arakan Army attacked a joint patrol of the Bangladesh Army and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) at Thanchi in Bandarban district.
After that, the security forces have been trying to track down Renin Su.
They raided his Rajsthali house two days after the Thanchi attack. Renin Su could not be found but his lieutenant Ong U Rakhine was nabbed from there.
Cloth for combat fatigues used by the Arakan Army were seized along with cameras, laptops, propaganda material and two horses.

Ong U Rakhine admitted last month before a Rangamati court that he was a member of the Arakan Army.

He also provided information about Renin Su.
Two caretakers of the Rajsthali house—Mong Chu Aung Marma and Chui Aung Marma—are now in police custody.

Bangladesh police has shut down the bank account of an Arakan Army leader Renin Su and his close relatives.

Myanmar president sued over alleged Rohingya abuse

Source Aljazeera, 5 Oct

Activists' suit alleges Thein Sein, top officials planned and instigated 'hate crimes' against Myanmar's Rohingya

October 5, 2015 10:15PM ET

Muslim rights activists have filed a lawsuit in the United States against Myanmar President Thein Sein, accusing him and several ministers of human rights abuses against minority Rohingyas, just a few weeks before an historic general election.

The complaint filed in Manhattan federal court accused Thein Sein and top officials of planning and instigating "hate crimes and discrimination amounting to genocide."

According to the plaintiffs, Muslim Rohingya are "subjected to genocide, torture, arbitrary detention, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" by officials controlled by Thein Sein and his ministers.

Myanmar's government spokesman was not immediately available for comment, and did not respond to emailed requests.

The civil lawsuit was filed on Thursday by Burma Task Force, a group of 19 Muslim organizations, and a Rohingya man, Hitay Lwin Oo.

It seeks compensatory and punitive damages for alleged violations of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), a U.S. law often invoked in lawsuits alleging human rights abuses.

The government will have a chance to respond to the lawsuit once it is served. It typically takes at least a few months for a judge to decide whether a case may proceed.

In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court made it harder to pursue many ATS lawsuits. It said claims must "touch and concern" U.S. territory "with sufficient force" to displace the presumption that the law does not cover non-U.S. conduct.

Myanmar does not consider the Rohingya to be citizens, rendering them effectively stateless, while denying that it discriminates against them or that they are fleeing persecution.

 A tide of anti-Muslim sentiment swept through the country a year after the military ended its rule in 2011, morphing into communal violence.

At least 200 people were killed and more than 140,000, mainly Rohingyas, were displaced in fighting between Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar's western Rakhine State.

During the flare up of the boat people crisis in Asia in May, Myanmar denied that its treatment of the Rohingya caused their exodus.

Religious and ethnic tensions are intensifying ahead of Nov. 8 elections in Myanmar. The government has barred most Rohingyas from voting and registering as candidates, drawing criticism from western countries and undercutting Myanmar's efforts to portray the poll as its first free and fair election in 25 years.

Reuters

Myanmar: Religious tensions grow as thousands of nationalist monks stage rally

Source Christiantoday, 4 Oct

 

Reuters : Hardline Buddhist monks and supporters celebrate the recent establishment of four controversial bills decried by rights groups as aimed at discriminating against the country's Muslim minority.

Thousands of Myanmar's nationalist monks and their supporters prayed, clapped and held speeches at a large rally in the country's biggest city on Sunday, in a show of growing clout of radical Buddhists ahead of a Nov. 8 election.

Religious tensions are running high in Myanmar ahead of the parliamentary poll billed as the country's first free and fair election in 25 years, largely stoked by the Ma Ba Tha, an organization led by the hardline monks who called the rally.

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It was a climax of their campaign to celebrate their successful push to establish four so-called Protection of Race and Religion Laws seen as targeting women and the country's Muslim minority.

The monks have emerged as a powerful force in the run up to the poll, sharply criticizing Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy for opposing the laws.

"Today is the victory. Ma Ba Tha tried for many years to enact the laws to protect the country, people, nationalism and religion," said Nyanissara, a senior monk at the organization.

Thousands of devotees in white t-shirts with the Ma Ba Tha logo, monks in burgundy and nuns in pink robes crowded in front of the stage at a sports hall in Myanmar's commercial capital of Yangon. Hundreds of buses and trucks lined the streets leading to the site.

One of the bills sets punishments for people who have more than one spouse or live with an unmarried partner other than the spouse. Others require Buddhist women to register their marriages in advance if marrying a man who is not Buddhist.

 

The laws are dangerous for the country, set out the potential for discrimination on religious grounds and create the environment for serious communal tension, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in August.

The government denies the laws are anti-Muslim.

"We realized that laws are needed to protect the religion and nationalism. The other three religions of the country already have laws that protect them," said Ashin Tilawkar Biwonsa, chairman of Ma Ba Tha, referring to Islam, Hinduism and Christianity.

An overwhelming majority of Myanmar citizens are Buddhist.

The Ma Ba Tha said it invited representatives of the United States and western countries to the rally, but their chairs remained empty throughout the ceremony.

Aung Thein Lin, a former minister who is running in elections for the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party attended the rally.

One of the most outspoken leaders of the group, Wirathu, on Sunday endorsed president Thein Sein, whose USDP is facing a stiff battle against the widely popular NLD.

Charles Bo asked not use ‘Rohingya’ in front of Pope

Source Mizzima, 1 Oct

 

Charles Bo was requested not to use the term 'Rohingya' during his visit to the Vatican for the 'Month of the Holy Rosary,' Photo by Mizzima.dpuf-

Officials from the Ministry of Religious Affairs have approached Cardinal Charles Bo to request that he not use the word Rohingya in the presence of Pope Francis.

Myanmar's first Cardinal is flying to Rome on 1 October for the month of the Holy Rosary held in Vatican City.

"The Religious Minister wanted to meet me but so far I haven't met him, only a few members who recently came to meet me regarding the term of 'Rohingya' persons. They requested me not to use the term Rohingya in front of Pope Francis," Cardinal Charles Bo told Mizzima News.

"If the word Rohingya is used it means the people understand that they are citizens of Rahkine State, that is the interpretation they would not like. Just [to use] the [term] Bengali or the Muslim from Rahkine State,"

"So, the situation there is very crucial, I think we have to solve this problem before it becomes too prolonged, before there is more violence and also the worry of international terrorism and other things."

When asked if he would use the term in front of Pope Francis he said he would use "Rohingya to indicate [the issue]" but would address the people as Muslim's from Rahkine state because of the sensitivity of the subject.

He said he will refuse to use the term "Bengali" as some of those who identify as Rohingya, their families have been in the region for over a century.

Myanmar's government in the past has worked hard to prevent the use of the word, with government officials scolding UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon for using the word in December 2014 after usingit at the ASEAN summit held in Naypyitaw.

Read the whole interview in next week's Mizzima Weekly Magazine