KYAR GAUNG TAUNG, Myanmar: Rohingya Muslim Ayamar Bagon has lived on handouts since her husband left her after she told him she was gang-raped by Myanmar soldiers in the final month of her pregnancy.
She is among scores of women who accuse security forces of sexual abuses during a months-long military ‘clearance operation’ so brutal the UN fears it may amount to crimes against humanity.
AFP visited the remote region in the north of Rakhine State on a government-run trip this month, the first time foreign media have been officially allowed into the area since the military began hunting militants in October.
On the edge of Kyar Gaung Taung village, away from the government minders, a group of Rohingya women described how their lives were shattered the day soldiers came to their homes late last year.
“I was raped close to my due date, in my ninth month of pregnancy. They knew I was pregnant but didn’t care,” Ayamar Bagon told AFP through a UN translator, clutching her baby daughter to her chest.
“My husband blamed me for letting it happen. Because of this, he married another woman and now lives in another village,” the 20-year-old added, explaining that she survives on food donations from her neighbors.
Mother-of-two Hasinnar Baygon, 20, said her husband has also threatened to leave after she was raped by three troops in December.
They took turns to violate her while two others stood watch outside her hut, she alleges, adding that she knew they were soldiers because of their uniforms and guns.
All the Rohingya men had already fled the village out of fear they would be beaten up by troops, leaving only the women, children and elderly behind.
“My husband told me he is going to leave me. He blamed me for not running away,” Baygon said.
The government denies the allegations and AFP has not been able to verify their stories or claims from two other women who said they were raped by soldiers.
But they echo scores of accounts collected by UN investigators and rights groups from some of the 74,000 Rohingya who have fled to neighboring Bangladesh.
The UN believes hundreds may have died in what could be the bloodiest chapter of Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s years-long persecution of the 1.2 million Rohingya Muslims who live in Rakhine.
Kyar Gaung Taung village was caught up in one of the most brutal episodes in November, when witnesses and state media said dozens of Rohingya were killed as troops swept through the villages.
Myanmar’s government has denied almost all claims of abuses and barred a UN fact-finding mission from the area.
Instead they say probes by the military and police, as well as a state-appointed team, are sufficient.
“Cases have been filed regarding killings after the investigation. They also looked into allegations of rape,” said Brig. Gen. San Lwin, the head of the border guard police in Rakhine state, adding the investigations were ongoing.
Rohingya from Kyar Gaung Taung said they had lodged three rape cases out of 15 alleged assaults in the village, but nothing has been done.
Other women were too scared to report what happened to them, fearing retribution from authorities or being ostracized by their community and husbands.
“Some women didn’t want to complain for the sake of their pride,” said one Rohingya villager, who asked not to be named.
Rights groups have long accused Myanmar’s military of using rape as a weapon of war in several ethnic conflicts simmering in the country’s borderlands.
Fears of Muslim men violating Buddhist women have also long been used to stir sectarian hatred.
Allegations Muslims raped Buddhists sparked clashes in 2012 that drove more than 120,000 Rohingya into displacement camps, and deadly riots two years later near Mandalay.
Victims of the latest crisis say they hold little hope for justice.
“I didn’t know them. How can I report them?” said Ayamar Bagon of her rapists. “What can we do?”
Rohingya women abandoned after rapes
Rohingya women abandoned after rapes
Saudi Arabia showcases work safety initiatives at Osaka Expo 2025
- Technology, training, incident reporting programs on show from July 16-19 in Japan
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is showcasing its advancements in occupational safety and health at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, from July 16 to 19.
The Kingdom’s National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, under the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, and led by Secretary-General Majed Al-Fawiz, is participating in the Global Initiative for Safety, Health, and Well-being Conference.
The delegation at the event includes representatives from the Ministry of Energy and the private sector.
This participation is a part of the Kingdom’s broader efforts to highlight its advancements in occupational safety, health, and employee well-being under Vision 2030.
Saudi Arabia has an exhibition highlighting key programs, including cutting-edge technologies to improve work environments, training initiatives and incident reporting.
The council emphasized the Kingdom’s commitment to global collaboration, knowledge exchange, and leadership in building safe, healthy, and sustainable workplaces.
Ethiopia arrests dozens of suspected Daesh militants, Fana broadcaster reports
- The 82 suspects were part of Daesh’s Somalia affiliate
- The Daesh faction in Somalia has become an increasingly important part of its parent organization’s worldwide network
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia has arrested dozens of suspected Daesh militants, who it claimed have been trained and deployed to carry out operations across the country, the state-affiliated Fana broadcaster reported.
The 82 suspects were part of Daesh’s Somalia affiliate, which operates in the semi-autonomous Puntland region, according to a statement by the National Intelligence Security Services which was shared with Fana.
The Daesh faction in Somalia has become an increasingly important part of its parent organization’s worldwide network in recent years.
“NISS has been closely monitoring the group’s cross-border infiltration strategies and its efforts to establish sleeper cells in Ethiopia,” Fana reported late on Tuesday.
With an estimated 700 to 1,500 fighters, Daesh’s Somalia wing has grown in recent years thanks to an influx of foreign fighters and increasing revenues.
But it is still much smaller than Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab militant group, which controls large parts of southern and central Somalia.
The US military has carried out periodic air strikes against the group for years and recently intensified the strikes since President Donald Trump took office.
Puntland government forces have captured large portions of territory from IS since announcing a major offensive against them in December.
One dead after Ukrainian drone attack on Russia, governor says
MOSCOW: One person has died in Russia's Voronezh region after being wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack, Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev said on Wednesday on his Telegram channel.
Migration group head urges EU to bolster deportations
- The EU migration pact, adopted last year and set to come into force in June 2026, hardens procedures for asylum-seekers at its borders
VIENNA: The head of an influential EU-funded migration advisory body has urged the bloc to bolster expulsions of rejected asylum-seekers under its new migration pact and defended his group over human rights concerns.
The director general of the International Center for Migration Policy denied responsibility for what he called “individual cases” of human rights abuses by authorities in countries where his organization works.
Michael Spindelegger, a former vice chancellor from the conservative Austrian People’s Party, spoke in an interview with AFP as Brussels comes under pressure to keep out or deport migrants, with hard-right anti-immigration parties performing strongly across Europe.
The EU migration pact, adopted last year and set to come into force in June 2026, hardens procedures for asylum-seekers at its borders.
“It’s very important that a well-functioning return policy is established, also in the spirit of the pact,” Spindelegger told AFP.
“If someone comes, isn’t granted asylum, and then stays anyway, and nothing actually happens, that’s a very bad sign for the state of law,” said Spindelegger.
He added it was important to make sure those deported are re-integrated in their home countries so that they don’t leave again.
Currently fewer than 20 percent of people ordered to leave the bloc are returned to their country of origin, according to EU data.
In EU migration reforms, “the train is moving, that’s clear, but there are, of course, still various stations that need to be considered,” Spindelegger said.
“However, in my view, much has already been accomplished at the foundational level.”
The Vienna-based ICMPD advises the European Union authorities and others on migration policy and runs projects in Africa, Asia and Europe.
Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized it over overseas projects aimed at reducing the number of migrant arrivals in Europe.
It has worked with the Tunisian coast guards and Libyan authorities, which have been accused of mistreating migrants.
“I deeply regret whenever negative individual cases (of human rights abuse) persist. We cannot take responsibility for that,” Spindelegger said.
He insisted that training courses run by the ICMPD for border guards in migrant transit countries included training on human rights.
Lukas Gahleitner-Gertz, spokesman of rights group Asylkoordination Austria, dismissed that claim as “window dressing.”
“Cooperation is being advanced with regimes that have a highly doubtful human rights record,” Gahleitner-Gertz told AFP.
Spindelegger said an ICMPD-backed border guard training center built in Tunisia had been a “big success,” helping prepare hundreds of people for the job so far.
A similar training project has been launched in Jordan, while the ICMPD is looking to expand the scheme to Algeria.
Rights groups have also voiced concern at the European Commission’s plans, unveiled in May, to make it easier to send asylum seekers to certain third countries for their applications to be processed.
The proposal is seen as a step toward the creation of sites outside the bloc that would act as hubs for returning migrants.
It needs approval from the European Parliament and member states to become law.
The ICMPD counts 21 mostly EU countries as its members and has a staff of more than 500 people.
Founded by Austria and Switzerland in 1993, it works in more than 90 countries.
Among its members are EU countries such as Germany and Greece and non-EU members, including Turkiye. France, Italy and Spain are not members.
Since Spindelegger, 65, took over the center in 2016, the number of employees has grown four times bigger.
Its budget has increased by five times to more than 100 million euros ($120 million), he said.
Some 70 percent of the budget comes from the European Commission.
Spindelegger will retire at the end of the year. He is due to be replaced by another Austrian conservative politician, Susanne Raab.
State prosecution in firebombing attack on demonstration for Israeli hostages moves ahead
- Federal authorities say Soliman, an Egyptian national, had been living in the US illegally with his family at the time
DENVER: A judge ruled Tuesday that Colorado prosecutors can move ahead with their case against a man accused of killing one person and injuring a dozen more in a firebomb attack on demonstrators showing support for Israeli hostages in Gaza.
A police detective had been set to testify at a hearing explaining the evidence gathered against Mohamed Sabry Soliman in the June 1 attack on the weekly event in Boulder. But Soliman’s lawyer, Kathryn Herold, told Judge Nancy W. Salomone that he gave up his right to hear the evidence.
Soliman, wearing an orange and white striped jail uniform, told Salomone that he understood he was waiving his right to a hearing following a discussion with his lawyers Monday.
Despite that, prosecutors and victims who sat across the courtroom from Soliman or watched the hearing online were caught off guard by the decision.
Salomone said the case would now move ahead to an arraignment and scheduled a Sept. 9 hearing for Soliman to enter a plea to murder, attempted murder and other charges over the defense’s objection.
Herold said Soliman would not be ready to enter a plea then because of the large amount of evidence in the case and the murder charges recently added against him following the death of Karen Diamond, an 82-year-old woman injured in the attack. Herold said she expected to ask for the arraignment hearing to be delayed and suggested that a plea deal was possible.
20th Judicial District Attorney Michael Dougherty objected to a delay, saying any discussions could happen before and after an arraignment. He declined to comment on the possibility of a deal after the hearing.
Investigators say Soliman told them he intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly event on Boulder’s Pearl Street pedestrian mall. But he threw just two of more than two dozen Molotov cocktails he had with him while yelling, “Free Palestine!” Police said he told them he got scared because he had never hurt anyone before.
Federal authorities say Soliman, an Egyptian national, had been living in the US illegally with his family at the time.
Soliman has pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges and is scheduled to go on trial in federal court in Denver in September. However, his lawyers told US District Judge John L. Kane last week that they expect to ask for a delay.
Additional charges related to Diamond’s death could also slow down the federal proceedings. Assistant US Attorney Laura Cramer-Babycz told Kane that prosecutors have not decided yet whether to file additional charges against Soliman.
Federal prosecutors allege the victims were targeted because of their perceived or actual connection to Israel. But Soliman’s federal defense lawyers say he should not have been charged with hate crimes because the evidence shows he was motivated by opposition to Zionism, the political movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel.
An attack motivated by someone’s political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law.
State prosecutors have identified 29 victims in the attack. Thirteen of them were physically injured, and the others were nearby and are considered victims because they could have been hurt. A dog was also injured in the attack, so Soliman has also been charged with animal cruelty.
