Rohingya Muslims: ‘The Hague court verdict means so much to us’

In this file photo, Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar were standing outside Bangladeshi border guards after crossing the border in Palang Khali, Bangladesh October 9, 2017. (REUTERS)
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Updated 03 February 2020
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Rohingya Muslims: ‘The Hague court verdict means so much to us’

  • Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, presiding judge of the ICJ panel, gave Myanmar four months to report back on how it was implementing the ruling
  • Young people realize Myanmar will not change unless they keep resisting and demanding a free and fair society, says Rohingya activist Yasmin Ullah

DHAKA, Bangladesh: The UN’s top court has ordered Myanmar to do all it can to prevent genocide against the country’s ethnic Muslim Rohingya minority.

A 17-judge panel at the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) said its order for so-called provisional measures meant to protect the Rohingya was binding “and creates international legal obligations” on Myanmar.

Yasmin Ullah, a Rohingya activist who was in the court on Jan. 23, described the ruling, which warns that genocidal actions could recur, as historic.

“Today, having the judges unanimously agree on the protection of Rohingya means so much to us because we’re now allowed to exist and it’s legally binding,” she said, adding that she did not think Myanmar would comply with the order.

Indeed, Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the order presented a “distorted picture of the situation.”

Yasmin Ullah was born in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state, and her family fled the country after the massacres of Rohingya Muslims in the 1990s.

After arriving in Thailand in 1995, the Ullahs lived there without any legal protection and basic rights for 16 years.

FASTFACTS

The Rohingya are Myanmar’s largest Muslim community.

The majority live in northern Rakhine state.

Government denies them citizenship, claiming they are illegal immigrants.

Persecuted Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in waves.

Latest crisis erupted in 2017 after Rohingya militants attacked police posts.

She is now based in Canada where she is pursuing a degree in political science. In addition, she serves as the President of the Rohingya Human Rights Network (RHRN) and works as a coordinator at the Free Rohingya Coalition.

In an email interview with Arab News, she described the current human-rights situation in Myanmar as “strange.”

Human rights violations are still rampant, and disproportionately instigated by the members of government authority, military, and law enforcement against innocent civilians, she said.

“This is especially true in the area populated by ethnic nationalities, including Rakhine state from where I come.”

On the other hand, she pointed out, Myanmar was still perceived as the country of Nobel Peace Prize winner and a human rights icon Aung San Suu Kyi, the current civilian ruler (state counsellor).

The ICJ ruling came despite appeals last month by her for the judges to drop the case, and denials by Aung San Suu Kyi that the armed forces, which once held her under house arrest for 15 years, had committed genocide.

“Internationally, Myanmar was very promising to investors as a country transforming into a liberal democracy primed for the free market, and thus, human rights violations that have been taking place are often dismissed in favor of the big picture,” Yasmin Ullah said.

“Structurally, the country is made of a small percentage that controls most of the country’s resources, a very small sliver of the middle class and the vast majority living under the poverty line as wage workers, farmers and other low-paying positions.




Yasmin Ullah, a Rohingya Muslim girl, currently based in Canada, has been travelling around the world to tell the stories of the ongoing atrocities on her community in Myanmar. (Supplied)

“The years of propaganda by the military regime has carved Myanmar into an intolerant society and emphasized the idea of one acceptable monolithic identity.

“Hence, any departure from the Buddhist identity or what is accepted as a good Burmese is almost frowned upon.”

According to Yasmin Ullah: “Expressing any dissenting views of the government or the military’s policies will at least get those who speak up monitored, profiled, and at times, kidnapped and disappeared.”

She said many minority groups within the country decided long ago to take up arms and fight back.

The majority of those living in ethnic states are innocent civilians, but they are often the ones to bear the brunt of the battles between the military and the ethnic armed groups, Yasmin Ullah said.

“Women frequently suffer the worst of it all due to the military strategic plans to incite fear of the ethnic communities by way of mass rape as well as sexual and gender-based violence,” she said.

“Once the community is fearful enough, the people often leave their homes and lands, and comply with the even worse living conditions enforced by the military, such as internment camps that can be found in various areas in Shan, Rakhine and other states.”

A common denominator in all of this is that Myanmar’s authorities have enjoyed impunity for the last several decades.

Thousands of Rohingya perished and more than 700,000 fled to Bangladesh during an army crackdown in 2017.

Since the so-called clearance operation, the military has not stopped dismissing the fact that it has murdered, tortured and raped large members of Rohingya, she said.

“To this day, the remaining Rohingya in Rakhine are restricted in their freedom of movement, from speaking up against the military as well as Myanmar’s government in general, and from accessing the very basics needed to sustain themselves.”

Although there is a mounting pressure internationally, the country remains defiant over any investigation or international probe triggered by the various UN conventions.

In July 2019, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the International Cyber Policy Centre released a report outlining the reality on the ground since 2017.

“The satellite images show that there has been no effort by the Myanmar government in reconstructing any houses razed to the ground in over 300 Rohingya villages,” Yasmin Ullah said.

“In addition, there are six military bases expanded or newly built on our previous homes, 45 internment camps newly built for any returnees or displaced people, and more homes and settlements destroyed since 2018.

“My family still live in Rakhine state. They can attest to the harsh reality of living conditions imposed by the oppressive and unjustified laws against Rohingya.

“Military raids and demolition of Rohingya villages in many areas of Rakhine continues even under the international community’s close watch.”

Moreover, as the fight between the military and the largest insurgent group in Rakhine state, the Arakan Army, intensifies, Rohingya and other ethnic groups are caught in the crossfire.




A Rohingya refugee camp on Bhasan Char island. (Gallo Images)

“More of our people become displaced — and left with no means of sustaining themselves and their families,” Yasmin Ullah said.

“Hundreds of Rohingya, including children, have been incarcerated for traveling without a travel permit which is a rule that is disproportionately imposed upon Rohingya and it is directly tied to the stripping of our legal status as Myanmar citizen back in 1982.

“Rohingya in Myanmar are still subjected to no less persecution, arbitrary arrests and restrictive living conditions and frequent human rights violations than before August 2017.”

Asked about the idea of engagement with the government to lift the restrictions on access to Rakhine, Yasmin Ullah said negotiation only works when there is a balance in the power dynamic.

“In our case, Rohingya are branded as illegal aliens; therefore, our voices or our complaints don’t really matter. That’s the justification that the military has successfully sold the Myanmar public,” she said.

“More of us are now living in exile and only 600,000 of us are left in the very volatile situation in Rakhine state. The military managed to drive out over 740,000 of us in the last two years, and there is a clear message in all of this.”

She said even as pressure builds at the international level on the government, it continues to oppress Rohingya and other ethnic minorities in pursuit of economic development that only benefits the military and its cronies.

The measures imposed by the ICJ are binding and not subject to appeal. Although the court has no way of enforcing them, Ullah said there is anxiety in Myanmar over the case, as reflected in the arrangements for a delegation to meet Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh in December 2019.

“The state counsellor (Aung San Suu Kyi) mentioned in front of the judges that Myanmar is trying to pursue justice within its own judicial system,” she said.

“Although she whitewashed and dismissed most of the allegations of genocide, she acknowledged there were wrongdoings.

“This will, and already has, created room for activists and good Samaritans to put the emphasis on accountability and the need to scrutinize absolute power.”

As recently as after the hearing in the Hague, youth activists in Myanmar from groups Youth for a New Society and Doa-A-Yae, organized a solidarity campaign standing up against the Rohingya genocide, according to Yasmin Ullah.

“These brave young people realize that Myanmar will not change unless they keep resisting — and demand a free and fair society.”


Trump envoy says Putin open to ‘permanent peace’ deal with Ukraine

Updated 3 sec ago
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Trump envoy says Putin open to ‘permanent peace’ deal with Ukraine

  • Donald Trump has been pressing Moscow and Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin
  • Despite a flurry of diplomacy, there has been little meaningful progress on Trump’s main aim of achieving a Ukraine ceasefire
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s special envoy said Monday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was open to a “permanent peace” deal with Ukraine, following talks seeking to end the more than three-year war.
Trump has been pressing Moscow and Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin, despite repeated negotiations between Russian and US officials.
On Friday, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Saint Petersburg – their third meeting third since the Republican leader returned to the White House in January.
Witkoff said during a Fox News interview televised Monday that he sees a peace deal “emerging,” and that two key Putin advisers – Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev – were in the “compelling meeting.”
“Putin’s request is to get to have a permanent peace here. So beyond the ceasefire, we got an answer to that,” Witkoff said, acknowledging that “it took a while for us to get to this place.”
“I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very, very important for the world at large.”
He added that business deals between Russia and the United States were also part of the negotiations.
“I believe there’s a possibility to reshape the Russian-United States relationship through some very compelling commercial opportunities, that I think give real stability to the region too,” he said.
Despite a flurry of diplomacy, there has been little meaningful progress on Trump’s main aim of achieving a Ukraine ceasefire.
Putin last month rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for a full and unconditional pause in the conflict, while the Kremlin has made a truce in the Black Sea conditional on the West lifting certain sanctions.

Xi’s Vietnam trip aiming to ‘screw’ US, says Trump

Updated 11 min 28 sec ago
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Xi’s Vietnam trip aiming to ‘screw’ US, says Trump

  • Xi Jinping is in Vietnam as part of a Southeast Asia tour that will include Malaysia and Cambodia
  • Beijing trying to position itself as a stable alternative to Trump as leaders confront US tariffs

HANOI: China’s President Xi Jinping paid tribute to Vietnam’s late revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh on Tuesday, his last day of a trip to Hanoi that President Donald Trump said was aiming to “screw” the United States.
Xi is in Vietnam as part of a Southeast Asia tour that will include Malaysia and Cambodia, with Beijing trying to position itself as a stable alternative to Trump as leaders confront US tariffs.
The Chinese leader called on his country and Vietnam Monday to “oppose unilateral bullying and uphold the stability of the global free trade system,” according to Beijing’s state media.
Hours later, Trump told reporters at the White House that their meeting was aimed at hurting the United States.
“I don’t blame China. I don’t blame Vietnam. I don’t. I see they’re meeting today, and that’s wonderful,” he said.
“That’s a lovely meeting... like trying to figure out, how do we screw the United States of America.”
China and Vietnam signed 45 cooperation agreements on Monday, including on supply chains, artificial intelligence, joint maritime patrols and railway development.
Xi said a meeting with Vietnam’s top leader To Lam on Monday that their countries were “standing at the turning point of history... and should move forward with joint hands.”
Lam said after the talks that the two leaders “reached many important and comprehensive common perceptions,” according to Vietnam News Agency.
On the final day of his visit, Xi laid a red wreath emblazoned with his name and the words “Long live Vietnam’s great leader President Ho Chi Minh” at the late leader’s mausoleum in central Hanoi.
He is also due to attend the launch of the Vietnam-China Railway Cooperation, which will help manage an $8-billion rail project – announced this year – to link Vietnam’s largest northern port city to the border with China.
Xi’s trip comes almost two weeks after the United States – the biggest export market for Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse, in the first three months of the year – imposed a 46 percent levy on Vietnamese goods as part of a global tariff blitz.
Although the US tariffs on Vietnam and most other countries have been paused, China still faces enormous levies and is seeking to tighten regional trade ties and offset their impact during Xi’s first overseas trip of the year.
Xi will head to Malaysia later Tuesday and then Cambodia on a tour that “bears major importance” for the broader region, Beijing has said.
Xi earlier urged Vietnam and China to “resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment.”
He also reiterated Beijing’s line that a “trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere” in an article published on Monday in Vietnam’s major state-run Nhan Dan newspaper.
China and Vietnam, both ruled by communist parties, already share a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” Hanoi’s highest diplomatic status.
Vietnam has long pursued a “bamboo diplomacy” approach – striving to stay on good terms with both China and the United States.
The two countries have close economic ties, but Hanoi shares US concerns about Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the contested South China Sea.


China accuses US of launching ‘advanced’ cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games

Updated 15 April 2025
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China accuses US of launching ‘advanced’ cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games

  • The attacks had ‘the intention of sabotaging China’s critical information infrastructure, causing social disorder, and stealing important confidential information’

BEIJING: Chinese police in the northeastern city of Harbin have accused the United States National Security Agency (NSA) of launching “advanced” cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games in February, targeting essential industries.
Police added three alleged NSA agents to a wanted list and also accused the University of California and Virginia Tech of being involved in the attacks after carrying out investigations, according to a report by state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday.
The NSA agents were identified by Xinhua as Katheryn A. Wilson, Robert J. Snelling and Stephen W. Johnson. The three were also found to have “repeatedly carried out cyberattacks on China’s critical information infrastructure and participated in cyberattacks on Huawei and other enterprises.”
It did not specify how the two American universities were involved.
The US Embassy in China did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The detailed allegations come as the world’s two largest economies spiral deeper into a trade war that has already spurred travel warnings for Chinese tourists going to the US and halted imports of US films into China.
“The US National Security Agency (NSA) launched cyberattacks against important industries such as energy, transportation, water conservancy, communications, and national defense research institutions in Heilongjiang province,” Xinhua said, citing the Harbin city public security bureau.
The attacks had “the intention of sabotaging China’s critical information infrastructure, causing social disorder, and stealing important confidential information,” it added.
Anonymous servers
Xinhua said the NSA operations took place during the Winter Games and were “suspected of activating specific pre-installed backdoors” in Microsoft Windows operating systems on specific devices in Heilongjiang.
In order to cover its tracks, the NSA purchased IP addresses in different countries and “anonymously” rented a large number of network servers including in Europe and Asia,” Xinhua said.
The NSA intended to use cyberattacks to steal the personal data of participating athletes, the news agency said, adding that the cyberattacks reached a peak from the first ice hockey game on February 3. The attacks targeted information systems such as the Asian Winter Games registration system and stored “sensitive information about the identities of relevant personnel of the event,” Xinhua said.
The US routinely accuses Chinese state-backed hackers of launching attacks against its critical infrastructure and government bodies.
Last month, Washington announced indictments against a slew of alleged Chinese hackers who targeted the US Defense Intelligence Agency, the US Department of Commerce, and the foreign ministries of Taiwan, South Korea, India, and Indonesia.
Beijing denies all involvement in overseas cyber espionage.
After years of being accused by Western governments of cyberattacks and industrial espionage, in the past two years several Chinese organizations and government organs have accused the United States and its allies of similar behavior.
In December, China said it found and dealt with two US cyberattacks on Chinese tech firms to “steal trade secrets” since May 2023, but did not name the agency involved.


Britain boosts aid for victims of Sudan conflict at conference

Updated 15 April 2025
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Britain boosts aid for victims of Sudan conflict at conference

  • British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the war had been going on for far too long “and yet much of the world continues to look away”

LONDON: Britain said on Tuesday it would provide 120 million pounds ($158 million) more in aid to people in Sudan, which it said faces the worst humanitarian crisis on record, as it hosted a conference marking the two-year anniversary of the conflict.
The war in Sudan erupted in April 2023, sparked by a power struggle between the army and Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, shattering hopes for a transition to civilian rule.
The conflict has since displaced millions and devastated regions like Darfur, where the RSF is now fighting to maintain its stronghold amid army advances in Khartoum.
Rather than mediating directly in the conflict, Britain said Tuesday’s conference in London would be a chance to improve the coherence of the international response to the crisis, although Sudan criticized the fact its government was not invited for the talks.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the war had been going on for far too long “and yet much of the world continues to look away.”
“We need to act now to stop the crisis from becoming an all-out catastrophe, ensuring aid gets to those who need it the most,” he said in a statement, adding that the combatants had shown “an appalling disregard” for Sudanese civilians.
Britain is co-hosting the London conference with the African Union, the European Union, France and Germany. Egypt, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates are among the other attendees.
Sudan’s foreign minister has written to Lammy to complain, saying Sudan should have been invited, while criticizing the presence of the UAE and Kenya.
Sudan has accused the UAE of arming RSF, a charge the UAE denies but UN experts and US lawmakers have found credible. Sudan has also recalled its envoy to Kenya after it hosted talks between the RSF and its allies to form a parallel government.
Bankole Adeoye, African Union commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, said “achieving peace in Sudan depends on valuing every voice and everyone playing a role in building a prosperous Sudan.”

AID CUT
Britain said 30 million people desperately needed aid and 12 million people were displaced, with famine spreading through Sudan. Lammy announced a separate 113-million-pound aid package in November, and in January he visited Sudan’s border with Chad.
However Britain’s support for victims of the conflict comes as the government has slashed its foreign aid budget to pay for increased defense spending.
Although Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed to continue aid to civilians in Sudan, one of three priorities along with Gaza and Ukraine, his development minister resigned, saying Britain’s aid priorities would be impossible to maintain and the cuts would ultimately harm Britain’s reputation abroad.
On Tuesday, lawyers acting for Sudanese victims submitted a 141-page dossier outlining alleged war crimes committed by the RSF to the UK police’s special war crimes unit, with a request to pass the file to the International Criminal Court, which has jurisdiction over atrocity crimes in Darfur.
By sending the file via the UK police rather than directly to the ICC, the lawyers said they hoped to provide an impetus for the two jurisdictions to work together more closely on accountability for Darfur.

 

 


El Salvador’s Bukele says he will not return man the US mistakenly deported

Updated 15 April 2025
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El Salvador’s Bukele says he will not return man the US mistakenly deported

  • Case of Maryland resident wrongfully deported dominates visit

WASHINGTON: El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said at the White House on Monday he had no plans to return a man mistakenly deported from the United States, suggesting that doing so would be like smuggling a terrorist into the country.
His remarks came during an Oval Office meeting where multiple officials in President Donald Trump’s administration said they were not required to bring back Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia, despite a US Supreme Court order saying they must facilitate the Maryland resident’s return.
Abrego Garcia’s case has drawn attention as the Trump administration has deported hundreds of people to El Salvador with help from Bukele, whose country is receiving $6 million to house the migrants in a high-security mega-prison.
The US government has described his deportation as an administrative error. But in court filings and at the White House on Monday, the administration indicated it does not plan to ask for Abrego Garcia back, raising questions about whether it is defying the courts.
Bukele told reporters he did not have the power to return Abrego Garcia to the US
“The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele said, echoing the Trump administration’s claim that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang.
Bukele’s comments came shortly after US Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the same meeting that the US needed only to “provide a plane” if Bukele wanted to return Abrego Garcia.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have denied the allegation he is a gang member, saying the US has presented no credible evidence.
The US sent Abrego Garcia to El Salvador on March 15. Trump called reporters asking whether the administration would follow the order for his return “sick people.”
“The foreign policy of the United States is conducted by the president of the United States, not by a court,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during the Oval Office meeting.

Mega-prison
Trump said he would send as many people living in the US illegally to El Salvador as possible and help Bukele build new prisons.
The US on Saturday deported 10 more people to El Salvador it alleges are gang members.
The migrants El Salvador accepts from the US are housed in a facility known as the Terrorism Confinement Center. Critics say the prison engages in human rights abuses and that Bukele’s crackdown on gangs has swept up many innocent people without due process.
Bukele told Trump he is accused of imprisoning thousands of people. “I like to say that we actually liberated millions,” he said.
The US president reacted gleefully to Bukele’s comment. “Do you think I can use that?” Trump asked.
The State Department last week lifted its advisory for American travelers to El Salvador to the safest level, crediting Bukele for reducing gang activity and violent crime.
Lawyers and relatives of the migrants held in El Salvador say they are not gang members and had no opportunity to contest the US government assertion that they were.
The Trump administration says it vetted migrants to ensure they belonged to gangs including Tren de Aragua and MS-13, which it labels terrorist organizations.
Last month, after a judge said flights carrying migrants processed under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act should return to the US, Bukele wrote “Oopsie... Too late” on social media alongside footage showing men being hustled off a plane at night.

Tuesday hearing
An immigration judge had previously granted Abrego Garcia protection from being deported to El Salvador, finding that he could face gang violence there. He held a permit to work in the US, where he had lived since 2011.
The US Supreme Court last week upheld a lower court ruling directing the administration to “facilitate and effectuate” his return. But it said the term “effectuate” was unclear and might exceed the authority of the district court judge.
A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. Legal experts said Judge Paula Xinis may press the Trump administration to determine if it signaled to Bukele that he should refuse to release Abrego Garcia, which could amount to defiance of the court order’s language to “facilitate” his return.
While the Supreme Court in its decision ordered Xinis to clarify her order “with due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs,” some legal experts said Trump is likely defying the court by undermining Abrego Garcia’s release.
“All that is total claptrap as applied to a case like this, where the only reason why the foreign country is holding the person is because the US pushed them to do it and made an agreement under which they would do it,” George Mason University constitutional law professor Ilya Somin said.
“It’s very obvious that they could get him released if they wanted to.”
Trump told reporters on Friday that his administration would bring the man back if the Supreme Court directed it to do so.