China endorses Myanmar’s offensive against Rohingya Muslim insurgents, Myanmar state media said on Thursday, as the UN secretary-general described the operation, forcing nearly 400,000 people to flee to Bangladesh, as “ethnic cleansing.”
The Myanmar military offensive in the western state of Rakhine was triggered by a series of guerrilla attacks on August 25 on security posts and an army camp in which about a dozen people were killed.
“The stance of China regarding the terrorist attacks in Rakhine is clear, it is just an internal affair,” the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Thursday quoted China’s ambassador, Hong Liang, as telling top government officials.
“The counter-attacks of Myanmar security forces against extremist terrorists and the government’s undertakings to provide assistance to the people are strongly welcomed.”
China competes with the United States for influence in Myanmar, which in 2011 began emerging from nearly 50 years of strict military rule and diplomatic and economic isolation.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration called for protection of civilians.
The violence in Rakhine and the exodus of refugees is the most pressing problem Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has faced since becoming national leader last year.
Critics have called for her to be stripped of her Nobel prize for failing to do more to halt the strife. She is due to address the nation on Tuesday.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council on Wednesday urged Myanmar to end the violence, which he said was best described as ‘ethnic cleansing.’
“When one third of the Rohingya population had to flee the country, could you find a better word to describe it?” he told a news conference in New York.
The government says it is targeting “terrorists”, while refugees say the offensive aims to push Rohingya out of Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Numerous Rohingya villages in the north of Rakhine have been torched but authorities have denied that security forces or Buddhist civilians have been setting the fires. They blame the insurgents.
The government said on Wednesday 45 places had been burned. It did not provide details but a spokesman said out of 471 villages in the north of Rakhine, 176 of them had been deserted and at least some people had left 34 others.
The spokesman, Zaw Htay, said the people fleeing to Bangladesh were either linked to the insurgents, or women and children fleeing conflict.
According to government figures, 432 people have been killed, most of them insurgents, since August 25. Bangladesh authorities say at least 100 bodies have been found in a border river and on nearby beaches, some with wounds.
Smoke was rising from at least two places on the Myanmar side on Thursday, a Reuters reporter in Bangladesh said. It was not clear what was burning.
The term came into use during the war in the former Yugoslavia and it has been used in UN resolutions. It has also been acknowledged in judgments and indictments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, according to the UN Office on Genocide Prevention.
A UN commission of experts defined it as “rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups.”
The 15-member Security Council met behind closed doors on Wednesday, at the request of Sweden and Britain, to discuss the crisis for the second time since it began and agreed to publicly condemn the situation.
The council “expressed concern about reports of excessive violence during the security operations and called for immediate steps to end the violence in Rakhine, de-escalate the situation, re-establish law and order, ensure the protection of civilians … and resolve the refugee problem.”
British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said it was the first statement from the Security Council on Myanmar in nine years. Such statements have to be agreed by consensus and Russia and China have traditionally protected Myanmar from any action.
Bangladesh says all the refugees will have to go home and has called for safe zones in Myanmar. But Myanmar says safe zones are unacceptable.
Aid agencies have to step up operations “massively” to help the refugees, a UN official said on Wednesday, adding that an earlier UN target of US$77 million would not be enough to deal with the crisis.
“There are acute shortages of everything,” the UN children’s agency said
There are also fears of a humanitarian crisis on the Myanmar side of the border. The government has accused some aid groups of helping the insurgents and has severely restricted access.
The aid group Médecins Sans Frontières said it had reports that its clinics in Rakhine had been burned down and it called for ”unfettered access to people in desperate need.”
Reuters
New revelation and perspective.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/terror-in-myanmar-as-us-faces-off-against-chinas-belt-and-road/5609146
Nobody mentions Yemen in the UN and west media.
President Duterte, your good and exalted name and honour and prestige and place in the nation’s history is paramount. Do not even let miscreant family members (if there is any truth to the allegation) stand in the way. Stand with God against the scourge of evil of drug against the nation. If your children are involved in drugs charge and prosecute them. You belong to and are the saviour/protector of the nation. The good citizenry are your real family and you the father of the nation. But if the allegations be false and perhaps funded by the CIA give no mercy to the accusers of falsehood. Charge and prosecute them instead. Let justice serve the good citizenry of the nation,
PM do not kowtow to the President. You are more than his equal in so many ways. You have done and are able to do many things, almost miracles and magic, that the President can never ever do. He can only dream of being like you. Stand tall and maintain your self-esteem and dignity and that of Malaysia. Be mindful what the Yanks, British and French did to Gadaffi of Libya, who like you could mesmerise the nation and conjure magic. Play hard to get with all neighbours and nations, whether China, India, U.K. or the Yanks etc. China just wants to make money from you, which you already know, growing up with Chinese all around you, all your life. Most of your classmates and best friends in life were and are Chinese. They just want to ‘cari makan saja’. But the Yanks like our past colonial master, the British want your mind, body and soul! Beware of ‘Greeks bearing gifts’! Be free and independent – remember Malaysia ‘apa pun boleh’. Allah selamatkan negara kita.
Leave aside any discussion of refugees and religion for the moment. That is what you see. It is indeed very real in the human impact and consequences. What we are not told however is all hidden behind the scene. Yes, there was mistreatment and alienation of the non-Myanmar Rohingyas that started settling there when Burma was ruled as an annexe to British India. Another unfortunate karmic consequence of European colonialism. But the terrorism insurrection by the IS affiliated insurgents on 25 August changes everything. Myanmar is now at war with the IS! In war there is always collateral damage like refugees whether between Muslims and non-Muslims or Muslims against Muslims. The issue is whether the Rohingya insurgency is IS affiliated or not? If yes, end of story. No further issue here. If China, India or even Bangladesh does not stop this insurrection, nip it in the bud, right now, like the Myanmar government is doing, then they themselves will pay the price in the future. Even Muslims should fear, wherever and whenever the IS makes an appearance. If the Rohingyas are refugees they have only the IS to blame. Yes, have faith in the Myanmar government. If it fails with the IS will take over India and then Malaysia and then Indonesia. Think ‘terrorism’ and you will be on the right track. Yes, the refugee probably requires solving as it is with other areas of war and conflict where IS is.
Great photo-shot by Western propaganda media similar to the white helmet
– isis gang staging as helpless victims of false Assad chemical attack on cvilian in Syria to dupe the worlds public.
Rohingya rufugees should be repartriated back to Bangladesh where the people originally came from – send there to help Britian consolidated its grip on Myanmar during the British occupation of Myanmar and should bear full resposiblity for resettling these people back to Bangladesh or Britain.
Britain sent lots of their subjects to Australia to fill up the space there, Rohingyas should be given a chance too.
Pervez Rahim you implied Burmese civilians are not involved in these conflict, only the military. Get your logic right and coherent before writing any comment.
Burmese army using land mines & killing women & kids, it’s a crime against humanity, these brutal Generals should be arrested immediately and put them at International Court of Justice (ICJ).
In the name of ‘Saffron revolution’, young Buddhist monks raped the minor Rohingya girls, aged 7 to 9, and burned them death, than stained the holy tripitaka by the ash of these dead bodies.
To uphold the humanity, needs urgent deployment of UN Peacekeeping Force in Burma
It is the Muslims that are being Terrorized out of their land by you Buddists. How can you be so blind.
China wants the Muslim Natives of Myanmar (I.e. the Rohingya) to make way for the $10 billion Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone. They benefit from blaming the Muslim victims here as a cover to steal their resources
Reuters is a huge part of the Fair Maiden ———-the SCUM, corrupt, in the bag Mainstream Media and always FAKE NEWS!!
Yes Joe, you are very right. And the bloody Reuters seems to have forgotten Yemen…
The Middle Kingdom is never afraid to do the right thing!!