Bangladesh President Md Abdul Hamid has called on the international community to form a UN-backed ‘safe zone’ near the border to protect the Rohingya minority fleeing the military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

The president made the appeal amid bilateral talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a break of the first OIC summit on science and technology in Kazakhstan’s Astana on Sunday.

President Hamid called on the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and other organisations to help form a United Nations-backed temporary safe zone, the president’s Press Secretary Joynal Abedin told bdnews24.com.

According to a Reuters report, Bangladesh has presented the idea of the ‘safe zone’ to the Myanmar government through the International Committee of the Red Cross or ICRC.

Nearly 300,000 Rohingyas have fled across the border to Bangladesh, President Hamid said during the bilateral talks. More are coming, he said.

Bangladesh is currently providing refuge to them on humanitarian grounds, he said.

But the president also added that it was very difficult for a ‘highly populated’ country such as Bangladesh to take on the burden of so many refugees.

According to the press secretary, the president said that Bangladesh is currently searching for a location to shelter the Rohingyas.

“The president’s remarks to international organisations are aimed at putting pressure on the Myanmar government so as to ensure that Rohingyas can live in safety, security and dignity in Myanmar,” Abedin said.

Hamid thanked Erdogan for his phone call to discuss the Rohingya crisis. He also thanked Turkey’s first lady and foreign minister for their trip to Bangladesh to witness the sufferings of the Rohingyas.

Hamid also thanked President Erdogan for arranging a special session at the OIC meeting to discuss the Rohingya crisis.

The president expressed his hope that the OIC member countries would come forward to help solve the Rohingya crisis and pressure Myanmar put into practice the measures recommended by the Kofi Annan Commission.

President Erdogan expressed his gratitude to the Bangladesh government for their support in arranging his wife’s visit.

The people of Turkey will always stand with the Rohingya minority, he said.

The Turkish president said 1,000 tonnes of food aid has been sent for the Rohingya refugees and promised that another 10,000 tonnes would be sent soon.

Erdogan also vowed that international organisations would coordinate to provide more aid to the Rohingyas through Bangladesh.

http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2017/09/10/president-hamid-discusses-rohi...

Bangladeshi authorities on Monday was due to begin registering the approximately 300,000 Rohingyas who have fled the sectarian violence raging in neighboring Myanmar in the last two weeks.

"Today we will start registration of Rohingyas (in) Cox's Bazar. We will have magistrates and experts from the passport department to take their finger prints," Saiful Islam, one of the Bangladeshi government officials leading the identification of the new arrivals, told EFE.

Myanmar authorities do not recognise Rohingyas as citizens, while Bangladesh considers the almost 294,000 members of this ethnic Muslim minority who have crossed the border since Aug. 25, (according to the latest United Nations figures) as Myanmar nationals.

The influx of Rohingyas to southeastern Bangladesh has steadily increased since the attacks by a terroristRohingya group on police and military posts in the northwestern state of Rakhine and the subsequent military crackdown.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) declared a month-long cease-fire on Saturday to allow the entry of humanitarian aid, which the Myanmar government rejected.

The new wave of refugees comes after the Myanmar army carried out another military campaign at the end of last year following a similar insurgent attack, which triggered an exodus of more than 80,000 Rohingyas.

Before the crisis erupted, between 300,000 and 500,000 Rohingyas had been living in Bangladesh, only 32,000 of whom enjoy refugee status.

Thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled violence in Myanmar in search of refuge could be forced to make their new homes on a barren Bangladeshi island that floods every year.

The Bangladesh government has appealed for international support to move the Rohingya to the island as the impoverished country confronts a growing crisis over where to house an influx that has mounted following a military crackdown in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar's Rakhine state.

More than 300,000 Rohingya have poured into Bangladesh since the latest flare-up in violence on August 25, adding to around 300,000 refugees already living in overflowing UN-run camps in Cox's Bazar district, close to the border with Myanmar.

The surge has overwhelmed the Bangladesh authorities, who are scrambling to find land to build more camps, including on the inhospitable and uninhabited Thengar Char island -- recently renamed Bhasan Char -- despite reluctance on the part of Rohingya leaders and UN officials.

Bhasan Char, located in the estuary of the Meghna river, is a one-hour boat ride from Sandwip, the nearest inhabited island, and two hours from Hatiya, one of Bangladesh's largest islands.

The authorities first proposed settling Rohingya refugees there in 2015, as the camps in Cox's Bazar became overstretched with new arrivals.

But the plan was apparently shelved last year amid reports that the silt island, which only emerged from the sea in 2006, was unhabitable due to regular tidal flooding.

The government is trying to find new room for the Rohingya, including establishing a new 2,000-acre (800-hectare) camp near Cox's Bazar, close to the Myanmar border, which will house around 250,000 Rohingya.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was to visit the construction site on Tuesday.

As the exodus swells however, there are fears that it may not be enough to accommodate all those in need of shelter.

As a result, the Bangladesh government is speeding up work at Bhasan Char with a view to building a 10,000-acre facility that can house hundreds of thousands of Rohingya.

But they face huge challenges.

- 'Complex and controversial' -

A police official in the region told AFP that the island, which is used sporadically by fishermen and farmers seeking to graze their animals, was susceptible to tidal flooding once or twice a year.

"I think the island needs... massive infrastructure before it gets habitable," the official said.

The presence of the Bangladesh Navy, which is involved in developing the island, has deterred pirates who used to operate in the seas around Bhasan Char.

"The Navy has... already set up two helipads and are now building roads and a shed for their use", said Mahbub Alam Talkukder, a government administrator based in the region.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.H Mahmood Ali on Sunday appealed for international assistance to help transport the Rohingya to Bhashan Char during a meeting with diplomats and UN officials.

But Rohingya leaders remain opposed to the move, while a UN agency official warned that any attempt at a forced relocation would be "very complex and controversial".

Exhausted refugees in Cox's Bazar told AFP they did not want to move yet again.

© AFP

The Prime Minister of Bangladesh on Tuesday visited a Rohingya refugee camp in the southeast of the country and promised to continue distribution of food and services to the 370,000 members of the minority Muslim community who have arrived in the last two weeks.

Sheikh Hasina, who distributed relief material to camp residents, said Myanmar had no right to reject the Rohingya people, as they were its citizens.

"Bangladesh is a country of 160 million people and we have ensured their basic needs, we have also a capacity to provide all kinds of help including food and healthcare services to the Myanmar refugees," said the prime minister, according to official news agency BSS.

"We want peace and a friendly relation with neighboring countries, (but) we cannot allow and accept any kind of injustice and our protest will continue to this end," she added.

The current crisis erupted on Aug. 25, when a Rohingya terrorist group mounted attacks on police and army posts in the Rakhine state, and the government responded with a military operation.

The group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, on Saturday declared a month-long ceasefire to allow humanitarian assistance to reach the region, though the government refused to respond.

The latest influx of refugees follows another wave of exodus in 2016, when more than 80,000 Rohingyas crossed over to Bangladesh to escape a Burmese military offensive after a terrorist attack on border posts.

Before the crisis erupted, between 300,000 and 500,000 Rohingyas had been living in Bangladesh, the majority in the southeastern Cox's Bazar district, out of whom only 32,000 enjoyed refugee status.

Edited for style

Bangladeshi boat operators are exploiting Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar by demanding up to $100 for ferry trips that usually cost 50 cents, as the United Nations warned Thursday of a "worst case scenario" in which the entire minority group tries to escape the unrest.

Some 389,000 Rohingya - including 10,000 in the past 24 hours -- have fled across the border since late August and there have been growing appeals for Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi to speak out in their defence.

Many have trekked across hills and through jungles for days to reach the border only to be faced with hugely inflated prices for a seat on a boat crossing the Naf river that divides the two countries.

Bangladeshi magistrates operating mobile courts in the border town of Cox's Bazar and nearby districts have now started sentencing boat owners and local villagers to terms of up to six months in prison, officials said Thursday.

Government spokesman Khaled Mahmud from the Cox's Bazar district told AFP that the mobile courts have convicted 165 people -- of whom 160 people were jailed for between three to six months and the remaining five were fined.

An AFP correspondent at the river said boat owners were charging refugees up to $100 for a 10-30 minute trip that would normally cost less than 50 cents -- a mark-up of 200 times.

"The boatman extracted every last penny from us for the ferry. Now we want to go to the camp but don't have any money," Momena Begum, 35, a Rohingya mother of five, told AFP.

She sat with her children beside a highway running along the beach at Teknaf, unable to get a ride to the refugee camps some 10 kilometres (six miles) from the border.

"The boatmen threatened to throw us into the sea if we refused to give them our valuables," said Nadera Banu, 19, who got married only last year but is already a widow.

"I gave up the final memento of my husband, a gold locket given on my wedding day, to escape," she said.

Media reports have mentioned Rohingya being held by boatmen and agents for hours in coastal villages until they received inflated payments for the trip.

© AFP

The Supreme Court of Thailand yesterday approved compensation of Ks70,948,067.49 (US$52,000) in a landmark test case for 14 Myanmar migrant workers who endured forced labour and other rights violations at a Chicken Farm in central Thailand, state media reported on 15 September.

The Supreme Court, upholding a previous decision of a labour court to award the compensation, rejected the Chicken Farm’s appeal against the compensation order for the final time.

The workers alleged gruelling working days stretching up to 20 hours and forced overtime including sleeping in chicken rearing areas overnight. Further, the workers alleged unlawful deduction of salaries, threats of further deductions, confiscation of personal identity documents and limited freedom of movement.

Two Myanmar photographers covering the Rohingya crisis for a German magazine have been arrested in Bangladesh on suspicion of espionage, officials said Friday.

Minzayar Oo and Hkun Lat were detained more than a week ago in the border town of Cox's Bazar, where around 389,000 Rohingya Muslims have sought refuge from violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state since August 25.

The pair's lawyer said they were charged with "false impersonation" and providing "false information" after police accused them of using the cover of tourist visas to enter the country, instead of journalist visas.

Cox's Bazar police chief Ranjit Kumar Barua told AFP the pair were also "primarily accused of espionage".

"They were collecting information on the Rohingya for Myanmar," he said.

An award-winning photographer from Bangladesh also arrested with the pair was later freed.

Scores of foreign journalists have poured into Bangladesh to cover the Rohingya exodus.

The UN has accused Buddhist-dominated Myanmar of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the stateless group, who say the military has launched a brutal crackdown in Rakhine.

Minzayar Oo and Hkun Lat arrived in Cox's Bazar in early September on assignment for Hamburg-based magazine Geo to cover the refugee crisis, which has strained relations between Muslim-majority Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Their arrest was only announced on Wednesday and a court on Thursday rejected a bail plea, their Bangladeshi lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua told AFP.

He described Minzayar Oo as "an award winning photographer whose work was published in reputed dailies and magazines including the New York Times, Guardian and National Geographic".

© AFP

Bangladesh authorities on Friday deployed hundreds of police to protect Buddhist temples in the region where about 400,000 Muslim Rohinygas have sought refuge from unrest in Myanmar. 

The move came amid fears of attacks on the religious minority in revenge for events in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar.

Thousands of supporters of a hardline Islamist group staged protests in the border town of Cox's Bazar after Friday prayers, calling on Myanmar to halt what they called the "genocide" of the Rohingya -- who are in the minority in Myanmar.

Some hardliners called on the Bangladesh government to go to war against Myanmar in support of the persecuted Rohingya.

Most of the Rohingya refugees have fled to camps around the Bangladesh border city where there were already 300,000 Rohingya before the latest unrest erupted on August 25.

There has been a huge outpouring of sympathy in Bangladesh for the persecuted Muslim group, with media giving blanket coverage to accounts of alleged massacres and torture by the Myanmar army and Buddhist militia.

Cox's Bazar police chief IqbalHossain said 550 police have been deployed in the region, including at 145 Buddhist temples, to prevent ethnic violence.

He said police had stepped up security so local Buddhists, who have been established for centuries, "don't feel panicked".

"It's a preventive measure," he told AFP. "We've also set up check-posts across the district."

The reinforcements have come from the port city of Chittagong to watch temples, including the 300-year-old KendriyaShima Bihar at Ramu, which hosts important Buddhist relics.

Police were also patrolling outside Buddhist temples in Ukhia and Teknaf -- the nearby towns where most of the newly arrived 400,000 Rohingya refugee took refuge.

District authorities have also set up an inter-religious communal harmony committee since the Rohingya crisis started.

JyotirmoyBarua, a top lawyer from the Buddhist community, told AFP that some 20 armed police were at a temple at Ramu in Cox’s Bazar on Friday.

Buddhist leaders in Bangladesh have protested the anti-Rohingya violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state and have urged Myanmar to resolve the crisis.

They said there have been some minor incidents targeting the Buddhist community.

"They (Bangladeshi Buddhists) are feeling insecure. There is uneasiness," Barua said.

Police in neighbouring Chittagong district have also stepped up security at dozens of Buddhist temples, a senior police official told local media.

Buddhists make up less than one percent of Bangladesh's 160 million people. They are well integrated in society but have faced past attacks.

In 2012, some 25,000 Muslims attacked Buddhist temples and businesses around Cox's Bazar after a Buddhist allegedly put an image defaming the Koran on Facebook.

At least 11 Buddhist temples were torched in the riot. There were allegations in the local press that some Rohingya joined the attack.

(AFP)

Despite being heavily criticized by the Western media over the Rohingya issue, Myanmar State Counselor and former Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has gained popularity with Chinese netizens, who praised her defiance against "outside pressure while safeguarding her people's interest."

Suu Kyi had long been seen as a proxy of the West by nationalistic Chinese netizens due to her close relationship to the Western countries, but she has won cheers recently from the Chinese online communities who are routinely indignant over Western pressure on developing countries over issues concerning national security.

On news portals like guancha.cn and ifeng.com, Net users heap praise on Suu Kyi, calling her "a stateswoman who serves her people's interest" and "a tough and wise woman who knows much better than Western politicians who make political correctness a business."

In spite of heated online discussions about Suu Kyi, her name could not be searched on Sina Weibo. The Chinese public's concern about domestic Islamic extremism has apparently made the crisis in Myanmar a sensitive topic. 

As Suu Kyi's reputation among Chinese Net users improves, the Western media, which had gone out of its way to shape her image, have been harshly criticizing her and the Myanmar government.

"Nearly 400,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh to escape a military offensive that has been described as ethnic cleansing, and raised fears of an unfolding humanitarian crisis," Reuters reported on Friday. The New York Times even suggested that she be "stripped of her Nobel Prize."

"Chinese people shared some concern on religious extremism with Myanmar, so their attitude toward Suu Kyi is also their attitude toward the Myanmar people. Suu Kyi is trying to be a pragmatic stateswoman, not a Westernized liberal idealist, so she will follow her own instincts despite heavy criticism," said Liu Yun, an analyst on Myanmar issues based in Hunan Province.

Another reason for Suu Kyi's rising popularity is her friendly policy on China which many did not expect. And since she has visited China twice, Chinese leaders might visit Myanmar in the near future, so the Chinese people and the government don't want to damage bilateral ties, Liu added.

"China condemns the violent attacks in Rakhine state, supports Myanmar's efforts to safeguard its peace and stability and sincerely hopes that the Rakhine state can restore stability as soon as possible," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said at Tuesday's press conference in Beijing.

"The international community should support the efforts made by Myanmar to maintain national development and stability and create enabling external conditions for the proper settlement of the Rakhine state issue," Geng said.

Courtesy Global Times

Heavy monsoon rain heaped new misery Sunday on hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohinyga stuck in makeshift camps in Bangladesh after fleeing violence in Myanmar, as authorities started a drive to force them to a new site.

With food and water shortages already making life tough, torrential rain brought back swamp-like conditions to many parts of the border town of Cox's Bazar which has become a magnet for the Rohingya.

About 7.7 centimetres (three inches) of rain fell in 24 hours and more is predicted in the next two days, the Bangladesh Weather Department said.

Bangladesh authorities, who have already issued travel restrictions on the Rohingya, launched an operation late Saturday to get tens of thousands out of roadside camps and hillside shanties into a giant new camp.

The United Nations says 409,000 Rohingyas have now overwhelmed Cox's Bazar since August 25 when the military in Buddhist-majority Myanmar launched operations in Rakhine state.

As existing camps are already full with 300,000 Rohingya fleeing earlier violence, many of the Rohingya have been forced to live in the open air or under flimsy plastic sheets.

Police toured streets with loudspeakers ordering exhausted families to go to the Balukhali camp in Cox's Bazar, which is being cleared to build new shelters.

"We are shifting them from the roadsides where many of them have been staying," Khaled Mahmud, a government spokesman for Cox's Bazar district told AFP.

Mahmud said gradually all the new Rohingya would be taken to Balukhali to bring order to the chaotic aid operation.

- 'Disaster unfolding' -

On Saturday, Bangladesh police issued tough new orders banning the Rohingya from moving out of designated areas. The order even prevented them from taking shelter with friends and relatives.

Checkpoints have been set up at key transit points.

With thousands more Rohingya arriving each day, Bangladesh authorities fear the refugees could swamp other towns and cities across the country.

But the United Nations is already warning of intolerable conditions in the camps around Cox's Bazar.

The rain "has doubled their misery", said Mohammed Kai-Kislu, police chief at Ukhia near Cox's Bazar, the new home for many Rohingya.

Aid workers said thousands of Rohingya were drenched by the return of the monsoon after a respite of a few days.

Arfa Begum and seven of her family tried to hide under rubber trees near the Balukhali settlement where they arrived five days earlier.

"They evicted us from the rubber plantation," she said, referring to the police and border guards forcing the refugees out of makeshift shelters.

"It took hours to find a safe place. We were drenched," she told AFP.

Faced with a spreading mudbath, the Rohingya have started building bamboo carpets to get over flooded land.

A human rights expert in Cox's Bazar urged the government to shut local schools for three days to allow the Rohingya to camp in them.

"It is another disaster unfolding. Thousands of Rohingya had no place to hide when the rain came," Nur Khan Liton, who headed Bangladeshi rights group Ain O Salish Kendra, told AFP.

He said moving the Rohingya from roadsides and open spaces should be halted as it was compounding their troubles.

© AFP

Wild elephants trampled two elderly Rohingya refugees to death Monday as they slept underneath a plastic sheet near a forest in Bangladesh, police said.

The incident occurred on the outskirts of Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar district, where tens of thousands of Rohingya have set up makeshift shelters since fleeing violence across the border in Myanmar.

"We can confirm that two people were killed by wild elephants," local police chief Abul Khaer told AFP, adding both the deceased were Rohingya civilians.

More than 410,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since a fresh outbreak of violence erupted on August 25 in Myanmar's westernmost Rakhine state.

Space at established refugee camps in Bangladesh has all but been exhausted, with new arrivals hacking away trees and other vegetation anywhere they can to erect shelters from the monsoon rain.

Many newly-arrived refugees are camping in the open or along roadsides, where they rush aid trucks for food and other desperately needed supplies.

Rohingya elder Kamal Hossain said the two refugees killed by elephants were new arrivals, who had taken refuge in a forested area near the sprawling Kutupalong camp.

"It happened early Monday morning when the Rohingya were sleeping under plastic tents. The wild elephants trampled the two elderly civilians to death," Hossain told AFP.

© AFP

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on Bangladeshi authorities to act judiciously in the case of two Burmese journalists held on spying charges in the southeastern city of Cox’s Bazar. They were arrested a week ago while on assignment for the German magazine GEO to cover the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Photo-journalist Minzayar Oo and his assistant Hkun Lat are facing the possibility of being jailed for five years for trying to cover the crisis resulting from the exodus of around 400,000 Muslim Rohingyas from neighbouring Myanmar since late August.

They were arrested on 7 September although the police did not report their detention until Friday. After their arrest, they were taken to the capital, Dhaka, for secret interrogation and were then returned to Cox’s Bazar.

The police said the charges against them include spreading “false information” and “false impersonation” because they entered Bangladesh on tourist visas rather than as journalists – charges described as relatively minor by their lawyer, Jyotirmoy Barua.

But they are also charged with spying because, according to the Cox’s Bazar police chief, they were “collecting information on the Rohingya for Myanmar.” This carries a possible five-year jail sentence.

“We are very disturbed by the spying charge, which is not based on any evidence and is probably due to factors that have nothing to do with these two journalists,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “Their professionalism is unanimously recognized and they were just trying to do their job by documenting the region’s acute crisis.”

A request for their release on bail was rejected yesterday. Meanwhile, they have not been able to see their lawyer. RSF calls on the Bangladeshi authorities to respect the rule of law in their handling of the case.

Bangladesh is ranked 146th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2017 World Press Freedom Index.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army ( ARSA) is a 'common enemy' of Bangladesh and Myanmar, says Hassan Toufiq Imam, political adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

"Bangladesh's present government maintains its policy of zero tolerance when it comes to fighting terrorists. Moreover, those who attacked 30 police stations and army bases are terrorists," he told Mizzima in an exclusive interview.

He said that Bangladesh has dismantled bases of rebels from India's Northeast and deported several top leaders and activists from that region who were sheltered in the country during previous regimes.

"What we have done with rebels from India's Northeast will be done with these terrorists from Myanmar. We will not tolerate their presence and not allow our soil to be used for any mischief in Myanmar," Mr Imam said.

He said after the Aug 24 coordinated attacks in northern Rakhine, Bangladesh offered joint military operations and coordinated joint patrolling of sensitive border stretches.

'But we have got no response from Myanmar for reasons we dont understand. We have excellent security relations with India specially in areas like counter-terrorism," Mr Imam said.

However, he insisted that Myanmar's army needs to be restrained during counter-insurgency operations.

"Go after the terrorists by all means, but not after the Rohingya population, the innocent villagers, because they are your people. Avoid ethnic cleansing," was his advice for the Tatmadaw.

Imam, a Pakistan civil service officer who fought in the Bangladesh Liberation War, has vast experience of counter-insurgency when Bangladesh security forces fought Shanti Bahini rebels in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

"It does not pay in the long run to alienate the whole population because counter-insurgency is all about fighting insurgents and not the people," he said.

Mr Imam said that Bangladesh has taken in nearly half a million Rohingya refugees since the Aug 24 attacks.

"Is that not something the world needs to know! Europe grappled with 100,000 refugees and that made headlines. We have taken in four times more without making a song and dance about it," he said.

However, Imam clarified that while Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina has asked the administration to accept and accomodate the Rohingya refugees for humanitarian reasons, it had 'very good reasons' to hit out at the ARSA terrorists.

Bangladesh intelligence had suggested before that the ARSA enjoyed close links with Bangladesh's leading jihadi group Jamaat ul Mjahideen (JMB) and Paklistan's Lashkar e Tayyaba (LET).

Imam was keen that Myanmar should take back the Rohingyas and allow them to live 'life with dignity' in a democratic federal Myanmar.

"As a neighbour,  we have a vested interest in Myanmar's stability. If Myanmar is disturbed, we are affected," he said. 

Germany’s much-anticipated national elections will be held on September 25. Yesterday, Myanmar’s Union Election Commission (UEC) began a visit to Germany to learn first-hand how this election of 60 million voters is organized, to observe the campaign, as well as the voting and counting on Election Day. The trip is supported by the European Union through the STEP Democracy programme in Myanmar implemented by International IDEA and partners, according to a statement.

The delegation has already met with the head of Germany’s electoral system, Federal Returning Officer, Mr. Dieter Sarreither and today they will meet with state and local electoral authorities to better understand how a federal system manages a national vote. They will also engage with civil society organisations and learn how civic and voter education in Germany is conducted.

UEC Chair U Hla Thein said, “We want to continue to deliver better and better elections for the Myanmar people, and this study tour will give us a close look at elections in a developed federal state. We look forward to sharing ideas with our German counterparts on improving electoral processes”.

EU Ambassador-designate to Myanmar, Kristian Schmidt, said “The next national elections in Myanmar are still far off, but now is exactly the right time to build the capacities for that day in 2020”.

“The UEC has made important progress towards international good practice in election management, including engaging civil society in voter education efforts.  Sharing these experiences with counterparts and learning from different approaches can help the UEC to further improve the electoral process in Myanmar." commented Mark McDowell, Head of Mission, International IDEA Myanmar.

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has issued a new call for Myanmar to take back the some 420,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in the country.

Hasina, speaking to Bangladeshi activists in New York where she is attending the UN General Assembly, also called for greater international pressure on Myanmar over the new crisis which has unfolded in the past three weeks, media reports said.

"We have told Myanmar, they are your citizens, you must take them back, keep them safe, give them shelter, there should not be any oppression and torture," she told a meeting late Tuesday in New York.

The prime minister said Bangladesh was making diplomatic efforts to persuade Myanmar to take back the refugees.

While Bangladesh has earned international praise for opening its doors to the Rohingyas, aid agencies have warning of a growing humanitarian crisis as authorities struggle to provide even basic facilities for the new arrivals.

The 420,000 now in makeshift shelters around the border town of Cox's Bazar have added to about 300,000 Rohingya who moved into camps in the region following earlier waves of violence in Myanmar.

© AFP

Bangladesh's army was Wednesday ordered to take a bigger role in helping hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who have fled ethnic violence in Myanmar, by distributing relief aid and building shelters.

Troops would be deployed immediately in Cox's Bazar near the border where more than 420,000 Rohingya have arrived since August 25, said road transport minister Obaidul Quader, who is also deputy head of the ruling Awami League party.

Soldiers would mainly distribute relief and carry out rehabilitation, as well as ensuring order, Quader told AFP.

"The army presence is especially needed on the spot to construct their shelters, which is a very tough task, and ensure sanitation," he said.

The latest order came from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Quader said. 

Previously troops had been tasked with transporting foreign relief supplies from Chittagong airport to Cox's Bazar.

The minister said heavy rain for the past 24 hours was intensifying the misery of the Rohingya, tens of thousands of whom have set up shelters on hills around Cox's Bazar despite the risk of landslides.

Authorities have so far set up 12 relief centres and eight emergency kitchens for the Rohingya refugees.

© AFP

Loyalist bodyguards and counter-terrorism officials foiled an attempt on Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in late August.

Intercepts suggested that a group of 6 to 7 personnel of the SSF, who guards the Prime Minister, were all set to attack Hasina in her office on 24th August.

At the same time, JMB jihadis would trigger huge explosions all around the office to divert the attention of the rest of her security detail to provide an escape route for the assassins.

"This plan was modelled on the Indira Gandhi assassination, an inside job to be performed by a section of recalcitrant bodyguards, but with outside support from jihadis," said a top Bangladesh official in an exclusive chat with this writer.

But the JMB's communication with the rogue SSF unit through a senior opposition leader was intercepted by both Indian and Bangladesh intelligence who jointly monitor the 'extremist chatter' in Eastern South Asia and loyalists in the SSF managed to neutralise the plotters.

They were whisked off by counter-terrorism officials and their whereabouts are not known. But possibly they are under sustained interrogation to track down the 'roots of the conspiracy’.

When the intercepts were decoded and the attack plan came to light , PM Hasina was advised to stay in a location outside her office which she had visited for personal reasons. Loyal SSF personnel in her inner ring threw a strong cordon around her and only after the rogues had been apprehended was she able to return to her office.

"The whole operation was discreet, we still want to catch others involved, so no formal disclosures have been or will be made in the near future," the top official said.

Bangladesh and Indian intelligence suspect that there is a Pakistani hand in the whole plan and that it began to unfold after ISI Brigadier 'Ashfaq' met Khaleda Zia and her son Tareque in a London hotel in late July, as widely reported in the Bangladesh press.

What has not been reported is that before the planned hit on Hasina on Aug 24, two SSG officers Maj Gen Numan Zakaria and Maj Gen Tareq Gulzar had also met Khaleda and Tareque in the house of late Ziaur Rehman's cousin’s sister Bilkis Prodhan Juthi in London's Finchley area .

The meeting was monitored by Bangladesh intelligence and Indian intelligence monitored a call from Zakaria to a top official in the ISI Operations directorate which suggested finalisation of a plan to create large scale disorder in Bangladesh soon.

Gulzar also called the ISI directorate to report their travel plans.

Bangladesh intelligence agencies have better human assets in the diaspora while Indian intelligence has superb TECHINT and SIGINT capabilities.

Indian and Bangladesh intelligence had earlier intercepted communications between Brigadier 'Ashfaq' and Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) military wing chief Hafiz Tohar , wherein Ashfaq asked Tohar to mount multiple attacks on Burmese security forces just after former UN secretary general Kofi Annan had presented the Rakhine Commission report to Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar president Htin Kyaw on 24th August.

Tohar's guerrillas backed by armed Rohingya villagers attacked 30 police stations and one army base on 24th August midnight.

Myanmar news agency Mizzima in an exclusive report detailed the content of the two calls from 'Ashfaq' to Tohar and one from ISIS spokesman 'Al Amin' to Tohar on 23-24 August.

These attacks torpedoed the peace process Suu Kyi had wished to start in Rakhine after she promised to implement the Rakhine Commission report.

Bangladesh intelligence suspects that the ISI had a grand plan finalised after their officials met Khaleda and Tareque in which the Bangladesh-Myanmar border region would be disturbed and PM Hasina assassinated in one stroke.

They say a red alert has been issued in the country to guard against possible Pakistan-BNP triggered communal violence originating in the Rohingya refugee zone in south-east Bangladesh but that could soon spread during the forthcoming Durga Puja .

This is said to be the 11th assassination attempt on PM Hasina since she took charge in Jan 2009.

Bangladesh authorities Friday released two Myanmar photographers covering the Rohingya crisis for a German magazine after they were granted bail by a court, police and a lawyer said.

Minzayar Oo and Hkun Lat were detained early this month in the border district of Cox's Bazar, where more than 420,000 Rohingya Muslims have sought refuge from violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state since August 25. 

Police have said they were arrested on suspicion of espionage -- a charge rejected by the pair's lawyers. 

"They were freed on bail," a police inspector told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

One of the pair's lawyers, Jyotirmoy Barua, confirmed that the two were granted bail by a court of a judicial magistrate in Cox's Bazar. 

It was not clear whether the two would be allowed to travel back to Myanmar. 

The lawyer said the two were charged with "false impersonation" and providing "false information" after police accused them of using tourist visas to enter the country, instead of journalist visas.

Cox's Bazar police, however, earlier told AFP the pair were also "primarily accused of espionage".

An award-winning photographer from Bangladesh also arrested with the pair was later freed.

Scores of foreign journalists have poured into Bangladesh's southeast to cover the Rohingya exodus.

The UN has accused Buddhist-dominated Myanmar of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the stateless group.

Minzayar Oo and Hkun Lat arrived in Cox's Bazar in early September on assignment for Hamburg-based magazine Geo to cover the refugee crisis, which has strained relations between Muslim-majority Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The lawyer described Minzayar Oo as "an award winning photographer whose work was published in reputed dailies and magazines including the New York Times, Guardian and National Geographic".

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has urged Bangladesh to release the photographers and drop all charges against them. 

"The Bangladeshi authorities should not criminalise covering a major world story," said CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney said last week.

"Both local and international journalists reporting on the Rohingya story must be allowed to work freely," he said.

(AFP)

In a small village in southern Bangladesh, hundreds of Hindu refugees from neighbouring Myanmar are being handed plates heaped with dal and rice, less than a mile from where desperate Muslim Rohingya beg for food and shelter.

The contrast captures the sharp religious and ethnic divides that have only deepened since a convulsion of violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state unleashed a staggering refugee crisis.

The vast majority of those fleeing into Bangladesh are Rohingya Muslims, with more than 420,000 bolting from a campaign of violence that the United Nations has said amounts to "ethnic cleansing".

Their arrival in less than a month has overwhelmed authorities and aid agencies, and many have received little or no official help since they arrived, leaving them without basic shelter, food and water.

A far smaller but still significant number of Buddhists and Hindus were also caught up in the communal violence, which erupted after Rohingya militants attacked police posts on August 25, triggering a ruthless military crackdown.

While most were displaced within Rakhine, an estimated 500 Hindus fled to Bangladesh, where they initially tried to find space in the overflowing camps dominated by Rohingya. 

But communal tensions trailed them there, according to Hindu refugees who have since been given sanctuary by a local Hindu community nearby.

In the small Hindu village in Kutupalong they now call home, the refugees first described attacks on their homes in Rakhine that triggered their escape. 

"They came in black and they covered their faces," said Niranjan Rudro, 50, who worked as a barber in Myanmar.

"In my village there were 70 Hindu families. They surrounded us for three days and we couldn't leave the house even to get food."

Many of the refugees told similar stories, although all are impossible for AFP to verify.

Some said they believed their attackers were from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the Rohingya group dubbed terrorists by the Myanmar government and said to have been behind the ambushes on police posts.

Since the latest eruption of violence, Rakhine's ethnic groups have traded rival accusations over who is to blame for the carnage, exacerbating long-running mistrust between the communities. 

Rohingya refugees have blamed the army and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist mobs for killings and arson attacks that have ripped through their communities, turning hundreds of villages into piles of ash. 

Buddhist and Hindu groups, meanwhile, say they were terrorised by Rohingya terrorists whose raids on police posts tipped the region into crisis. 

According to the Hindu refugees, tensions spilled into violence even after they arrived in Bangladesh. 

Some said they were ostracised and attacked at the nearby Kutupalong camp, where they initially tried to cram in among the hundreds of thousands of newly arrived Rohingya refugees. 

Three young men showed AFP bruises and scars that they said were inflicted by the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. 

Puja Mollick, 18, said she came to Bangladesh after losing her parents and husband in the violence in Rakhine.

When she arrived in Kutupalong, men tried to force her into marriage against her will until she was rescued by an uncle.

But she and others have now found safety in the Hindu village less than a mile from the Kutupalong camp.

Local families have taken in around 200, while another 300 are crammed into a basic shelter nearby.

All receive regular meals, paid for mainly by donations from local Hindus.

"We heard that Hindu people were here in Bangladesh, camping out in the forests. So we went to find them and brought them here," community leader Shapon Sharma told AFP.

"We reached out to Hindu communities... all over Bangladesh to arrange for food and shelter for them."

(AFP)

The office of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikha Hasina on Sunday denied as "completely baseless" some media reports of a plot by her bodyguards to kill her last month.

However, a senior minister said separately there had been an assassination conspiracy, without giving details.

The prime minister's office issued a statement condemning the allegations carried in some news outlets as "completely baseless, misleading and motivated".

Deputy press secretary Mohammad Ashraful Alam said the rumours of an assassination attempt on August 24 by officers of Hasina's special security force were fabricated and damaging to the country.

Bangladesh's state-run news agency issued an advisory Saturday asking subscribers not to use an earlier story apparently referring to the reports. Some other outlets published details of an alleged plot involving the bodyguards and an Islamist group.

Obaidul Quader, an influential minister and deputy leader of the ruling Awami League party, told reporters Sunday there had been a conspiracy between local and foreign groups to assassinate the prime minister but offered no details.

Hasina, seen as a moderate in religious affairs in the mainly Muslim nation, was targeted by an Islamist extremist group in 2004 when leader of the opposition. She survived a grenade attack at a political rally which killed 22 people.

Since coming to power, she has cracked down on religious extremists.  

Rumours of another assassination attempt come as Hasina rallies international support at the United Nations in New York over the Rohingya refugee crisis unfolding on Bangladesh's border.

© AFP