Rohingya crisis: UN chief asks Suu Kyi to allow return of Muslim refugees

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday met Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and urged her to take steps to ensure "dignified" return of hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees who have fled the country to Bangladesh following violence against them.

Separately on the margins of the ASEAN summit in Manila, the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also met Suu Kyi and discussed the humanitarian crisis in the Rakhine state.

In his meeting with Myanmar's State Counsellor, the UN Secretary General highlighted the need for allowing the return of displaced Muslims who have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh.

The Rohingya issue also figured during a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump last night.

"The Secretary-General and the State Counsellor discussed the situation in Rakhine State. The Secretary-General highlighted that strengthened efforts to ensure humanitarian access, safe, dignified, voluntary and sustained returns, as well as true reconciliation between communities, would be essential," the UN said in a statement.

Over 6,00,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh from predominantly Buddhist Myanmar's Rakhine state since late August after large-scale violence.

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Rohingya crisis: EU, US weighing sanctions against Myanmar army leaders

The European Union and the United States are considering targeted sanctions against Myanmar military leaders over an offensive that has driven more than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims out of the country, officials familiar with the discussions say.

Interviews with more than a dozen diplomats and government officials based in Washington, Yangon and Europe revealed that punitive measures aimed specifically at top generals were among a range of options being discussed in response to the crisis.

Nothing has yet been decided and Washington and Brussels may decide to hold off for now, the sources said. There are also discussions about increasing aid for violence-riven Rakhine state.

The active discussion of sanctions – not even on the table a month ago – shows how the dramatic exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar’s northwest is putting pressure on Western policymakers to take action.

While much of the outcry overseas has focused on Nobel laureate and Myanmar’s national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, few Western diplomats see an alternative to her leadership. Suu Kyi does not control the military, which still wields considerable power under Myanmar’s army-written constitution.
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Why homeless Rohingya are still backing Myanmar insurgency

For 28-year-old Rohingya Muslim shopkeeper Mohammed Rashid, the evening phone call from organisers of the fledgling insurgent movement came as a surprise.

“Be ready,” was the message.

A few hours later, after meeting in the darkness in an open field, he was one of 150 men who attacked a Myanmar Border Guard Police post armed with swords, homemade explosives and a few handguns. At the end of a short battle, half a dozen men he had grown up with in his village were dead.

“We had no training, no weapons,” said Rashid, from the Buthidaung area of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, who had joined the group just two months earlier.

Accounts from some of those, like Rashid, who took part in attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on dozens of police posts early on Aug. 25 paint a picture of a rag-tag band of hopeless, angry villagers, who were promised AK-47 rifles but ended up fighting with sticks and knives.

Hundreds joined as recently as June, according to the accounts, and membership meant little more than a knife and messages from leaders on the popular mobile messaging app Whatsapp.
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Rohingya militant group ARSA declares one-month ceasefire on Twitter handle

Rohingya militants, whose August 25 raids in Myanmar's Rakhine State sparked an army crackdown that has seen nearly 300,000 of the Muslim minority flee to Bangladesh, on Sunday declared an immediate unilateral one-month ceasefire.

"The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) hereby declares a temporary cessation of offensive military operations," it said in a statement on its Twitter handle @ARSA_Official, adding it was to allow for humanitarian aid to reach the battered region.

IMPORTANT: PRESS RELEASE
(10th Sept, 2017)#ARSA hereby declares a ceasefire from offensive military operations for one month from today. pic.twitter.com/DHBjQqnyIo
— ARSA_The Army (@ARSA_Official) September 9, 2017

The group urged "all humanitarian actors" to resume aid delivery to "all victims of humanitarian crisis irrespective of ethnic or religious background" during the ceasefire period which runs until October 9.

It urged Myanmar to "reciprocate this humanitarian pause" in fighting, with huge numbers of displaced moving across Rakhine many believed to be in desperate need of help after over two weeks of violence.
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