ICC says can rule on Rohingya deportations from Myanmar

Yahoo – AFP, 6 September 2018

Some 700,000 people from the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority have fled 

Myanmar's northern Rakhine state into neighbouring Bangladesh since August last 

year to escape a bloody military crackdown Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees 

staged angry protests for "justice" on August 25 on the first anniversary of a 

Myanmar military crackdown that sparked a mass exodus to camps in Bangladesh

The International Criminal Court said Thursday it had jurisdiction to probe the forced exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar as a possible crime against humanity.

The ICC's "pre-trial chamber... decided by majority the court may exercise jurisdiction over the alleged deportations of the Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh," the Hague-based tribunal said in a statement.

The Myanmar government on Thursday declined to comment on the announcement when contacted by AFP.

Some 700,000 people from the stateless Muslim minority have fled Myanmar's northern Rakhine state into neighbouring Bangladesh since August last year to escape a bloody military crackdown.

The violence has left a trail of torched villages in its wake, amid allegations of murder and rape at the hands of troops and vigilantes.

In an unprecedented move in April, the ICC's chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda asked judges at the world's only permanent war crimes court to rule whether she can investigate the deportations as a crime against humanity.

It is a legally complicated request, as Myanmar is not a signatory and member of the Rome Statute which underpins the ICC.

Bangladesh,however, is a signatory and Bensouda argued that should give her office jurisdiction to investigate the plight of the Rohingya.

She likened deportation to "a cross-border shooting", arguing the crime "is not completed until the bullet (fired in one state) strikes and kills the victim (standing in another state)".

UN chief urges Myanmar to halt attacks on Rohingya

Yahoo – AFP, September 13, 2017

Rohingya Muslim refugees disembark from a boat on the Bangladeshi side of
Naf river on September 12, 2017 (AFP Photo/MUNIR UZ ZAMAN)

UN chief Antonio Guterres acknowledged Wednesday that Rohingya Muslims were being ethnically cleansed in Myanmar as he called for a halt to a military campaign in Rakhine state.

Speaking ahead of a Security Council meeting to discuss the worsening humanitarian crisis there, Guterres described reports of security forces attacking civilians in Rakhine as "disturbing" and "completely unacceptable."

"I call on the Myanmar authorities to suspend military action, end the violence, uphold the rule of law and recognize the right of return of all those who had to leave the country," the secretary general said in a press conference.

Asked if he agreed the Rohingya population was being ethnically cleansed, he replied: "When one-third of the Rohingya population has got to flee the country, can you find a better word to describe it?"

The crackdown by Myanmar's army, which followed attacks by Rohingya militants late last month, has prompted around 380,000 to flee across the border into neighboring Bangladesh.

Guterres called for authorities "to assure the delivery of vital humanitarian aid" in Rakhine state, with thousands of Rohingya still crossing the border every day.

The 1.1-million strong Rohingya have suffered years of discrimination in Myanmar, where they are denied citizenship even though many have longstanding roots in the country.

But Guterres said that the Myanmar government should either grant the Rohingya nationality or legal status that would allow them to live a normal life.

- UN meets behind closed doors -

Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been widely condemned for a lack of moral leadership and compassion in the face of the crisis, denting the Nobel peace laureate's reputation.

However Suu Kyi, Myanmar's first civilian leader in decades, has no control over the powerful military, which ran the country for 50 years before elections in 2015.

The Security Council met behind closed doors at the request of Britain and Sweden to try to agree on a response to the crisis, but diplomats said they expected China and Russia to resist calls for a strong statement.

"We need to see an end to the violence. We need to see immediate and widespread access to humanitarian aid and relief for the people of Burma and the people of Rakhine," British Deputy UN Ambassador Jonathan Allen told reporters ahead of the meeting, referring to Myanmar by its name under British colonial rule.

Swedish Ambassador Olof Skoog said he hoped for a "unified outcome" and "clear messages about what needs to happen now."

That message should be that "the military campaign that we have seen is stopped and that there is full respect for human rights and international humanitarian law," said Skoog.

Related Article:

UN warns of 'ethnic cleansing' of Myanmar's Muslims

Bangladesh and India to Swap 18th-Century Border Enclaves

Jakarta Globe, Reuters,  Jun 06, 2015

Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel patrol with a sniffer dog along
 a stretch of the India-Bangladesh border ahead of India's Independence Day
 celebrations in Fulbari village, on the outskirts of the northeastern Indian city
of Siliguri, in this Aug. 12, 2009 file photo. (Reuters Photo/Rupak De Chowdhuri)

Dhaka, Bangladesh. Bangladesh and India will seal an agreement simplifying their 4,000 kilometer border at the weekend, over four decades after the neighbors first tried to untangle complex territorial rights set down in 1713.

The agreement will be one of several to be finalized during a two-day state visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi beginning on Saturday, Dhaka’s Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali told journalists on Friday.

In 1974, the then leaders of the two countries — Indira Gandhi of India and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh — agreed to swap almost 200 enclaves of land located in one country but officially belonging to the other.

“But with the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (in 1975), along with the almost all the members of his family, the process of the agreement stopped for a long time,” Ali said.

The agreement, which has since been updated, will be “a historic milestone in the relationship between the two neighboring south Asian countries,” he added.

Established by a treaty between two former princely states, the 106 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh and 92 Bangladeshi enclaves in India are islands of foreign territory inside each country, most of them close to the official border.

Their inhabitants — about 37,330 in Indian enclaves and 14,200 in Bangladeshi enclaves — are deprived of public services because their governments have no access to them.

Under the agreement, each country will take over most of the enclaves on its territory and inhabitants will have the right to stay where they are or move to the other side of the border.

Ali said the two countries would also sign a number of deals to boost trade and security along the border and fight human trafficking.

Officials would also discuss a possible increase in Indian aid for Dhaka and in Bangladeshi electricity imports from India.

In a separate meeting on Friday, the Bengladeshi central bank governor Atiur Rahman urged Indian businesses to use his country as a low-cost manufacturing base for goods for local and global markets.

Reuters

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Pope condemns Bangladesh 'slave labour' after tragedy

Google – AFP, 1 May 2013

Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience at St Peter's

Square in the Vatican, on May 1, 2013 (AFP, Gabriel Bouys)

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Wednesday condemned as "slave labour" the conditions for hundreds of workers killed in a factory collapse in Bangladesh and urged political leaders to fight unemployment in a sweeping critique of "selfish profit".

The pope said he had been particularly struck by a headline saying workers at the factory near Dhaka were being paid just 38 euros ($50) a month.

"This is called slave labour!" the pope was quoted by Vatican radio as saying in his homily at a private mass in his residence to mark May Day.

More than 400 workers have been confirmed dead and scores are missing in the collapse, which occurred in a suburb of the capital Dhaka last week in the country's worst-ever industrial disaster.

Pope Francis greets a girl as he arrives for

 his weekly audience in St Peter's Square at

the Vatican, on May 1, 2013 (AFP, Gabriel

Bouys)

"Today in the world this slavery is being committed against something beautiful that God has given us -- the capacity to create, to work, to have dignity," the pope said at the mass.

"How many brothers and sisters find themselves in this situation!" he said, as protesters in May Day demonstrations around the world rallied against unfair work conditions and unemployment.

"Not paying fairly, not giving a job because you are only looking at balance sheets, only looking at how to make a profit. That goes against God!" the pope said in his strongly-worded address.

The Argentine pope, formerly the archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Bergoglio, became a powerful voice on the side of the poor during his homeland's devastating economic crisis.

Since being elected pontiff in March, he has repeatedly called for the Roman Catholic Church to be closer to the needy and has said he wants "a poor Church for the poor".

The 76-year-old later spoke to thousands of followers in St Peter's Square, urging politicians to fight unemployment and calling for greater "social justice" against "selfish profit".

"I call on politicians to make every effort to relaunch the labour market," he said in his traditional weekly address.

Worshippers gather in St Peter's Square at

 the Vatican during Pope Francis' weekly

 general audience on May 1, 2013 (AFP,

Filippo Monteforte)

"Work is fundamental for dignity," he said.

He spoke of "labour market difficulties in various countries" -- an apparent reference to the unemployment crisis afflicting Europe.

Unemployment is often caused by "an economic conception of society based on selfish profit outside the bounds of social justice," he said.

The Vatican has often been sharply critical of unregulated capitalism, particularly in recent years during the global financial crisis.

"We do not get dignity from power or money or culture, no! We get dignity from work," he said, adding that many political and economic systems "have made choices that mean exploiting people".

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version) - New

“…   Spiritual Systems

Let's speak about spiritual systems. I will report on what we have said in the past and what may very well be in store for you in the future. There are many spiritual systems on the planet, but the one that we wish to speak of is the one right now that has approximately one billion followers, for this is one we have spoken of before and it's the one that's going to change the most. It's old, and the leader is currently called the Pope.

Now, if you want some information about what's going on in his church, find out how many are signing up to be priests and nuns. In most parts of the world, it's very few. Certain countries have sustained the numbers, but most of them are finding the numbers reduced greatly. Without interest from younger people, this whole spiritual breed is dying. The organization is losing its younger leader pool, and it has been noticed by the church.

Now, here's what I'd like to tell you, dear ones: The potentials are that this church is going to survive, as well it should. Know this: There is nothing occurring now that will create a full earth that will be metaphysical, esoterically minded or New Age. That is not going to happen. It doesn't have to happen and it shouldn't happen, for it doesn't respect the elders of those who have different systems, but who also have healings and the love of God in their systems. Instead, these systems are going to see themselves recalibrate - that is, adjust and correct.

Blessed are the Human Beings who find God in their own way. Old souls will awaken to a truth that new souls are still working on. This explains the various levels of worship on this planet and the reason for very diverse spiritual systems. Many Human Beings who do not have the advantage of your old soul wisdom will motivate towards systems you may feel are too simple, and even mythological. But these systems are often the beginnings of understanding God. There is a place for it all. So let us speak about the Catholic Church.

I gave you a channelling years ago when Pope John Paul was alive. John Paul loved Mary, the mother. Had John Paul survived another 10 years, he would have done what the next Pope [The one after the current one, Benedict XVI] will do, and that is to bring women into the Church. This Pope you have now [Benedict XVI] won't be here long.* The next Pope will be the one who has to change the rules, should he survive. If he doesn't, it will be the one after that.

There it a large struggle within the Church, even right now, and great dissention, for it knows that it is not giving what humanity wants. The doctrine is not current to the puzzles of life. The answer will be to create a better balance between the feminine and masculine, and the new Pope, or the one after that, will try to allow women to be in the higher echelon of the Church structure to assist the priests.

It will be suggested to let women participate in services, doing things women did not do before. This graduates them within church law to an equality with priests, but doesn't actually let them become priests just yet. However, don't be surprised if this begins in another way, and instead gives priests the ability to marry. This will bring the feminine into the church in other ways. It will eventually happen and has to happen. If it does not, it will be the end of the Catholic Church, for humanity will not sustain a spiritual belief system that is out of balance with the love of God and also out of balance with intuitive Human awareness. …”

Bangladesh building collapse: factories supplied shops in west

At least 119 dead at plant where staff were 'told to return to work' despite crack in wall

The Guardian, Saad Hammadi in Dhaka, Jason Burke and Rebecca Smithers, Wednesday 24 April 2013

Link to video: Dhaka building collapse kills dozens in Bangladesh

Hundreds of garment workers employed in factories that supplied high-street shops in the west, including Primark, the high street discount clothing store, , are feared dead after an eight-storey building collapsed on the outskirts of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, on Wednesday.

Though the confirmed death toll was put at 119 on Wednesday evening, officials in the poverty-stricken south Asian country said it was certain to rise substantially, taking the final count into the hundreds. Most of the dead are women.

One rescue worker said about 2,000 people were working on the upper floors of the factory, the Rana Plaza in the suburb of Savar, when the collapse occurred at about 9am, just after work had started for the day. He added that around 1,000 had been pulled from the rubble. Other estimates for the number of workers in the building as a whole were as high as 5,000.

Bangladesh's booming garment industry is one of the country's biggest employers and foreign exchange earners but has been plagued by fires, building collapses and other accidents for many years, despite a drive to improve safety standards. In November 2012, 112 workers died in a blaze at a factory in a nearby suburb, putting a spotlight on global retailers that source clothes from Bangladesh.

Survivors of Wednesday's collapse said there was no warning. "I was at work on the third floor, and then suddenly I heard a deafening sound, but couldn't understand what was happening. I ran and was hit by something on my head," said factory worker Zohra Begum.

Rescuers gather after the eight-storey building, housing several firms making
clothes, collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photograph: AM Ahad/AP

Volunteers and relatives of buried victims were using their hands and rudimentary tools to shift mountains of rubble last night as teams of firefighters and soldiers attempted to reach survivors. Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh, declared Thursday a day of mourning.

Among the businesses in the building were Phantom Apparels, New Wave Style, New Wave Bottoms and New Wave Brothers. The last three firms are all part of the same New Wave group which on its website named 27 main buyers, including firms from Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Canada and the US .

Primark, owned by Associated British Foods, said it was "shocked and saddened", as it confirmed it was currently being supplied by New Wave. The retailer has a total of 257 stores worldwide and in the UK has become symbolic of cheap, "throwaway" fashion which is sold and worn in high volume. It has opened 15 new stores in the past six months, including six in Spain, four in the UK, two in Germany, two in Austria and one in the Netherlands. It is also set to make its first foray into France by the end of the year.

A spokesman said Primark "has been engaged for several years with NGOs and other retailers to review the Bangladeshi industry's approach to factory standards. Primark will push for this review to also include building integrity".

Primark's ethical trade team was urgently working "to collect information, assess which communities the workers come from, and to provide support where possible", the spokesman added.

This week Primark revealed a 24% jump in sales.

At least one factory in the collapsed building has previously supplied the UK discount fashion chain Matalan.

A spokeswoman for Matalan, which has 212 stores in the UK selling fashion for men, women and children, and homeware, said: "We can confirm that New Wave has been a supplier to Matalan, although we don't have any current production with them. We are deeply saddened by the news and we have been trying to get in touch with our contacts since we heard to check if we are able to assist them."

Dilara Begum, a garment worker who survived the accident, said workers had been ordered to leave after a crack appeared in the wall of the building on Tuesday, but on Wednesday morning supervisors asked them to return to work, saying the building had been inspected and declared safe. "We didn't want to go in but the supervisors threatened to dock pay if we didn't return to work," said Begum, who worked at the Phantom factory, on the fourth floor of the building.

"The whole world seemed to shake and then all was dark." She said she had been pulled from the rubble by local people.

Mohammad Asaduzzaman, in charge of the area's police station, said factory owners appeared to have ignored a warning not to allow their workers into the building after the crack was detected. There were five garment factories – employing mostly women – in the building. They included Ether Tex, whose chairman told Reuters he was unaware of any warnings not to open the workshops.

November's factory fire raised questions about how much control western brands have over their supply chains for clothes sourced from Bangladesh. Wages as low as $38.50 a month have helped propel the country to the second largest apparel exporter in the world.

Buildings in the crowded city of Dhaka are sometimes erected without permission and many do not comply with construction regulations.

Savar is a relatively new manufacturing zone and was once swampland.

Laia Blanch, international programmes officer with the charity War on Want, which campaigns for better working conditions for overseas workers in the garment and other industries, said: "It is dreadful that … governments continue to allow garment workers to die or suffer terrible, disabling injuries in unsafe factories making clothes for western nations' shoppers. How many more lives must be lost or crushed before ministers and companies act to stop these scandalous human tragedies?"

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Bangladesh charges 1,000 guards in mutiny massacre

The Jakarta Post, Parveen Ahmed, The Associated Press, Dhaka | Sun, 03/01/2009
  

Bangladeshi police charged more than 1,000 border guards with murder and arson Sunday after a bloody mutiny in the capital left as many as 148 people dead or missing, most of them army officers. 

The government announced plans to form a special tribunal to try the guards who organized the mutiny. 

Of a total of 181 officers, only 33 are known to have survived the uprising at the Bangladesh Rifles border force headquarters in Dhaka, said army spokesman Brig. Gen. Mahmud Hossain. 

Teams continued searching the compound and nearby sewers Sunday for more bodies, including 71 people still unaccounted for. Most of the missing were presumed dead, according to Sheikh Mohammad Shajalal, a firefighter overseeing the search. 

Dhaka metropolitan police official Nobojyoti Khisa said authorities filed murder and arson cases Sunday against more than 1,000 border guards. It was unclear whether those guards would face the special tribunal or other courts. 

The insurrection apparently erupted over the border guards' long-standing complaints that their pay has not kept pace with the salaries of soldiers in the army. 

The crisis has raised questions about the stability of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's two-month-old government in the South Asian country, which has seen nearly two dozen successful and failed military coups in its 38-year history. 

Hasina ended the two-day standoff by persuading the guards to surrender with promises of an amnesty coupled with threats of military force - tanks rolled into Dhaka's streets before the insurrection ended on Thursday. 

Later, the government said those directly responsible for the mutiny and massacre would not fall under the amnesty. 

Hundreds of guards began reporting back to their headquarters on Sunday - all claiming they had no part in the mutiny - after the Home Ministry gave them a 24-hour ultimatum to return to their posts, report to police stations or face disciplinary action. 

The guards waited outside as officials checked their credentials. Some said they were on leave or off duty during the mutiny, while others claimed they fled the compound after the violence started. 

"Why should I be afraid of returning to work? I was not involved in the incident. I left to go to my family outside after the shooting began," said one guard, who refused to give his name. 

The government decided on the tribunal at a Cabinet meeting late Saturday, ruling party spokesman Syed Ashraful Islam said. He said initial evidence suggested the mutinous guards may have had outside assistance, but he did not elaborate.

Hasina on Sunday addressed a gathering of army officers inside military headquarters. Details of the meeting were not immediately available. 

On Friday, army chief Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed met with Hasina and reassured her of the military's support for her government. 

But on Saturday, Hossain, the army spokesman, said that soldiers angered by the carnage were demeaning swift justice for the deaths of their officers. By law, the border force's leadership is made up of army officers. 

Police said earlier that about 200 fleeing guards were arrested in and around the capital over the weekend, while those still inside the compound after the mutiny were being kept at a hospital on the premises. 

Maj. Ishtiaq, who was part of the army leadership for the border force, told reporters that a border guard helped him escape the uprising. 

"When the firing began he said, 'Sir, they will kill you, please come with me.' It was like doomsday for me. I then went with him to his residence amid shooting all around. He gave me his clothes to hide my identity," said Ishtiaq, who only uses one name. 

"It was unbelievable when the killers rejoiced after killing the officers," he said. 

Bangladesh returned to democracy after elections in late December 2008, nearly two years after an army-backed interim government took over amid street protests demanding electoral reforms.