Myanmar

Myanmar police open fire and kill at least seven Buddhist protesters

Burma/Myanmar — Approximately 5,000 Buddhist protesters gathered in Mrauk U on Wednesday, protesting a ban on their freedom to gather in remembrance of the Kingdom of Arakan, which ended in 1784. This generally happens every year but was banned this year by the government. Reports are currently conflicting — some say they tried to enter […]

Burmese military admits to killing of civilians found in mass grave

Yangon, Myanmar/Burma — A mass grave containing the bodies of 10 dead Rohingya Muslims has been uncovered in Rakhine State, Burma; the Rohingya combatants in the area have told authorities that the people buried were not a part of their organization. The government had earlier admitted to killing 10 “terrorists” in September, but have since […]

Reuters journalists in Burma charged under Official Secrets Act

Burma/Myanmar — Two Reuters journalists were arrested on December 12, and have recently been charged under the “Official Secrets Act.” The two journalists, Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo, had previously reported on the violence in Rakhine state with the Rohingya people. More often than not, the government tends to keep tight control over their media […]

State-owned Burmese media sells Muslim extremist angle — and many are buying it

The Burmese (Myanmar) government has been fighting ethnic minorities for decades. They have committed grave human rights abuses on every level, and they’ve done it to Christians, animists, Buddhists and most recently, the Rohingya Muslims. The violence toward the Rohingya civilians has been particularly harsh — Doctors Without Borders reported 8,170 deaths in the first […]

Burmese government pushing the front lines under the pretext of peace

Anonymous sources within Karen State, Burma, have told SOFREP that the Burmese government (the same government currently attacking the Rohingya) are using a ceasefire with them to expand their front lines into Karen territory. That way, if the fighting breaks out again, they will have the advantage of existing infrastructure to help attack both combatants […]

The Burmese tools of genocide: Mortars

Genocides, ethnic cleansing, democide — whatever name affixes itself to the act, there is one thing for certain: it takes a whole lot of work. The sheer amount of resources it takes to violently murder on a mass-scale, and displace, say, 650,000 people, involves a significant amount of resources and time. However, most regimes that […]

Marginalized Medicine: The hidden killer in a genocide

When a lot of people hear about a genocide in Sudan or ethnic cleansing in Burma, they think of the violence. Human beings are capable of terrible things, and the types of things they do to each other in these situations rightfully make the headlines. Recently, Burma’s offensive toward their own Rohingya people has meant […]

Over 1,200 Rohingya children under 5 killed in the first month of Burma Army push

The aid organization Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) has reported the deaths of 11,393 Rohingya people in the first 31 days of fighting against the ethnic minority; 1,713 were children under the age of five. “Of these, 8,170 deaths were due to violence … including 1,247 children under five years of age.” The survey […]

Rape a commonly used weapon against Rohingya civilian women

Rakhine State, Burma — The Burmese military has long persecuted all sorts of ethnic minorities throughout Myanmar/Burma — Muslim, Christian, animist or Buddhist — but the violence toward the Rohingya Muslims in recent months has proven exceptionally brutal. Countless documented cases of human rights abuses and war crimes have been reported from multiple aid organizations, […]

Op-Ed/EXCLUSIVE: The Rohingya in pictures

The Rohingya — A lot of wars have been fought for so long that people just sort of forget about them. There’s a certain tug on the heartstrings when you hear about strangers in foreign lands experiencing impossible hardships, but that quickly fades once you start to hear the “same news” over and over. Alternate […]