Myanmar’s junta stepped into the deepening Rohingya crisis yesterday, denying any of the Muslim boat people washing up in Thailand, India and Indonesia were from its soil, but promising to take unspecified “measures.”
“The Rohinja is not included in over 100 national races of the Union of Myanmar,” it said in all state-controlled papers, its first reaction since reports surfaced two weeks ago of the Thai army towing migrants out to sea and leaving them to die.
Rohinja is an alternative spelling for the Muslim minority from Rakhine state in the former Burma’s northwest.
“Moreover, a statement released yesterday by Thailand did not mention that those who made [the] attempt to illegally enter Thailand from the sea were from Myanmar,” the announcement added.
“Nevertheless, the departments concerned of the Government of Myanmar will take necessary measures in connection with the above matter,” it continued, without elaboration.
Narinjara News, a Dhaka-based Rakhine news agency, reported this week that a Myanmar artillery battalion had been redeployed last month from the former capital, Yangon, to Buthidaung, a town in the midst of Rohingya villages.
More than 500 Rohingya are feared to have drowned since early last month after being towed out to sea by the Thai military and abandoned in rickety boats without functioning engines.
The army has admitted cutting them loose, but said they had food and water and denied the engines were sabotaged.
Thailand is trying to depict them as illegal economic migrants, and paraded a group of 78 intercepted on Monday on domestic television, showing off wounds the migrants said were inflicted by Myanmar naval officials.
Survivors of some of the Thai “push-backs” have corroborated the reports of Myanmar abuse, with one man who washed up on Indonesia’s Aceh Province early this month telling al-Jazeera television he faced certain death if sent back to Myanmar.
Indonesia yesterday denied it was holding around 170 refugees from Myanmar, calling them “economic migrants” even as new accounts emerged of their harrowing journey and abuse by the Thai navy.
The migrants would be repatriated to Myanmar despite the concerns of rights groups, the foreign ministry said.
One of the migrants who spoke to reporters yesterday from a hospital in Sabang, northern Sumatra, said hundreds of Rohingya had been beaten for days by Thai troops, then towed out to sea and abandoned to die.
He begged not to be sent back to Myanmar or Thailand.
“For three days and three nights, we were beaten by Thai navy with big guns and wooden sticks. They hit us all over our bodies,” said Mohammad Hasan, 22, in a hospital where he is being treated for tuberculosis.
“We were put into four boats with no engines, no rice, no food, no water” and towed out to sea by a Thai navy ship for one day and night, he said.
“In the morning, they cut the rope and shot in the air randomly ... The Thai navy left us after that,” he said. “If Indonesia sends me back to Myanmar, my family will be shot by the Myanmar military ... They don’t want us to live in Myanmar because we are Muslims.”
The 174 Rohingya and 19 Bangladeshis being kept at the naval base were found in a boat off northern Sumatra on Jan. 7.
They are believed to be survivors from a group of about 1,000 mainly Rohingya who were abandoned at sea by the Thai military. Thailand denies the allegations.
Nearly 650 have been rescued in waters off India and Indonesia but hundreds remain unaccounted for.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said the migrants had “economic motives” for leaving Myanmar and refused to comment on their alleged abuse by Thai security forces.
“We’ve read about the ill-treatment by Thailand in the media. But what we seek is the result of our own investigations. Don’t be quick to jump to conclusions and say there are human rights violations,” he told reporters.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS