Myanmar violated UN child rights pact thru Rohingya crackdown

Myanmar violated its obligations to the United Nations child rights convention in its crackdown on the Rohingya that led to an exodus of hundreds of thousands of people from the minority community, legal experts have found.

Children make up around half of the more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh since the start of a military crackdown last August.

The U.N. has called the Myanmar military operations a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. Myanmar denies the allegation and has said it waged a legitimate counter-insurgency operation after Muslim militants attacked security posts.

Legal experts commissioned by Save the Children Norway analyzed research by UN bodies and international human rights groups who have alleged that mass killings, arson, and torture were conducted by Myanmar security forces on the Rohingya.

“The research finds that the response by the Myanmar Government to the August 2017 attacks on police posts, together with the ongoing discrimination against Rohingya, constitute violations of at least seven key articles of the (UN convention on the rights of the child),” their report said.

The analysis found both the government and the security forces at fault. The Myanmar government “took positive steps” to assist the military operations and there was no evidence to suggest it did anything to curtail or condemn the security forces’ actions, the report said.

Myanmar acceded to the United Nations convention on the rights of the child in 1991 and is bound to it by law. Representatives of the Myanmar government and military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The violations highlighted in the report include failure to protect children from violence, abuse, neglect, sexual and other exploitation, inhumane treatment and detention.

It refers to “indiscriminate and extrajudicial killing of Rohingya children, and the torture, ill-treatment and gender-based violence” committed against them.

The government’s failure to conduct an independent investigation into the events following the August 2017 attacks, and ongoing discrimination against Rohingya children by denying them citizenship also are in violation of Myanmar’s obligations to the child rights convention, the report said.

The report was shared exclusively with Reuters ahead of its release next week.

“The list of violations we have found is not exhaustive,” said Guy Goodwin-Gill, emeritus professor of international refugee law at Oxford University, who co-authored the report.

“It represents only the most serious violations and there most likely are several others.”

Dhaka blames Myanmar for not stopping drug smuggling

UNB reports from Chattogram: Drugs are being smuggled into Bangladesh from neighbouring countries, especially Myanmar, security services division secretary of the home affairs ministry, M Farid Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury said on Saturday.

Attending a discussion programme organised by district administration at Chattogram Circuit House, he said there has been an agreement with Myanmar, signed in 1994, in this regard and list had been handed over to Myanmar on illegal drug factories but Myanmar did not take any steps.

"We could hold only three meetings with Myanmar since the signing of that agreement. They (Myanmar authorities) even don't want to sit for the meeting," said M Farid Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury.

He, however, mentioned in a positive note that after receipt of such list from Bangladesh, India has shut down many illicit drug factories in bordering areas. He added, as a result, smuggling of drugs from India to Bangladesh has been reduced now.

The secretary said the anti-drug drives will continue until it reaches to a sustainable level.

He urged for combined efforts of all people to eliminate drug aggression from the society.

"The horror of drug is spreading, these drugs are not produced in Bangladesh, drugs are being smuggled into the country through the neighboring countries. We are trying to restrict the trafficking but due to lack of cooperation from the neighboring countries, we are unable to succeed completely", he said.

Chattogram deputy commissioner (DC) and top officials of district police, Fire Service, Passport Department, Jail authorities and Narcotics Control Department were present in the programme.