BANGKOK: A dramatic story of survival and rescue off the western coast of Indonesia’s Aceh province has put the spotlight again on the plight of ethnic Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar who make extremely dangerous voyages across the Indian Ocean to seek better lives.
Desperate survivors were pulled to safety from their capsized boat by local fishermen on March 21, 2024, after a yet-unknown number perished.
For Rohingya refugees living in squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh, escaping across the seas might seem like a good option --- but it’s often a deadly one. The UN estimates that as many as one in eight people die or disappear in the attempt.
The UN refugee agency said in January that of 4,500 Rohingyas embarking on sea journeys last year in Southeast Asian waters, 569 were reported dead or missing.
Roots of displacement
Members of the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority have long been considered by Myanmar’s Buddhist majority to be illegal settlers from Bangladesh, even though many of their families lived in Myanmar for generations. Aside from social discrimination, nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless, and have been denied freedom of movement and other basic rights.
In August 2017, Myanmar’s military launched what it called a clearance campaign in northern Rakhine State in response to attacks by a shadowy Rohingya insurgent group. The counterinsurgency action forced about 740,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh and led to accusations that security forces committed mass rapes, killings and burned thousands of homes. International courts are now considering whether the campaign amounted to genocide.
There are now about 1 million Rohingya residing in refugee camps in Bangladesh, including those who fled previous waves of repression.
Most live in large open camps in Cox’s Bazar district, close to the border with Myanmar. There is inadequate water, sanitation, and health care in the overcrowded camps, which are susceptible to fire, flood and outbreaks of disease. There are few opportunities for meaningful work and violent criminal gangs operate unhindered,.
A second major camp set up on the remote island of Bhasan Char in the Bay of Bengal houses about 30,000 refugees. It was supposed to help ease the overcrowding at Cox’s Bazar, but critics say its housing resembles prison blocks, heightening an already dispiriting dead-end atmosphere, and it is vulnerable to flooding.
An estimated 600,000 Rohingya still live in Myanmar, most in camps for internally displaced people or tightly restricted ghettos.
Escape by sea
Social and economic pressures convince some Rohingya living in camps in Myanmar as well as Bangladesh to embark on the dangerous sea voyage to Malaysia or Indonesia, which have Muslim majority populations.
The suffer from a lack of economic opportunity, as well as unhealthy physical and psychological conditions in the camps. Because the majority of Rohingya refugees are stateless, they have no legal hope of resettlement.
The modest job opportunities they believe await them elsewhere are a strong attraction, and in some cases they can get help from relatives who have already started new lives abroad.
But they are often exploited by human traffickers who charge extortionate amounts — anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars — to make the crossing on ramshackle boats with little concern for safety. In some cases, the traffickers deliver the refugees to confederates who trap them into jobs of virtual slavery.
The voyages can take weeks or even months on vessels without adequate supplies of food, water, and safety equipment.
Some never complete the journey. “In a single deadly incident in November 2023, it is feared that some 200 Rohingya lost their lives when their boat was reported to have sunk in the Andaman Sea,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in January.
Destinations
If they are not turned back or lost, the Rohingya refugees usually end up in Thailand, Malaysia or Indonesia.
Thailand tries to discourage refugee landings by offering food, fuel and repairs to send the boats on their way, though if the refugees make landfall they are detained.
Malaysia is relatively more welcoming, allowing thousands of Rohingya refugees to disembark over the years. Like Thailand, it is a middle income country and needs low cost labor. Thailand, however, has a bottomless supply of low cost workers from immediate neighbors such as Myanmar and Cambodia, which Malaysia does not, so in Malaysia the Rohingya arrivals can help fill that gap.
Indonesia has for many years welcomed Rohingya refugees, providing them with temporary accommodation and allowing them to register for resettlement in third countries, a process that can take years
In the past year, however, there have been signs of resentment in Aceh, where several hundred refugees have occasionally arrived in a single day, sparking protests about them taking advantage of local resources and other complaints. The negative sentiment has been egged on by apparently coordinated online hate speech campaigns whose origins are unclear.
Funding plea
While crises elsewhere around the world garner more attention, the UN continues to seek funds to ease the burdens of the Rohingya refugees and their hosts in Bangladesh.
The UN last week launched an appeal to member nations to fund a $852.4 million plan to provide “food, shelter, health care, access to drinkable water, protection services, education and livelihood opportunities and skills development” to the Rohingya refugees and the communities where their camps are.
Indonesia’s rescue of Rohingya refugees at sea is a reminder of an ordeal that began in Myanmar
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Indonesia’s rescue of Rohingya refugees at sea is a reminder of an ordeal that began in Myanmar
Japan’s agriculture minister resigns after a rice gaffe causes political fallout
- Taku Eto’s comment that he ‘never had to buy rice’ because he got it from supporters as a gift got him into trouble
- The gaffe could be further trouble for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party before a national election in July
Taku Eto’s comment, which many Japanese saw as out of touch with economic realities, came at a seminar Sunday for the Liberal Democratic Party, which leads a struggling minority government. The gaffe could be further trouble for the party before a national election in July. A major loss could mean a new government or could mean Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba would have to step down.
“I made an extremely inappropriate remark at a time when consumers are struggling with soaring rice prices,” Eto told reporters after submitting his resignation at the prime minister’s office. He was the first minister to resign under Ishiba’s leadership that began October.
The government has released tonnes of rice from its emergency stockpile in recent months, but the latest agricultural ministry statistics show little impact from the move. Some supermarkets have started selling cheaper imported rice.
Eto also sought to clarify the comments that got him in trouble. He said he does actually buy white rice himself and was not living on rice given as gifts. He said the gift comment referred to brown rice, which he wants people to become interested in because it can reach market faster.
Ishiba appointed popular former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, the son of a former prime minister, to lead the ministry, noting his experience in agriculture and fisheries policies and enthusiasm for reforms.
Koizumi told reporters Ishiba instructed him to do everything to stabilize the rice supply and prices to address consumer concern.
“I was told to put rice before anything,” Koizumi told reporters. “At this difficult time, I will do my utmost to speedily tackle the high rice prices that people feel and worry about in their everyday lives.” He said he shares consumers’ concerns as he feeds his children packaged instant rice sometimes.
Ishiba, also a former farm minister, said he wants to strengthen Japan’s food security and self-sufficiency. He has proposed agricultural reforms, including increased rice production and possible exports, though critics say he should urgently fix the ongoing rice problem first.
Noting the rice situation, Ishiba said he suspects the rice price surge is “not a temporary but a structural problem.”
“It may not be easy to find an answer,” he said, but repeated his pledge to do the utmost to ease consumers’ difficulties and to reform rice policies.
Koizumi said the measures so far have proved ineffective and that he will speed the effort as soon as he formally takes office later Wednesday. He stressed the need to reform Japanese rice policy, which has focused on powerful organizations that represent farmers, to focus more on the benefit of consumers.
Japanese rice demand has decreased over recent decades as people’s diets have diversified, but rice remains a staple food and an integral part of Japanese culture and history.
“Rice is the staple food for the Japanese. When its prices are rising every week, (Eto’s) resignation is only natural,” said Shizuko Oshima, 73.
The shortfall started last August with panic buying following a government caution over preparedness for a major earthquake. The supply pressure eased after the autumn harvest, but a shortage and price increases hit again early this year.
Officials have blamed the supply shortage on poor harvests because of hot weather in 2023 and higher fertilizer and other production costs, but some experts blame the government’s long-term rice production policy.
The unprecedented release from emergency rice stockpiles was seen in part as an attempt to figure out distribution problems. The government has denied there is now a rice shortage, but officials say it’s a mystery why rice is not reaching consumers as expected. Some experts say the rice shortage could be serious but it’s difficult to trace rice as its distribution route has become so complex since the end of government control in 1995.
Pope Leo XIV calls for aid to reach Gaza and an end to hostilities in his first general audience
The Vatican said that around 40,000 people were on hand for the audience, which came just days after an estimated 200,000 people attended the inaugural Mass on Sunday for history’s first American pope.
Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost of Chicago, began the audience with a tour through the piazza in the popemobile and stopped to bless several babies. In addressing specific greetings to different groups of pilgrims, Leo spoke in his native English, his fluent Spanish as well as the traditional Italian of the papacy.
“I renew my heartfelt appeal to allow the entrance of dignified humanitarian aid to Gaza and to put an end to the hostilities whose heartbreaking price is being paid by children, the elderly and sick people,” he said. Leo didn’t mention the plight of hostages taken by Hamas during the assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as Pope Francis normally would.
The general audience on Wednesdays is a weekly appointment that popes have kept for decades to allow ordinary faithful to have a face-to-face encounter with the pontiff. It features the pope delivering a brief reflection on a theme or Scripture passage, with summaries provided by others in different languages and the pope directing specific messages to particular faith groups.
The encounter, which lasts more than an hour, usually ends with a brief topical appeal by the pope about a current issue or upcoming event. Leo began it with his now-frequent mantra “Peace be with you.”
To that end, Leo on Tuesday reaffirmed the Vatican’s willingness to host the next round of ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine during a phone call with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, the Italian leader’s office said.
Meloni made the call after speaking with US President Donald Trump and other European leaders, who asked her to verify the Holy See’s offer.
“Finding in the Holy Father the confirmation of the willingness to welcome the next talks between the parties, the premier expressed profound gratitude for Pope Leo XIV’s willingness and his incessant commitment in favor of peace,” Meloni’s office said in a statement late Tuesday.
Trump had referred to the Vatican’s longstanding offer to host talks in reporting on his phone call Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
While low-level talks could take place in Rome, Italy would be hard-pressed to allow Putin to fly into Rome for any higher-level negotiation.
Putin is subject to an international arrest warrant against him from the International Criminal Court, of which Italy is a founding member and therefore obliged to execute its warrants.
Macron chairs meeting to address ‘threat’ of Muslim Brotherhood
- France’s authorities are eager to prevent any spread of extremist Islamist ideas in a country that has been rocked by a string of deadly jihadist attacks
PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday chaired a security meeting following the publication of a report sounding the alarm about the Muslim Brotherhood and the spread of “political Islamism” in France.
The meeting, which was to include the head of government and key ministers, addressed a report that calls for action to address the rising influence of the Islamist movement which it said poses “a threat to national cohesion” in France.
After the meeting, measures will be taken, “some of which will be announced” and others will remain classified, according to the Elysee Palace.
The report, which was commissioned by the government and prepared by two senior civil servants, “clearly establishes the anti-republican and subversive nature of the Muslim Brotherhood” and “proposes ways to address this threat,” said the Elysee Palace.
France and Germany have the biggest Muslim populations among European Union countries.
France’s authorities are eager to prevent any spread of extremist Islamist ideas in a country that has been rocked by a string of deadly jihadist attacks.
Religious radicalization has become a hot-button issue as the political landscape in France is shifting and the far-right is becoming increasingly popular. Critics have condemned what they call the rise of Islamophobia in France.
The report, a copy of which was obtained by AFP on Tuesday, pointed to the spread of Islamism “from the bottom up,” adding the phenomenon constituted “a threat in the short to medium term.”
“The movement is present in Europe and its target is clearly Europe,” the Elysee Palace said, adding that it was necessary to “raise awareness within the European Union.”
At the same time, the French presidency stressed, “we are all perfectly aligned in saying that we must not lump all Muslims together.”
“We are fighting against Islamism and its radical excesses,” added the presidency.
The report zeroed in on the role of Muslims in France (Musulmans de France), which it identified as “the national branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in France.”
The Federation of Muslims of France denounced “unfounded accusations” and warned against “dangerous” conflation between Islam and radicalism.
“We firmly reject any allegation that attempts to associate us with a foreign political project or an ‘entryism’ strategy,” it said.
“This ideological interpretation does not reflect our institutional reality or our work on the ground,” the federation said, adding it was committed to France’s values.
“Even unintentional conflations between Islam, political Islamism and radicalism are not only dangerous but counterproductive for the Republic itself,” said Muslims in France.
“Behind these unfounded accusations lies a stigmatization of Islam and Muslims.”
The “constant accusation shapes minds, fuels fears and, sadly, contributes to violent acts,” it added, pointing to the death of Aboubakar Cisse, a 22-year-old Malian who was stabbed dozens of times while praying in a mosque in southern France.
Conservative daily Le Figaro, which first published excerpts of the “shocking” report on Tuesday, said the Muslim Brotherhood “wants to introduce Sharia law in France.”
France’s tough-talking Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau expressed a similar concern, pointing to “a low-level Islamism.”
The report said however that “no recent document demonstrates the desire of Muslims in France to establish an Islamic state in France or to enforce Sharia law there.”
But the threat was real, the authors said.
“We are not dealing with aggressive separatism” but a “subtle...yet no less subversive aim for the institutions.”
Macron’s party wants to ban minors under 15 from wearing the Muslim headscarf in public spaces, saying the hijab “seriously undermines gender equality and the protection of children.”
The party also wants to introduce a “criminal offense for coercion against parents who force their underage daughters to wear the veil.”
Critics see the headscarf worn by Muslim women as a symbol of creeping Islamization after deadly jihadist attacks in France, while others say they are just practicing their religion and should wear what they want.
A suicide car bomber strikes a school bus in southwestern Pakistan, killing 5 people
- The province has been the scene of a long-running insurgency, with an array of separatist groups staging attacks
- There was no immediate comment from New Delhi
QUETTA, Pakistan: A suicide car bomber struck a school bus in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing five people — including at least three children — and wounding 38 others, officials said, the latest attack in tense Balochistan province.
The province has been the scene of a long-running insurgency, with an array of separatist groups staging attacks, including the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army, or BLA, designated a terror group by the United States in 2019.
A local deputy commissioner, Yasir Iqbal, said the attack took place on the outskirts of the city of Khuzdar as the bus was taking children to their military-run school there.
Troops quickly arrived at the scene and cordoned off the area while ambulances transported the victims to hospitals in the city. Local television stations aired footage of the badly damaged bus and scattered debris.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but suspicion is likely to fall on ethnic Baloch separatists, who frequently target security forces and civilians in the region.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi strongly condemned the attack and expressed deep sorrow over the children’s deaths. He called the perpetrators “beasts” who deserve no leniency, saying the enemy had committed an act of “sheer barbarism by targeting innocent children.”
Officials, who initially reported that four children were killed but later revised the death toll to say two adults were also among the dead, said they fear the toll may rise further as several children were listed in critical condition.
Blaming India
The military also issued a statement, saying the bombing was “yet another cowardly and ghastly attack” — allegedly planned by neighboring India and carried out by “its proxies in Balochistan.”
There was no immediate comment from New Delhi.
Most of the attacks in the province are claimed by the BLA, which Pakistan claims has India’s backing. India has denied such claims.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed his condolences and also blamed India, without providing any evidence to support the claim.
“The attack on a school bus by terrorists backed by India is clear proof of their hostility toward education in Balochistan,” Sharif said, vowing that the government would bring the perpetrators to justice.
Later, Sharif’s office said he is traveling to Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, along with Field Marshal Asim Munir, to meet with the victims of the attack, and to receive a briefing.
Pakistan regularly accuses India, its archrival, for violence at home. These accusations have intensified in the wake of heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations amid a cross-border escalation since last month over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, divided between the two but sought in its entirety by each.
That escalation raised fears of a broader war, and during this period the BLA appealed to India for support. India has not commented on the appeal.
A vicious insurgency
Though Pakistan’s largest province, Balochistan is its least populated. It’s also a hub for the country’s ethnic Baloch minority, whose members say they face discrimination by the government.
In one of its deadliest recent attacks, BLA insurgents killed 33 people, mostly soldiers, during an assault on a train carrying hundreds of passengers in Balochistan in March.
And earlier this week, the BLA vowed more attacks on the “Pakistani army and its collaborators” and says its goal is to “lay the foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and independent Balochistan.”
Militant groups are also active in the Balochistan and though it is unusual for separatists to target school children in the province, such attacks have been carried out in the restive northwest and elsewhere in the country in recent years.
Most schools and colleges in Pakistan are operated by the government or the private sector, though the military also runs a significant number of institutions for children of both civilians and of serving or retired army personnel.
In 2014, the Pakistani Taliban carried out the country’s deadliest school attack on an army-run institution in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 154 people, most of them children.
Germany says it broke up a far-right group that planned attacks. 5 teens have been arrested
- The early-morning arrests in various parts of Germany were accompanied by searches at 13 properties
- Prosecutors said they are also investigating three other people, ages 18 to 21, who are already in custody
BERLIN: German police on Wednesday arrested five teenagers accused of involvement with a right-wing extremist group calling itself “Last Defense Wave” that allegedly aimed to destabilize the country’s democratic system by carrying out attacks on migrants and political opponents.
The early-morning arrests in various parts of Germany were accompanied by searches at 13 properties, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Four of those arrested — identified only as Benjamin H., Ben-Maxim H., Lenny M. and Jason R., in line with German privacy rules — are suspected of membership in a domestic terror organization. The fifth, Jerome M., is accused of supporting the group. Two of the arrested also are accused of attempted murder and aggravated arson. All are between the ages of 14 and 18.
Prosecutors said they are also investigating three other people, ages 18 to 21, who are already in custody. All the suspects are German citizens.
According to the prosecutors, the group was formed in mid-April 2024 or earlier. They said that its members saw themselves as the last resort to defend the “German nation” and aimed to bring about the collapse of Germany’s democratic order, with attacks on homes for asylum-seekers and on facilities associated with the left-wing political spectrum.
Two of the suspects set a fire at a cultural center in Altdöbern in eastern Germany in October, prosecutors said, adding that several people living in the building at the time escaped injury only by chance.
In January, another two suspects allegedly broke a window at a home for asylum-seekers in Schmölln and tried unsuccessfully to start a blaze by setting off fireworks. They daubed the group’s initials and slogans such as “Foreigners out,” “Germany for the Germans” and “Nazi area,” as well as swastikas, prosecutors said.
Also in January, three suspects allegedly planned an arson attack on a home for asylum-seekers in Senftenberg, but it never came about because of the earlier arrests of two of the men.
Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig said it was “particularly shocking” that all of those arrested Wednesday were minors at the time the group was allegedly founded.
“This is an alarm signal and it shows that right-wing extremist terrorism knows no age,” Hubig said in a statement.
In a separate case a week ago, German authorities banned a far-right group called “Kingdom of Germany” as a threat to the country’s democratic order and arrested four of its alleged leaders.
In an annual report released Tuesday, the Federal Criminal Police Office said that the number of violent crimes with a right-wing motivation was up 17.2 percent last year to 1,488. That was part of an overall increase in violent politically motivated offenses to 4,107, an increase of 15.3 percent.
