Ongoing military operation in Northern Rakhine State of Myanmar

BRIEFING

Ongoing military operation in Northern Rakhine State of Myanmar

The Myanmar Military launched a massive offensive military operation against Rohingya civilians after an unknown assailant group attacked three location including Border Guard Police Command centre in Kyi Kan Pyin in the early morning of October 9.

Although the government officials announced in a press conference in Nay Pyaw Taw on the same day that the attack was carried out by unknown people, the military, Rakhine extremists and fanatic monks quickly pointed finger towards the Rohingya community. Soon the military begins crushing Rohingya villagers in the norther part of Maungdaw Township, which is situated near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

The government announced the state of emergency and extended curfew from 7 pm to 6 am, and the military re-enforces army and police forces in the region by complete closure of the border and transportation in the township. The military claimed that 9 of their men were killed during the attacks and the assailants took away a number of guns and ammunitions.

On October 9, Sunday, the military attacked three villages - Kyi Kan Pyin (Hawar Bil), Thanwan Chaung (Bossara) and Rwa Nyu (Rwáingga Daung), killing 7 innocent Rohingya civilians and as well as another 7 Rohingya at closed range in Myo Thu Gyi (Haindá fara) village located just outside Maungdaw town centre.

The military so far burned down 7 Rohingya villages, they are Waa Bak (6 killed), Hawar Bil (more than 5 killed), Naisa Fru (5 killed), Nári Bil (Kyáuk Prang Séip), Kyari Farung (more than 5 killed), Haand Gujja Fara (6 killed) and Foohali. The total number of houses burned are approximately 300 and making 15,000 Rohingya homeless. The estimated reports from the ground say nearly 200 Rohingya so far killed, and 3 mass graves were discovered.

It is also estimated that nearly a thousand Rohingya civilians have been arbitrarily arrested including women, and it is widely reported that the majority women arrested and during raids in their houses were gang raped by the army and the police officers. 

The commander-in-chief of Myanmar armed forces, General Min Aung Hlaing has decreed to use air forces to attack and eradicate the last remaining of assailants whom they consider taking refuge in Rohingya villages. The military and the state government have accused RSO (Rohingya Solidarity Organization) which the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank has declared RSO as “essentially defunct as an armed organization”.

The military and the extremist elements are using the false-flag to wipe out Rohingya from Maungdaw which comprise more than 90% Rohingya Muslims. Since 1930 before independence of Burma, the Rakhine separatist moment has created an agenda to make Arakan (now Rakhine) State – Rohingya Free. Before 1930, Rohingya were spread throughout the state. After the Rakhine has implemented their agenda, they have started to remove Rohingya starting from the southern part of Arakan State by military operations and other ethnic cleansing programme, making Rohingya free zones. In 2012, Sittwe which is the capital of Arakan State was devastated by the acts of Genocide completely removing of Rohingya population from the town and forced them into concentration camps. The similar campaign took place at the same time in other 6 townships in Arakan State.

Maungdaw and Buthidaung are only two remaining townships where the majority are Rohingya Muslim. For a long time, the towns are under the eyes of Rakhine extremists and notorious Myanmar military, which want to start cleaning Rohingya from the villages and force them into concentration camps like other townships. 

Taking the opportunity, they are accomplishing many goals. Besides uprooting Rohingya from the villages, they also preventing former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s visit to Maungdaw on 21st October as well as reducing the influence of Aung San Suu Kyi power by announcing the state of emergency and military re-enforcement in the region. The military also want to increase its forces in the northern part of Maungdaw to compete with Bangladesh forces along the border. 

Now Rohingya live in the fear of death as they cannot travel, their villages are slowing burning down, there is no food and medical supply, and the border is closed in escape from the extra-judicial killing.

Rohingya refugees lead unlikely cricket revival in Ireland

In the refugee camps of Bangladesh, many Rohingya boys had developed a love of cricket. After being resettled to Ireland, they were keen to get back on the pitch.

A friendly cricket match between Carlow Rohingya Cricket team and Bradford Rohingya team in 2014

By Jody Clarke, UNHCR

CARLOW, Ireland – A rarely heard  sound is returning to the Irish countryside – the dull thud of leather against willow.

Cricket, the game that unites players from the Caribbean to South Asia and Australia can once again be heard in the small town of Carlow in the country’s south east – thanks to Rohingya refugees.

“We’ll play fourball overs then the batters can turn to bowling,” cries Ben Parmeter, a local doctor originally from Australia who volunteers with the Carlow Cricket Club, and is familiar with the game’s arcane language.

Young children scurry around him, some dressed in the traditional white cricket dress, others in the green and red of Bangladesh, where it happens some of the players spent many years of their lives as refugees.

They bat balls back and forth as elsewhere on the pitch, much younger children learn the basics of the game with Jimmy Dooley, a youth worker with Carlow Youth Services and Secretary of the club.

“There would be no cricket team here if it wasn’t for the Rohingya,” says Dooley. “It’s all down to them.”

Robi Alam, a Rohingya refugee who was resettled to Ireland stands ready at the wicket. © UNHCR/Phil Behan

While cricket was once played widely across Ireland, the popularity of the sport faded as people became more engaged with traditional Gaelic games such as hurling and Gaelic Football.

While Carlow once had its own premier side, the cricket club closed its doors for good in the early 1980s.

Then in 2009, 64 Rohingya refugees were re-settled in the town of Carlow. In the camps of Bangladesh, many of the boys had taken to playing cricket and were eager to break out the bat once more.

“Playing in a muddy field with a dirty wooden bat was a distraction from the hardship we faced every day,” says Robi Alam, 15, who was born in Nayapara Refugee Camp in south-east Bangladesh.

His family fled their home in Western Myanmar, where decades of violence has forced hundreds of thousands of people, the majority of them Rohingya, to flee. Bangladesh was safe, but many of the Rohingya live in emergency like conditions with high rates of poverty.

“I hope to one day play in the Ireland national cricket team”

Once in Carlow, Alam began playing near the housing estate he moved into with the other members of the Rohingya community.

“When we first came here we bought a cheap bat and played in the long grass beside our housing estate,” says Mohammed Rafique, assistant secretary of the club and a member of the Rohingya community. “Some of the locals were interested and joined in, and before we knew it we were playing cricket matches - the Irish on one side and the Rohingya on the other.”

A small grant allowed them to buy two bats, helmets, gloves and one set of stumps, the three sticks that the opposing team aim to strike with a ball that is bowled towards it. The local rugby club in Carlow offered them their grounds to play in, and they soon joined the national all-Ireland league.

Despite not boasting a championship grade pitch, they now have two senior teams in different divisions. The first team was promoted to Division 9 last year, and the local secondary school St Mary’s Academy, played its first game in June. Taking on King’s Hospital, an established school side in Dublin, they won.

“I don’t think it was normal for them to lose,” says Yunus Mohammed, another member of the Rohingya community. “I think they were surprised.”

With 13 nationalities now represented in Carlow Cricket Club, its players are hoping that success will keep coming. But in order to maintain the momentum, coaching will become key, a challenge when Cricket Ireland, the National Governing Body for the sport has not been able to provide specialized coaching to grow participation in the region.

That’s meant the club’s officials have had to step in, with the parents of new players attending the professional coaching courses that might just make Carlow a big cricket town again.

The hope is that not only the local team will benefit, but Ireland too.

“I hope to one day play in the Ireland national cricket team,” says Alam. “That way I will be able to show that you can go from a squalid camp to the highest national podium.”

* Giulia La Scala contributed reporting

Caption 1: Robi Alam, a Rohingya refugee who was resettled to Ireland, stands ready at the wicket.  © UNHCR/Phil Behan

Caption 2: A group of Rohingya refugees who were resettled in Ireland, have revived interest in cricket in the town of Carlow.  © UNHCR/Phil Behan

A boundless Journey - M Rafique

By M Rafique

People often say the sky's the limit. For someone born and raised in a confined environment with countless discriminatory policies and lows, there is a little in every step taken towards the journey of freedom equality.

Fleeing Burma's military operation in 1992 at the age of 10 with my family, crossing the border to Bangladesh, the journey brought further misery and suffering in every aspect of of life, from education to medical treatment in the Refugee Camp.

For Rohingya, optimism and hope are generally beyond their dreams. Kindness is a scarcity in today's world. Ireland is an exception, well-known for its hospitality. In 2007, this country extended its welcome towards a group of Rohingya including my wife and eight month old girl. This was the beginning of a new journey for us, like a vast boundless ocean suddenly opening, where we could fulfil our dreams and achieve whatever we wished.

Freedom is essential to anyone who wishes to grow and reach their potential. Resettlement in Ireland meant release for us; for the first time in our lives we were free of the restrictions imposed on the Rohingya community in Burma and Bangladesh Refugee Camp. I am able to experience and relish the sweet wind of freedom: freedom of movement, education, wellbeing and security, little things perhaps, but almost unbelievable to those who have been relentlessly oppressed.

People's openness and acceptance of others from different cultures is a unique quality of the Irish. Although the weather occasionally give me hard time, it is nothing to the boundless Journey I am travelling now.