DHAKA, Bangladesh

Human rights organization Amnesty International announced Monday that it has gathered fresh evidence of indiscriminate attacks on civilians in western Myanmar amid an escalation in an ongoing armed conflict between the  country’s military and the Arakan Army.  

The evidence suggests that the Myanmar military burned villages and wounded and killed civilians in Rakhine in early September.  

It is based on firsthand testimony, photographs and video obtained from inside Rakhine and analysis of satellite imagery as well as media reports and civil society sources, Amnesty said in a report.  

The rights organization said it is also concerned over recent reports of an increased presence of Myanmar troops along the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh.  

Images of antipersonnel landmines recently discovered in a civilian area were analyzed by Amnesty’s weapons expert and identified as the MM2 type landmine often used by Myanmar’s military.  

Several incidents involving civilians injured or killed by landmines have been credibly reported in Rakhine and Chin states in recent months by local civil society and media outlets.   

By one local civil society group’s estimate, the number of civilians killed in the conflict since December 2018 in Rakhine and Chin stands at 289 with 641 injured.

The true figure cannot be independently verified as a mobile internet shutdown and broader government crackdowns on media reporting have impeded documentation efforts in conflict-affected areas.

On Sept. 14, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet told the Human Rights Council that in some recent cases in Rakhine, civilians “appear to have been targeted or attacked indiscriminately, which may constitute further war crimes or even crimes against humanity.”

Satellite image analysis conducted by Amnesty has found that over 120 structures in the ethnic Rakhine-populated villages of Taung Pauk and Hpa Yar Paung in Kyauktaw township appeared burned to the ground in imagery captured on Sept. 10, 2020.

New figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) indicate that 89,564 people were displaced to 180 sites in Rakhine between January 2019 and Sept. 7, 2020.

This adds to the existing mass displacement crisis in Rakhine, where over 130,000 Rohingya have been interned in camps since 2012.

The internet blackout has impeded the delivery of critical humanitarian aid and access to crucial information about the conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic, with the virus increasingly spreading across Myanmar since mid-August, including and particularly in Rakhine.

On Sept. 11, 2020, the Myanmar military admitted that three of its soldiers had raped an ethnic Rakhine woman during operations in Rathedaung township on June 30, despite their outright denials when the allegations were first raised in July.

“There are no signs of the conflict between the Arakan Army and the Myanmar military abating – and civilians continue to bear the brunt,” said Ming Yu Hah, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns.

“The Myanmar military’s utter disregard for civilian suffering grows more shocking and brazen by the day. The UN Security Council [UNSC] must urgently refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court [ICC].

"The international community must raise the alarm about the situation in Rakhine state now, or face questions later about why they failed to act – again,” she said.

Myanmar’s government and military have been committing crimes against humanity and war crimes against Rakhine Buddhists since early 2019, Ro Nay San Lwin, a rights activist and co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition, told Anadolu Agency.

"Just a few days ago, two Rohingya villagers were killed amid fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army as they were used by the Myanmar military as human shields," he said.

“Myanmar continues to commit crimes against ethnic minorities as the international community is failing to take serious action. Instead of talking about impossible action [such as referring Myanmar to the ICC through the UNSC, which China and Russia will veto], practical action is to boycott Myanmar diplomatically, economically and socially,” Lwin added. 

'World's most persecuted people'

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017, pushing the number of persecuted people in Bangladesh above 1.2 million.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar's state forces, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

More than 34,000 Rohingya were also thrown into fires, while over 114,000 others were beaten, said the OIDA report, titled Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience.

As many as 18,000 Rohingya women and girls were raped by Myanmar's army and police and over 115,000 Rohingya homes burned down, while 113,000 others vandalized, it added./aa

DHAKA, Bangladesh

Turkey’s ambassador to Bangladesh on Monday expressed Ankara’s keen interest in stepping up efforts with Dhaka to support its Digital Bangladesh program, especially through partnerships in the information technology (IT) and e-commerce sectors.  

“There is great potential for collaboration between the two fraternal states, as both countries have growing economies and vibrant startup ecosystems,” Mustafa Osman Turan said during a webinar titled “Connecting Turkish & Bangladeshi Startup Ecosystems.” 

The Digital Bangladesh program, launched in 2009, aims to be at the forefront of achieving Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s vision of transforming Bangladesh into a digital economy by 2021 and a knowledge-based economy by 2041.

Station Dhaka, the Startup Ecosystems Connector in Bangladesh, and Startup Bangladesh Limited, in collaboration with the Turkish embassy in Dhaka and SDG Impact Accelerator (SDGia.org), jointly organized the online event.

Praising Bangladesh for its great contribution as the world's second largest provider of IT professionals, Turan pointed out the similarities in state policy between the two countries in promoting innovative sectors.

“Both governments are very keen on supporting entrepreneurs,” he said, adding the government of Bangladesh through its “Digital Bangladesh” program has opened “a great horizon” for others to work here.

Turan noted that Bangladesh is “quite resilient” and praised the country's performance in facing the coronavirus pandemic, which has already paralyzed many developed countries.

“They [Bangladesh] have demonstrated a very innovative approach in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

The webinar’s organizers also noted that the Turkish embassy is about to launch the SDGia program in Bangladesh in the first quarter of 2021.

“Station Dhaka has been closely connected with the Turkish IT sector through its founders,” said a pre-webinar statement.

It added that Station Dhaka together with the Turkish embassy also plans to organize more events in the "Turkish-Bangladeshi Innovations & Technologies Series.”

Speakers at the webinar also placed emphasis on joint efforts in the fintech, agriculture and health sectors.

They said that in the post COVID-19 period, great care and joint drives will be required in these sectors for the greater interest of people not only in this region but also worldwide.

SDGia, Turkey's first international impact accelerator, was launched by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in partnership with UNDP, WFP (2020 Nobel Peace Prize Winner), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Qatar Fund for Development as well as large Turkish companies LIMAK and Eczacıbaşı. The UN Technology Bank for the LDCs based in Turkey will also join the program in Bangladesh as a new partner. 

The program harnesses the potential of collaboration across sectors and disciplines and leverages the power of entrepreneurship, innovation and technology to address the challenges that refugees face on a daily basis, according to the United Nations Development Programme Turkey (UNDP Turkey). 

“Turkey has a track record of exploring the ways in which effective development assistance can be delivered to the communities who need it most. To that end, we have developed new partnerships and launched innovative projects. United Nations Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in Gebze, Turkey and SDG Impact Accelerator are the most recent examples of these projects,” said Turkey’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faruk Kaymakci on the SDGia.org website. 

“While the Technology Bank will develop capacity for technology transfer to the LDCs, the Accelerator will convene partners from across sectors and fields of expertise to prototype products and services for the most vulnerable groups in the world such as refugees. Turkey alone hosts over 4 million displaced people including 3.6 million Syrians and we believe our Accelerator can empower their entrepreneurship to deliver innovative and sustainable solutions to tackle the challenges they face and fulfil their potentials.”/aa

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A new report estimates that 29 million women and girls are victims of modern slavery, exploited by practices including forced labor, forced marriage, debt-bondage and domestic servitude.

Grace Forrest, co-founder of the Walk Free anti-slavery organization, said Friday that means one in every 130 women and girls is living in modern slavery today, more than the population of Australia.

“The reality is that there are more people living in slavery today than any other time in human history,” she told a U.N. news conference.

Walk Free defines modern slavery “as the systematic removal of a person’s freedom, where one person is exploited by another for personal or financial gain,” she said.

Forrest said the global estimate of one in 130 women and girls living in modern slavery was made based on work by Walk Free, the International Labor Organization and the International Organization for Migration, both U.N. agencies..

“What this report has shown is that gender stacks the odds against girls from conception throughout their lives," she said.

According to the report, titled “Stacked Odds,” women account for 99% of all victims of forced sexual exploitation, 84% of all victims of forced marriage, and 58% of all victims of forced labor.

Forrest said the face of modern slavery “has radically changed.”

“We’re seeing normalized exploitation in our economy in transnational supply chains and also in migration pathways,” she said. “The world’s most vulnerable people have been pushed even further into this practice of modern slavery because of COVID-19.”

She said the estimate of women and girls in modern slavery is conservative because it doesn’t account for what’s happened during the pandemic, which has seen “sharp increases of forced and child marriage and exploited work conditions around the world."

Forrest said Walk Free and the U.N.’s Every Woman Every Child program are launching a global campaign to demand action to eliminate modern slavery.

The campaign urges an end to child and forced marriage, which 136 countries have yet to criminalize.

It urges the elimination of legalized systems of exploitation such as kefala, which legally binds a migrant worker’s immigration status to an employer or sponsor for their contract period.

The campaign also urges transparency and accountability for multinationals.

“We know that women and girls are experiencing unprecedented levels of exploitation and forced labor in supply chains of the goods we buy and use every day — clothing, coffee, techncology," Forest said.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Belarus' authoritarian president on Saturday visited a prison to talk to opposition activists, who have been jailed for challenging his re-election that was widely seen as manipulated and triggered two months of protests.

President Alexander Lukashenko spent more than four hours talking to his jailed political foes at the Minsk prison that belongs to Belarus' State Security Committee, which still goes under its Soviet-era name, KGB.

Lukashenko's office said that “the goal of the president was to hear everyone's opinion." Among 11 jailed activists who attended the meeting were several members of the opposition's Coordination Council and Viktor Babariko, the former head of a major Russia-owned bank. Babariko aspired to challenge Lukashenko but was barred from the race and remained in jail since his arrest in May on charges he dismissed as political.

Lukashenko's landslide re-election in the Aug. 9 vote was widely seen as manipulated amid widespread public frustration with the Belarusian leader's 26-year authoritarian rule, his cavalier response to the coronavirus pandemic and the deteriorating economy.

A violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators in the first days after the vote, in which thousands were arrested and hundreds were beaten by police, provoked international outrage and helped swell protesters’ ranks.

The main opposition challenger in the vote, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who left for Lithuania after the election under pressure from authorities, cast Lukashenko’s visit to prison as a result of continuing demonstrations and urged keeping up a push for new elections.

“With this meeting, Lukashenko recognized the existence of political prisoners whom he previously dismissed as criminals,” she said in a statement. “Today’s event is a result of our pressure.”

The European Union and the United States said the election was neither free nor fair. They have slapped scores of Belarusian officials with sanctions for their role in the alleged vote-rigging and the crackdown on protests, but didn’t target Lukashenko himself.

EU members Poland and Lithuania have been especially outspoken in their support for Belarusian opposition politicians, leading to diplomatic tensions that have included Belarus' government expelling Polish and Lithuanian diplomats. Those two countries responded by withdrawing their ambassadors to Minsk.

Late Friday, Britain temporarily recalled its ambassador to Belarus, Jacqueline Perkins, in response to the Belarusian government’s decision to expel the Polish and Lithuanian diplomats.

In a tweet, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemned the decision, labeling it as “completely unjustified.” He said the temporary recall of the ambassador “for consultations on the situation in Belarus” was intended to show “solidarity” with the people in the country.

The government has sought to stifle protests by detaining hundreds of demonstrators, prosecuting some top activists and forcing others to leave the country. However, massive demonstrations have continued, reaching their peak numbers on Sundays when up to 100,000 flood the streets of the Belarusian capital, Minsk. Another big protest is planned for this Sunday.

Hundreds of women marched through the Belarusian capital on Saturday to protest against political repressions and demand a new election. Several participants in the rally were detained.

Pavel Latushko, a former culture minister and ambassador to France, who joined the opposition's Coordination Council and was pressured by authorities to leave the country, said that the meeting reflected the Belarusian leader's weakness.

“Lukashenko was forced to sit down at the negotiation table with the people whom he jailed,” Latushko said in a statement, demanding the release of all political prisoners.

Observers saw Lukashenko's visit to prison as part of his efforts to steal the protesters' thunder by offering vaguely-described reforms, such as his proposal to draft a new constitution. During the meeting in prison, Lukashenko emphasized that “the constitution can't be written in the streets,” his office said without offering other details of the meeting.

“After two months of protests and harsh repressions, Lukashenko is moving to de-escalate the situation,” said Valery Karbalevich, an independent Minsk-based political expert.

“The discussion of a new constitution is an attempt by the government to imitate a dialogue. It would allow Lukashenko to drown the protests in talks, reduce tensions and enforce his agenda both inside the country and to foreign players,” Karbalevich said.