The Rohingya are an ethnic minority that live in western Myanmar (Arakan) near the border with Bangladesh. They are Muslims living in a Buddhist country. Facing discrimination and outright persecution (they are not considered citizens), the Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar for over a decade with Bangladesh the primary destination. But Bangladesh is hardly equipped to handle any influx of refugees and has proved Increasingly inhospitable to the Rohinya. In recent years, the Rohingya have fled their native land seeking jobs and refuge in Islamic Malaysia. There are currently an estimated 20,000 Rohingya refugees registered with the UNHCR in Malaysia. Thousands more are living as unregistered migrant laborers. Many are abused and exploited by unsavory employers, officials in the Immigration Department, the police and other Malaysian authorities. Much of this migration is facilitated by organized criminal networks and trafficking groups, which further endangers people traveling to other countries. From UNHCR:

“The Rohingya have been caught between a hammer and anvil for over a decade in desperate circumstance, with Bangladesh making it difficult for them to seek refuge and Burma continuing to abuse the rights of the Muslim minority in Arakan State,” Adams said. “These abuses have forced thousands of Rohingya to flee to neighboring countries to seek refuge.”

There are an estimated 26,000 Rohingya in Bangladesh living in two desperate and squalid camps at Cox’s Bazaar, called Kutupalong and Nayapara, but there are also an estimated 100,000 unregistered Rohingya living in Bangladesh near the border with Burma.

Over 250,000 Rohingya Muslims from western Burma were forced into Bangladesh by the Burmese military in 1992 in a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Arakan State. Since then thousands of people have been detained in crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh and tens of thousands have been repatriated to Burma to face further repression. There are widespread allegations of religious persecution, use of forced labor and denial of citizenship of many Rohingya forced to return to Burma since 1996.

Many have fled again to Bangladesh to seek work or shelter, or flee from Burmese military oppression, and some are forced across the border by Burmese security forces. In the past few months, abuses against Rohingya in Arakan State has continued, including strict registration laws that continue to deny Rohingya citizenship, restrictions on movement, land confiscation and forced evictions to make way for Buddhist Burmese settlements, widespread forced labor in infrastructure projects and closure of some mosques, including nine in North Buthidaung Township of Western Arakan State in the last half of 2006.

But recently another impediment has arisen for the Rohingya, abuse at the hands of the Thai Navy.

Rohingya Whipped on Beach By Thai Navy
From the Straits Times:

AS SUNBATHING tourists looked on, Thai navy guards beat Rohingya refugees – who had their wrists bound – and made them lie face down in the sun for hours.

The scene on a beach at ‘Donald Duck Bay’ on Koh Baed, part of the Similan Islands, was witnessed by several tourists late last month, some of whom tried to take photographs but were warned off by angry guards.

One tourist, however, managed to take some photos and send them to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), describing what he had witnessed. Armed guards forced the refugees to lie face down for at least two hours, he said, whipping them about the head with straps or lashes made from stiff jungle vines whenever they tried to sit up or move.

‘Some were trying to sit up and looked like they were complaining, but they were answered with a whip on the back and head,’ the Australian student, 23, told the paper, which did not give his real name.

A boatman told the student that the refugees had been held on the beach for about five hours before the tourists’ arrival at about 1pm on Dec 23, reported the SCMP.

Thai officials have confirmed that the navy apprehended 93 refugees that day, but declined to comment on the claims.

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Has Europe learned a valuable lesson from the invasion of Iraq? And is there a European perspective on Iraq, anchored by its colonial experience and a continental understanding of international law?

Guests on this episode of Inside Iraq are former French ambassador and Middle East expert Eric Rouleau; Henning Riecke, head of the European foreign and security policy programme at the German Council of Foreign Relations and also Alastair Campbell, the director of Royal United Services Institute in Qatar.

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British pop and gay icon Boy George has been sentence to jail for fifteen months for falsely imprisoning a male escort.The singer and DJ was found guilty of handcuffing the man to his bed and hitting him with a metal chain when he tried to leave his flat. Ah the joys of gay sex gone awry. Bondage does require consent there Boy. Rule number one. Amanda Walker reports.

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As President George W. Bush prepares to leave office, Carla Robbins of The New York Times and Richard Haass President of the Council on Foreign Relations join Martin Savidge to discuss his legacy around the world.

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One of the weapons Israel is alleged to have used in Gaza is white phosphorous, a dangerous chemical that burns its victims. Israel has not admitted using the weapons though a number of military analysts are in agreement that Israel has indeed used the compound. White phosphorus is known to burn flesh down to the bone but it is not illegal under international law. Earlier this week, the international group Human Rights Watch accused Israel of firing weapons containing white phosphorus into Gaza. The group is demanding that Israel cease its use. From CNN:

“Israel appeared to be using white phosphorus as an ‘obscurant’ [a chemical used to hide military operations], a permissible use in principle” under the laws of war, the HRW posting said.

“However, white phosphorus has a significant, incidental, incendiary effect that can severely burn people and set structures, fields, and other civilian objects in the vicinity on fire,” the posting said. “The potential for harm to civilians is magnified by Gaza’s high population density, among the highest in the world.”

HRW said the use of white phosphorus in Gaza would violate “the requirement under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life.”

Last week, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman told CNN: “I can tell you with certainty that white phosphorus is absolutely not being used.”

Now, however, Israeli officials have a different response to questions about the possible use of phosphorus: “Any munitions that Israel is using are in accordance with international law. Israel does not specify the types of munitions or the types of operations it is conducting.”

Now some human rights groups suspect that the white phosphorous munitions come from the US, from one small town in Arkansas. In the above video, Al Jazeera’s Mike Kirsch reports on the white phosphorous trail.

More on white phosphorous from Global Security:

Israel used White Phosphorus against HAMAS targets in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead in January 2009. This violated no international laws or conventions.

White Phosphorus (WP), known as Willy Pete, is used for signaling, screening, and incendiary purposes. White Phosphorus can be used to destroy the enemy’s equipment or to limit his vision. It is used against vehicles, petroleum, oils and lubricants (POL) and ammunition storage areas, and enemy observers. WP can be used as an aid in target location and navigation. It is usually dispersed by explosive munitions. It can be fired with fuze time to obtain an airburst. White phosphorus was used most often during World War II in military formulations for smoke screens, marker shells, incendiaries, hand grenades, smoke markers, colored flares, and tracer bullets.

The Battle of Fallujah was conducted from 8 to 20 November 2004 with the last fire mission on 17 November. The battle was fought by an Army, Marine and Iraqi force of about 15,000 under the I Marine Expeditionary Force (IMEF). US forces found WP to be useful in the Battle of Fallujah. “WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE. We fired “shake and bake” missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out. … We used improved WP for screening missions when HC smoke would have been more effective and saved our WP for lethal missions.”

White phosphorus is not banned by any treaty to which the United States is a signatory. Smokes and obscurants comprise a category of materials that are not used militarily as direct chemical agents. The United States retains its ability to employ incendiaries to hold high-priority military targets at risk in a manner consistent with the principle of proportionality that governs the use of all weapons under existing law. The use of white phosphorus or fuel air explosives are not prohibited or restricted by Protocol II of the Certain Conventional Weapons Convention (CCWC), the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which may be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects.

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Al Jazeera’s The Listening Post looks at Egyptian media coverage of the war on Gaza and media freedom in Sri Lanka.

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More than 40% of the world’s child marriages take place in India, even though the legal age for wedding is 18. A report by UNICEF highlights India’s high rate of child marriage as a major reason for the large number of maternal and infant deaths. Although illegal, the practice of child marriage is widespread and accepted by the majority of Indian society, especially in the many rural areas of the country. The Child Marriage Restraint Act passed during British rule in 1929, specified that a girl must be 18 to marry but the Indian government seems unwilling to tackle the problem. Statistics are elusive, but estimates are that 40 to 50% of marriages in India involve a girl under 18 or a boy under 21, the legal ages for marriage.

According to UNICEF, 82% of girls in Rajasthan, where the practice is particularly widespread, are married by 18; 15% of girls in rural areas across the country are married before 13; and 52% of girls have their first pregnancy between 15 and 19.

From Agence France Presse:

India’s high rate of child marriage is a major reason for its large number of maternal and infant deaths, said a UNICEF report released Thursday.

Child brides “become mothers long before their bodies are physically mature for pregnancy”, said UNICEF’s Karin Hulshof at the launch of the annual “The State of the World’s Children” report in the capital New Delhi.

“The younger a girl is when she gets pregnant, the greater the health risk to her and her child,” Hulshof said.

She said that child marriage prevents many girls from continuing their education, leaving them unaware of the risks and responsibilities of pregnancy and less likely to seek medical attention and immunize their babies.

More than 40 percent of the world’s child marriages take place in India, a majority of them among poor, rural residents, even though the legal age to wed is 18.

In 2005 India’s maternal mortality rate was 450 per 100,000 live births, compared to just 8 per 100,000 in industrialized countries in the same year.

The neonatal mortality rate was 39 per 1,000 live births in 2004, more than ten times the rate in developed countries.

Girls who give birth before the age of 15 are also five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s, said Hulshof.

She said progress had been slow in reducing maternal and newborn deaths but highlighted success in government-sponsored rural health initiatives that train health workers and offer cash incentives to women who seek post-natal care.

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