In the early hours of February 1, Myanmar’s security forces detained a number of senior elected political leaders, chief ministers, and activists in the capital, Naypyidaw, and across the country.
Among those arrested were State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), which won a sweeping victory in national elections on November 8. The military also targeted members of the 88 Generation – a pro-democracy movement which suffered years of persecution after leading nationwide student protests in 1988 that were brutally crushed by the ruling military junta.
Later on Monday, military-owned Myawaddy TV announced that the armed forces had taken control of the country’s political institutions and that First Vice President U Myint Swe, now serving as interim president, had transferred full authority – executive, legislative, and judiciary – to Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing for one year. The military tried t
Biden Administration Should Tread Carefully on Myanmar’s Rights Issues: Observers
Then US Vice President Joe Biden and Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi meet in Washington in September 2016. / State Counselor’s Office
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By Nyein Nyein 27 January 2021
US foreign policy under new President Joseph Biden will be centered on promoting democracy and human rights around the world, Antony Blinken, the administration’s nominee for secretary of state, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Jan. 19. Unlike Republican President Donald Trump, the new Democratic administration is likely to make human rights its top priority in dealing with Myanmar.
BenarNews
Bangladesh’s priority is returning to Myanmar more than 1 million Muslim Rohingya refugees, not a small group of Hindus among them, Dhaka said Monday in responding to Naypyidaw’s demand that some 500 Hindu Rohingya be included in the first phase of repatriation.
Meanwhile, Hindu refugees living in a camp designated for them in Cox’s Bazar district said they wanted to return to Myanmar with the consent of both countries. They had fled across the border, after Rohingya Muslim militants killed nearly 100 Hindus while attacking police and army outposts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017.
“The number of Hindu Rohingya is close to four hundred. Their repatriation is not our priority,” Muhammad Delwar Hossain, director general of the Myanmar Cell of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
Pushed To The Wall By China And Bangladesh, Myanmar Wants India On Board Multilateral Mechanism To Oversee Rohingya Repatriation  Â
by Jaideep Mazumdar - Jan 22, 2021 01:24 PM
Aung San Suu Kyi (Facebook)
Snapshot
While helping Myanmar in the process, India also stands to gain more goodwill from Bangladesh.
Earlier this week, under intense pressure from China and Bangladesh, Myanmar agreed to start repatriation of the one million-odd Rohingyas lodged in relief camps in Bangladesh from around June this year.
Myanmar caved in to pressure from its two neighbours at a tripartite meeting on Tuesday (19 January).
Myanmarâs Deputy Minister for International Cooperation U Hau Do Suan, Chinaâs Vice Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui and Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud bin Momen attended the virtual meeting.
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Thu, 21 January 2021
Four UNICEF schools for Rohingya children in refugee camps in Bangladesh have been destroyed in a fire, officials said on January 19, with the UN children’s agency calling it arson.
It was unclear who might attack the schools, which were empty at the time, but the security situation in the camps housing around a million people has worsened in recent months.
Last week a blaze thought to have been started by a gas stove burned down hundreds of bamboo shacks in one of the camps, leaving thousands of the refugees originally from Myanmar homeless.
Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner Razwan Hayat said he believed the latest fire wasn’t started deliberately and said the schools were made of flimsy flammable materials.