International

A Thai progressive anti-junta political party yesterday began recruiting members for the 2019 elections a few days after Thailand’s Election Commission approved the party’s status. “We’re inviting anyone who cannot tolerate the cycle of old politics and want to make changes,” said Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, founder of the Future Forward Party, the only party so far to take a clear anti-military stance, at a press conference in Bangkok. “We’re willing to work with any parties holding the same ideals, namely non-acceptance of extended military power into the future, amending the entire constitution and eradicate outcomes of the coup,” the 39-year-old added. Thanathorn’s remarks came amidst a gradual revival of political activities in Thailand, as the ruling military government allowed political parties to recruit members and convene meetings in early September ahead of general elections, tentatively set for February. A full lift of the junta’s ban on political activities – including election campaigns – is expected in December. Since coming into power in a May 2014 coup, the junta has postponed election dates at least four times, citing the need to fulfil its reforms and ensure political stability. But as the regime is paving the way for a democratic election, its opponents have criticised its attempt to prolong power through pro-junta parties, especially when Prime Minister and junta leader Prayut Chan-o-cha expressed interest in joining politics last week. The regime has also been criticised for punishing opponents with lawsuits, as Thanathorn and his two fellow party members were charged in mid-September for a computer crime violation after criticising the junta on Facebook. “This is not a pressing concern. The charges against us are not deterring us in any way,” he said.

Bangladesh has postponed plans to begin relocating Rohingya Muslims to a remote island, officials said yesterday, amid staunch opposition to the controversial idea among refugees living near the Myanmar border. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was slated to open the new settlement built to house 100,000 refugees on Bhashan Char on October 3, despite warnings the silty strip was prone to violent weather. But a spokesman for Bangladesh’s armed forces, which has overseen the $280mn-effort to transform the muddy islet into a habitable camp, said the opening ceremony had been delayed. “We will announce a new date soon,” Lieutenant Colonel Alamgir Kabir said, without providing further details. The controversial plan, first floated in 2015, was already well behind schedule. Officials previously said they wanted to start moving refugees from overcrowded camps near the border with Myanmar to the island in June, before the monsoon season began. A senior disaster management official said in September that nearly three quarters of the project was complete, with the navy fast-tracking construction of shelters and evacuation centres. No reason was provided for the latest delay. But the proposal to uproot the refugees to a remote island that only rose from the sea in 2006 remains unpopular in the teeming Rohingya camps. The island is one hour by boat from the nearest land but violent storms make the journey by sea dangerous or sometimes impossible. “It is cut off from the mainland. What if someone needs emergency medical attention?” said Rohingya community leader Abdul Gowffer. The UN has insisted that any relocation to Bhashan Char be voluntary. Local authorities have been seeking to reassure refugees that they will be safe on the island. “We are still working on it. We’re talking to the families,” Bangladesh’s Refugee Commissioner Abul Kalam said. One million displaced Muslims live cheek by jowl on hillside shanties near the Myanmar border, in conditions aid groups warn put them at risk from floods, landslides and disease. There was a further push to get the plan off the ground after 700,000 Rohingyas, fleeing a violent crackdown in Myanmar in August last year, poured into southeast Bangladesh. But rights groups have warned it is too risky to house refugees on the island. Hundreds of thousands have died in Bangladesh from natural disasters in the last 50 years, mostly in coastal areas near Bhashan Char. Local officials have pointed to a newly-constructed 3m (9ft) high embankment around the island they say will keep out tidal surges in the event of a cyclone. But refugees remain wary. “Any strong blow from a cyclone and, God forbid, the shelters would be wiped out,” said a community leader, Mohammad Shoyeb.

The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) held a public meeting in Dhaka yesterday, attended by tens of thousands of people, to demand that former prime minister Khaleda Zia be released from jail. Khaleda was jailed in February for five years on what BNP describes as trumped-up corruption charges, an allegation the government denies, citing court independence. On Saturday, BNP secretary general said that BNP “strongly” wants to take part in national elections due in three months. The BNP yesterday presented demands that include the release of Khaleda, installing a neutral caretaker government, and involving the army to oversee the December elections. “As a large party, we have all the preparations for participating in (a) coming election, but for that we need a level playing field, which is not there,” , BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said. “We are demanding a neutral government as it is our experience that with the ruling party there cannot be a free and fair election.” It was the first time the BNP has explicitly stated its plans for the national election, during which Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League – accused of increasingly authoritarian rule – is expected to face a tough fight. Elections in Bangladesh, which won independence in 1971, are usually marked by violence and protests, and the national polls in December are expected to be no different, as several members of the BNP,  including its leader, are in jail. The BNP boycotted the 2014 polls after Hasina’s governing Awami League, which has been in power since 2009, declined demands to put in place a nonpartisan caretaker government. Khaleda, a two-term prime minister with whom Hasina has a long and bitter rivalry, was jailed in February for five years on corruption charges that she alleged were part of a plot to hamper her political career. Her son Tarique Rahman was also convicted and sentenced to a 10-year prison term, though he now lives in exile in London. Dozens of other BNP members have also been sent to prison in recent years on what the party alleges were false charges. Alamgir said a decision on who would run for Prime Minister would be taken in consultation with Khaleda and  Rahman. While Hasina has been lauded internationally for providing shelter for nearly a million Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence and persecution in Myanmar, she is facing increasing criticism over free speech. Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at students who took to the streets last month to demand better road safety. Several people, including students and a senior photographer Shahidul Alam, were put behind bars following the protests, sparking calls from international rights activists for their release. Security forces have also been accused of extrajudicial killings in a war on drugs declared by Hasina, under which more than 200 people have been killed since July. Most recently, a new digital security law passed by parliament last week has come under intense criticism from journalists who say it  would cripple media freedom. The government has said its crackdown during the student protests was aimed at BNP workers who tried to provoke the students, and has denied allegations of extrajudicial killings. It also dismisses accusations of jailing BNP workers on false charges, and Hasina has said there are no plans to modify the new digital security law.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked for early repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar. In her speech at the UN General Assembly General Debate on Thursday, Hasina regretted the fact that repatriation had not started in a permanent and sustainable manner, reports Xinhua news agency. “Myanmar is one of our neighbours. From the outset, we have been trying to find a peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis through bilateral consultations,” she said.  “So far, three bilateral arrangements have been concluded between Bangladesh and Myanmar for Rohingya repatriation. Despite their verbal commitment to take back the Rohingyas, in reality the Myanmar authorities are yet to accept them back. “The Rohingya crisis has had its origin in Myanmar. As such, its solution has to be found in Myanmar... We want an early, peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis,” Prime Minister Hasina added. The Rohingyas in Bangladesh are living in an uncertain  situation, she said.  Bangladesh has made arrangements for their food, clothing, health care, child care and security to the best of its ability. Many countries and organisations, including the UN and the Commonwealth, have shown solidarity with the Rohingyas and extended support and assistance for them. Bangladesh has started working on a new housing facility for the refugees.  “So long the Rohingyas are not able to return home, they should, as a temporary arrangement, be able to live in a good and healthy condition,” she said. Hasina called upon international organisations to work with her country in the relocation of the Rohingyas to the new facility. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), over 720,000 Rohingyas, an ethnic Muslim minority living in mostly Myanmar’s Rakhine state, have fled to Bangladesh since violence broke out in August 2017. They joined another 200,000 Rohingyas who earlier fled into adjacent Bangladesh, said the UNHCR.

Journalist groups in Bangladesh have cancelled planned protests against a new law they say cripples press freedom after the government offered talks instead. The law, which combines some existing measures such as the colonial-era Official Secrets Act with tough new provisions, was passed by parliament on Sept. 19, three months before an expected national election. It now awaits the signature of President Abdul Hamid to come into force. Journalist groups and unions had planned protests in Dhaka on Thursday and Saturday, but the government has now invited them to join talks expected on Sunday. ‘If we can achieve our demand through discussion then that is good for all,’ said Saiful Islam, president of Dhaka Reporters Unity, a forum for journalists. The unions and the Editors Council of Bangladesh, which represents the country's largest daily newspapers, will attend the talks. ‘The information ministry is very much aware about the concern of the journalist community,’ Bangladesh’s Information Minister Hasanul Haq said in the letter. ‘It is of the utmost necessity to sit with the Editors Council to discuss the issue, to settle the concerns and ensure free movement of information.’ MEDIA FREEDOM The journalists' groups have called on the government to revise or drop multiple sections in the law they say stifle media freedom and breach their right to free speech. They are unhappy about a provision that allows police to arrest any individual without a warrant. There is a maximum sentence of 14 years for espionage if an individual is found secretly recording information with electronic instruments inside a government building. Another section imposes the same jail sentence for spreading ‘propaganda and campaign’ against Bangladesh's 1971 war for independence from Pakistan. A further element journalists have opposed is the inclusion in the law of the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which includes a sentence of up to 14 years for sharing state secrets with an enemy. ‘This section of this law is a major obstacle for journalists in revealing truth,’ said Reaz Uddin Ahmed, acting chairman of the Editors Council. Human Rights Watch has called the law a ‘tool ripe for abuse and a clear violation of the country’s obligations under international law to protect free speech’. Critics see the law as an authoritarian move by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, already facing flak for violently suppressing protests last month by school students demanding improved road safety and over a campaign against drugs in which security forces are accused of extrajudicial killings. Hasina has defended the new law by saying it is aimed at controlling cyber and digital crimes. ‘The journalists are only thinking about their interest, not about society and only for that they are raising their voices,’ she said this week. Scores of people, including journalists, have been jailed in Bangladesh under Hasina's rule since 2009 for criticising the government online.

Bangladesh’s leader accused neighbouring Myanmar of finding new excuses to delay the return of more than 700,000 Rohingyas who were forced across the border over the past year, and said in an interview late Tuesday that under no circumstance would the refugees remain permanently in her already crowded country. “I already have 160mn people in my country,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, when asked whether Bangladesh would be willing to walk back its policy against permanent integration. “I can’t take any other burden. I can’t take it. My country  cannot bear.” Hasina was speaking to Reuters in New York, where she is attending the annual United Nations meeting of world leaders. The prime minister, who faces a national election in December, said she does not want to pick a fight with Myanmar over the refugees. But she suggested patience is growing thin with Myanmar’s leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, and its military that she said  wields the “main power” there. Hasina has previously called on the international community to pressure Myanmar to  implement the deal. Calls to Myanmar’s government spokesman, Zaw Htay, went unanswered. He said recently that he will no longer answer media questions by phone, but will answer questions at a biweekly press conference. Rohingyas fled to refugee camps in Bangladesh after a bloody military campaign against the Muslim minority in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. The two countries reached a deal in November to begin repatriation within two months, but it has not started, with stateless Rohingyas still crossing the border into Bangladesh and the refugee camps at Cox’s Bazar. “They agree everything, but unfortunately they don’t act, that is the problem,” Hasina said of Myanmar. “Everything is set but... every time they try to find some new excuse,” she told Reuters. Myanmar has said it is ready to take back the refugees and has built transit centres to house them initially on their return. But it has complained that Bangladesh has not provided its officials with the correct forms. Bangladesh has rejected those claims and UN aid agencies say it is not yet safe for the refugees to return. Given the delays, Bangladesh has been preparing new homes on a remote island called Bhasan Char, which rights groups have said could be subject to flooding. Cox’s Bazar is also vulnerable to flooding but this year’s monsoon season was light. Hasina said building permanent structures for refugees on the mainland “is not at all a possibility (and) not acceptable” since they are Myanmar citizens and must return. Rohingyas regard themselves as native to Myanmar’s Rakhine state, but are widely considered interlopers by the country’s Buddhist majority and are  denied citizenship. Human rights groups and Rohingya activists have estimated thousands died in last year’s security crackdown, which was sparked by attacks by Rohingya insurgents on security forces in Rakhine in August 2017. This week, a US government investigation reported that Myanmar’s military waged a planned, coordinated campaign of mass killings, gang rapes and other atrocities against the  Rohingyas. Myanmar has rejected similar findings as “one-sided” and said it had conducted a legitimate counterinsurgency operation. Ahead of December’s election, Hasina and her ruling Awami League have been on the defensive following student protests over an unregulated transport industry. The protest was triggered after a speeding bus killed two students in Dhaka. However, the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, has been in disarray after its leader and former prime minister, Khaleda Zia, was jailed for corruption in February - charges she says were part of a plot to keep her and her family out of politics.

A Bangladesh court refused bail for award-winning photographer and rights activist Shahidul Alam, whose month-long detention has triggered an international outcry, his lawyer said Tuesday. Alam was arrested on August 5 for making ‘false’ and ‘provocative’ statements on Al Jazeera and on Facebook Live during massive student protests in the capital Dhaka. Rights groups, UN rights experts, Nobel laureates and hundreds of academics have called for the immediate release of the 63-year-old, who says he has been beaten in custody. After the country's high court last week refused to consider the request, Alam's lawyers moved to Dhaka's Metropolitan sessions judge on Tuesday, making another petition for his release on bail. ‘But the court rejected the bail application,’ his lawyer Sara Hossain told AFP, adding that the court did not explain the reason for the rejection. Prosecutor Abdullah Abu told AFP that they opposed Alam's bail after he incited people during last month's protests by making seditious comments against the government and the state. ‘He has said the present government must be overthrown,’ Abu said, quoting from the preliminary charges police filed against Alam. Alam's arrest capped a turbulent month in Bangladesh as students poured onto the streets for nine straight days after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus. Alam had told Al Jazeera that the protests were the result of pent-up anger at corruption and an ‘unelected government... clinging on by brute force’ that had looted banks and gagged the media. He is being investigated for allegedly violating Bangladesh's internet laws, enacted in 2006 and sharpened in 2013, which critics say are used to stifle dissent and harass journalists. Alam -- whose work has appeared widely in Western media and who founded the renowned Pathshala South Asian Media Institute -- faces a maximum 14 years in jail if convicted, along with others detained during the protests. The photographer told reporters outside court last month that he had been beaten so badly in police custody that his tunic needed washing to get the blood out. New York-based Human Rights Watch has demanded his release, denouncing authorities for targeting activists and journalists instead of prosecuting those who attacked students when last month's protests were broken up. On Monday the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, used her first statement to touch upon the attacks and arrests of journalists in Bangladesh. ‘The Government should do more to ensure freedom of expression, which is indispensable for free and fair elections,’ she said, as Bangladesh prepares to hold polls in December this year.

Bangladesh police on Thursday arrested a top road safety campaigner weeks after the country was rocked by massive student protests demanding greater efforts to halt deaths caused by speeding. Dhaka police said Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary general of the Passenger Welfare Association, was detained after being accused of extorting 200,000 taka ($2,500). Dadan Fakir, head of police for the Mirpur neighbourhood of Dhaka where the case was filed this week, said the arrest bore no link to the protests, in which tens of thousands of students gridlocked Dhaka for nine days. The protests, a major challenge to the authority of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, saw vehicles vandalised and pro-government groups attack demonstrators, photographers and even the US ambassador's car. About 12,000 people die each year in accidents on Bangladesh's notorious roads, according to the monitoring group led by Hoque, a vocal campaigner for many years. Last week, his group said 259 people were killed and 960 people were injured in more than 200 road accidents during the Eid al Adha holidays in late August.  After the protests, the government approved a new transport law allowing harsher punishments for offenders. Dhaka police say they are already cracking down on dangerous motorists and taking unsafe vehicles off the road. Police have, however, also detained scores of young protesters, a top photographer and an actress over charges of inciting the demonstrations, sparking fears among activists.  Shamsuddin Chowdhury, an executive member of the Passenger Welfare Association, told The Daily Star newspaper that the charges against Hoque were "false". "This arrest was made to gag his voice. Police are just making charges up," he said.

The Bangladesh government on Wednesday turned a notorious jail into a courtroom to try ailing opposition leader Khaleda Zia on corruption charges. The 73-year-old former prime minister, already serving a five-year term in Dhaka Central Jail, was brought into the temporary courtroom in a wheelchair insisting she would not get a fair hearing, reports said. "I know I won't get justice. You can rule whatever you like. I am extremely ill. My hand and a leg are becoming paralysed," she told the court, according to the ntvbd.com news portal. "You can punish me however you want," the head of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party added.  Zia's lawyers have condemned the decision to use the jail, where she is the only inmate, into a court. They have said they will seek a ruling from a higher court to get the move overturned. Zia was granted bail in a corruption case in May but remains in jail while she fights dozens of other violence and graft charges. The prison in the old Mughal district of Dhaka was built under British colonial rule in the 19th century and was Bangladesh's largest prison until it was declared abandoned in 2016. Four of Bangladesh's founding leaders were killed in the prison on the eve of a military coup in November 1975 while hundreds of death row inmates including politicians, coup plotters and Islamists were hanged there in the intervening decades.  Law and Justice Minister Anisul Huq told AFP the decision to use the Central Prison as the venue for Zia's trial "has been done lawfully". Huq said there were other cases when prisoners had been tried in the same jail and the government had the constitutional right to set up a court anywhere by decree. The next hearing will be held on September 12 and 13. Zia was jailed for five years in February after being convicted of corruption, a sentence that triggered clashes between police and thousands of BNP supporters. She was found guilty then of embezzling money intended for an orphanage, a charge she dismissed as politically motivated. Zia is appealing against the verdict which bars her from standing in a general election to be held in December. In April, the BNP accused the government of putting the health of their jailed leader at risk by refusing her treatment in prison. She suffers from complications from arthritis and is struggling to walk, doctors said. Zia, who entered politics in the mid-1980s after her military dictator husband was assassinated in an abortive coup, is an ally-turned arch-foe of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.  The BNP boycotted the 2014 election in which Hasina returned to power but is expected to contest the upcoming election.

Rohingya leaders in Bangladesh yesterday challenged the United Nations to ensure Myanmar’s generals stand trial after investigators called for top military commanders to be prosecuted for genocide against the minority. A UN fact-finding mission into violations in Myanmar said the country’s army chief and five other senior brass should be investigated over a brutal crackdown last year that drove 700,000 Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh.  The report commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council detailed a horrifying list of atrocities against the Rohingya, including murder, enforced disappearance, torture, and sexual violence “perpetrated on a massive scale.” Estimates that 10,000 were killed in the 2017 crackdown were “conservative”, investigators said.  Myanmar has vehemently denied the allegations, insisting it was responding to attacks by Rohingya rebels. Community leaders for the roughly 1mn displaced Rohingya in southern Bangladesh welcomed calls for prosecution, but said they would judge the UN on its ability to deliver justice. “The UN has to ensure that justice sees the light,” Rohingya community leader Abdul Gowffer told AFP by phone.  “The commanders must face an ICC trial,” he added, referring to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.  The investigators have called on the UN Security Council to refer the Myanmar situation to the ICC or for the creation of an ad hoc international criminal tribunal. The Security Council has repeatedly urged Myanmar to halt military operations and to allow the Rohingya to safely return home. But its initiatives have been limited by council member and top Myanmar ally China, who could also thwart efforts to refer the case to the ICC. Dil Mohammad, another Rohingya leader, urged the UN to take further steps to ensure their safe return to Rakhine state, a process that has stalled with Bangladesh and Myanmar blaming each other for the delay. “It already took a year to reach this UN ruling,” said Mohammad, who lives in a strip of no-man’s land near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border with 6,000 other refugees. “Many things need to be done very quickly so we can return to our land in dignity and safety,” he told AFP.  The investigators were never granted access to Myanmar and based their findings on interviews with 875 victims and witnesses, as well as satellite imagery and authenticated documents, photographs and videos.   The International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague is the quickest route to justice for the Rohingya. For proceedings to begin, the United Nations Security Council needs to refer Myanmar to the court.  But geopolitics is likely to get in the way with China and Russia — which last week hosted Myanmar military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing — able to veto any referral.  China has consistently refrained from condemning Myanmar for its treatment of the Rohingya, describing it as an internal matter. “Rakhine State has very complex historic, ethnic and religious background,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters yesterday. “So how to resolve this problem? Through negotiation and dialogue,” she said, adding: “I think that blame on any side, or pressure, does not help resolve anything.” The Security Council is set to discuss Myanmar in New York.   If legal moves for the ICC stall at the Security Council, it could consider an ad hoc or mixed tribunal similar to ones created for Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Lebanon and Cambodia. This would in theory require the co-operation of national authorities in Myanmar.  Another possibility stems from an unprecedented request by the chief prosecutor at the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, to extend its jurisdiction to Myanmar, which has not signed up to the court. That’s “uncharted territory”, according to Kingsley Abbott of the International Commission of Jurists, who says the move may be possible because they crisis spilled over into Bangladesh, a member of the ICC.  If the court agrees, the prosecutor could launch a preliminary investigation and ultimately issue arrest warrants for Myanmar nationals.  But this would take time, requiring participation from Bangladesh in the investigation and — somewhat implausibly — Myanmar to hand over suspects.

Thousands of Rohingya refugees staged protests for "justice" Saturday on the first anniversary of a Myanmar military crackdown that forced them to flee to camps in Bangladesh. About 700,000 of the Muslim minority poured across the border after attacks by the Myanmar military and Buddhist groups that the United Nations has likened to ethnic cleansing. Thousands held peaceful marches and attended rallies chanting "We want justice from the UN." At the Kutupalong camp, a giant banner proclaimed: "Never Again: Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day. 25 August, 2018." Some wore bandanas emblazoned with the slogan "Save Rohingya" while others waved flags. More marches and gatherings were planned across what has become the world's biggest refugee camp, activists told AFP. Refugees fled the region, arriving in Bangladesh on foot or in flimsy boats. Many brought horrific stories of rape, torture and villages burned to the ground. Myanmar authorities have made an agreement with Bangladesh to repatriate refugees but only a handful have gone back.  Rohingya leaders insist the exiles will not return home unless their safety is guaranteed. No home, no hope  Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi this week said it was up to Bangladesh "to decide how quickly" repatriation of the refugees can be accomplished and insisted the "terrorist threat" posed by Rohingya militants remains "real and present". The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which has been blamed for attacks in Myanmar, issued an anniversary statement in which it condemned Myanmar's "terrorist government and genocidal military". Mohammad Hossain, a 40-year-old protester at Kutupalong, said: "We are here remember to August 25. We want justice.  "We want them (Myanmar) to recognise us as Rohingya. We are very sad because we are not in our native land." The Rohingya were stripped of their citizenship decades ago by Myanmar and have been hunted from the country in successive convulsions of violence. About 300,000 were already in camps in the camps in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district and the latest arrivals pushed numbers to one million. Abdul Malek, a 27-year-old refugee who fled an attack on his village last year, said the plight of the Rohingya was far from over. "This one year is just the beginning of many more to follow," he told AFP. The Rohingya and aid agencies are most worried about the uncertain future of the refugees, who are stateless and seemingly unwanted in Bangladesh while conditions in their Rakhine homeland remain dangerous. Access to healthcare and freedom of movement remain out of reach for the Rohingya left in Rakhine. And the Rohingya exodus from western Myanmar continues today, with refugees still trickling over the border throughout this year. The UN and international rights groups say conditions are not ready for their return. "It may be decades until they can safely return to Myanmar, if ever," said MSF head of mission in Bangladesh Pavlo Kolovos in a statement. Calls have mounted for Myanmar's military to be held responsible for the campaign, with security forces accused of torture, rape and murder. The US has sanctioned two army brigades and several commanders who oversaw the expulsion. There have been calls for an International Criminal Court inquiry but Myanmar has bristled at international criticism. Humanitarian agencies spearheading the relief effort in Bangladesh say just one third of the roughly $1 billion needed for the refugees until March has been raised.

With a repatriation plan in tatters and funding evaporating for a million refugees with ever-growing needs, Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar to Bangladesh face a grim future one year after the latest eruption of a decades-old conflict. Around 700,000 of the Muslim minority fled by foot or boat to Bangladesh after an army crackdown which the United Nations has likened to "ethnic cleansing", their villages ablaze behind them, in an exodus unprecedented in speed and scale. The crisis has heaped enormous pressure on Bangladesh's impoverished Cox's Bazar district, which already hosted around 300,000 of the stateless group. Myanmar says it is ready to take those who fled back.  But it refuses to recognise the Rohingya as citizens, falsely labelling them "Bengali" illegal immigrants. A deal between Myanmar and Bangladesh to start sending them back has also gone nowhere, caught up in bureaucracy and mistrust, with fewer than 200 having been repatriated so far.  Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi this week said it was up to Bangladesh "to decide how quickly" repatriation can be done, while insisting the "terrorist threat" posed by Rohingya militants remains "real and present". Without safety, citizenship and compensation for homes and land torched or commandeered by the army since they fled, the Rohingya do not want to go back.  Funding crunch But life in the camps, among the most densely populated places on earth, looks set to get harder.  A UN-led appeal for around $1 billion to fund the refugees until March has yielded only a third of that sum. The slow response has alarmed experts.  "Giving generally peaks in that first year (of a crisis)... then it's much harder to fund," Dr Peter Salama, the emergency response chief of the World Health Organization (WHO), told AFP.  Without a major cash injection, "remarkable" success in controlling outbreaks of diphtheria, cholera and other diseases could be undone, he said, and provision of non-life saving help -- such as family planning and mental health -- will likely evaporate. "Bangladesh's government really deserves more regional and international solidarity and support," he added. The World Bank has pledged $500 million to help with infrastructure, health and education of the Cox's region. But Bangladesh is tiring of its role as host and insists it will soon relocate around 100,000 Rohingya from Cox's to a remote, flood-prone island.  'History of darkness' Myanmar has driven out its Rohingya since the late 1970s. "Our history is of darkness," said Mohammed Kashim, 27, one of thousands of Rohingya refugees born in Bangladesh, but denied citizenship by both countries. "I have never stepped on Myanmar soil." And he probably never will. First he must be "verified" as someone who belongs in Myanmar -- near impossible given he was born outside the country. Refugees who are verified are required to take a 'NVC' card that does not grant them full citizenship or rights. Myanmar is unrepentant about last year's crackdown and denies widespread human rights violations, murders, rapes and mass arson of Rohingya villages despite reams of evidence.  But international pressure for accountability is mounting. Last week Washington hit four Myanmar military commanders and two infantry divisions with punitive financial sanctions over rights abuses and "ethnic cleansing". The UN Security Council is set to meet next week to discuss the issue, while testimony is being gathered across the camps to press the International Criminal Court (ICC) into launching proceedings against Mynamar. "There is finally a recognition (in Myanmar) that they cannot merely outlast the opprobrium," Aaron Connelly from the Lowy Institute think tank told AFP. But Myanmar is shielded at the UN by ally China, a permanent member of the Security Council. Meanwhile state media reported that the Myanmar military's Commander-in-Chief was in Russia -- another permanent member -- on the eve of the anniversary of a crackdown he ordered.  Security high in Rakhine Myanmar has remade northern Rakhine state without the Rohingya, redistributing land and building new security posts. It has built massive "transit" camps -- some with room for 30,000 -- for any returnees. Rohingya refugees fear without citizenship those camps will become permanent, like the ones holding 129,000 Rohingya since 2012. "We are citizens by birth," said Nay Lin Aung, 35, among hundreds of Rohingya living on a patch of no-man's land between the two countries. "We won't go back as they (Myanmar) are not calling us with a sincere mind."  Inside Rakhine fear, tension and hatred are razor sharp. "Both communities (of remaining Rohinya and eEthnic Rakhine Buddhists) have their worries now... so the government has reinforced security," ahead of the anniversary said Ye Htoo, deputy administrator of Maungdaw district on a government-steered trip to Rakhine this week.

A spate of bloody killings is fuelling unease in the Rohingya camps on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, where overstretched police are struggling to protect nearly a million traumatised refugees from violent gangs.   Just 1,000 police officers guard the labyrinthine shanties that make up the giant camps and authorities want to more than double the force in the wake of the murders.  Three respected community leaders are among those slain in what police suspect is a power struggle between Rohingya gangs in the refugee slums in camps around Cox’s Bazar. One, Arifullah, was stabbed 25 times on a busy road in June and left in a pool of blood. The other two were killed in their shacks just days apart by masked assailants. Police in the crime-ridden Cox’s Bazar district are investigating 21 refugee murders, many in recent months, which they blame on score-settling and turf wars.  Many in Kutupalong, the world’s biggest refugee camp, and others nearby, say the unchecked violence leaves Rohingya families at the mercy of criminals. “When the gangs come into the camps, people call the police. But they only arrive after the criminals are gone,” said 16-year-old Runa Akter, whose father disappeared in July with a relative who was later found dead. Police only filed a case after her uncle’s body was found, she said.   “We are scared. We are especially worried about my brother, because there have been threats to kidnap and kill him,” the anxious teenager told AFP. “I don’t want to lose anyone else in my family.”   A police investigator, SM Atiq Ullah, said no suspects had been identified so far.  Criminals have long preyed on the Rohingya camps however. Police say refugees with ties to Bangladeshi drug and human trafficking networks have sold Rohingya girls into sex and recruited mules to courier methamphetamine.  The scourge has intensified since an army crackdown in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar drove nearly 700,000 of the stateless Muslim minority into Bangladesh last year.    Hundreds of Rohingya refugees have been arrested since the August influx for rape, drug offences, human trafficking and weapons possession, among other crimes.  Afruzul Haque Tutul, a senior police officer who until mid-August was deputy chief of Cox’s Bazar, said gangs cashing in on the human misery were extorting “huge money” from new refugees desperate for land, shelter and food. Internal feuds over territory quickly turn deadly.  Among the bodies was Arifullah, one of the “mahjis” or community leaders tasked with overseeing day-to-day camp affairs.  As an English speaker, he met with dignitaries and liaised closely with police — a position of power Tutul says could have irked rivals. Arifullah’s wife blamed Rohingya militants for the death of her husband who was surrounded and stabbed by a group of men.   She told AFP that Arifullah was a “big critic” of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). Bangladesh denies the ARSA have a foothold in the camps and the group distanced itself from crime in a rare January statement issued after two mahjis were murdered.  “It is very challenging, and sometimes threatening, being a mahji,” said Arifullah’s right-hand man, Abdur Rahim, who took over four days after his friend’s killing.  Just a day earlier, a mahji in a neighbouring camp was savagely beaten by a mob but there were not enough police to deter violence, he told AFP in his bamboo office in Balukhali camp. Tutul said patrols had been increased but forces were spread thin. Some 1,500 additional officers had been requested from Dhaka, he added.  “Definitely it’s a huge task. We are trying our best to control the area,” he told AFP. As the body count climbed, Bangladesh’s Daily Star newspaper in July printed an editorial declaring it “amateurish to hope that less than 3,000 police would be enough” to guard one million desperate people.   The murders and other unexplained crimes have eroded trust in law enforcement and underscored gaps in policing. On one recent visit, AFP reporters saw a police unit armed with shotguns and sticks patrol a camp near where two men were found dead in July.  But a community leader, who requested anonymity, said: “There are no police after midnight. Even during the day, during their shifts, they often stay in their posts.”  Few officers speak the Rohingya language, further hampering inquiries. Fear has kept mouths shut.  “That is why Rohingyas do not come forward. They are scared. In your town, if criminals or terrorists or robbers were there, definitely you will be scared,” Tutul said. Aid groups are installing floodlights to improve safety, especially for women, and police checkposts are planned for vulnerable areas of the dense slums.  But Mohibullah, an influential Rohingya leader, said policing such ghetto-like conditions was difficult and crime was inevitable.  “It is very bad,” he told AFP. “But, we think the refugee life is like this.”

Bangladesh police said on Thursday they have arrested nearly 100 people as they step up a crackdown after student protests that paralysed the capital.  Dhaka and other cities were brought to a standstill for more than a week by tens of thousands of students demanding better safety measures after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus.  Police in Dhaka said they have detained 97 people "for violence and incitement in the social media" during the demonstrations that began on July 29. The moves have sparked fear among activists, protest leader Bin Yamin Mollah told AFP  "Everyone is in a panic," he said. "Almost all the students who have led the protests have gone into hiding."  "Many students who posted about the protests have either changed their Facebook accounts or removed their posts. Even yesterday two students were arrested for their Facebook posts. Teachers are being harassed for supporting the protests," he said. The detentions include acclaimed photographer Shahidul Alam and actress Quazi Nawshaba Ahmed, who were held over comments made on Facebook during the protests. Writer Pinaki Bhattacharya, a high-profile critic of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has not been seen since intelligence officers asked him to report to their headquarters on August 5, his father told AFP. On Wednesday police arrested a 22-year-old student leader Lutfun Nahar Luma at a remote hideout. Dhaka police's cyber crime chief said Monday that officers have investigated about 1,000 Facebook accounts they say spread rumours during the unrest. Rights groups have criticised the crackdown and the violence used to end the protests. About 1,000 people were injured in police action and attacks by pro-government groups on students and journalists. On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch said the arrests have created "an atmosphere of fear, putting a serious chill on free speech". "Authorities should halt arbitrary arrests, prosecute those involved in violent attacks, and immediately and unconditionally release people it has thrown in jail," said Brad Adams, Asia director for the rights group.

Award-winning Bangladesh photographer Shahidul Alam was in jail on Monday, 10 days after being arrested following an interview with Al Jazeera about massive student demonstrations, police said. Alam, 63, who accused police of assaulting him in custody and was earlier sent to a hospital for a check-up following an order from the high court, was taken to a magistrate's court late on Sunday. "The court then sent him to jail," police official Moshiur Rahman told AFP. Another police officer told the local Daily Star newspaper that Alam would be kept in prison until the completion of the probe into his charges. Alam was accused of making "false" and "provocative" statements on Al Jazeera and on Facebook Live as tens of thousands of students protested in Dhaka in late July and early August. He also published photos of the demonstrations. He is being investigated for allegedly violating Bangladesh's internet laws, enacted in 2006 and sharpened in 2013, that critics say are used to snuff out dissent and harass journalists. Alam, whose work has appeared widely in Western media and who founded the renowned Pathshala South Asian Media Institute, faces together with others a maximum 14 years in jail. New York-based Human Rights Watch and London's Amnesty International have demanded his release. The renowned photographer told reporters outside court last Monday that he had been beaten so badly in police custody that his tunic needed washing to get the blood out. Alam's arrest capped a turbulent week in Bangladesh as students poured onto the streets in Dhaka and elsewhere for nine straight days after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus. Last weekend the demonstrations turned violent as some protesters vandalised and torched vehicles and police used tear gas and rubber bullets. Mobs allegedly aligned with the government and wielding metal rods attacked demonstrators, journalists and even the US ambassador's car. Some 150 people were injured. Although the protests fizzled out last week, Bangladesh authorities launched a crackdown on online activists for "spreading rumours" to fuel the unrest. Police are looking for people behind some 1,000 Facebook accounts and have arrested at least a dozen social media activists. These include a television actress and the head of an online media outlet.

Myanmar has asked Bangladesh to stop providing aid to 6,000 Rohingya stranded on the border between the two countries since a military crackdown prompted a mass exodus of the Muslim minority last year, the foreign ministry in Dhaka said.  The group refused to enter Bangladesh in the months during and after Myanmar’s military campaign, which drove 700,000 other Rohingya across the frontier in an act the United Nations, United States and other western countries have condemned as ethnic cleansing.   They are now stuck in a narrow “no mans land” relying on international aid sent by Bangladesh. Myanmar called for the aid to be halted in talks between Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A H Mahmood Ali and Myanmar’s top diplomatic envoy, Kyaw Tint Swe, in Myanmar’s capital Napyidaw on Friday, the foreign ministry said late Saturday.  “Myanmar particularly requested Bangladesh to stop providing humanitarian assistance to those people... and proposed to arrange supply of humanitarian assistance from Myanmar side,” the ministry said.   Bangladesh made no commitment but “responded positively” to Myanmar’s proposal to conduct a survey of the no mans land area, the ministry said.  A Myanmar minister on a visit to the strip of land earlier this year warned the Rohingya refugees that they will face “consequences” if they do not take up a Myanmar offer to return.   Dil Mohammad, a Rohingya community leader among the group on the border, told AFP the latest pressure from Myanmar to vacate the no mans land area would add to their hardship.  “There will be uncertainty whether Myanmar will regularly provide us with food and humanitarian assistance. If Bangladesh stops helping us from their side, we will have a huge problem,” he said.  Kyaw Tint Swe, a minister in the office of Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, also made a new pledge to speed up implementation of a repatriation deal agreed with Bangladesh in November. Myanmar committed to taking the Rohingya back in that deal, but none have returned. 

Khurshid Alam says he pulls 17-hour shifts three days a week driving a private bus in Dhaka, where tens of thousands of students held angry protests for over a week demanding an end to rash driving that killed two teenagers late last month.  Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government has moved swiftly to defuse the protests that were threatening to spiral, with an eye on general elections due by the end of the year. On Monday, the cabinet approved raising the maximum jail time for rash driving deaths to five years from three. Overworked and underpaid drivers like Alam are often blamed for Bangladesh’s high traffic casualty rate — road accidents kill or injure at least five people an hour in the country — and the resentment against them has been aggravated by the deaths of the two students last Friday.  Most bus drivers do not get paid monthly salaries but earn commissions based on the number of passengers picked, leading them to race each other for passengers. The two students were killed when the driver of a bus speeding to pick up passengers ahead of other buses in a congested part of Dhaka lost control and ploughed into the bus stop, a court heard this week. The crowded capital of 18mn has been paralysed by angry students since then, although the protests have now tapered off. Police have fired tear gas and used water cannon to disperse protesters, as students, many in their school uniforms, stopped vehicles, demanding to check drivers’ licences and their vehicles’ roadworthiness. “I start driving at 6am and continue up to 11pm,” said a bearded Alam, 45, as he got ready for a trip on his green and ash bus with a cracked windshield, in a city teeming with scuffed up buses and beaten-up, used cars.  Alam said he had reported the cracked windshield to the bus owner, but it was yet to be replaced. He said he works for three days a week, making up to 1,200 taka ($14) a day. A bus driver on contract with the Delhi Transport Corporation in neighbouring India earns as much as three times that. “If we get a monthly salary then we can drive without any tension. We always have to keep thinking about our earnings,” Alam said. As he stepped on the accelerator, a cycle-rickshaw with two passengers suddenly appeared in front of the bus, forcing him to hard-brake. “We are working to bring discipline in the streets,” said Khondaker Enayet Ullah, secretary general of the Bangladesh Road Transport Owners Association. “It’s true that shortage of drivers often compels us to hire unskilled drivers. But we are asking the transport owners not to appoint anyone without proper licenses from now on.” About 4,000 people were killed in driving deaths in Bangladesh in 2017 and 2,350 in the first seven months of this year, according to data compiled by the Accident Research Institute at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.  Many protesters have demanded the government tighten transport regulations, including by setting limits on the hours worked by drivers and providing a minimum monthly salary. But Abul Qasem, who owns the Tusher Transport Company in Dhaka that has 10 buses, said implementing those suggestions would mean higher fares that customers in the price-sensitive country would not readily agree to. “If the government asks us to fix eight hours duty a day, we will follow it. In that case, fares will increase because then there will be at least two shifts a day,” said Qasem. “That will anger passengers. Will the government then subsidise us?” The drivers say they also want the government to install more traffic lights and build dedicated lanes for pedestrians, instead of putting all the blame on drivers. “Everybody has a guardian to take care of their interests but we don’t,” said bus driver Alam.

Bangladesh police have arrested at least 12 social media activists accused of spreading rumours on Facebook during student protests last week that left about 1,000 people injured, a top official said Thursday. Dhaka and other cities were this month paralysed by more than a week of protests that saw tens of thousands of school and college students take to the streets. Rights groups have criticised the police response to the demonstrations, including the high-profile arrests of a renowned photographer, television actress and senior journalist during the protests. Authorities have investigated about 1,000 Facebook accounts they claim incited violence during the unrest, said Dhaka police deputy commissioner Nazmul Islam. ‘We have so far arrested 12 people for spreading rumours. Hopefully in the next couple of days we will arrest more people,’ he said. Some of those arrested had claimed four girls were raped and two protesters were killed at the height of the demonstrations on Saturday, Islam added. Bangladesh's internet law allows the regulation of social media and internet comment but rights groups accused the government of using the internet laws to crackdown on legitimate and peaceful dissent. Amnesty International has called the legislation ‘draconian’ and the Freedom House watchdog group says it has ‘created a climate of intimidation’. Award-winning photographer Shahidul Alam, television actor Kazi Naushaba and the chief executive of an online news outlet were among those who were arrested and charged under the internet laws during the unrest. Alam was detained on Sunday after giving an interview to Al Jazeera television and commenting on the demonstrations on Facebook. He said he was beaten while in custody. Islam said rumours spread online had led to the ‘destruction of 382 public vehicles, including eight police vehicles. Among those three police vehicles were burnt.’ ‘Almost 1,000 people were wounded, 45 police were also wounded seriously,’ he added. Protesters across Bangladesh demanded better safety on Bangladesh's chaotic, corruption-riddled transport network after a bus killed two teens in late July. At the height of the protests, hundreds of students set up roadblocks across Dhaka, checking whether cars and buses had valid licences and vehicle safety certificates. Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets while alleged pro-government groups attacked demonstrators, photographers and even the US ambassador's car. The police action drew international attention, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government criticised by the United Nations, United States and rights groups. Analysts said the protests reflected simmering discontent among Bangladeshi youth and highlighted broader issues including the absence of public accountability and the rule of law. Most protesters had returned to school this week amid fears of further government repression if the unrest continued, according to student activists.

A Bangladesh court on Wednesday acquitted a British man detained without charge for two years on suspicion of involvement in a July 2016 attack on a cafe in Dhaka that killed 22 people, his lawyer said. Rights group Amnesty International had campaigned for the release of Hasnat Karim, who was in the cafe at the time of the attack for his daughter's 13th birthday party. "We are happy that the court accepted the charge sheet and dropped the charges against him," Karim's lawyer, Sanwar Hossain Somazder, told Reuters. Karim was due to be released from jail later on Wednesday. Somazder said Karim would not be seeking compensation. "He lost two years from his life that will not come back," he said. Karim was with his family celebrating his daughter's birthday when militants attacked, taking 22 hostages, mostly foreigners, who were killed over 12 hours. Karim became a suspect after he agreed to act as a human shield, witnesses said at the time. An investigation later cleared him of involvement. Separately a senior Japanese foreign ministry official said the Japanese government had requested Bangladesh to ensure the safety and security of its citizens in the future. Seven Japanese were killed in the 2016 attack. "Our foreign minister, Taro Kono, asked Bangladesh's Prime Minister on Tuesday to ensure safety and security as Japan wants to participate in more economic development," said Takeshi Osuga, press secretary of ministry of foreign affairs of Japan. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had ensured him that such an attack would not happen again in the future, Bangladesh sources said. Japan has signed a $2.62bn metro rail project in Dhaka in which it will invest $1.92bn. But all its citizen pulled out of Bangladesh after the 2016 attack and work was stopped on the project for a year. Osuga told reporters that the Bangladesh government had requested Japan withdraw its travel alert. But the Japanese government could not do this without further studying the situation. Japan also wanted Bangladesh to share its findings from the investigation into the attack.

Bangladesh's government demanded on Wednesday that the US embassy withdraw criticism over its handling of days-long student protests in the capital over a fatal traffic accident. Tens of thousands of students have blocked streets of Dhaka for more than a week, demanding safer roads, after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus. Police fired tear gas and beat up students to force them to disperse but they have stayed on. Scores of people have been hurt in demonstrations. On Sunday, the US embassy posted a statement on Facebook saying youngsters engaging in peaceful protests were exercising their democratic rights and that nothing could justify ‘brutal attacks and violence’ against young people. The United Nations said it too was concerned about violence in the streets and called for calm. Information Minister Hasanul Hoque Inu said police had acted with restraint and that both the United States and the United Nations had overstepped the line with their criticism. ‘We urge to withdraw this statement. This is discourteous,’ Hoque said of the US statement, adding the government would write to the embassy and the United Nations to register its protest. On Sunday a group of armed men attacked a vehicle carrying the US ambassador. There were no injuries but two vehicles were damaged. Police said on Wednesday they were still investigating the case. Students are demanding changes to transport laws following the July 29 deaths, after the driver of a privately operated bus lost control and ran over a group of students. Police also said they were retaining custody of activist and photographer Shahidul Alam for more questioning after he was taken to hospital for a checkup on Wednesday. Alam was picked up from his home on Sunday after he had posted comments on social media that a student wing of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling party was trying to attack the protesters. The police said he was arrested on charges of spreading rumours on social media, aiming to incite violence. His detention has sparked criticism from rights groups.