Facebook allowing military to recruit for and fund genocide – Dhaka Tribune / Financial Express
After Facebook suspended US President Donald Trump for inciting violence, Burma Campaign UK has repeated its call to Facebook to stop the military using Facebook to recruit members and promote its businesses.
The Dhaka Tribune and Bangladesh’s Financial Express quote Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK: “Facebook appears to have double standards. If you incite violence in America you get banned from Facebook, but if you recruit people to commit violence in Burma you still get an official Facebook blue tick.”
Probe into Japan beer firm’s links to Burma rights abuses “inconclusive” – Urdu Point / Macau Business
Japanese beer giant Kirin said an investigation into whether money from its joint ventures with the Burmese military had funded rights abuses was “inconclusive”.
Burma Campaign UK, which has placed Kirin on its “Dirty List” of international companies doing business with the military, denounced the findings of Kirin’s report as “farcical”.
“Kirin are making themselves look ridiculous trying to claim they can’t find out if the Burmese military uses its money for military purposes,” said director Mark Farmaner.
Kirin Holdings’ audit on Burmese military funding “inconclusive” – Just Drinks
Deloitte’s investigation into the Japanese brewer Kirin’s links to the Burmese military has proved “inconclusive”, the company has said.
Burma Campaign UK today described as “farcical” Kirin’s assertion that after a year-long investigation regarding two joint ventures with the Burmese military, it cannot establish whether the military uses profits for military purposes.
“Kirin are making themselves look ridiculous,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK. “Kirin’s business partner rapes children and faces charges of genocide, and yet Kirin are still delaying the inevitable day when it has to stop doing business with the military.”
Kirin remains on BCUK’s Dirty List.
Bangladesh rejects claims it is forcing Rohingya to move to cyclone-prone island – Sky News
The government of Bangladesh is angrily rejecting claims it is forcibly moving Rohingya refugees to a remote cyclone-prone island against their will. “We took them all voluntarily,” Bangladesh foreign minister Abdul Momen told Sky News.
But Mark Farmaner from Burma Campaign UK told Sky News that was untrue. “These people do not want to go there,” he said. “They want to stay in the refugee camps where they have support systems, where they have managed to establish some forms of informal education, where they have communities around after they being through such a traumatic experience.”
David Arnott, co-founder of Burma Campaign UK, dies – the Guardian
Everyone at Burma Campaign UK is saddened to learn of the death of David Arnott in Mae Sot, Thailand, on 6 December 2020. David was one of the founders of Burma Campaign UK (then Burma Action Group).
David dedicated his life to promoting human rights, peace, education and democracy in Burma. He will be missed.
UK MPs want intervention in The Gambia’s Rohingya genocide case – Bangladesh Daily Star
More than 100 UK MPs have called on the British government to make an intervention supporting The Gambia’s Rohingya genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as human rights violations against the Rohingyas continue.
Rushanara Ali and Jeremy Hunt, co-chairs of All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Rights of the Rohingya, signed the letter on behalf of 104 UK MPs, who said, “We are convinced that if the United Kingdom joins the case, it will bring significant added value, both legally and symbolically.”
Rushanara Ali is Chair and Jeremy Hunt is Vice-Chair of the APPG on Democracy in Burma, administered by Burma Campaign UK.
‘Troubling’ Burmese elections may lead to instability, warns bishop – Church Times
The election in Burma this month should have delivered “stability and security”, but has instead led to the possibility of “unrest and insurgency”, owing to the manner in which the process was carried out, the Bishop of St Albans, Dr Alan Smith, has said.
The executive director of Burma Campaign UK, Anna Roberts, said: “The fact that these elections are less free and fair than the last should be a wake-up call to the international community about the direction Burma is moving in.
“Ethnic and religious minorities are being disenfranchised on a huge scale, and the international community is virtually silent. If there can’t be constitutional democratic reforms, and elections are less free and fair, where is the democratic transition the British government and others say they are supporting?”
Suu Kyi forecast to triumph in Myanmar election – ASEAN Post
Vote counting continued late into the night after an election that is expected to return to power the government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains a hero at home in spite of a reputation abroad shattered by the Rohingya crisis.
Virtually all the 600,000 Rohingya Muslims remaining in the country – half of whom are of voting age – are stripped of citizenship and rights, including their chance to vote. Restrictions across many other ethnic minority areas – ostensibly for security concerns – mean nearly two million voters are disenfranchised from an electorate of 37 million.
“This is an apartheid election,” said Burma Campaign UK, adding the polls were “less free and fair than the last”.
Counting begins in election expected to give Suu Kyi new term – the Sun
Poll workers began counting votes on Sunday in an election criticized by rights groups and widely expected to see the party of Aung San Suu Kyi win another five-year term, reports the Sun.
More than 1.5 million people, most of them in conflict-torn Rakhine state, were stripped of the right to vote last month when authorities cancelled elections in regions where they said fighting between insurgents and the military made it too dangerous.
This election will be a slam dunk for Aung San Suu Kyi,” said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK. “Which makes it all the more concerning that she is acting undemocratically, misusing government authority to disadvantage opposition parties.”
Suu Kyi forecast to triumph in virus-hit Myanmar election – France 24
Burma heads to the polls Sunday for a vote expected to return to power the government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains a hero at home in spite of a reputation abroad shattered by the Rohingya crisis.
Coronavirus cases have spiralled in recent months, sending swathes of the country into lockdown and largely forcing election campaigns online, where hate speech between rival factions has flourished. But Suu Kyi, who has placed herself front and centre in the fight against the epidemic, refused to postpone the polls.
Doubts about the vote’s credibility are already overshadowing the election. Virtually all the Rohingya Muslims remaining in the country are stripped of citizenship and rights, including their chance to vote.
“This is an apartheid election,” said Burma Campaign UK, adding the polls were “less free and fair than the last”.