Top Myanmar generals barred from entering US – New York Times
The United States has imposed sanctions on Min Aung Hlaing and three of Burma’s highest-ranking generals for their roles in the atrocities carried out against Rohingya Muslims since 2017. The four generals and their immediate family members will be barred from entering the US.
Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, said the travel ban was far too weak a response. He said the United States could have brought the generals before an ad hoc tribunal, backed an arms embargo or imposed stronger sanctions on military-owned companies.
“Essentially this is a holiday ban,” he said. “Limiting Min Aung Hlaing’s holiday options is not a proportionate response to genocide.”
FIFA face human rights criticism over Burma bid for U-20 World Cup
Burma’s bid jointly with Thailand to host the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2021 has been met with a chorus of criticism, reports Myanmar Mix, as activists and politicians raise human rights concerns in Rakhine state.
Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, was surprised by the decision to accept the bid, “even by FIFA’s low standards. You have to wonder if terrible human rights records are a FIFA requirement for hosting world cups,” he said. “If Myanmar and Thailand were to win the bid a big concern of Burma Campaign UK’s would be any military companies involved in sponsorship.”
Aung San Suu Kyi’s unholy alliance with Viktor Orban is a new low – the National
Aung San Suu Kyi’s status has sunk to a new despicable low, according to the National, after she met prime minister Viktor Orban in Budapest, and agreed with him that “one of the greatest challenges … is migration [and] continuously growing Muslim populations”.
“We thought that Aung San Suu Kyi would move in the areas she could with a parliamentary majority,” Burma Campaign UK’s Mark Farmaner is quoted as saying. “Things like releasing political prisoners, repealing repressive laws, creating a free press, trying to improve the economy, environmental issues – she hasn’t done any of those things. Even the limited expectations we had have not been met.”
Suu Kyi, Orban agree on challenge of ‘growing Muslim populations’ – Coconuts Yangon
Coconuts Yangon reports that Aung San Suu Kyi, meeting Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, agreed with him that “one of the greatest challenges” facing their countries is “migration” and how to “co-exist” with “continuously growing Muslim populations.”
“Aung San Suu Kyi seems more comfortable with Europe’s right-wing populists than the countries which spent years supporting her struggle for democracy while she was under house arrest,” Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, told Coconuts Yangon.
Facebook urged to remove military-linked co. pages – the Irrawaddy
Burma Campaign UK on Wednesday called on Facebook to ban nearly 30 pages belonging to the Myanmar military and military-backed companies, reports the Irrawaddy.
Although Facebook had previously removed military pages, fake accounts and military mouthpiece pages, the statement said, more than 25 military and military-backed companies’ pages are still hosted on the platform.
“Whether the Facebook pages are spreading military propaganda or promoting military-owned businesses, either way they are promoting part of an institution accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Burma Campaign UK director Mark Farmaner said in the statement.
The war for truth in Myanmar’s cyperspace – Coda Story
Facebook now has 18 million local users in Burma and is a parallel space for the conflict in Rakhine State, reports the website Coda Story.
In late 2018, and again in early 2019, Facebook announced it had dismantled sweeping “Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior” (CIB) campaigns directly traceable to the military. “Aung San Suu Kyi’s State Counsellor Information committee [Facebook] page was full of hysterical posts about terrorists and implying on a daily basis that the [aid agencies were] assisting [Rohingya rebels],” said Mark Farmaner of Burma Campaign UK.
NYT Style slammed for pairing Burma feature with fashion shoot – Coconuts Yangon
A decision by New York Times Style Magazine editors to pair an article on Burma’s struggles with its “brutal history and violent present” with a high-end fashion shoot has prompted a social media backlash, says Coconuts Yangon.
“Using genocide to promote high-end fashion shows quite a lack of judgement and sensitivity. It’s a bizarre feature,” Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, told the online publisher. “It used genocide as a backdrop for a fashion shoot, makes the case against a tourism boycott which doesn’t exist, and manufactures a history of Burma which simply isn’t true.”
Foreign firms face scrutiny as UN looks to isolate generals – VOA
The UN’s fact-finding mission to Burma is calling for the military to be totally isolated, reports the Voice of America, because the leadership has done little to address widespread rights abuses around the country. The fact-finding mission is now seeking more information on the military’s business ventures in the hopes of helping countries to hit the generals in their pockets.
VOA cites Burma Campaign UK’s “dirty list” of 49 foreign companies doing business with the military or implicated in rights abuses in Burma.
World Bank warned against giving $100m. for ‘Rakhine recovery’ project – Coconuts Yangon
The World Bank is considering granting a $100 million loan to Burma to implement a “Rakhine Recovery and Development Support Project”, reports Coconuts Yangon. But rather than address the violence against Rohingya Muslims that has driven hundreds of thousands of them from the country, the plan could make the bank complicit in crimes against the persecuted minority.
“The government is implementing apartheid against the Rohingya, and now it looks like the World Bank is offering to pay for it,” said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK. “The problem is that the government itself is implementing illegal discriminatory policies against the Rohingya. The World Bank should not be funding the government’s projects in Rakhine State at the same time the government discriminates against part of the population of that state. The World Bank risks complicity in government policies of discrimination, which contribute to the ongoing genocide of the Rohingya.”
Burma Campaign UK at NASUWT conference
Anna Roberts and Wai Hnin of Burma Campaign UK were at the teachers trade union NASUWT conference in Belfast this weekend. Lots of support for our campaign, including access to education for Rohingya children.
Wai Hnin, Burma campaign UK’s Campaigns Officer, at the NASUWT conference.
