Why aren’t more voices raised in defence of the Rohingya

A Rohingya woman breaks down after a fight erupted during food distribution by local volunteers at Kutupalong, Bangladesh.The massive refugee camp in Kutupalong was set up in the early '90s to accommodate the first waves of Rohingya Muslim refugees who started escaping violence and persecution in Myanmar. - Bernat Armangue,The Associated Press

I saw a video the other day of Abdullah Karim, a British aid worker on the Bangladesh side of the Myanmar border. Tears streaming from his eyes, he cries "We're coming here and they have family members who have been raped, who've been brutalized, and we're coming here with a bag of rice expecting things to be better. By Allah I'm ashamed of myself. I'm crying because we can't do anything for them … Our leaders should be ashamed. What good is your army? What good is your forces and your tanks? When your sisters are being raped? Have you no shame?"

While the UN debates the semantics of whether its "ethnic cleansing" or "genocide" occurring in Myanmar, more than 500,000 terrified innocent Rohingya men, women, children and elderly, including more than 1,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the Myanmar border into Bangladesh in just the past five weeks. According to the UN, these are the most forgotten, most persecuted minority in the world.

Imagine frantically grabbing what you can — your children, your belongings while your homes are being sprayed indiscriminately with bullets. Imaging seeing soldiers kicking babies and toddlers around like "soccer practice," pregnant women getting raped and their unborn babies cut from their bellies and their breasts cut off. Imagine seeing countless innocents getting shot in their backs as they flee. Imagine landmines lining the path of your only escape route, only to end up in a vast muddy "no man's land" with thousands of other terrified hungry people who are just like you. No sanitation, roads, or even food, and where even the country you are seeking assistance from doesn't want you because they too are destitute and hungry.

What has the UN done but talk? What have politicians done but issue statements and talk?

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Our own Prime Minister Trudeau failed to raise this issue at the recent general assembly meeting at the UN — likely to the relief of the other world leaders for to do so would require ownership of the problem and the moral requirement to do something.

Whereas Trudeau issued a strongly worded letter to Aung San Kyi — Myanmar's de facto leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, honorary Canadian citizen, and "champion of human rights and freedoms" — she declared she "has no idea why the Rohingya are fleeing the country." Incredibly, the Canadian government continues to give millions of dollars in aid to the Myanmar government and greedy, unscrupulous foreign governments line up to sell arms and munitions to Myanmar.

It seems that flouting international human rights and freedoms afforded by the Geneva Convention is in vogue nowadays. Governments know they can freely slaughter innocent human lives — even aid workers and first-responders — with impunity — whether in Myanmar, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Central African Republic, Afghanistan or Yemen.

The UN, charged to step in to prevent genocides like the Holocaust, has failed miserably in its mandate. Its toothlessness, inaction and impotence is deafening.

All of this accomplishes one thing; to keep humanitarian aid groups in business.

Disgusting.

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The Rohingya problem isn't new. It has been brewing for a long time but has only caught our attention because a small band of Rohingya men have had enough of the world's inaction and decided to fight the Myanmar army themselves. They are called "terrorists" by Aung. Through collective punishment which Aung has failed to stop, the Myanmar army has brutalized the Rohingya with hopes they will be too terrorized and too afraid to ever return.

It is working.

When we hear of a raging fire in a land far from us, it is human nature to ignore it. "It's not our problem — others will handle it." However, we fail to realize that such an attitude can cause the fire to spread — sometimes to the point where it does become our problem — directly or indirectly.

Sadly, we live in an era where some communities and faiths feel they are superior to others, and that they have the right to kill, maim, humiliate and decimate others — all over power, land and borders. Humankind has not evolved to the point where we consider each other equals, where we celebrate our differences, diversity of our faiths, and where the resources and wealth of this planet are shared on an equal basis for the good of humankind.

This is not about the Rohingya being Muslim. This is about basic rights, freedoms, decency and respect that should be guaranteed to all human beings equally, anywhere on this earth.

How can any human being eat a meal, lay in a cosy bed, and not feel any sense of guilt or remorse knowing their neighbour — whether near or far — is hungry, cold and oppressed?

As a Canadian, as a human being with freedoms, security and a full stomach, press our government to stop all humanitarian catastrophes whether against our own Indigenous people, or vulnerable people, cultures and populations abroad.

Raza Khan is a Hamilton-born and raised family physician. He is a board member of Islamic Relief Canada.

Freelance Somali Cameraman Working for VOA Killed in Saturday’s Blast in Mogadishu

Today, Voice of America learned that Ali Nur Siad, a freelance cameraman, was killed in Saturday’s bomb blast in Mogadishu while working for the news agency. It was the deadliest terror attack in Somalia's history.

“I am proud of the work our journalists do each and every day, often putting their lives on the line to bring news and information to the world,” said VOA Director Amanda Bennett. “On behalf of the entire agency, my deepest condolences go out to Mr. Siad’s family. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the injured and those who lost their lives in Mogadishu.”

Siad worked with VOA Somali reporter Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulle, who was among those wounded in the attack. Mr. Abdulle suffered a broken hand, burns on much of his body, and shrapnel wounds to his head and neck and is receiving medical care in Turkey.

Established in 2007, VOA Somali broadcasts to Somalia and its Horn of Africa neighbors on AM, FM, shortwave radio, the Internet, and through mobile devices. VOA Somali is composed of a team of broadcasters based in Washington, D.C. along with freelance reporters in Somalia and elsewhere in Africa.

Intel Official Says Turkish Military Base Was 'Target' of Somalia Truck Bomb

Somali security forces and others gather and search for bodies near destroyed buildings at the scene of Saturday's blast, in Mogadishu, Somalia, Oct. 15, 2017.

The newly Turkish-built military base in Mogadishu was the original target of Saturday’s deadly truck bomb, a senior Somali intelligence official told VOA Somali.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says all the intelligence reports received before this attack -- and information gathered since the explosion occurred -- indicated the Turkish military base was the target.

“This base is the most strategic target for them, it’s going to produce an organized army and they have to preemptively destroy that,” the source said.

The official said the National Intelligence and Security Agency had prior information that al-Shabab was planning to attack the Turkish military base.

Turkish and Somali officials inaugurated the base on Sept. 30. More than 200 Turkish troops will train 1,500 Somali troops with a target of training at least 10,000 Somali soldiers. The chief of staff of the Turkish Armed Forces, General Hulusi Akar, said during the opening ceremony that his government plans to help Somalia until the country gets "militarily stronger."

Somalia has published a plan to establish a 22,000-strength army before the African Union troops leave the country. AMISOM will start gradual withdrawal by October of next year.

Al-Shabab did not claim the attack but Somali government officials and terrorism experts strongly believe that al-Shabab militants were behind the explosion.

Tweet: Harun Maruf reports on explosion

​"Whether they claim or not claim makes no difference. We know the act that has happened, it’s al-Shabab," former intelligence officer Abdi Hassan Hussein told VOA Somali. "The information we are getting so far shows this is the work of al-Shabab. It has their hallmarks."

The bombing was the deadliest in Somalia’s history killing more than 300 people.

The truck

Somali security officials have confirmed to VOA Somali that they have questioned the driver of a Toyota Noah minivan who was arrested on Saturday after trying to walk away from the scene.

According to the source, the driver parked the minivan and got out and made a phone call, possibly to get instructions. The public tipped off security officials who shortly arrived at the scene. While police were waiting for the bomb in the minivan to be dismantled, it exploded. No one was injured. The main deadly bombing and the minivan explosion were connected and believed to both be part of a complex attack, officials said.

Intelligence sources also confirmed that four other al-Shabab suspects were arrested in connection with the bombing including a member of Amniyat, al-Shabab’s security and intelligence branch, who operated in Mogadishu. In addition, Somali intelligence has identified the driver of the truck who carried out the attack and is known to be an al-Shabab member, according to the sources. His name has not yet been released.

The truck that carried out the attack was an old construction site vehicle imported from Italy. It was stopped by security forces manning a main checkpoint at Siinka Dheer outside Mogadishu. The driver called out to a man known to the soldiers who allowed the truck and driver to proceed, the sources say.

Tweet: Harun Maruf reports on truck bomb

​It was then stopped at a second checkpoint inside Mogadishu near the former U.S. embassy. The security team there asked if the driver knew anyone who would be able to identify him and allow him to pass through the checkpoint. He did not.

“One of the soldiers made a radio call listened (to) by multiple officers and reported that they have a truck and they suspect it could be al-Shabab. He asked for bomb experts to inspect the truck,” said a security official at Mogadishu’s Joint Special Operations Command.

“The driver was ordered to park the truck on the side of the road but the driver panicked, maneuvered and sped past the checkpoint,” he said. "A soldier chased the truck as it collided with a three-wheeled motorcycle and a minibus before detonating in the midst of the busy junction."

The bomb

The heaviest bomb al-Shabab detonated in Mogadishu before Monday's explosion was 250 kilograms. Officials believe this was at least twice that weight.

Former director of the Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), Ahmed Moallim Fiqi, told VOA that the truck bomb was “prepared” in the vicinity of Afgoye, about 30 kilometers northwest of Mogadishu. The town is controlled by government forces, but al-Shabab controls large farmlands and forests to the east and west of the town.

“This truck came from Lower Shabelle in particular the farmland near Afgoye that is where they prepared it,” Fiqi said.

Abdi Hassan Hussein, the former lead intelligence officer of Puntland region, confirmed that he learned the vehicle came from an al-Shabab controlled areas outside Mogadishu.

“This truck passed through the government checkpoints,” he said.

Hussein said the government needs to pacify the regions neighboring Mogadishu where such massive attacks are organized.

“You cannot defend Mogadishu from the outskirts, you have to conduct operations and stabilize those neighboring regions.”

SOURCE : VOA NEWS

Somalia Blasts Expose Security Failings and Possible Shabab Infiltration

Somali security forces at the scene of the double truck bombings in Mogadishu, the capital, which killed at least 270 people on Saturday.

MOHAMED ABDIWAHAB / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

By HUSSEIN MOHAMED and KIMIKO de FREYTAS-TAMURA

OCTOBER 16, 2017

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Car bombs, grenade attacks, assassinations and abductions by Shabab insurgents shatter the fragile veneer of calm in Somalia with such regularity that barely a week goes by without a deadly assault.

Two large explosions occur on average in Mogadishu, the capital, every month. In June, more than 30 people were killed when militants stormed a popular restaurant in the city. Politicians and businessmen have been shot dead in broad daylight. Aid workers have been kidnapped, scores of civilians gunned down or killed in roadside bombs. The violence is so pervasive that embassies are inside the international airport.

But even by Somalia’s standards, the twin truck bombings this past Saturday in Mogadishu that killed more than 270 people, including at least three Somali-Americans, were unusual in their scale and brutality. Although the Shabab, Somalia’s Islamist extremist organization, has not publicly claimed responsibility, its members are thought to have orchestrated the attack, one of the country’s most destructive, and may have even received inside help.

Some Somalis are referring to the attack as their 9/11, and the president has declared three days of mourning. Even a reformed Shabab leader was seen donating blood to victims, calling on his former colleagues, some of whom have proclaimed allegiance to Al Qaeda while others support the Islamic State, to renounce violence as he had done. “There is no other solution than to unite and fight against the people” behind the attacks, he told reporters

As rescuers continued to pull bodies from the rubble, many expressed fears that the country could slip under total control of the Islamist group. It has waged a battle against the government for more than a decade to try to impose its version of a strict Islamic code, and has recently stepped up attacks in Mogadishu, where the government survives under the protection of international forces.

There are also worries about what will happen if those international forces withdraw from Somalia, which could happen as early as next year.

The government has come under intense criticism for a conspicuous policing failure that helped enable the truck bombers.

“The security was absolutely weak,” said Mohamed Abdirahman Mohamed, a student at Mogadishu University.

A blast victim in Mogadishu on Sunday.

MOHAMED ABDIWAHAB / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Mohamed Sharif, another student, described it as a “disaster.” Though he is no stranger to explosions, he said, this one was of a kind “I’ve never heard before.”

In one early sign of the political fallout, Somalia’s Internal Security Ministry said that its spokesman, Ahmed Sayid Arab, had resigned and that a replacement had been appointed.

The African Union, which has about 22,000 troops stationed in Somalia, warned that it was “now clear that without adequate and appropriate support in Somalia, many of the security gains made in recent years could be reversed.”

This summer, Somali lawmakers and some international donors claimed to have seriously weakened the Shabab amid efforts by the United States and African-backed forces, called Amisom, to wrest control of Shabab-held territories and kill key figures of the organization in drone strikes.

At a conference in London in May, world powers agreed on plans to support and train Somalia’s army and take over a task currently performed by African Union troops.

However, analysts say that the Shabab’s capacity for mayhem remains far from diminished. In fact, in recent weeks, Shabab operatives have been gaining ground. On Saturday, as the bombs went off, the group took over the town of Bariire, just 31 miles from Mogadishu in the Lower Shabelle region.

“It’s a cold, cold blast of reality,” said David Anderson, a professor of African politics at Warwick University in Britain.

The Shabab had never really disappeared. “It is a guerrilla organization that is really quite efficient in what it does. It makes fewer attacks now but kills far more. The Shabab are getting better at targeting, as this attack shows.”

The bombings were carried out by drivers of two trucks, crammed with explosives, who drove through multiple checkpoints on a tightly patrolled highway. Their easy access raised questions over whether Shabab infiltrators had compromised security.

A severely wounded Somali man was loaded on a Turkish military plane in Mogadishu on Monday to be flown to Turkey for treatment.

MOHAMED ABDIWAHAB / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

“No one likes to talk about this, partly because it’s difficult to quantify,” Professor Anderson said. “It’s widely accepted that most of the institutions and organs of the Somali state are infiltrated by the Shabab.”

The bombings also highlighted divisions within

the government, particularly the security services, and the weakness of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who came to power eight months ago with high expectations. His leadership has been further undermined by infighting among clans that control different parts of the government, which may have made the capital more vulnerable to Shabab attacks.

“One of the problems is that there is growing discontent within the security services,” said Rashid Abdi, the Horn of Africa director at the International Crisis Group.

Just before the Saturday attack, the defense minister, Abdirashid Abdullahi Mohamed, and Somalia’s military chief, Gen. Mohamed Ahmed Jimale, both resigned without explanation.

“There was a lot of friction, parallel commands, which bubbled to the surface,” Mr. Abdi said. “That should have sent of a clear warning signal, and the Shabab took advantage of that situation.”

In recent years the Shabab have also capitalized on growing religious conservatism in the region, propelled by poverty and despair. Moderate gains in recent years as measured in elections and more inclusive government could easily disappear, analysts say.

“There are large parts of the country lacking in opportunities and livelihoods, and the Shabab have been able to take advantage of that,” said Ahmed Soliman, an expert on Somalia at Chatham House, a London-based research group.

“The solution for the Shabab isn’t to drone-strike it away,” he said. But if international interest in Somalia diminishes, “there can be an unraveling of the progresses made in government and institutions.”

In Washington on Monday, Pentagon officials said they were examining options to send additional trainers and advisers to Somalia in case the Somalia government requested such assistance. But the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, ruled out any major American troop deployments to the African country.

About 400 United States troops are now conducting training, equipping or counterterrorism missions in Somalia, up from 200 to 300 a year ago.

Hussein Mohamed reported from Mogadishu, and Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura from London. Mohamed Ibrahim contributed reporting from Helsinki, Finland, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

SOURCE : THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Open your borders to Burma Muslims and we will pay the expenses.” Turkey to Bangladesh

The Turkish president has asked Bangladesh to open its borders for Burma Muslims to pass, and turkey will cover all the required costs.


Rohinghya Muslims are facing ethnic violence and ethnic cleansing for being a Muslim minority.


This issue is not being covered by mainstream media and greatly overlooked by countries worldwide.

“There is a genocide there,” Erdoğan said in a speech in Istanbul during the Islamic Eid al-Adha feast, “Those who close their eyes to this genocide perpetuated under the cover of democracy are its collaborators.”


To escape the violence, about 20,000 Rohingya have massed along the Bangladeshi frontier, barred from entering the south Asian country, while scores of desperate people have drowned attempting to cross the Naf, a border river, in makeshift boats.


There are reports and videos of houses being burnt, men, women and children being beaten and burnt alive, just for being Muslim.

My husband was sold and purchased by Ethiopia-ONLF leader’s wife

The family of the ONLF official, Abdikarim Muse aka Qalbi Dhagah has called for his immediate release terming the government’s move to hand him over to the Ethiopian regime a betrayal of the country’s sovereignty.

Speaking exclusively to Goobjoog News, both Dhagah’s wife and daughter said the accusations on Dhagah and claims he held an Ethiopian passport were false.

The daughter, Fartun Abdikarim Muse said she does not know the whereabouts of her father and that she has not received any information from the Somali government on his fate. Fartun described her father as a fighter for the Somali cause and in courageous defense of the ‘Blue Flag’ (Somali flag) from Ethiopian forces.

“My father has never committed any treasonable offense against the country (Somalia) but defended it. He was made a criminal by President Farmaajo (Abdullahi Mohamed) and Kheyre (Prime Minister Hassan Khaire) and handed him to the enemy he has fought against for a long time,” said Fartun in a bitter tone.

“I am telling President Farmaajo and Prime Minister Khaire that if they don’t return my father immediate they should know their administration will crumble and no government will be in place,” lamented Fartun.

Ethiopian government confirmed this week it had received Dhagah whom it said had ‘traveled voluntarily with the facilitation of the Somali government’. Somali government is yet to confirm the transfer of Dhagah but intelligence chief Abdullahi Mohamed Sanbaloolshe described the matter as ‘sensitive’.

The transfer of Dhagah has sparked sharp criticism against the government with demonstrations being held in parts of the country including Mogadishu. Somalis in the social media have equally weighed in on the matter with many describing it a violation of the Provisional Constitution which outlaws extradition of citizens in the absence of relevant laws. Others have observed the transfer was an exchange for the 114 Somali prisoners who were released from Ethiopian jails in July following Prime Minister Khaire’s negotiations with Addis Ababa.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) which has been fighting for the right to self-determination for Somalis in the Ogadenia region of Ethiopia described Dhagah as a freedom fighter adding his extradition is a violation of the UN Convention on Status of Refugees.

Dhagaf’s wife Khadro Mohamed Abdi accused intelligence chief Sanbaloolshe of facilitating the hand-over of her husband to Ethiopia adding both President Farmaajo and PM Khaire approved the hand over.

“He was handed over to Ethiopia and landed in Addis Ababa. We were told Thabit (Mogadishu mayor Thabit Abdi Mohamed) accompanied him. He was sold and purchased by the Ethiopians.”

On the claim by Ethiopia that Dhagah travelled on an Ethiopia passport, Khadro dismissed it as ‘a fabrication by those who arrested and handed him over. Abdikarim used to have a Somali passport. They made for him a fake diplomatic passport and took all documents from him.”

“I am appealing to President Farmaajo and Premier Kheyre to return the freedom of my husband Abdikarim Muse and bring him back to his country and release him from Ethiopian government. Return him to under his flag so that we can see him again. I only say this.”

The family urged public pressure to ensure the release of their kin.

Meanwhile a lawmaker, Ibrahim Qono has warned someone must shoulder the responsibility for the arrest and handover of Dhagh and explain to the nation.

“Someone has to take the responsibility. You can imprison a Somali national. We have a court. If he is handed over to another party, according to me, it is an issue that is against the constitution. It is a matter against nationalism and unity. Personally I am saying the responsible person must confess. The government must disclose. The parliament has to punish the culprit on behalf of the Somali citizens” Qono.



Reference : Goobjoog News

By : Ahmed Saleban