HUMAN RIGHTS

Photo: The rebuilt Ramu Simar Vihar. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne | IDN-INPS.

Bangladesh Buddhists Live in the Shadows of Rohingya Fear

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 35th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous articles.

COX BAZAAR, Bangladesh (IDN) – Most of Bangladesh’s 1 million Buddhists live in Chittagong (now officially known as Chattogram), Chittagong Hill Tracks and here in Cox Bazaar areas. The latter is home to the teeming Rohingya refugee camps sheltering those who fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state since the 2016 skirmishes with the Burmese military. Over an estimated 900,000 Rohingyas are sheltered here in what is believed to be the world’s largest refugee camp today.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 11 October 2019

Photo: Nepal still trying to recover from the devastating earthquake of October 2015. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne |IDN-INPS

Government Exam for Journalists in Nepal Riles the Profession

By Kalinga Seneviratne

KATHMANDU (IDN) – The democratically elected Communist Party government in this former Hindu Kingdom is trying to change decades old media laws that were enacted before the digital age and is running into opposition from journalists who fear that the government is trying to muzzle a free media.

“The communist party came to power with a two-thirds majority in 2017 and they didn’t come to enhance media freedom,” argues Kunda Dixit, Editor and publisher of the popular weekly Nepali Times. But he believes that the government does not want to do it suddenly.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 06 September 2019

Photo: Baby monks waiting to welcome Sikkim Chief Minister to inaugurate the Phodong Monastery , a government funded guest. Credit; Kalinga Seneviratne | IDN-INPS.

After Kashmir Sikkim Buddhists Fear Losing Their Special Constitutional Rights

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 34th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous articles.

GANGTOK, Sikkim (IDN) – Since the special status accorded under section 370 in the Indian constitution to Jammu and Kashmir was abrogated by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 5, 2019, there has been a sense of unease among the people of the northern Indian state of Sikkim – which also enjoys special status under Section 371F enshrined in the Indian constitution. This unease is felt mainly by the Buddhists who feel that the special protections given to them could be taken away.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 04 September 2019

Photo: Chinese trucks which bring goods to local markets. Credit for all photos: Bagymdat Atabaeva

Chinese Mining Company in Kyrgyzstan Suspected of Playing Havoc with Ecology

By Bagymdat Atabaeva

SOLTON SARY, Kyrgyzstan (IDN) – On August 5 about 300 villagers from Solton Sary area, about 200 km from capital Bishkek, gathered at the Chinese owned Zhong Ji mining company’s office here to protest against gold mining works, which they claimed were killing their cattle. Thus, another mining scandal has erupted in Kyrgyzstan, where most people make a living on raising livestock.

Locals claim the mining company is contaminating their soil on which the cattle and sheep graze. “We have lost about a hundred sheep last month, we are pretty sure that the meat is contaminated and cannot be used as sheep are just dying out and it’s suspicious,” a local activist and a shepherd Osmonov K told IDN.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Central Asia; 19 August 2019

Photo: A boy reads from his textbook in a camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Credit: UNICEF Patrick Brown

Rohingya Refugee Children Want to Learn, Says UNICEF

By Sean Buchanan

NEW YORK (IDN) – The daily struggle to survive for Myanmar’s Rohingya people in some of the world’s largest refugee settlements has caused overwhelming despair and jeopardised the hopes of an entire generation, according to the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Henrietta Fore.

In a report marking two years since the arrival of around 745,000 Rohingya civilians in Bangladesh – after fleeing State-led persecution and violence in Myanmar – UNICEF Executive Director Fore appealed for urgent investment in education and skills training.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 18 August 2019

Photo: A woman humanitarian aid worker in Cameroon. Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown

Women and Girls Severely Impacted by Crises

Many Work in Some of the Most Dangerous Corners of the Globe

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – An unprecedented number of people are living through humanitarian crises today. Armed conflict, natural disaster, disease and violent persecution have forced more than 70 million people from their homes, notes UN Women.

While women and girls are often severely impacted by crises, they are also leaders in recovery and resilience. This year, World Humanitarian Day (19 August) is honouring the women humanitarian workers who work on the front lines in their communities to help people in need.

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 17 August 2019

Photo: Joan Nyanyuki, feminist critic of President Musevini. Credit: Amnesty International

Uganda Detains Feminist for ‘Cyberharassment’ of President

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – A prominent university lecturer, poet and gender rights activist has been ordered to serve nine more months in prison for the 'crime' of criticizing President Yoweri Museveni on Facebook.

The sentence outraged rights activists. Joan Nyanyuki, director for East Africa at Amnesty International said: “This verdict flies in the face of Uganda’s obligations to uphold the right to freedom of expression. It demonstrates the depths of the government’s intolerance of criticism.”

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 06 August 2019

Photo: Mosques affiliated to Wahabis are fast becoming popular among youth in Kashmir. Source: India Today.

Saudi-Iranian Rivalry and Turkish Ambitions Meet in Kashmir

Viewpoint by James M. Dorsey

James M. Dorsey – a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, an adjunct senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute and co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture – offered this viewpoint to IDN.

SINGAPORE (IDN) – Thought that sectarianism was a pillar of Saudi-Iranian rivalry? Think again, think Kashmir where the two countries’ geopolitical rivalry and Turkish ambitions cross sectarian lines.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 31 July 2019

Photo: Polonnaruwa Road near Punani, a small hamlet in Sri Lanka’s Batticaloa district. CC BY-SA 3.0

An Aborted University and Squandered Opportunity in Sri Lanka

Viewpoint by Dr. Ameer Ali

A modern Muslim university is an absolute need of our time, and it will be a sound first step to reform even the madrasas eventually, writes Dr. Ameer Ali, a lecturer in economics at the School of Business and Governance, Murdoch University, Western Australia. The aborted university project in Punanai, a small hamlet in Sri Lanka’s Batticaloa district was a golden opportunity squandered by abuse of political power, subservience to Wahhabism and hunger for profit, he adds.

PERTH (IDN) – About three years ago when passing through Punanai along the arterial road between Habarana and Batticaloa in Sri Lanka, I noticed a few brick structures appearing in a parched land amid thick shrubs and woody trees. It was almost a desolate spot where I could not see any people living close by.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 19 July 2019

Photo: The Jami Ul Alfar mosque in pettah area, one of the oldest mosques in Colombo. CC BY-SA 3.0

Moulding Muslim Culture in Sri Lanka Echoes Chinese Uighur Experiment

Viewpoint by Dr Ameer Ali

The writer is a lecturer in economics at the School of Business and Governance, Murdoch University, Western Australia.

PERTH (IDN) – The July 7 'Rally of the Un-Enlightened', that fizzled out without the expected turnout of 10,000 Buddhist monks, was the most emphatic demonstration yet by the majority Sinhala Buddhists that they would not allow hatred and bigotry to hijack the millennial legacy of peaceful coexistence of different religions and cultures in Sri Lanka.