MANDALAY (UCAN): With no major clashes between government forces and rebels in Myanmar’s northern Kachin State for the past year, moves are afoot to resettle large numbers of displaced civilians. Preparations include direct discussions between Christian leaders and government officials.
 
More than 120,00 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been living in 169 camps in Kachin and neighbouring Northern Shan State since 2011 when a 17-year ceasefire broke down. Thirty-seven per cent of the camps are in areas beyond government control.

MANDALAY (UCAN): Rights groups have called out ASEAN leaders, who gathered in Bangkok, Thailand for the 34th ASEAN Summit from June 20 to 23, over a leaked report on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees which downplays the crackdown by Myanmar’s military on the Muslim minority group.  
 
Nearly two dozen Rohingya organisations and civil societies from around the world voiced concern over the leaked report from ASEAN’s Emergency Response and Action Team (ERAT).
 

DHAKA (UCAN): At least 1,000 Rohingya Muslims have crossed into Bangladesh from India since December to escape alleged harassment and imminent deportation, according to Bangladeshi officials.
 

DHAKA (UCAN): Authorities in Bangladesh are cracking down on human traffickers preying on Rohingya refugees desperate to find a better life elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
 
Over the past two months, authorities have stopped 80 Rohingya refugees from boarding trafficking boats, heading for Malaysia, in the Cox’s Bazar district.
 

MANDALAY (UCAN): Authorities in Bangladesh have pushed back a plan to repatriate thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar to next year after the latest attempt stalled amid opposition and safety concerns from Rohingya, rights groups and aid agencies.
 

Mandalay (UCAN): The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) passed a resolution on September 27 that creates an independent, international body to help prepare case files for future criminal proceedings against perpetrators of atrocities committed against the Rohingya in Myanmar.
 
The UNHRC’s 47 members voted in favour of the resolution, 37 to 3 with seven abstentions. China, the Philippines and Burundi voted against the resolution, which was drafted by the European Union and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
 

MANDALAY (UCAN): “Accountability is essential for genuine reconciliation between all ethnic groups and is a prerequisite for regional security and stability,” United Nations (UN) secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, said, as he called for accountability over the persecution of the Rohingya Muslim ethnic group in Myanmar which he described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian and human rights crises.
 

Dhaka (UCAN): “In Cox’s Bazar, I have heard unimaginable accounts of killings and rape from Rohingya refugees who recently fled Myanmar. They want justice and a safe return home,” the secretary of the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guterres, wrote in a Twitter post following a visit to several Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on July 2.  
 
He was joined on the visit by UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) chief, Filippo Grandi, and Word Bank president, Jin Yong-kim.
 

MANDALAY (UCAN): “It’s telling that Rohingya aren’t clamouring to return to the places where they recently survived genocidal attacks. The authorities are attempting to distract the world from mass atrocities committed by the army,” Matthew Smith, chief executive of Fortify Rights, said, as it seems that a deal between the Myanmese government and United Nations (UN) agencies has done little to inspire confidence that refugees will agree to be repatriated from Bangladesh.