Sept. 14, 2018.
Trump says US under 'no pressure' for China trade deal
The US President Donald Trump said Washington is under "no pressure" to achieve a trade deal with China as the prospect of new tariffs loom.
The comments come amid reports the two sides could resume talks to stave off a third round of US tariffs.
China welcomed the offer of talks and said the two countries were discussing the details, according to reports.
The US has launched a trade war against China which could see all of its exports to the US subject to duties.
"We are under no pressure to make a deal with China, they are under pressure to make a deal with us," Mr Trump said in a tweet on Thursday.
"Our markets are surging, theirs are collapsing."
The US and China have slapped tariffs on $50bn of one another's goods this year in an escalating trade war between the world's two largest economies.
The tariffs are the latest Trump policy to challenge the free trade system which has prevailed for decades.
They are already affecting companies, particularly the automobile industry, and hurting economies.
Mr Trump said last week he could move "very soon" to impose tariffs on an additional $200bn (£153bn) worth of products with taxes on another $267bn "ready to go on short notice".
If both sets of tariffs go ahead it would mean virtually all of China's US exports would be subject to new tariffs.
"The [US] administration views tariffs as a way of getting the attention of the Chinese leadership and increasing their leverage at the negotiating table," Michael Froman, former US trade representative told the BBC.
"I don't think the imposition of tariffs are a wise move because it's a tax, it's a tax on the consumer ultimately. It's also very disruptive to companies who are trying to manage global supply chains."
Potential talks
Details on the potential trade talks were thin, but Larry Kudlow, White House economic advisor, said the prospect of talks was a positive development.
Mr Kudlow told Fox Business News on Wednesday that US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin "has apparently issued an invitation".
"I can't give you many details because there aren't many details. But I always believe in most cases talking is better than not talking, so I regard this as a plus."
Later on Thursday, China's foreign ministry welcomed the offer of talks and said the two countries were discussing details.
The White House says tariffs are a response to China's unfair trade policies, which Mr Trump blames for helping to create a huge trade deficit.
China accuses the US of launching "the largest trade war in economic history" and has retaliated in kind.
Friday, September 14, 2018
Thursday, September 13, 2018
China says its funding helps Africa develop, not stack up debt - Reuters
SEPTEMBER 4, 2018
China says its funding helps Africa develop, not stack up debt
Ben Blanchard, Christian Shepherd
BEIJING (Reuters) - China is helping Africa develop, not pile up debt, a top Chinese official said on Tuesday, as the government pushes back against criticism it is loading the continent with an unsustainable burden during a major summit in Beijing.
President Xi Jinping pledged $60 billion to African nations at Monday’s opening of a China-Africa forum on cooperation, matching the size of funds offered at the last summit in Johannesburg in 2015.
A wave of African nations seeking to restructure their debt with China has served as a reality check for Beijing’s ties with the continent, though most of its countries still see Chinese lending as the best bet to develop their economies.
“If we take a closer look at these African countries that are heavily in debt, China is not their main creditor,” its special envoy for Africa, Xu Jinghu, told a news conference.
“It’s senseless and baseless to shift the blame onto China for debt problems.”
As it pushes forward with Xi’s pledge, China will use feasibility studies to select projects that help African countries achieve sustainable development and steer clear of debt or financial woes, she added.
“We need to take into account the fluctuations of the international economic situation, which has raised the cost of financing for these African countries, and most of them depend on exporting raw materials, the price of which, on the international market, has been falling,” said Xu, adding that the overall debt burden had built up over a long time.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa attend the 2018 Beijing Summit Of The Forum On China-Africa Cooperation - Round Table Conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China September 4, 2018. Lintao Zhang/Pool via REUTERS
GRAPHIC: China's trade with Africa - tmsnrt.rs/2PvZkRd
China has denied engaging in “debt trap” diplomacy, and Xi said government debt from Chinese interest-free loans due by year-end would be written off for the poorest African nations.
African countries have also been trying to export more finished goods to China, rather than simply raw materials that China then processes.
China and Africa have agreed to work hard to increase Africa’s value-added exports to China, a development welcomed by Beijing, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
“They would like to see real meaningful trade taking place between Africa and China through value-added goods,” he told reporters.
“FALSE AND SENSATIONAL”
China has strongly and angrily denied its ambitions in Africa have anything other than the best interests of the continent at heart.
Claims that China was an “economic predator” in Africa, pillaging natural resources and dragging it into a debt crisis, were “as false as they are sensational,” the Xinhua official news agency said in a commentary.
“Chinese loans to Africa have a lower interest rate and longer repayment period compared to the market average, and these concessional loans are primarily used to build infrastructure,” it added.
The total value of Xi’s pledge this year matches that of 2015, but it is comprised of a smaller portion of loans and more concessionary assistance than before, said Deborah Brautigam, an expert on China-Africa relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.
“(China’s) debt relief polices have not changed,” she said in a note, adding that the write-off covered a modest part of Chinese finance in Africa.
The summit, held as the United States seeks to constrain China, and vilify it as the new colonizer of Africa, shows the Asian nation will rely more on trade with the continent, former deputy commerce minister Wei Jianguo wrote on Tuesday for the China Going Global Thinktank.
“I hope that in the next five years China-Africa economic and trade cooperation will overtake China-U.S. trade,” he said. “This is totally achievable.”
China and the United States are embroiled in an increasingly bitter trade war.
Separately, Xinhua said China and Mauritius had completed talks on a free-trade pact, which would make the island nation the first African country to strike such a deal with Beijing.
Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Christian Shepherd; Additional reporting by Yawen Chen; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Clarence Fernandez
China says its funding helps Africa develop, not stack up debt
Ben Blanchard, Christian Shepherd
BEIJING (Reuters) - China is helping Africa develop, not pile up debt, a top Chinese official said on Tuesday, as the government pushes back against criticism it is loading the continent with an unsustainable burden during a major summit in Beijing.
President Xi Jinping pledged $60 billion to African nations at Monday’s opening of a China-Africa forum on cooperation, matching the size of funds offered at the last summit in Johannesburg in 2015.
A wave of African nations seeking to restructure their debt with China has served as a reality check for Beijing’s ties with the continent, though most of its countries still see Chinese lending as the best bet to develop their economies.
“If we take a closer look at these African countries that are heavily in debt, China is not their main creditor,” its special envoy for Africa, Xu Jinghu, told a news conference.
“It’s senseless and baseless to shift the blame onto China for debt problems.”
As it pushes forward with Xi’s pledge, China will use feasibility studies to select projects that help African countries achieve sustainable development and steer clear of debt or financial woes, she added.
“We need to take into account the fluctuations of the international economic situation, which has raised the cost of financing for these African countries, and most of them depend on exporting raw materials, the price of which, on the international market, has been falling,” said Xu, adding that the overall debt burden had built up over a long time.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa attend the 2018 Beijing Summit Of The Forum On China-Africa Cooperation - Round Table Conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China September 4, 2018. Lintao Zhang/Pool via REUTERS
GRAPHIC: China's trade with Africa - tmsnrt.rs/2PvZkRd
China has denied engaging in “debt trap” diplomacy, and Xi said government debt from Chinese interest-free loans due by year-end would be written off for the poorest African nations.
African countries have also been trying to export more finished goods to China, rather than simply raw materials that China then processes.
China and Africa have agreed to work hard to increase Africa’s value-added exports to China, a development welcomed by Beijing, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
“They would like to see real meaningful trade taking place between Africa and China through value-added goods,” he told reporters.
“FALSE AND SENSATIONAL”
China has strongly and angrily denied its ambitions in Africa have anything other than the best interests of the continent at heart.
Claims that China was an “economic predator” in Africa, pillaging natural resources and dragging it into a debt crisis, were “as false as they are sensational,” the Xinhua official news agency said in a commentary.
“Chinese loans to Africa have a lower interest rate and longer repayment period compared to the market average, and these concessional loans are primarily used to build infrastructure,” it added.
The total value of Xi’s pledge this year matches that of 2015, but it is comprised of a smaller portion of loans and more concessionary assistance than before, said Deborah Brautigam, an expert on China-Africa relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.
“(China’s) debt relief polices have not changed,” she said in a note, adding that the write-off covered a modest part of Chinese finance in Africa.
The summit, held as the United States seeks to constrain China, and vilify it as the new colonizer of Africa, shows the Asian nation will rely more on trade with the continent, former deputy commerce minister Wei Jianguo wrote on Tuesday for the China Going Global Thinktank.
“I hope that in the next five years China-Africa economic and trade cooperation will overtake China-U.S. trade,” he said. “This is totally achievable.”
China and the United States are embroiled in an increasingly bitter trade war.
Separately, Xinhua said China and Mauritius had completed talks on a free-trade pact, which would make the island nation the first African country to strike such a deal with Beijing.
Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Christian Shepherd; Additional reporting by Yawen Chen; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Clarence Fernandez
Bitcoin crash: This man lost his savings when cryptocurrencies plunged - CNN Money
Bitcoin crash: This man lost his savings when cryptocurrencies plunged
by Michael Kaplan @CNNMoneyInvest
September 11, 2018: 7:59 AM ET
He bet on Bitcoin and lost nearly everything
An estimated $400 billion has been wiped off the value of major cryptocurrencies since January.
Sean Russell's life savings were among them.
Russell rarely played the stock market and had little investing experience when he put around $120,000 into bitcoin in November 2017. He was stunned when that turned into $500,000 in just one month.
"I think there was one morning where I woke up, where I made about £12,000 ($15,600) in one morning on my investment and it just kept going," said Russell. "I was thinking, wow, that's mortgages paid, that's holidays that I've always dreamed of."
The dream didn't last for Russell, who works as a property developer in the United Kingdom, buying homes and fixing them up. The price of Bitcoin surpassed $20,000 in December before collapsing. It now trades at $6,300.
Russell attempted to mitigate his losses by shifting money from bitcoin (XBT) to an offshoot called Bitcoin Cash and other cryptocurrencies including Ethereum and Ripple. But that didn't work, and Russell says the paper losses on his initial investment have reached 96%.
"It was devastating, quite traumatic, really," Russell said. "I've seen stories on the news of billionaires going bankrupt, and you think how can that be? How on earth did you lose that amount of money? And yet, here I am in that position."
bitcoin victim 1
Sean Russell lost most of his savings when the price of cryptocurrencies plunged.
Russell is not alone.
Michel Rauchs, who researches cryptocurrency and blockchain at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, said the explosive rise in prices in 2017 attracted a wave of inexperienced investors.
"Retail investors, students, housewives, even grandma was driven in by the hype," says Rauchs. "They were told by the media that this was an opportunity of a lifetime. They bought at the top and are now sitting on heavy losses."
The crash has left professional investors and enthusiasts debating where cryptocurrencies go from here.
"Clearly the frenzy that we have seen and the volatility in the price of bitcoin ... resembles a lot of other financial bubbles that happen over and over again in our economic history," said Benedetto De Martino, a behavioral economist at University College London.
The fever that gripped cryptocurrency investors has faded in recent months. JPMorgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) have warned investors to stay away from bitcoin.
Last week, bitcoin prices plunged more than 20% in two days after Business Insider reported that investment banking giant Goldman Sachs (GS) may be dropping plans to launch a crypto trading desk.
Goldman Sachs told CNNMoney it hadn't made a firm decision bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
The Securities and Exchange Commission blocked several proposals for bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the past few months, including plans from ETF giants ProShares and Direxion and one backed by the Winklevoss brothers.
Despite the warnings, some cryptocurrency entrepreneurs see the boom and bust as growing pains.
"Markets are cyclical and there's still a lot of opportunity for sophisticated investors," said Benjamin Dives, CEO of cryptocurrency trading platform London Block Exchange.
Before he first invested, Russell spent years tracking bitcoin and studying blockchain, the technology underpinning digital currencies. He said the learning process was like solving the plot of a murder mystery.
Despite the loss, he remains a committed investor.
"I have to be hopeful about something," he said. "I need to keep my mind occupied, because when I just focused on the money I lost, it destroyed me mentally and emotionally."
by Michael Kaplan @CNNMoneyInvest
September 11, 2018: 7:59 AM ET
He bet on Bitcoin and lost nearly everything
An estimated $400 billion has been wiped off the value of major cryptocurrencies since January.
Sean Russell's life savings were among them.
Russell rarely played the stock market and had little investing experience when he put around $120,000 into bitcoin in November 2017. He was stunned when that turned into $500,000 in just one month.
"I think there was one morning where I woke up, where I made about £12,000 ($15,600) in one morning on my investment and it just kept going," said Russell. "I was thinking, wow, that's mortgages paid, that's holidays that I've always dreamed of."
The dream didn't last for Russell, who works as a property developer in the United Kingdom, buying homes and fixing them up. The price of Bitcoin surpassed $20,000 in December before collapsing. It now trades at $6,300.
Russell attempted to mitigate his losses by shifting money from bitcoin (XBT) to an offshoot called Bitcoin Cash and other cryptocurrencies including Ethereum and Ripple. But that didn't work, and Russell says the paper losses on his initial investment have reached 96%.
"It was devastating, quite traumatic, really," Russell said. "I've seen stories on the news of billionaires going bankrupt, and you think how can that be? How on earth did you lose that amount of money? And yet, here I am in that position."
bitcoin victim 1
Sean Russell lost most of his savings when the price of cryptocurrencies plunged.
Russell is not alone.
Michel Rauchs, who researches cryptocurrency and blockchain at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, said the explosive rise in prices in 2017 attracted a wave of inexperienced investors.
"Retail investors, students, housewives, even grandma was driven in by the hype," says Rauchs. "They were told by the media that this was an opportunity of a lifetime. They bought at the top and are now sitting on heavy losses."
The crash has left professional investors and enthusiasts debating where cryptocurrencies go from here.
"Clearly the frenzy that we have seen and the volatility in the price of bitcoin ... resembles a lot of other financial bubbles that happen over and over again in our economic history," said Benedetto De Martino, a behavioral economist at University College London.
The fever that gripped cryptocurrency investors has faded in recent months. JPMorgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) have warned investors to stay away from bitcoin.
Last week, bitcoin prices plunged more than 20% in two days after Business Insider reported that investment banking giant Goldman Sachs (GS) may be dropping plans to launch a crypto trading desk.
Goldman Sachs told CNNMoney it hadn't made a firm decision bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
The Securities and Exchange Commission blocked several proposals for bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the past few months, including plans from ETF giants ProShares and Direxion and one backed by the Winklevoss brothers.
Despite the warnings, some cryptocurrency entrepreneurs see the boom and bust as growing pains.
"Markets are cyclical and there's still a lot of opportunity for sophisticated investors," said Benjamin Dives, CEO of cryptocurrency trading platform London Block Exchange.
Before he first invested, Russell spent years tracking bitcoin and studying blockchain, the technology underpinning digital currencies. He said the learning process was like solving the plot of a murder mystery.
Despite the loss, he remains a committed investor.
"I have to be hopeful about something," he said. "I need to keep my mind occupied, because when I just focused on the money I lost, it destroyed me mentally and emotionally."
Myanmar Rohingya: What you need to know about the crisis - BBC News
Myanmar Rohingya: What you need to know about the crisis
24 April 2018
The plight of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people is said to be the world's fastest growing refugee crisis.
Risking death by sea or on foot, nearly 700,000 have fled the destruction of their homes and persecution in the northern Rakhine province of Myanmar (Burma) for neighbouring Bangladesh since August 2017.
The United Nations described the military offensive in Rakhine, which provoked the exodus, as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
Myanmar's military says it is fighting Rohingya militants and denies targeting civilians.
Who are the Rohingya?
The Rohingya, who numbered around one million in Myanmar at the start of 2017, are one of the many ethnic minorities in the country. Rohingya Muslims represent the largest percentage of Muslims in Myanmar, with the majority living in Rakhine state.
They have their own language and culture and say they are descendants of Arab traders and other groups who have been in the region for generations.
But the government of Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country, denies the Rohingya citizenship and even excluded them from the 2014 census, refusing to recognise them as a people.
It sees them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Since the 1970s, Rohingya have migrated across the region in significant numbers. Estimates of their numbers are often much higher than official figures.
In the last few years, before the latest crisis, thousands of Rohingya were making perilous journeys out of Myanmar to escape communal violence or alleged abuses by the security forces.
Why are they fleeing?
The latest exodus began on 25 August 2017 after Rohingya Arsa militants launched deadly attacks on more than 30 police posts.
Rohingyas arriving in an area known as Cox's Bazaar - a district in Bangladesh - say they fled after troops, backed by local Buddhist mobs, responded by burning their villages and attacking and killing civilians.
Rohingya crisis: Refugees tell of 'house by house' killings
At least 6,700 Rohingya, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in the month after the violence broke out, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
Amnesty International says the Myanmar military also raped and abused Rohingya women and girls.
The government, which puts the number of dead at 400, claims that "clearance operations" against the militants ended on 5 September, but BBC correspondents have seen evidence that they continued after that date.
At least 288 villages were partially or totally destroyed by fire in northern Rakhine state after August 2017, according to analysis of satellite imagery by Human Rights Watch.
The imagery shows many areas where Rohingya villages were reduced to smouldering rubble, while nearby ethnic Rakhine villages were left intact.
Rakhine: What sparked latest violence?
Who are the Rohingya group behind attacks?
Extent of destruction
Human Rights Watch say most damage occurred in Maungdaw Township, between 25 August and 25 September 2017 - with many villages destroyed after 5 September, when Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said security force operations had ended.
What is the scale of the crisis?
Media captionWatch: Drone footage from the DEC shows the extent of sprawling camps on the Bangladesh border
The UN says the Rohingya's situation is the "world's fastest growing refugee crisis".
Before August, there were already around 307,500 Rohingya refugees living in camps, makeshift settlements and with host communities, according to the UNHCR. A further 687,000 are estimated to have arrived since August 2017.
Most Rohingya refugees reaching Bangladesh - men, women and children with barely any belongings - have sought shelter in these areas, setting up camp wherever possible in the difficult terrain and with little access to aid, safe drinking water, food, shelter or healthcare.
The largest refugee camp is Kutupalong but limited space means spontaneous settlements have sprung up in the surrounding countryside and nearby Balukhali as refugees keep arriving.
While numbers in the Kutupalong refugee camp have reduced from a high of 22,241 to 13,900, the number living in makeshift or spontaneous settlements outside the camp has climbed from 99,495 to more than 604,000.
Most other refugee sites have also continued to expanded - as of mid-April 2018, there were 781,000 refugees living in nine camps and settlements.
There are also around 117, 000 people staying outside the camps in host communities.
What is being done by the international community?
The need for aid is overwhelming. With the monsoon season approaching, work has begun to re-locate some refugees from the camps most at risk of flooding or landslides and in other sites, work has been taking place to improve drainage channels and strengthen shelters.
About 70% of the one million refugees are now receiving food aid, according to the Inter Sector Coordination Group report from mid-April 2018.
Almost 100,000 people have been treated for malnutrition
Large-scale vaccination programmes have been launched to try to minimise the risk of disease. By mid-January 2018, 315,000 children under 15 years of age had received a five-in-one vaccination, including cover for diptheria, tetanus and whooping cough.
47,639 temporary emergency latrines have been built Bangladesh military
There has been widespread condemnation of the Myanmar government's actions but talk of sanctions has been more muted:
The UN Security Council appealed to Myanmar to stop the violence but no sanctions have been imposed
The UN's human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein has said an act of genocide against Rohingya Muslims by state forces in Myanmar cannot be ruled out
The US urged Myanmar's troops to "respect the rule of law, stop the violence and end the displacement of civilians from all communities"
China says the international community "should support the efforts of Myanmar in safeguarding the stability of its national development"
Bangladesh plans to build more shelters in the Cox's Bazaar area but also wants to limit their travel to allocated areas
Myanmar urged displaced people to find refuge in temporary camps set up in Rakhine state. In November Bangladesh signed a deal with Myanmar to return hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees, but few details have been released
The UK has pledged £59m in aid to support those fleeing to Bangladesh. UK Prime Minister Theresa May also said the military action in Rakhine had to stop. The UK has suspended training courses for the Myanmar military
24 April 2018
The plight of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people is said to be the world's fastest growing refugee crisis.
Risking death by sea or on foot, nearly 700,000 have fled the destruction of their homes and persecution in the northern Rakhine province of Myanmar (Burma) for neighbouring Bangladesh since August 2017.
The United Nations described the military offensive in Rakhine, which provoked the exodus, as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
Myanmar's military says it is fighting Rohingya militants and denies targeting civilians.
Who are the Rohingya?
The Rohingya, who numbered around one million in Myanmar at the start of 2017, are one of the many ethnic minorities in the country. Rohingya Muslims represent the largest percentage of Muslims in Myanmar, with the majority living in Rakhine state.
They have their own language and culture and say they are descendants of Arab traders and other groups who have been in the region for generations.
But the government of Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country, denies the Rohingya citizenship and even excluded them from the 2014 census, refusing to recognise them as a people.
It sees them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Since the 1970s, Rohingya have migrated across the region in significant numbers. Estimates of their numbers are often much higher than official figures.
In the last few years, before the latest crisis, thousands of Rohingya were making perilous journeys out of Myanmar to escape communal violence or alleged abuses by the security forces.
Why are they fleeing?
The latest exodus began on 25 August 2017 after Rohingya Arsa militants launched deadly attacks on more than 30 police posts.
Rohingyas arriving in an area known as Cox's Bazaar - a district in Bangladesh - say they fled after troops, backed by local Buddhist mobs, responded by burning their villages and attacking and killing civilians.
Rohingya crisis: Refugees tell of 'house by house' killings
At least 6,700 Rohingya, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in the month after the violence broke out, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
Amnesty International says the Myanmar military also raped and abused Rohingya women and girls.
The government, which puts the number of dead at 400, claims that "clearance operations" against the militants ended on 5 September, but BBC correspondents have seen evidence that they continued after that date.
At least 288 villages were partially or totally destroyed by fire in northern Rakhine state after August 2017, according to analysis of satellite imagery by Human Rights Watch.
The imagery shows many areas where Rohingya villages were reduced to smouldering rubble, while nearby ethnic Rakhine villages were left intact.
Rakhine: What sparked latest violence?
Who are the Rohingya group behind attacks?
Extent of destruction
Human Rights Watch say most damage occurred in Maungdaw Township, between 25 August and 25 September 2017 - with many villages destroyed after 5 September, when Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said security force operations had ended.
What is the scale of the crisis?
Media captionWatch: Drone footage from the DEC shows the extent of sprawling camps on the Bangladesh border
The UN says the Rohingya's situation is the "world's fastest growing refugee crisis".
Before August, there were already around 307,500 Rohingya refugees living in camps, makeshift settlements and with host communities, according to the UNHCR. A further 687,000 are estimated to have arrived since August 2017.
Most Rohingya refugees reaching Bangladesh - men, women and children with barely any belongings - have sought shelter in these areas, setting up camp wherever possible in the difficult terrain and with little access to aid, safe drinking water, food, shelter or healthcare.
The largest refugee camp is Kutupalong but limited space means spontaneous settlements have sprung up in the surrounding countryside and nearby Balukhali as refugees keep arriving.
While numbers in the Kutupalong refugee camp have reduced from a high of 22,241 to 13,900, the number living in makeshift or spontaneous settlements outside the camp has climbed from 99,495 to more than 604,000.
Most other refugee sites have also continued to expanded - as of mid-April 2018, there were 781,000 refugees living in nine camps and settlements.
There are also around 117, 000 people staying outside the camps in host communities.
What is being done by the international community?
The need for aid is overwhelming. With the monsoon season approaching, work has begun to re-locate some refugees from the camps most at risk of flooding or landslides and in other sites, work has been taking place to improve drainage channels and strengthen shelters.
About 70% of the one million refugees are now receiving food aid, according to the Inter Sector Coordination Group report from mid-April 2018.
Almost 100,000 people have been treated for malnutrition
Large-scale vaccination programmes have been launched to try to minimise the risk of disease. By mid-January 2018, 315,000 children under 15 years of age had received a five-in-one vaccination, including cover for diptheria, tetanus and whooping cough.
47,639 temporary emergency latrines have been built Bangladesh military
There has been widespread condemnation of the Myanmar government's actions but talk of sanctions has been more muted:
The UN Security Council appealed to Myanmar to stop the violence but no sanctions have been imposed
The UN's human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein has said an act of genocide against Rohingya Muslims by state forces in Myanmar cannot be ruled out
The US urged Myanmar's troops to "respect the rule of law, stop the violence and end the displacement of civilians from all communities"
China says the international community "should support the efforts of Myanmar in safeguarding the stability of its national development"
Bangladesh plans to build more shelters in the Cox's Bazaar area but also wants to limit their travel to allocated areas
Myanmar urged displaced people to find refuge in temporary camps set up in Rakhine state. In November Bangladesh signed a deal with Myanmar to return hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees, but few details have been released
The UK has pledged £59m in aid to support those fleeing to Bangladesh. UK Prime Minister Theresa May also said the military action in Rakhine had to stop. The UK has suspended training courses for the Myanmar military
Myanmar's jailed reporters and Suu Kyi's silence - BBC News
Myanmar's jailed reporters and Suu Kyi's silence
5 September 2018
The verdict against Wa Lone (L) and Kyaw Soe Oo (R) has been widely condemned
The jailing of two Reuters reporters in Myanmar has left the journalism community asking whether their former rights champion has turned her back on a free press, writes the BBC's Nick Beake in Yangon.
For the journalists of Yangon this is personal.
Many were close friends of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. And many now feel one false move and they could be joining them in the notorious Insein prison here in Myanmar's former capital.
"Insane" is how the jail is pronounced, and for many in the press, it reflects a chaotic legal farce which has played out over the past nine months - one that's culminated in two young journalists being found to have been useful to "enemies of the state" and handed a seven year prison sentence.
Reuters journalists jailed over secrets act
Not that their wives regret their choice of careers. Not for one moment.
"I'm so proud of my husband", Kyaw Soe Oo's wife, Chit Su Win, told a packed press conference in a downtown hotel on Tuesday.
"I am proud that I am the wife of a journalist."
The wives of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have spoken out.
But what about those in Myanmar who agree with the judge that they harmed the country by seeking sensitive, security information?
Pan Ei Mon, who gave birth to her first child last month while her husband Wa Lone was in jail awaiting trial replied: "People are entitled to their own opinions. They have never gone through what we're going through. I just hope it never happens to them."
And how about Aung San Suu Kyi? The Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader had accused the pair of breaking the Official Secrets Act before the verdict had even been delivered.
Aung San Suu Kyi has also been accused of ignoring violence against the Rohingya
"I loved and respected her so much," Pan Ei Mon said. "But she said our husbands were not reporters because they violated the nation's secrets, and I am very devastated by that."
Reporters held 'for investigating killings'
What next for Myanmar after damning report?
Seeing through the official story in Myanmar
Ms Suu Kyi used to champion the rights of journalists. She certainly benefited from their coverage of her long fight for democracy while she suffered years of house arrest.
When it was time for my own question to the wives, I asked what their message to Ms Suu Kyi would be - as someone who the Burmese authorities had also kept apart from the man she loved (her late British husband Michael Aris).
Chit Su Win fights back tears as she hugs her daughter, Moe Thin Wai Zan
Chit Su Win told me she'd rather address her mother to mother.
"My daughter asks me - doesn't daddy love me anymore? Doesn't daddy live with us anymore?"
"As a mother, I feel devastated. I tell her daddy is working. I try to be strong for my daughter. I feel very depressed, but I steel myself, because if I am depressed, who will care for my daughter?"
'All of you are at risk'
As the mother of the nation, Ms Suu Kyi generated huge hope when her National League for Democracy (NLD) party triumphed in free elections in 2012, after five decades of brutal military rule.
Reuters journalists spoke out after the jailing of two journalists who investigated a mass killing.
History will judge how misplaced that hope may have been. What's for sure in 2018, hope is a commodity that's fading fast.
Not least because of the chorus of international condemnation of Myanmar over the army's persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state - the very story the Reuters pair were investigating at the time of their arrest.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo's report: Massacre in Myanmar
They continue to argue they were framed because they were getting dangerously close to the truth of a massacre of 10 Rohingya men in the village of Inn Din.
These are the men whose deaths the Reuters journalists were investigating
One of the many painful ironies of this case is that the army later admitted its soldiers were culpable.
The military's wider crackdown on what it called Bengali "terrorists" last autumn - following attacks on security posts - forced three quarters of a million Rohingya into neighbouring Bangladesh. They remain there in the sprawling and depressing camps of Cox's Bazaar.
Who are the Rohingya?
The story not being talked about in Myanmar
More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled violence in Myanmar in the last year
Last week in a blistering assessment, UN inspectors said the top generals should stand trial for genocide and accused Ms Suu Kyi of failing to use her "moral authority" to stop the violence.
Myanmar rejects UN 'genocide' accusation
Blow by blow: How a 'genocide' was investigated
Now Ms Suu Kyi's accused of failing to stand up for reporters, as well as the Rohingya.
"All of you are at risk," Khin Maung Zaw, the leading lawyer for the Reuters pair told the hushed room of journalists back at the press conference.
He declared the verdict a black day for Myanmar and a major setback for a free press and the country's transition to democracy.
The 7Day Daily paper printed a black front page after the journalists verdict was announced
Many wonder who will be next.
Aung Naing Soe is one Burmese journalist who knows what it's like to feel the heat of the regime in the new Suu Kyi era. Earlier this year he served a two month sentence for operating a drone near the parliament in the capital, Naypyidaw.
Aung Naing Soe says the jailing of the Reuters journalist was "personal"
"It's really heartbreaking for us to come and cover this kind of event" he tells me.
"I do not want to see tears from the wives of these journalists anymore. We have covered a lot of heartbreaking things but this is more personal. They are my colleagues, my friends."
Suu Kyi 'should have resigned' on Rohingya
He's worried that the public has been poisoned against journalists by online campaigns which characterise them as "betrayers of the state" and that there will be no popular backlash against any further attacks on the freedom of the press.
In some countries, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo would have been given a prize for their investigative journalism. Not here. Not in Suu Kyi's Myanmar.
Wa Lone (L) and Kyaw Soe Oo have continually maintained their innocence
As state counsellor, a role she created for herself because the 2008 Constitution denies her the presidency, Ms Suu Kyi runs Myanmar's NLD civilian government.
She has the power to issue a pardon and set these journalists free. If she's even considering that, she certainly hasn't shown it.
Su Myat Mon is a reporter who focuses on women's rights and social affairs.
Su Myat Mon says being a journalist in today's Myanmar does frighten her
"I was extremely disappointed with the verdict and with the NLD too. They're a democratic government. They used to believe the media was for something, that it did something positive for democracy."
Is she scared to be a journalist in Myanmar now?
"It does make me frightened," she replies.
"I can be arrested at any time if the government doesn't like my reports. This verdict affects me: my emotions and the work I do."
Would she consider giving up the job, I venture? Su Myat Mon looks at me straight in the eye:.
"I love this job. I may fear being arrested, but I still have my spirit. And, don't forget, there's nothing wrong with being a journalist. It is not a crime."
5 September 2018
The verdict against Wa Lone (L) and Kyaw Soe Oo (R) has been widely condemned
The jailing of two Reuters reporters in Myanmar has left the journalism community asking whether their former rights champion has turned her back on a free press, writes the BBC's Nick Beake in Yangon.
For the journalists of Yangon this is personal.
Many were close friends of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. And many now feel one false move and they could be joining them in the notorious Insein prison here in Myanmar's former capital.
"Insane" is how the jail is pronounced, and for many in the press, it reflects a chaotic legal farce which has played out over the past nine months - one that's culminated in two young journalists being found to have been useful to "enemies of the state" and handed a seven year prison sentence.
Reuters journalists jailed over secrets act
Not that their wives regret their choice of careers. Not for one moment.
"I'm so proud of my husband", Kyaw Soe Oo's wife, Chit Su Win, told a packed press conference in a downtown hotel on Tuesday.
"I am proud that I am the wife of a journalist."
The wives of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have spoken out.
But what about those in Myanmar who agree with the judge that they harmed the country by seeking sensitive, security information?
Pan Ei Mon, who gave birth to her first child last month while her husband Wa Lone was in jail awaiting trial replied: "People are entitled to their own opinions. They have never gone through what we're going through. I just hope it never happens to them."
And how about Aung San Suu Kyi? The Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader had accused the pair of breaking the Official Secrets Act before the verdict had even been delivered.
Aung San Suu Kyi has also been accused of ignoring violence against the Rohingya
"I loved and respected her so much," Pan Ei Mon said. "But she said our husbands were not reporters because they violated the nation's secrets, and I am very devastated by that."
Reporters held 'for investigating killings'
What next for Myanmar after damning report?
Seeing through the official story in Myanmar
Ms Suu Kyi used to champion the rights of journalists. She certainly benefited from their coverage of her long fight for democracy while she suffered years of house arrest.
When it was time for my own question to the wives, I asked what their message to Ms Suu Kyi would be - as someone who the Burmese authorities had also kept apart from the man she loved (her late British husband Michael Aris).
Chit Su Win fights back tears as she hugs her daughter, Moe Thin Wai Zan
Chit Su Win told me she'd rather address her mother to mother.
"My daughter asks me - doesn't daddy love me anymore? Doesn't daddy live with us anymore?"
"As a mother, I feel devastated. I tell her daddy is working. I try to be strong for my daughter. I feel very depressed, but I steel myself, because if I am depressed, who will care for my daughter?"
'All of you are at risk'
As the mother of the nation, Ms Suu Kyi generated huge hope when her National League for Democracy (NLD) party triumphed in free elections in 2012, after five decades of brutal military rule.
Reuters journalists spoke out after the jailing of two journalists who investigated a mass killing.
History will judge how misplaced that hope may have been. What's for sure in 2018, hope is a commodity that's fading fast.
Not least because of the chorus of international condemnation of Myanmar over the army's persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state - the very story the Reuters pair were investigating at the time of their arrest.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo's report: Massacre in Myanmar
They continue to argue they were framed because they were getting dangerously close to the truth of a massacre of 10 Rohingya men in the village of Inn Din.
These are the men whose deaths the Reuters journalists were investigating
One of the many painful ironies of this case is that the army later admitted its soldiers were culpable.
The military's wider crackdown on what it called Bengali "terrorists" last autumn - following attacks on security posts - forced three quarters of a million Rohingya into neighbouring Bangladesh. They remain there in the sprawling and depressing camps of Cox's Bazaar.
Who are the Rohingya?
The story not being talked about in Myanmar
More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled violence in Myanmar in the last year
Last week in a blistering assessment, UN inspectors said the top generals should stand trial for genocide and accused Ms Suu Kyi of failing to use her "moral authority" to stop the violence.
Myanmar rejects UN 'genocide' accusation
Blow by blow: How a 'genocide' was investigated
Now Ms Suu Kyi's accused of failing to stand up for reporters, as well as the Rohingya.
"All of you are at risk," Khin Maung Zaw, the leading lawyer for the Reuters pair told the hushed room of journalists back at the press conference.
He declared the verdict a black day for Myanmar and a major setback for a free press and the country's transition to democracy.
The 7Day Daily paper printed a black front page after the journalists verdict was announced
Many wonder who will be next.
Aung Naing Soe is one Burmese journalist who knows what it's like to feel the heat of the regime in the new Suu Kyi era. Earlier this year he served a two month sentence for operating a drone near the parliament in the capital, Naypyidaw.
Aung Naing Soe says the jailing of the Reuters journalist was "personal"
"It's really heartbreaking for us to come and cover this kind of event" he tells me.
"I do not want to see tears from the wives of these journalists anymore. We have covered a lot of heartbreaking things but this is more personal. They are my colleagues, my friends."
Suu Kyi 'should have resigned' on Rohingya
He's worried that the public has been poisoned against journalists by online campaigns which characterise them as "betrayers of the state" and that there will be no popular backlash against any further attacks on the freedom of the press.
In some countries, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo would have been given a prize for their investigative journalism. Not here. Not in Suu Kyi's Myanmar.
Wa Lone (L) and Kyaw Soe Oo have continually maintained their innocence
As state counsellor, a role she created for herself because the 2008 Constitution denies her the presidency, Ms Suu Kyi runs Myanmar's NLD civilian government.
She has the power to issue a pardon and set these journalists free. If she's even considering that, she certainly hasn't shown it.
Su Myat Mon is a reporter who focuses on women's rights and social affairs.
Su Myat Mon says being a journalist in today's Myanmar does frighten her
"I was extremely disappointed with the verdict and with the NLD too. They're a democratic government. They used to believe the media was for something, that it did something positive for democracy."
Is she scared to be a journalist in Myanmar now?
"It does make me frightened," she replies.
"I can be arrested at any time if the government doesn't like my reports. This verdict affects me: my emotions and the work I do."
Would she consider giving up the job, I venture? Su Myat Mon looks at me straight in the eye:.
"I love this job. I may fear being arrested, but I still have my spirit. And, don't forget, there's nothing wrong with being a journalist. It is not a crime."
Massacre in Myanmar A REUTERS SPECIAL REPORT - BBC News
Sept. 13, 2018.
Massacre in Myanmar
A REUTERS SPECIAL REPORT
How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village
On Sept. 2, Buddhist villagers and Myanmar troops killed 10 Rohingya men in Myanmar's restive Rakhine state. Reuters uncovered the massacre and has pieced together how it unfolded. During the reporting of this article, two Reuters journalists were arrested by Myanmar police.
By WA LONE, KYAW SOE OO, SIMON LEWIS and ANTONI SLODKOWSKI Filed Feb. 8, 2018, 10 p.m. GMT
INN DIN, Myanmar – Bound together, the 10 Rohingya Muslim captives watched their Buddhist neighbors dig a shallow grave. Soon afterwards, on the morning of Sept. 2, all 10 lay dead. At least two were hacked to death by Buddhist villagers. The rest were shot by Myanmar troops, two of the gravediggers said.
“One grave for 10 people,” said Soe Chay, 55, a retired soldier from Inn Din’s Rakhine Buddhist community who said he helped dig the pit and saw the killings. The soldiers shot each man two or three times, he said. “When they were being buried, some were still making noises. Others were already dead.”
The killings in the coastal village of Inn Din marked another bloody episode in the ethnic violence sweeping northern Rakhine state, on Myanmar’s western fringe. Nearly 690,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled their villages and crossed the border into Bangladesh since August. None of Inn Din’s 6,000 Rohingya remained in the village as of October.
The Rohingya accuse the army of arson, rapes and killings aimed at rubbing them out of existence in this mainly Buddhist nation of 53 million. The United Nations has said the army may have committed genocide; the United States has called the action ethnic cleansing. Myanmar says its “clearance operation” is a legitimate response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents.
Rohingya trace their presence in Rakhine back centuries. But most Burmese consider them to be unwanted immigrants from Bangladesh; the army refers to the Rohingya as “Bengalis.” In recent years, sectarian tensions have risen and the government has confined more than 100,000 Rohingya in camps where they have limited access to food, medicine and education.
Reuters has pieced together what happened in Inn Din in the days leading up to the killing of the 10 Rohingya – eight men and two high school students in their late teens.
Until now, accounts of the violence against the Rohingya in Rakhine state have been provided only by its victims. The Reuters reconstruction draws for the first time on interviews with Buddhist villagers who confessed to torching Rohingya homes, burying bodies and killing Muslims.
This account also marks the first time soldiers and paramilitary police have been implicated by testimony from security personnel themselves. Members of the paramilitary police gave Reuters insider descriptions of the operation to drive out the Rohingya from Inn Din, confirming that the military played the lead role in the campaign.
The slain men’s families, now sheltering in Bangladesh refugee camps, identified the victims through photographs shown to them by Reuters. The dead men were fishermen, shopkeepers, the two teenage students and an Islamic teacher.
Three photographs, provided to Reuters by a Buddhist village elder, capture key moments in the massacre at Inn Din, from the Rohingya men’s detention by soldiers in the early evening of Sept. 1 to their execution shortly after 10 a.m. on Sept. 2. Two photos – one taken the first day, the other on the day of the killings – show the 10 captives lined up in a row, kneeling. The final photograph shows the men’s bloodied bodies piled in the shallow grave.
The Reuters investigation of the Inn Din massacre was what prompted Myanmar police authorities to arrest two of the news agency’s reporters. The reporters, Burmese citizens Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were detained on Dec. 12 for allegedly obtaining confidential documents relating to Rakhine.
Then, on Jan. 10, the military issued a statement that confirmed portions of what Wa Lone, Kyaw Soe Oo and their colleagues were preparing to report, acknowledging that 10 Rohingya men were massacred in the village. It confirmed that Buddhist villagers attacked some of the men with swords and soldiers shot the others dead.
The statement coincided with an application to the court by prosecutors to charge Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo under Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act, which dates back to the time of colonial British rule. The charges carry a maximum 14-year prison sentence.
But the military’s version of events is contradicted in important respects by accounts given to Reuters by Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya Muslim witnesses. The military said the 10 men belonged to a group of 200 “terrorists” that attacked security forces. Soldiers decided to kill the men, the army said, because intense fighting in the area made it impossible to transfer them to police custody. The army said it would take action against those involved.
Buddhist villagers interviewed for this article reported no attack by a large number of insurgents on security forces in Inn Din. And Rohingya witnesses told Reuters that soldiers plucked the 10 from among hundreds of men, women and children who had sought safety on a nearby beach.
Scores of interviews with Rakhine Buddhist villagers, soldiers, paramilitary police, Rohingya Muslims and local administrators further revealed:
• The military and paramilitary police organized Buddhist residents of Inn Din and at least two other villages to torch Rohingya homes, more than a dozen Buddhist villagers said. Eleven Buddhist villagers said Buddhists committed acts of violence, including killings. The government and army have repeatedly blamed Rohingya insurgents for burning villages and homes.
• An order to “clear” Inn Din’s Rohingya hamlets was passed down the command chain from the military, said three paramilitary police officers speaking on condition of anonymity and a fourth police officer at an intelligence unit in the regional capital Sittwe. Security forces wore civilian clothes to avoid detection during raids, one of the paramilitary police officers said.
• Some members of the paramilitary police looted Rohingya property, including cows and motorcycles, in order to sell it, according to village administrator Maung Thein Chay and one of the paramilitary police officers.
• Operations in Inn Din were led by the army’s 33rd Light Infantry Division, supported by the paramilitary 8th Security Police Battalion, according to four police officers, all of them members of the battalion.
The killings in Inn Din
Michael G. Karnavas, a U.S. lawyer based in The Hague who has worked on cases at international criminal tribunals, said evidence that the military had organized Buddhist civilians to commit violence against Rohingya “would be the closest thing to a smoking gun in establishing not just intent, but even specific genocidal intent, since the attacks seem designed to destroy the Rohingya or at least a significant part of them.”
Evidence of the execution of men in government custody also could be used to build a case of crimes against humanity against military commanders, Karnavas said, if it could be shown that it was part of a “widespread or systematic” campaign targeting the Rohingya population. Kevin Jon Heller, a University of London law professor who served as a legal associate for convicted war criminal and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, said an order to clear villages by military command was “unequivocally the crime against humanity of forcible transfer.”
In December, the United States imposed sanctions on the army officer who had been in charge of Western Command troops in Rakhine, Major General Maung Maung Soe. So far, however, Myanmar has not faced international sanctions over the violence. Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has disappointed many former supporters in the West by not speaking out against the army’s actions. They had hoped the election of her National League for Democracy party in 2015 would bring democratic reform and an opening of the country. Instead, critics say, Suu Kyi is in thrall to the generals who freed her from house arrest in 2010.
Asked about the evidence Reuters has uncovered about the massacre, government spokesman Zaw Htay said, “We are not denying the allegations about violations of human rights. And we are not giving blanket denials.” If there was “strong and reliable primary evidence” of abuses, the government would investigate, he said. “And then if we found the evidence is true and the violations are there, we will take the necessary action according to our existing law.”
When told that paramilitary police officers had said they received orders to “clear” Inn Din’s Rohingya hamlets, he replied, “We have to verify. We have to ask the Ministry of Home Affairs and Myanmar police forces.” Asked about the allegations of looting by paramilitary police officers, he said the police would investigate.
He expressed surprise when told that Buddhist villagers had confessed to burning Rohingya homes, then added, “We recognize that many, many different allegations are there, but we need to verify who did it. It is very difficult in the current situation.”
Zaw Htay defended the military operation in Rakhine. “The international community needs to understand who did the first terrorist attacks. If that kind of terrorist attack took place in European countries, in the United States, in London, New York, Washington, what would the media say?”
NEIGHBOR TURNS ON NEIGHBOR
Inn Din lies between the Mayu mountain range and the Bay of Bengal, about 50 km (30 miles) north of Rakhine’s state capital Sittwe. The settlement is made up of a scattering of hamlets around a school, clinic and Buddhist monastery. Buddhist homes cluster in the northern part of the village. For many years there had been tensions between the Buddhists and their Muslim neighbors, who accounted for almost 90 percent of the roughly 7,000 people in the village. But the two communities had managed to co-exist, fishing the coastal waters and cultivating rice in the paddies.
In October 2016, Rohingya militants attacked three police posts in northern Rakhine – the beginning of a new insurgency. After the attacks, Rohingya in Inn Din said many Buddhists stopped hiring them as farmhands and home help. The Buddhists said the Rohingya stopped showing up for work.
On Aug. 25 last year, the rebels struck again, hitting 30 police posts and an army base. The closest attack was just 4 km to the north. In Inn Din, several hundred fearful Buddhists took refuge in the monastery in the center of the village, more than a dozen of their number said. Inn Din’s Buddhist night watchman San Thein, 36, said Buddhist villagers feared being “swallowed up” by their Muslim neighbors. A Buddhist elder said all Rohingya, “including children,” were part of the insurgency and therefore “terrorists.”
On Aug. 27, about 80 troops from Myanmar’s 33rd Light Infantry Division arrived in Inn Din, nine Buddhist villagers said. Two paramilitary police officers and Soe Chay, the retired soldier, said the troops belonged to the 11th infantry regiment of this division. The army officer in charge told villagers they must cook for the soldiers and act as lookouts at night, Soe Chay said. The officer promised his troops would protect Buddhist villagers from their Rohingya neighbors. Five Buddhist villagers said the officer told them they could volunteer to join security operations. Young volunteers would need their parents’ permission to join the troops, however.
DETAINED: Reuters journalists Wa Lone (foreground) and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested on Dec. 12 for allegedly obtaining confidential documents related to Rakhine. Here they are seen arriving for a court hearing in Yangon earlier this month. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
The army found willing participants among Inn Din’s Buddhist “security group,” nine members of the organization and two other villagers said. This informal militia was formed after violence broke out in 2012 between Rakhine’s Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, sparked by reports of the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by three Muslim men. Myanmar media reported at the time that the three were sentenced to death by a district court.
Inn Din’s security group built watch huts around the Buddhist part of the village, and its members took turns to stand guard. Its ranks included Buddhist firefighters, school teachers, students and unemployed young men. They were useful to the military because they knew the local geography, said Inn Din’s Buddhist administrator, Maung Thein Chay.
Most of the group’s 80 to 100 men armed themselves with machetes and sticks. They also had a handful of guns, according to one member. Some wore green fatigue-style clothing they called “militia suits.”
In the days that followed the 33rd Light Infantry’s arrival, soldiers, police and Buddhist villagers burned most of the homes of Inn Din’s Rohingya Muslims, a dozen Buddhist residents said.
Two of the paramilitary police officers, both members of the 8th Security Police Battalion, said their battalion raided Rohingya hamlets with soldiers from the newly arrived 33rd Light Infantry. One of the police officers said he received verbal orders from his commander to “go and clear” areas where Rohingya lived, which he took to mean to burn them.
The second police officer described taking part in several raids on villages north of Inn Din. The raids involved at least 20 soldiers and between five and seven police, he said. A military captain or major led the soldiers, while a police captain oversaw the police team. The purpose of the raids was to deter the Rohingya from returning.
“If they have a place to live, if they have food to eat, they can carry out more attacks,” he said. “That’s why we burned their houses, mainly for security reasons.”
AFTERMATH: Reuters obtained this picture of the slain Rohingya men from a Buddhist elder. The image is deliberately blurred here; click on the arrow to view at full resolution. Reuters shared the photo with Luis Fondebrider, a forensic anthropologist. He said injuries on two of the bodies were consistent with “the action of a machete or something sharp.”
“I want to be transparent on this case. I don’t want it to happen like that in the future.”
A Rakhine Buddhist elder, explaining why he chose to speak to Reuters about the killings
Soldiers and paramilitary police wore civilian shirts and shorts to blend in with the villagers, according to the second police officer and Inn Din’s Buddhist administrator, Maung Thein Chay. If the media identified the involvement of security personnel, the police officer explained, “we would have very big problems.”
A police spokesman, Colonel Myo Thu Soe, said he knew of no instances of security forces torching villages or wearing civilian clothing. Nor was there any order to “go and clear” or “set fire” to villages. “This is very much impossible,” he told Reuters. “If there are things like that, it should be reported officially, and it has to be investigated officially.”
“As you’ve told me about these matters now, we will scrutinize and check back,” he added. “What I want to say for now is that as for the security forces, there are orders and instructions and step-by-step management, and they have to follow them. So, I don’t think these things happened.”
The army did not respond to a request for comment.
A medical assistant at the Inn Din village clinic, Aung Myat Tun, 20, said he took part in several raids. “Muslim houses were easy to burn because of the thatched roofs. You just light the edge of the roof,” he said. “The village elders put monks’ robes on the end of sticks to make the torches and soaked them with kerosene. We couldn’t bring phones. The police said they will shoot and kill us if they see any of us taking photos.”
The night watchman San Thein, a leading member of the village security group, said troops first swept through the Muslim hamlets. Then, he said, the military sent in Buddhist villagers to burn the houses.
“We got the kerosene for free from the village market after the kalars ran away,” he said, using a Burmese slur for people from South Asia.
A Rakhine Buddhist youth said he thought he heard the sound of a child inside one Rohingya home that was burned. A second villager said he participated in burning a Rohingya home that was occupied.
Soe Chay, the retired soldier who was to dig the grave for the 10 Rohingya men, said he participated in one killing. He told Reuters that troops discovered three Rohingya men and a woman hiding beside a haystack in Inn Din on Aug. 28. One of the men had a smartphone that could be used to take incriminating pictures.
RETICENT: Myanmar's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has disappointed many former supporters in the West by not speaking out against the army’s actions in Rakhine. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
The soldiers told Soe Chay to “do whatever you want to them,” he said. They pointed out the man with the phone and told him to stand up. “I started hacking him with a sword, and a soldier shot him when he fell down.”
Similar violence was playing out across a large part of northern Rakhine, dozens of Buddhist and Rohingya residents said.
Data from the U.N. Operational Satellite Applications Programme shows scores of Rohingya villages in Rakhine state burned in an area stretching 110 km. New York-based Human Rights Watch says more than 350 villages were torched over the three months from Aug. 25, according to an analysis of satellite imagery.
In the village of Laungdon, some 65 km north of Inn Din, Thar Nge, 38, said he was asked by police and local officials to join a Buddhist security group. “The army invited us to burn the kalar village at Hpaw Ti Kaung,” he said, adding that four villagers and nearly 20 soldiers and police were involved in the operation. “Police shot inside the village so all the villagers fled and then we set fire to it. Their village was burned because police believed the villagers supported Rohingya militants – that’s why they cleaned it with fire.”
A Buddhist student from Ta Man Tha village, 15 km north of Laungdon, said he too participated in the burning of Rohingya homes. An army officer sought 30 volunteers to burn “kalar” villages, said the student. Nearly 50 volunteered and gathered fuel from motorbikes and from a market.
“They separated us into several groups. We were not allowed to enter the village directly. We had to surround it and approach the village that way. The army would shoot gunfire ahead of us and then the army asked us to enter,” he said.
“Muslim houses were easy to burn because of the thatched roofs. You just light the edge of the roof.”
Buddhist villager Aung Myat Tun
After the Rohingya had fled Inn Din, Buddhist villagers took their property, including chickens and goats, Buddhist residents told Reuters. But the most valuable goods, mostly motorcycles and cattle, were collected by members of the 8th Security Police Battalion and sold, said the first police officer and Inn Din village administrator Maung Thein Chay. Maung Thein Chay said the commander of the 8th Battalion, Thant Zin Oo, struck a deal with Buddhist businessmen from other parts of Rakhine state and sold them cattle. The police officer said he had stolen four cows from Rohingya villagers, only for Thant Zin Oo to snatch them away.
Reached by phone, Thant Zin Oo did not comment. Colonel Myo Thu Soe, the police spokesman, said the police would investigate the allegations of looting.
By Sept. 1, several hundred Rohingya from Inn Din were sheltering at a makeshift camp on a nearby beach. They erected tarpaulin shelters to shield themselves from heavy rain.
Among this group were the 10 Rohingya men who would be killed the next morning. Reuters has identified all of the 10 by speaking to witnesses among Inn Din’s Buddhist community and Rohingya relatives and witnesses tracked down in refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Five of the men, Dil Mohammed, 35, Nur Mohammed, 29, Shoket Ullah, 35, Habizu, 40, and Shaker Ahmed, 45, were fishermen or fish sellers. The wealthiest of the group, Abul Hashim, 25, ran a store selling nets and machine parts to fishermen and farmers. Abdul Majid, a 45-year-old father of eight, ran a small shop selling areca nut wrapped in betel leaves, commonly chewed like tobacco. Abulu, 17, and Rashid Ahmed, 18, were high school students. Abdul Malik, 30, was an Islamic teacher.
According to the statement released by the army on Jan. 10, security forces had gone to a coastal area where they “were attacked by about 200 Bengalis with sticks and swords.” The statement said that “as the security forces opened fire into the sky, the Bengalis dispersed and ran away. Ten of them were arrested.”
Three Buddhist and more than a dozen Rohingya witnesses contradict this version of events. Their accounts differ from one another in some details. The Buddhists spoke of a confrontation between a small group of Rohingya men and some soldiers near the beach. But there is unanimity on a crucial point: None said the military had come under a large-scale attack in Inn Din.
Government spokesman Zaw Htay referred Reuters to the army’s statement of Jan. 10 and declined to elaborate further. The army did not respond to a request for comment.
The Rohingya witnesses, who were on or near the beach, said Islamic teacher Abdul Malik had gone back to his hamlet with his sons to collect food and bamboo for shelter. When he returned, a group of at least seven soldiers and armed Buddhist villagers were following him, these witnesses said. Abdul Malik walked towards the watching Rohingya Muslims unsteadily, with blood dripping from his head. Some witnesses said they had seen one of the armed men strike the back of Abdul Malik’s head with a knife.
Then the military beckoned with their guns to the crowd of roughly 300 Rohingya to assemble in the paddies, these witnesses said. The soldiers and the Rohingya, hailing from different parts of Myanmar, spoke different languages. Educated villagers translated for their fellow Rohingya.
“I could not hear much, but they pointed toward my husband and some other men to get up and come forward,” said Rehana Khatun, 22, the wife of Nur Mohammed, one of the 10 who were later slain. “We heard they wanted the men for a meeting. The military asked the rest of us to return to the beach.”
Soldiers held and questioned the 10 men in a building at Inn Din’s school for a night, the military said. Rashid Ahmed and Abulu had studied there alongside Rakhine Buddhist students until the attacks by Rohingya rebels in October 2016. Schools were shut temporarily, disrupting the pair’s final year.
“I just remember him sitting there and studying, and it was always amazing to me because I am not educated,” said Rashid Ahmed’s father, farmer Abdu Shakur, 50. “I would look at him reading. He would be the first one in the family to be educated.”
A photograph, taken on the evening the men were detained, shows the two Rohingya students and the eight older men kneeling on a path beside the village clinic, most of them shirtless. They were stripped when first detained, a dozen Rohingya witnesses said. It isn’t clear why. That evening, Buddhist villagers said, the men were “treated” to a last meal of beef. They were provided with fresh clothing.
On Sept. 2, the men were taken to scrubland north of the village, near a graveyard for Buddhist residents, six Buddhist villagers said. The spot is backed by a hill crested with trees. There, on their knees, the 10 were photographed again and questioned by security personnel about the disappearance of a local Buddhist farmer named Maung Ni, according to a Rakhine elder who said he witnessed the interrogation.
Reuters was not able to establish what happened to Maung Ni. According to Buddhist neighbors, the farmer went missing after leaving home early on Aug. 25 to tend his cattle. Several Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya villagers told Reuters they believed he had been killed, but they knew of no evidence connecting any of the 10 men to his disappearance. The army said in its Jan. 10 statement that “Bengali terrorists” had killed Maung Ni, but did not identify the perpetrators.
Two of the men pictured behind the Rohingya prisoners in the photograph taken on the morning of Sept. 2 belong to the 8th Security Police Battalion. Reuters confirmed the identities of the two men from their Facebook pages and by visiting them in person.
One of the two officers, Aung Min, a police recruit from Yangon, stands directly behind the captives. He looks at the camera as he holds a weapon. The other officer, police Captain Moe Yan Naing, is the figure on the top right. He walks with his rifle over his shoulder.
The day after the two Reuters reporters were arrested in December, Myanmar’s government also announced that Moe Yan Naing had been arrested and was being investigated under the 1923 Official Secrets Act.
Aung Min, who is not facing legal action, declined to speak to Reuters.
Three Buddhist youths said they watched from a hut as the 10 Rohingya captives were led up a hill by soldiers towards the site of their deaths.
One of the gravediggers, retired soldier Soe Chay, said Maung Ni’s sons were invited by the army officer in charge of the squad to strike the first blows.
The first son beheaded the Islamic teacher, Abdul Malik, according to Soe Chay. The second son hacked another of the men in the neck.
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“After the brothers sliced them both with swords, the squad fired with guns. Two to three shots to one person,” said Soe Chay. A second gravedigger, who declined to be identified, confirmed that soldiers had shot some of the men.
In its Jan. 10 statement, the military said the two brothers and a third villager had “cut the Bengali terrorists” with swords and then, in the chaos, four members of the security forces had shot the captives. “Action will be taken against the villagers who participated in the case and the members of security forces who broke the Rules of Engagement under the law,” the statement said. It didn’t spell out those rules.
Tun Aye, one of the sons of Maung Ni, has been detained on murder charges, his lawyer said on Jan. 13. Contacted by Reuters on Feb. 8, the lawyer declined to comment further. Reuters was unable to reach the other brother.
In October, Inn Din locals pointed two Reuters reporters towards an area of brush behind the hill where they said the killings took place. The reporters discovered a newly cut trail leading to soft, recently disturbed earth littered with bones. Some of the bones were entangled with scraps of clothing and string that appeared to match the cord that is seen binding the captives’ wrists in the photographs. The immediate area was marked by the smell of death.
Reuters showed photographs of the site to three forensic experts: Homer Venters, director of programs at Physicians for Human Rights; Derrick Pounder, a pathologist who has consulted for Amnesty International and the United Nations; and Luis Fondebrider, president of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, who investigated the graves of those killed under Argentina’s military junta in the 1970s and 1980s. All observed human remains, including the thoracic part of a spinal column, ribs, scapula, femur and tibia. Pounder said he couldn’t rule out the presence of animal bones as well.
The Rakhine Buddhist elder provided Reuters reporters with a photograph which shows the aftermath of the execution. In it, the 10 Rohingya men are wearing the same clothing as in the previous photo and are tied to each other with the same yellow cord, piled into a small hole in the earth, blood pooling around them. Abdul Malik, the Islamic teacher, appears to have been beheaded. Abulu, the student, has a gaping wound in his neck. Both injuries appear consistent with Soe Chay’s account.
Fondebrider reviewed this picture. He said injuries visible on two of the bodies were consistent with “the action of a machete or something sharp that was applied on the throat.”
Some family members did not know for sure that the men had been killed until Reuters returned to their shelters in Bangladesh in January.
“I can’t explain what I feel inside. My husband is dead,” said Rehana Khatun, wife of Nur Mohammed. “My husband is gone forever. I don’t want anything else, but I want justice for his death.”
In Inn Din, the Buddhist elder explained why he chose to share evidence of the killings with Reuters. “I want to be transparent on this case. I don’t want it to happen like that in future.”
Massacre in Myanmar
A REUTERS SPECIAL REPORT
How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village
On Sept. 2, Buddhist villagers and Myanmar troops killed 10 Rohingya men in Myanmar's restive Rakhine state. Reuters uncovered the massacre and has pieced together how it unfolded. During the reporting of this article, two Reuters journalists were arrested by Myanmar police.
By WA LONE, KYAW SOE OO, SIMON LEWIS and ANTONI SLODKOWSKI Filed Feb. 8, 2018, 10 p.m. GMT
INN DIN, Myanmar – Bound together, the 10 Rohingya Muslim captives watched their Buddhist neighbors dig a shallow grave. Soon afterwards, on the morning of Sept. 2, all 10 lay dead. At least two were hacked to death by Buddhist villagers. The rest were shot by Myanmar troops, two of the gravediggers said.
“One grave for 10 people,” said Soe Chay, 55, a retired soldier from Inn Din’s Rakhine Buddhist community who said he helped dig the pit and saw the killings. The soldiers shot each man two or three times, he said. “When they were being buried, some were still making noises. Others were already dead.”
The killings in the coastal village of Inn Din marked another bloody episode in the ethnic violence sweeping northern Rakhine state, on Myanmar’s western fringe. Nearly 690,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled their villages and crossed the border into Bangladesh since August. None of Inn Din’s 6,000 Rohingya remained in the village as of October.
The Rohingya accuse the army of arson, rapes and killings aimed at rubbing them out of existence in this mainly Buddhist nation of 53 million. The United Nations has said the army may have committed genocide; the United States has called the action ethnic cleansing. Myanmar says its “clearance operation” is a legitimate response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents.
Rohingya trace their presence in Rakhine back centuries. But most Burmese consider them to be unwanted immigrants from Bangladesh; the army refers to the Rohingya as “Bengalis.” In recent years, sectarian tensions have risen and the government has confined more than 100,000 Rohingya in camps where they have limited access to food, medicine and education.
Reuters has pieced together what happened in Inn Din in the days leading up to the killing of the 10 Rohingya – eight men and two high school students in their late teens.
Until now, accounts of the violence against the Rohingya in Rakhine state have been provided only by its victims. The Reuters reconstruction draws for the first time on interviews with Buddhist villagers who confessed to torching Rohingya homes, burying bodies and killing Muslims.
This account also marks the first time soldiers and paramilitary police have been implicated by testimony from security personnel themselves. Members of the paramilitary police gave Reuters insider descriptions of the operation to drive out the Rohingya from Inn Din, confirming that the military played the lead role in the campaign.
The slain men’s families, now sheltering in Bangladesh refugee camps, identified the victims through photographs shown to them by Reuters. The dead men were fishermen, shopkeepers, the two teenage students and an Islamic teacher.
Three photographs, provided to Reuters by a Buddhist village elder, capture key moments in the massacre at Inn Din, from the Rohingya men’s detention by soldiers in the early evening of Sept. 1 to their execution shortly after 10 a.m. on Sept. 2. Two photos – one taken the first day, the other on the day of the killings – show the 10 captives lined up in a row, kneeling. The final photograph shows the men’s bloodied bodies piled in the shallow grave.
The Reuters investigation of the Inn Din massacre was what prompted Myanmar police authorities to arrest two of the news agency’s reporters. The reporters, Burmese citizens Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were detained on Dec. 12 for allegedly obtaining confidential documents relating to Rakhine.
Then, on Jan. 10, the military issued a statement that confirmed portions of what Wa Lone, Kyaw Soe Oo and their colleagues were preparing to report, acknowledging that 10 Rohingya men were massacred in the village. It confirmed that Buddhist villagers attacked some of the men with swords and soldiers shot the others dead.
The statement coincided with an application to the court by prosecutors to charge Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo under Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act, which dates back to the time of colonial British rule. The charges carry a maximum 14-year prison sentence.
But the military’s version of events is contradicted in important respects by accounts given to Reuters by Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya Muslim witnesses. The military said the 10 men belonged to a group of 200 “terrorists” that attacked security forces. Soldiers decided to kill the men, the army said, because intense fighting in the area made it impossible to transfer them to police custody. The army said it would take action against those involved.
Buddhist villagers interviewed for this article reported no attack by a large number of insurgents on security forces in Inn Din. And Rohingya witnesses told Reuters that soldiers plucked the 10 from among hundreds of men, women and children who had sought safety on a nearby beach.
Scores of interviews with Rakhine Buddhist villagers, soldiers, paramilitary police, Rohingya Muslims and local administrators further revealed:
• The military and paramilitary police organized Buddhist residents of Inn Din and at least two other villages to torch Rohingya homes, more than a dozen Buddhist villagers said. Eleven Buddhist villagers said Buddhists committed acts of violence, including killings. The government and army have repeatedly blamed Rohingya insurgents for burning villages and homes.
• An order to “clear” Inn Din’s Rohingya hamlets was passed down the command chain from the military, said three paramilitary police officers speaking on condition of anonymity and a fourth police officer at an intelligence unit in the regional capital Sittwe. Security forces wore civilian clothes to avoid detection during raids, one of the paramilitary police officers said.
• Some members of the paramilitary police looted Rohingya property, including cows and motorcycles, in order to sell it, according to village administrator Maung Thein Chay and one of the paramilitary police officers.
• Operations in Inn Din were led by the army’s 33rd Light Infantry Division, supported by the paramilitary 8th Security Police Battalion, according to four police officers, all of them members of the battalion.
The killings in Inn Din
Michael G. Karnavas, a U.S. lawyer based in The Hague who has worked on cases at international criminal tribunals, said evidence that the military had organized Buddhist civilians to commit violence against Rohingya “would be the closest thing to a smoking gun in establishing not just intent, but even specific genocidal intent, since the attacks seem designed to destroy the Rohingya or at least a significant part of them.”
Evidence of the execution of men in government custody also could be used to build a case of crimes against humanity against military commanders, Karnavas said, if it could be shown that it was part of a “widespread or systematic” campaign targeting the Rohingya population. Kevin Jon Heller, a University of London law professor who served as a legal associate for convicted war criminal and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, said an order to clear villages by military command was “unequivocally the crime against humanity of forcible transfer.”
In December, the United States imposed sanctions on the army officer who had been in charge of Western Command troops in Rakhine, Major General Maung Maung Soe. So far, however, Myanmar has not faced international sanctions over the violence. Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has disappointed many former supporters in the West by not speaking out against the army’s actions. They had hoped the election of her National League for Democracy party in 2015 would bring democratic reform and an opening of the country. Instead, critics say, Suu Kyi is in thrall to the generals who freed her from house arrest in 2010.
Asked about the evidence Reuters has uncovered about the massacre, government spokesman Zaw Htay said, “We are not denying the allegations about violations of human rights. And we are not giving blanket denials.” If there was “strong and reliable primary evidence” of abuses, the government would investigate, he said. “And then if we found the evidence is true and the violations are there, we will take the necessary action according to our existing law.”
When told that paramilitary police officers had said they received orders to “clear” Inn Din’s Rohingya hamlets, he replied, “We have to verify. We have to ask the Ministry of Home Affairs and Myanmar police forces.” Asked about the allegations of looting by paramilitary police officers, he said the police would investigate.
He expressed surprise when told that Buddhist villagers had confessed to burning Rohingya homes, then added, “We recognize that many, many different allegations are there, but we need to verify who did it. It is very difficult in the current situation.”
Zaw Htay defended the military operation in Rakhine. “The international community needs to understand who did the first terrorist attacks. If that kind of terrorist attack took place in European countries, in the United States, in London, New York, Washington, what would the media say?”
NEIGHBOR TURNS ON NEIGHBOR
Inn Din lies between the Mayu mountain range and the Bay of Bengal, about 50 km (30 miles) north of Rakhine’s state capital Sittwe. The settlement is made up of a scattering of hamlets around a school, clinic and Buddhist monastery. Buddhist homes cluster in the northern part of the village. For many years there had been tensions between the Buddhists and their Muslim neighbors, who accounted for almost 90 percent of the roughly 7,000 people in the village. But the two communities had managed to co-exist, fishing the coastal waters and cultivating rice in the paddies.
In October 2016, Rohingya militants attacked three police posts in northern Rakhine – the beginning of a new insurgency. After the attacks, Rohingya in Inn Din said many Buddhists stopped hiring them as farmhands and home help. The Buddhists said the Rohingya stopped showing up for work.
On Aug. 25 last year, the rebels struck again, hitting 30 police posts and an army base. The closest attack was just 4 km to the north. In Inn Din, several hundred fearful Buddhists took refuge in the monastery in the center of the village, more than a dozen of their number said. Inn Din’s Buddhist night watchman San Thein, 36, said Buddhist villagers feared being “swallowed up” by their Muslim neighbors. A Buddhist elder said all Rohingya, “including children,” were part of the insurgency and therefore “terrorists.”
On Aug. 27, about 80 troops from Myanmar’s 33rd Light Infantry Division arrived in Inn Din, nine Buddhist villagers said. Two paramilitary police officers and Soe Chay, the retired soldier, said the troops belonged to the 11th infantry regiment of this division. The army officer in charge told villagers they must cook for the soldiers and act as lookouts at night, Soe Chay said. The officer promised his troops would protect Buddhist villagers from their Rohingya neighbors. Five Buddhist villagers said the officer told them they could volunteer to join security operations. Young volunteers would need their parents’ permission to join the troops, however.
DETAINED: Reuters journalists Wa Lone (foreground) and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested on Dec. 12 for allegedly obtaining confidential documents related to Rakhine. Here they are seen arriving for a court hearing in Yangon earlier this month. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
The army found willing participants among Inn Din’s Buddhist “security group,” nine members of the organization and two other villagers said. This informal militia was formed after violence broke out in 2012 between Rakhine’s Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, sparked by reports of the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by three Muslim men. Myanmar media reported at the time that the three were sentenced to death by a district court.
Inn Din’s security group built watch huts around the Buddhist part of the village, and its members took turns to stand guard. Its ranks included Buddhist firefighters, school teachers, students and unemployed young men. They were useful to the military because they knew the local geography, said Inn Din’s Buddhist administrator, Maung Thein Chay.
Most of the group’s 80 to 100 men armed themselves with machetes and sticks. They also had a handful of guns, according to one member. Some wore green fatigue-style clothing they called “militia suits.”
In the days that followed the 33rd Light Infantry’s arrival, soldiers, police and Buddhist villagers burned most of the homes of Inn Din’s Rohingya Muslims, a dozen Buddhist residents said.
Two of the paramilitary police officers, both members of the 8th Security Police Battalion, said their battalion raided Rohingya hamlets with soldiers from the newly arrived 33rd Light Infantry. One of the police officers said he received verbal orders from his commander to “go and clear” areas where Rohingya lived, which he took to mean to burn them.
The second police officer described taking part in several raids on villages north of Inn Din. The raids involved at least 20 soldiers and between five and seven police, he said. A military captain or major led the soldiers, while a police captain oversaw the police team. The purpose of the raids was to deter the Rohingya from returning.
“If they have a place to live, if they have food to eat, they can carry out more attacks,” he said. “That’s why we burned their houses, mainly for security reasons.”
AFTERMATH: Reuters obtained this picture of the slain Rohingya men from a Buddhist elder. The image is deliberately blurred here; click on the arrow to view at full resolution. Reuters shared the photo with Luis Fondebrider, a forensic anthropologist. He said injuries on two of the bodies were consistent with “the action of a machete or something sharp.”
“I want to be transparent on this case. I don’t want it to happen like that in the future.”
A Rakhine Buddhist elder, explaining why he chose to speak to Reuters about the killings
Soldiers and paramilitary police wore civilian shirts and shorts to blend in with the villagers, according to the second police officer and Inn Din’s Buddhist administrator, Maung Thein Chay. If the media identified the involvement of security personnel, the police officer explained, “we would have very big problems.”
A police spokesman, Colonel Myo Thu Soe, said he knew of no instances of security forces torching villages or wearing civilian clothing. Nor was there any order to “go and clear” or “set fire” to villages. “This is very much impossible,” he told Reuters. “If there are things like that, it should be reported officially, and it has to be investigated officially.”
“As you’ve told me about these matters now, we will scrutinize and check back,” he added. “What I want to say for now is that as for the security forces, there are orders and instructions and step-by-step management, and they have to follow them. So, I don’t think these things happened.”
The army did not respond to a request for comment.
A medical assistant at the Inn Din village clinic, Aung Myat Tun, 20, said he took part in several raids. “Muslim houses were easy to burn because of the thatched roofs. You just light the edge of the roof,” he said. “The village elders put monks’ robes on the end of sticks to make the torches and soaked them with kerosene. We couldn’t bring phones. The police said they will shoot and kill us if they see any of us taking photos.”
The night watchman San Thein, a leading member of the village security group, said troops first swept through the Muslim hamlets. Then, he said, the military sent in Buddhist villagers to burn the houses.
“We got the kerosene for free from the village market after the kalars ran away,” he said, using a Burmese slur for people from South Asia.
A Rakhine Buddhist youth said he thought he heard the sound of a child inside one Rohingya home that was burned. A second villager said he participated in burning a Rohingya home that was occupied.
Soe Chay, the retired soldier who was to dig the grave for the 10 Rohingya men, said he participated in one killing. He told Reuters that troops discovered three Rohingya men and a woman hiding beside a haystack in Inn Din on Aug. 28. One of the men had a smartphone that could be used to take incriminating pictures.
RETICENT: Myanmar's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has disappointed many former supporters in the West by not speaking out against the army’s actions in Rakhine. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
The soldiers told Soe Chay to “do whatever you want to them,” he said. They pointed out the man with the phone and told him to stand up. “I started hacking him with a sword, and a soldier shot him when he fell down.”
Similar violence was playing out across a large part of northern Rakhine, dozens of Buddhist and Rohingya residents said.
Data from the U.N. Operational Satellite Applications Programme shows scores of Rohingya villages in Rakhine state burned in an area stretching 110 km. New York-based Human Rights Watch says more than 350 villages were torched over the three months from Aug. 25, according to an analysis of satellite imagery.
In the village of Laungdon, some 65 km north of Inn Din, Thar Nge, 38, said he was asked by police and local officials to join a Buddhist security group. “The army invited us to burn the kalar village at Hpaw Ti Kaung,” he said, adding that four villagers and nearly 20 soldiers and police were involved in the operation. “Police shot inside the village so all the villagers fled and then we set fire to it. Their village was burned because police believed the villagers supported Rohingya militants – that’s why they cleaned it with fire.”
A Buddhist student from Ta Man Tha village, 15 km north of Laungdon, said he too participated in the burning of Rohingya homes. An army officer sought 30 volunteers to burn “kalar” villages, said the student. Nearly 50 volunteered and gathered fuel from motorbikes and from a market.
“They separated us into several groups. We were not allowed to enter the village directly. We had to surround it and approach the village that way. The army would shoot gunfire ahead of us and then the army asked us to enter,” he said.
“Muslim houses were easy to burn because of the thatched roofs. You just light the edge of the roof.”
Buddhist villager Aung Myat Tun
After the Rohingya had fled Inn Din, Buddhist villagers took their property, including chickens and goats, Buddhist residents told Reuters. But the most valuable goods, mostly motorcycles and cattle, were collected by members of the 8th Security Police Battalion and sold, said the first police officer and Inn Din village administrator Maung Thein Chay. Maung Thein Chay said the commander of the 8th Battalion, Thant Zin Oo, struck a deal with Buddhist businessmen from other parts of Rakhine state and sold them cattle. The police officer said he had stolen four cows from Rohingya villagers, only for Thant Zin Oo to snatch them away.
Reached by phone, Thant Zin Oo did not comment. Colonel Myo Thu Soe, the police spokesman, said the police would investigate the allegations of looting.
By Sept. 1, several hundred Rohingya from Inn Din were sheltering at a makeshift camp on a nearby beach. They erected tarpaulin shelters to shield themselves from heavy rain.
Among this group were the 10 Rohingya men who would be killed the next morning. Reuters has identified all of the 10 by speaking to witnesses among Inn Din’s Buddhist community and Rohingya relatives and witnesses tracked down in refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Five of the men, Dil Mohammed, 35, Nur Mohammed, 29, Shoket Ullah, 35, Habizu, 40, and Shaker Ahmed, 45, were fishermen or fish sellers. The wealthiest of the group, Abul Hashim, 25, ran a store selling nets and machine parts to fishermen and farmers. Abdul Majid, a 45-year-old father of eight, ran a small shop selling areca nut wrapped in betel leaves, commonly chewed like tobacco. Abulu, 17, and Rashid Ahmed, 18, were high school students. Abdul Malik, 30, was an Islamic teacher.
According to the statement released by the army on Jan. 10, security forces had gone to a coastal area where they “were attacked by about 200 Bengalis with sticks and swords.” The statement said that “as the security forces opened fire into the sky, the Bengalis dispersed and ran away. Ten of them were arrested.”
Three Buddhist and more than a dozen Rohingya witnesses contradict this version of events. Their accounts differ from one another in some details. The Buddhists spoke of a confrontation between a small group of Rohingya men and some soldiers near the beach. But there is unanimity on a crucial point: None said the military had come under a large-scale attack in Inn Din.
Government spokesman Zaw Htay referred Reuters to the army’s statement of Jan. 10 and declined to elaborate further. The army did not respond to a request for comment.
The Rohingya witnesses, who were on or near the beach, said Islamic teacher Abdul Malik had gone back to his hamlet with his sons to collect food and bamboo for shelter. When he returned, a group of at least seven soldiers and armed Buddhist villagers were following him, these witnesses said. Abdul Malik walked towards the watching Rohingya Muslims unsteadily, with blood dripping from his head. Some witnesses said they had seen one of the armed men strike the back of Abdul Malik’s head with a knife.
Then the military beckoned with their guns to the crowd of roughly 300 Rohingya to assemble in the paddies, these witnesses said. The soldiers and the Rohingya, hailing from different parts of Myanmar, spoke different languages. Educated villagers translated for their fellow Rohingya.
“I could not hear much, but they pointed toward my husband and some other men to get up and come forward,” said Rehana Khatun, 22, the wife of Nur Mohammed, one of the 10 who were later slain. “We heard they wanted the men for a meeting. The military asked the rest of us to return to the beach.”
Soldiers held and questioned the 10 men in a building at Inn Din’s school for a night, the military said. Rashid Ahmed and Abulu had studied there alongside Rakhine Buddhist students until the attacks by Rohingya rebels in October 2016. Schools were shut temporarily, disrupting the pair’s final year.
“I just remember him sitting there and studying, and it was always amazing to me because I am not educated,” said Rashid Ahmed’s father, farmer Abdu Shakur, 50. “I would look at him reading. He would be the first one in the family to be educated.”
A photograph, taken on the evening the men were detained, shows the two Rohingya students and the eight older men kneeling on a path beside the village clinic, most of them shirtless. They were stripped when first detained, a dozen Rohingya witnesses said. It isn’t clear why. That evening, Buddhist villagers said, the men were “treated” to a last meal of beef. They were provided with fresh clothing.
On Sept. 2, the men were taken to scrubland north of the village, near a graveyard for Buddhist residents, six Buddhist villagers said. The spot is backed by a hill crested with trees. There, on their knees, the 10 were photographed again and questioned by security personnel about the disappearance of a local Buddhist farmer named Maung Ni, according to a Rakhine elder who said he witnessed the interrogation.
Reuters was not able to establish what happened to Maung Ni. According to Buddhist neighbors, the farmer went missing after leaving home early on Aug. 25 to tend his cattle. Several Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya villagers told Reuters they believed he had been killed, but they knew of no evidence connecting any of the 10 men to his disappearance. The army said in its Jan. 10 statement that “Bengali terrorists” had killed Maung Ni, but did not identify the perpetrators.
Two of the men pictured behind the Rohingya prisoners in the photograph taken on the morning of Sept. 2 belong to the 8th Security Police Battalion. Reuters confirmed the identities of the two men from their Facebook pages and by visiting them in person.
One of the two officers, Aung Min, a police recruit from Yangon, stands directly behind the captives. He looks at the camera as he holds a weapon. The other officer, police Captain Moe Yan Naing, is the figure on the top right. He walks with his rifle over his shoulder.
The day after the two Reuters reporters were arrested in December, Myanmar’s government also announced that Moe Yan Naing had been arrested and was being investigated under the 1923 Official Secrets Act.
Aung Min, who is not facing legal action, declined to speak to Reuters.
Three Buddhist youths said they watched from a hut as the 10 Rohingya captives were led up a hill by soldiers towards the site of their deaths.
One of the gravediggers, retired soldier Soe Chay, said Maung Ni’s sons were invited by the army officer in charge of the squad to strike the first blows.
The first son beheaded the Islamic teacher, Abdul Malik, according to Soe Chay. The second son hacked another of the men in the neck.
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“After the brothers sliced them both with swords, the squad fired with guns. Two to three shots to one person,” said Soe Chay. A second gravedigger, who declined to be identified, confirmed that soldiers had shot some of the men.
In its Jan. 10 statement, the military said the two brothers and a third villager had “cut the Bengali terrorists” with swords and then, in the chaos, four members of the security forces had shot the captives. “Action will be taken against the villagers who participated in the case and the members of security forces who broke the Rules of Engagement under the law,” the statement said. It didn’t spell out those rules.
Tun Aye, one of the sons of Maung Ni, has been detained on murder charges, his lawyer said on Jan. 13. Contacted by Reuters on Feb. 8, the lawyer declined to comment further. Reuters was unable to reach the other brother.
In October, Inn Din locals pointed two Reuters reporters towards an area of brush behind the hill where they said the killings took place. The reporters discovered a newly cut trail leading to soft, recently disturbed earth littered with bones. Some of the bones were entangled with scraps of clothing and string that appeared to match the cord that is seen binding the captives’ wrists in the photographs. The immediate area was marked by the smell of death.
Reuters showed photographs of the site to three forensic experts: Homer Venters, director of programs at Physicians for Human Rights; Derrick Pounder, a pathologist who has consulted for Amnesty International and the United Nations; and Luis Fondebrider, president of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, who investigated the graves of those killed under Argentina’s military junta in the 1970s and 1980s. All observed human remains, including the thoracic part of a spinal column, ribs, scapula, femur and tibia. Pounder said he couldn’t rule out the presence of animal bones as well.
The Rakhine Buddhist elder provided Reuters reporters with a photograph which shows the aftermath of the execution. In it, the 10 Rohingya men are wearing the same clothing as in the previous photo and are tied to each other with the same yellow cord, piled into a small hole in the earth, blood pooling around them. Abdul Malik, the Islamic teacher, appears to have been beheaded. Abulu, the student, has a gaping wound in his neck. Both injuries appear consistent with Soe Chay’s account.
Fondebrider reviewed this picture. He said injuries visible on two of the bodies were consistent with “the action of a machete or something sharp that was applied on the throat.”
Some family members did not know for sure that the men had been killed until Reuters returned to their shelters in Bangladesh in January.
“I can’t explain what I feel inside. My husband is dead,” said Rehana Khatun, wife of Nur Mohammed. “My husband is gone forever. I don’t want anything else, but I want justice for his death.”
In Inn Din, the Buddhist elder explained why he chose to share evidence of the killings with Reuters. “I want to be transparent on this case. I don’t want it to happen like that in future.”
Aung San Suu Kyi defends verdict against Reuters journalists - BBC News
Sept. 13, 2018.
Aung San Suu Kyi defends verdict against Reuters journalists
Aung San Suu Kyi said their conviction had "nothing to do with freedom of expression at all"
Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi has defended the jailing of two Reuters journalists, despite international condemnation.
She said Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had broken the law and their conviction had "nothing to do with freedom of expression at all".
The two were sentenced for possession of police documents while investigating the killing of Rohingya Muslims.
Ms Suu Kyi also said her government could in hindsight have handled the Rohingya situation differently.
Since last year, at least 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar, also known as Burma, after the army launched a brutal crackdown in response to attacks by a Rohingya militant group.
The UN has called for top military figures to be investigated for genocide.
What did Suu Kyi say?
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate - who is Myanmar's de facto leader - had been under intense pressure to comment on both the Rohingya crisis and more recently the journalists, following their jailing earlier this month.
This week, a UN rights body accused Myanmar of "waging a campaign against journalists" and the verdict has sparked criticism internationally, including from US Vice President Mike Pence.
Has Suu Kyi turned her back on free press?
The country where Facebook posts whipped up hate
Could Aung San Suu Kyi face Rohingya genocide charges?
Breaking her silence on Thursday in response to a question at an international economics conference in Vietnam, Ms Suu Kyi said the case against the international news agency journalists upheld the rule of law.
She suggested that many critics had not actually read the verdict, saying: "They were not jailed because they were journalists, they were jailed because... the court has decided that they have broken the Official Secrets Act."
The two, she added, had "every right to appeal the judgement and to point out why the judgement was wrong".
The wives of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have spoken out.
What was the case against the reporters?
The Reuters pair were sentenced to seven years in prison on 3 September for violating the state secrets act while investigating a massacre of Rohingya men by the military at a village called Inn Din in Rakhine state.
The two Myanmar nationals had been arrested while carrying official documents which had just been given to them by police officers in a restaurant.
They said they were set up by police, a claim backed by a police witness in the trial.
Image copyrightEPA
Image caption
The verdict against Wa Lone (L) and Kyaw Soe Oo (R) has been widely condemned
The Burmese authorities later launched their own investigation into what happened at Inn Din, and jailed seven soldiers for their involvement in the killings of 10 Rohingya Muslim men there.
It was a rare admission of wrongdoing - the military has exonerated itself of blame for the violence and refused to allow journalists and external investigators into Rakhine to look into the allegations of abuses.
The 73-year-old former activist, who spent more than a decade under house arrest during the military junta period, was once seen as a global human rights icon.
But her perceived failure to stop the rape and killing of Rohingyas has sullied her international reputation and several honours have been withdrawn.
However, she remains very popular in Myanmar, where many people see the Rohingya as interlopers from Bangladesh.
Human Rights Watch responded to Ms Suu Kyi's comments by saying that she "got it all wrong".
"She fails to understand that real 'rule of law' means respect for evidence presented in court, actions brought based on clearly defined and proportionate laws, and independence of the judiciary from influence by the government or security forces," Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson said.
"On all these counts, the trial of the Reuters journalists failed the test."
What's the background to the Rohingya situation?
The Rohingya have faced decades of discrimination in Myanmar and are denied citizenship.
The latest crisis erupted in August 2017 when a brutal military crackdown was launched in far-western Rakhine state in response to a Rohingya militant group attacking more than 30 police posts.
Last month, a UN report said top military figures in Myanmar must be investigated for genocide in Rakhine state and crimes against humanity in other areas.
The report describes the army's response - including murder, torture, rape, sexual slavery, persecution and enslavement - as "grossly disproportionate to actual security threats".
Ms Suu Kyi has not criticised the powerful military but on Thursday admitted that, in hindsight, "the situation could have been handled better" by her government.
"But we believe that for the sake of long-term stability and security we have to be fair to all sides," she said. "We cannot choose and pick who should be protected by the rule of law."
Aung San Suu Kyi defends verdict against Reuters journalists
Aung San Suu Kyi said their conviction had "nothing to do with freedom of expression at all"
Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi has defended the jailing of two Reuters journalists, despite international condemnation.
She said Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had broken the law and their conviction had "nothing to do with freedom of expression at all".
The two were sentenced for possession of police documents while investigating the killing of Rohingya Muslims.
Ms Suu Kyi also said her government could in hindsight have handled the Rohingya situation differently.
Since last year, at least 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar, also known as Burma, after the army launched a brutal crackdown in response to attacks by a Rohingya militant group.
The UN has called for top military figures to be investigated for genocide.
What did Suu Kyi say?
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate - who is Myanmar's de facto leader - had been under intense pressure to comment on both the Rohingya crisis and more recently the journalists, following their jailing earlier this month.
This week, a UN rights body accused Myanmar of "waging a campaign against journalists" and the verdict has sparked criticism internationally, including from US Vice President Mike Pence.
Has Suu Kyi turned her back on free press?
The country where Facebook posts whipped up hate
Could Aung San Suu Kyi face Rohingya genocide charges?
Breaking her silence on Thursday in response to a question at an international economics conference in Vietnam, Ms Suu Kyi said the case against the international news agency journalists upheld the rule of law.
She suggested that many critics had not actually read the verdict, saying: "They were not jailed because they were journalists, they were jailed because... the court has decided that they have broken the Official Secrets Act."
The two, she added, had "every right to appeal the judgement and to point out why the judgement was wrong".
The wives of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have spoken out.
What was the case against the reporters?
The Reuters pair were sentenced to seven years in prison on 3 September for violating the state secrets act while investigating a massacre of Rohingya men by the military at a village called Inn Din in Rakhine state.
The two Myanmar nationals had been arrested while carrying official documents which had just been given to them by police officers in a restaurant.
They said they were set up by police, a claim backed by a police witness in the trial.
Image copyrightEPA
Image caption
The verdict against Wa Lone (L) and Kyaw Soe Oo (R) has been widely condemned
The Burmese authorities later launched their own investigation into what happened at Inn Din, and jailed seven soldiers for their involvement in the killings of 10 Rohingya Muslim men there.
It was a rare admission of wrongdoing - the military has exonerated itself of blame for the violence and refused to allow journalists and external investigators into Rakhine to look into the allegations of abuses.
The 73-year-old former activist, who spent more than a decade under house arrest during the military junta period, was once seen as a global human rights icon.
But her perceived failure to stop the rape and killing of Rohingyas has sullied her international reputation and several honours have been withdrawn.
However, she remains very popular in Myanmar, where many people see the Rohingya as interlopers from Bangladesh.
Human Rights Watch responded to Ms Suu Kyi's comments by saying that she "got it all wrong".
"She fails to understand that real 'rule of law' means respect for evidence presented in court, actions brought based on clearly defined and proportionate laws, and independence of the judiciary from influence by the government or security forces," Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson said.
"On all these counts, the trial of the Reuters journalists failed the test."
What's the background to the Rohingya situation?
The Rohingya have faced decades of discrimination in Myanmar and are denied citizenship.
The latest crisis erupted in August 2017 when a brutal military crackdown was launched in far-western Rakhine state in response to a Rohingya militant group attacking more than 30 police posts.
Last month, a UN report said top military figures in Myanmar must be investigated for genocide in Rakhine state and crimes against humanity in other areas.
The report describes the army's response - including murder, torture, rape, sexual slavery, persecution and enslavement - as "grossly disproportionate to actual security threats".
Ms Suu Kyi has not criticised the powerful military but on Thursday admitted that, in hindsight, "the situation could have been handled better" by her government.
"But we believe that for the sake of long-term stability and security we have to be fair to all sides," she said. "We cannot choose and pick who should be protected by the rule of law."
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Skripal poisoning: Putin says suspects 'civilians, not criminals' - BBC News
Sept. 12, 2018.
Skripal poisoning: Putin says suspects 'civilians, not criminals'
President Vladimir Putin says the suspects are civilians
The two suspects in the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter are civilians, not criminals, Russian President Vladimir Putin says.
The UK government named them as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, and said they were from Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU.
Mr Putin said his government had found the pair and he hoped they would appear soon and tell their story.
Mr Skripal and Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury, in the UK, in March.
"We know who they are, we have found them," Mr Putin said in the far eastern city of Vladivostok.
"I hope they will turn up themselves and tell everything. This would be best for everyone. There is nothing special there, nothing criminal, I assure you. We'll see in the near future," he added.
Scotland Yard and the UK's Crown Prosecution Service have said there is enough evidence to charge the men, who are understood to have travelled to London from Moscow on 2 March on Russian passports.
Two days later, police say they sprayed the nerve agent, Novichok, on the front door of Mr Skripal's home in the Wiltshire city of Salisbury, before travelling home to Russia later that day.
UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid has warned the men, thought to be aged about 40, will be caught and prosecuted if they ever step out of Russia.
The CPS is not applying to Russia for the extradition of the two men, as Russia does not extradite its own nationals.
But a European Arrest Warrant has been obtained in case they travel to the EU.
On the Novichok suspects' trail
Det Sgt Nick Bailey also fell ill after responding to the incident in the city of Salisbury. He was later discharged from hospital, as were the Skripals.
Police are linking the attack to a separate Novichok poisoning on 30 June, when Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley became unwell at a house in Amesbury, about eight miles away.
Ms Sturgess died in hospital on 8 July.
Mr Putin said his government had found the pair and hoped they would appear soon and tell their story
UK police said the two men arrived at Gatwick Airport from Moscow on 2 March and stayed at the City Stay Hotel in Bow Road, east London.
On 4 March they travelled to Salisbury - having also visited for reconnaissance the previous day - where Mr Skripal's front door was contaminated with Novichok.
Officers believe a modified perfume bottle was used to spray the door.
The pair flew back to Moscow from Heathrow later that night.
The counterfeit perfume bottle recovered from Mr Rowley's home and the box police say it came in.
Police said Ms Sturgess and Mr Rowley were later exposed to Novichok after handling a contaminated container, labelled as Nina Ricci Premier Jour perfume.
Mr Rowley told police he found the box containing the small bottle and an applicator - all found to be counterfeit - in a charity bin.
He tried to put bottle and applicator together and got some of the contents on himself. His partner, Ms Sturgess, applied some of the contents to her wrists and became unwell.
The attack in Salisbury prompted an international row, with more than 20 countries expelling Russian envoys in solidarity with the UK, including the US, while Moscow expelled diplomats in response.
Last month the US confirmed it was implementing fresh sanctions against Russia over the incident. The UK's Prime Minister, Theresa May, has also said Britain will push for the EU to agree new sanctions.
Since the UK named the two suspects, US, France, Germany and Canada have agreed that the Russian government "almost certainly" approved the poisoning of the Skripals and have urged Russia to provide full disclosure of its Novichok programme.
In response, Russia accused the British authorities of "Russiaphobia", misleading the international community and UK citizens and of "disgusting anti-Russian hysteria".
Skripal poisoning: Putin says suspects 'civilians, not criminals'
President Vladimir Putin says the suspects are civilians
The two suspects in the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter are civilians, not criminals, Russian President Vladimir Putin says.
The UK government named them as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, and said they were from Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU.
Mr Putin said his government had found the pair and he hoped they would appear soon and tell their story.
Mr Skripal and Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury, in the UK, in March.
"We know who they are, we have found them," Mr Putin said in the far eastern city of Vladivostok.
"I hope they will turn up themselves and tell everything. This would be best for everyone. There is nothing special there, nothing criminal, I assure you. We'll see in the near future," he added.
Scotland Yard and the UK's Crown Prosecution Service have said there is enough evidence to charge the men, who are understood to have travelled to London from Moscow on 2 March on Russian passports.
Two days later, police say they sprayed the nerve agent, Novichok, on the front door of Mr Skripal's home in the Wiltshire city of Salisbury, before travelling home to Russia later that day.
UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid has warned the men, thought to be aged about 40, will be caught and prosecuted if they ever step out of Russia.
The CPS is not applying to Russia for the extradition of the two men, as Russia does not extradite its own nationals.
But a European Arrest Warrant has been obtained in case they travel to the EU.
On the Novichok suspects' trail
Det Sgt Nick Bailey also fell ill after responding to the incident in the city of Salisbury. He was later discharged from hospital, as were the Skripals.
Police are linking the attack to a separate Novichok poisoning on 30 June, when Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley became unwell at a house in Amesbury, about eight miles away.
Ms Sturgess died in hospital on 8 July.
Mr Putin said his government had found the pair and hoped they would appear soon and tell their story
UK police said the two men arrived at Gatwick Airport from Moscow on 2 March and stayed at the City Stay Hotel in Bow Road, east London.
On 4 March they travelled to Salisbury - having also visited for reconnaissance the previous day - where Mr Skripal's front door was contaminated with Novichok.
Officers believe a modified perfume bottle was used to spray the door.
The pair flew back to Moscow from Heathrow later that night.
The counterfeit perfume bottle recovered from Mr Rowley's home and the box police say it came in.
Police said Ms Sturgess and Mr Rowley were later exposed to Novichok after handling a contaminated container, labelled as Nina Ricci Premier Jour perfume.
Mr Rowley told police he found the box containing the small bottle and an applicator - all found to be counterfeit - in a charity bin.
He tried to put bottle and applicator together and got some of the contents on himself. His partner, Ms Sturgess, applied some of the contents to her wrists and became unwell.
The attack in Salisbury prompted an international row, with more than 20 countries expelling Russian envoys in solidarity with the UK, including the US, while Moscow expelled diplomats in response.
Last month the US confirmed it was implementing fresh sanctions against Russia over the incident. The UK's Prime Minister, Theresa May, has also said Britain will push for the EU to agree new sanctions.
Since the UK named the two suspects, US, France, Germany and Canada have agreed that the Russian government "almost certainly" approved the poisoning of the Skripals and have urged Russia to provide full disclosure of its Novichok programme.
In response, Russia accused the British authorities of "Russiaphobia", misleading the international community and UK citizens and of "disgusting anti-Russian hysteria".
John Bolton threatens ICC with sanctions: 'We will not cooperate' - Al Jazeera
Sept. 11, 2018.
John Bolton threatens ICC with sanctions: 'We will not cooperate'
National security adviser says Washington will target International Criminal Court if it probes alleged US war crimes.
The United States launched a blistering verbal attack on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and threatened sanctions against its judges if they proceed with a probe into alleged war crimes by Americans in Afghanistan.
John Bolton, President Donald Trump's national security adviser, made the announcement in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative group, in Washington, DC, on Monday.
"Today, on the eve of September 11th, I want to deliver a clear and unambiguous message on behalf of the president. The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court," Bolton said.
"We will not cooperate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC ... We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us."
Crimes in Afghanistan?
In 2016, The Hague-based court said members of the US armed forces and the CIA might have committed war crimes by torturing detainees in Afghanistan.
Is the 'war on terror' failing?
Established in 2002 under the Rome Statute, the ICC is the world's first permanent court set up to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
More than 120 countries are members, but superpowers - including the US, Russia and China - have not signed up.
On the ICC, Bolton said if any investigations go ahead on alleged US war crimes, the Trump administration will consider banning judges and prosecutors from entering the country, put sanctions on any funds they have in the US financial system, and prosecute them in US courts.
Bolton said the main objection is the idea that the ICC could have higher authority than the US constitution and US sovereignty.
"In secular terms, we don't recognise any higher authority than the US constitution," he said. "This president will not allow American citizens to be prosecuted by foreign bureaucrats, and he will not allow other nations to dictate our means of self-defence."
'Proudest achievements'
Trump administration announces closure of Washington PLO office
It was Bolton's first major address since joining the Trump administration. He was previously the US ambassador to the United Nations during the George W Bush government and fought against the ICC in the 2000s.
"The International Criminal Court constituted an assault on the constitutional rights of the American people and the sovereignty of the United States," he said.
"At President Bush's direction, we next launched a global diplomatic campaign to protect Americans from being delivered into the ICC's hands. We negotiated about 100 binding, bilateral agreements to prevent other countries from delivering US personnel to the ICC. It remains one of my proudest achievements."
Bolton said the US would "not sit quietly" if the ICC came after it, Israel, or other US allies.
Can the US defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan?
Following Bolton's remarks, the ICC said that would continue its work as an independent and impartial institution, backed by 123 countries.
"The ICC, as a court of law, will continue to do its work undeterred, in accordance with those principles and the overarching idea of the rule of law," it said in a statement.
Bolton also announced the closure of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington, DC, because of the Palestinian attempt to get the ICC to investigate Israel for crimes committed during its decades-long occupation of Palestine.
The national security adviser's announcement drew applause from the conservative crowd but was sharply criticised by Palestinian leaders and officials.
The action against the PLO is the latest in a series of measures by the Trump administration against the Palestinian leadership.
"It is a declaration of war on efforts to bring peace to our country and the region," PA spokesman Yousef al-Mahmoud was quoted as saying by Wafa news agency.
PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat said in a statement the decision was "yet another affirmation of the Trump administration's policy to collectively punish the Palestinian people, including by cutting financial support for humanitarian services including health and education".
A Palestinian academic based in the Swiss city of Geneva said the US move "should not come as a surprise".
"This is an additional measure that must make it very clear to the current and future Palestinian leaders that the US is not an actor to be ever trusted when it comes to any matter related to "peace" negotiation and talks. This is obvious to the Palestinian people, but not to the PA/PLO leadership," said Alaa Tartir, programme adviser at Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network.
"Trump's recent measures against the Palestinians and indeed against international norms and law must awaken the Palestinian leadership."
John Bolton threatens ICC with sanctions: 'We will not cooperate'
National security adviser says Washington will target International Criminal Court if it probes alleged US war crimes.
The United States launched a blistering verbal attack on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and threatened sanctions against its judges if they proceed with a probe into alleged war crimes by Americans in Afghanistan.
John Bolton, President Donald Trump's national security adviser, made the announcement in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative group, in Washington, DC, on Monday.
"Today, on the eve of September 11th, I want to deliver a clear and unambiguous message on behalf of the president. The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court," Bolton said.
"We will not cooperate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC ... We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us."
Crimes in Afghanistan?
In 2016, The Hague-based court said members of the US armed forces and the CIA might have committed war crimes by torturing detainees in Afghanistan.
Is the 'war on terror' failing?
Established in 2002 under the Rome Statute, the ICC is the world's first permanent court set up to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
More than 120 countries are members, but superpowers - including the US, Russia and China - have not signed up.
On the ICC, Bolton said if any investigations go ahead on alleged US war crimes, the Trump administration will consider banning judges and prosecutors from entering the country, put sanctions on any funds they have in the US financial system, and prosecute them in US courts.
Bolton said the main objection is the idea that the ICC could have higher authority than the US constitution and US sovereignty.
"In secular terms, we don't recognise any higher authority than the US constitution," he said. "This president will not allow American citizens to be prosecuted by foreign bureaucrats, and he will not allow other nations to dictate our means of self-defence."
'Proudest achievements'
Trump administration announces closure of Washington PLO office
It was Bolton's first major address since joining the Trump administration. He was previously the US ambassador to the United Nations during the George W Bush government and fought against the ICC in the 2000s.
"The International Criminal Court constituted an assault on the constitutional rights of the American people and the sovereignty of the United States," he said.
"At President Bush's direction, we next launched a global diplomatic campaign to protect Americans from being delivered into the ICC's hands. We negotiated about 100 binding, bilateral agreements to prevent other countries from delivering US personnel to the ICC. It remains one of my proudest achievements."
Bolton said the US would "not sit quietly" if the ICC came after it, Israel, or other US allies.
Can the US defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan?
Following Bolton's remarks, the ICC said that would continue its work as an independent and impartial institution, backed by 123 countries.
"The ICC, as a court of law, will continue to do its work undeterred, in accordance with those principles and the overarching idea of the rule of law," it said in a statement.
Bolton also announced the closure of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington, DC, because of the Palestinian attempt to get the ICC to investigate Israel for crimes committed during its decades-long occupation of Palestine.
The national security adviser's announcement drew applause from the conservative crowd but was sharply criticised by Palestinian leaders and officials.
The action against the PLO is the latest in a series of measures by the Trump administration against the Palestinian leadership.
"It is a declaration of war on efforts to bring peace to our country and the region," PA spokesman Yousef al-Mahmoud was quoted as saying by Wafa news agency.
PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat said in a statement the decision was "yet another affirmation of the Trump administration's policy to collectively punish the Palestinian people, including by cutting financial support for humanitarian services including health and education".
A Palestinian academic based in the Swiss city of Geneva said the US move "should not come as a surprise".
"This is an additional measure that must make it very clear to the current and future Palestinian leaders that the US is not an actor to be ever trusted when it comes to any matter related to "peace" negotiation and talks. This is obvious to the Palestinian people, but not to the PA/PLO leadership," said Alaa Tartir, programme adviser at Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network.
"Trump's recent measures against the Palestinians and indeed against international norms and law must awaken the Palestinian leadership."
Brexit is a project by the elites, for the elites – the rest of us were never meant to benefit from it - Independent
Sept. 11, 2018.
Brexit is a project by the elites, for the elites – the rest of us were never meant to benefit from it
Of the many Brexit cons, few are greater than the idea that this is a fight for the people
Chuka Umunna
@chukaumunna
Jacob Rees-Mogg’s City investment firm shifted money to Ireland amid concerns about being cut off from European investors; Lord Lawson is seeking residency in France; and Johnson sacked off trying to deliver what he argued for
Trump calls his response to Hurricane Maria 'incredibly successful'
Rebel Tory meeting to discuss ousting May dismissed as 'loose talk'
Trump transferred money from emergency relief to fund ICE
EU can 'certainly not' accept May's single market plan, Juncker says
In the past few days, Boris Johnson and his band of Brexiteer supporters have steadfastly refused to accept any responsibility for the unfolding chaos they have visited upon Britain, blaming everyone else but themselves. In his Mail on Sunday piece yesterday, without any sense of irony, the former foreign secretary asked: “Why are they bullying us? How can they get away with it? It is one of the mysteries of the current Brexit negotiations that the UK is so utterly feeble.”
Some in his party argue he and the 80-odd rabid Brexit champions in his party are trying to “bully” Theresa May into accepting the hardest of Brexits – something that cannot command a majority in the House of Commons.
It’s unclear how the EU can have bullied the UK since the negotiations started last June, when they had no idea what the UK government’s position was and are still unsure what the line is. The reason the Chequers summit was convened early in the summer was because this “utterly feeble” excuse for a government (in Johnson’s own words) could not agree with itself what its Brexit position should be, never mind agree anything with the EU.
Even then, the Chequers proposals prompted ex-Brexit secretary David Davis and Johnson to resign. Now former Brexit minister Steve Baker is today saying the issue will split the Tory party – in other words, there is still no common position. Perhaps that’s because, behind all the bluster, every single one of them knows how much of a disaster Britain is hurtling towards.
In June 2016, Johnson said in his Telegraph column after the Brexit vote that “we can survive and thrive as never before” and that “at home and abroad, the negative consequences are being wildly overdone, and the upside is being ignored”. That was his patter before he took to comparing Muslim women to letterboxes and bank robbers, and before he indulged in making grotesque comparisons between suicide bombs and the actions of his prime minister.
Johnson’s chat is straight out of the playbook of Nigel Farage. We know that where Farage goes, Johnson follows. So, a few days before Johnson’s piece had appeared in 2016, Farage had said of Brexit on the Andrew Marr Show that “the worst case scenario economically is better than where we are today and gives us the chance to start thinking globally, and, by the way, bringing prices down for consumers”.
And what has happened to these predictions of Britain’s Brexit elite since the 2016 vote, bearing in mind we have not even left yet?
According to the Bank of England, the average family is now £900 a year worse off. As the governor Mark Carney said: “If you look at where the economy is today, relative to that forecast, it’s more than 1 per cent below where it was despite very large stimulus provided by the Bank of England, a fiscal easing by the government and global and European economies.” No wonder Jacob Rees-Mogg, chair of the hard-right European Research Group group of Tory MPs, is campaigning for Carney’s removal.
This may be peanuts to the Brexit elite leading the charge off the cliff-edge. But it is a huge amount of money to the “just about managing” families May said would always come ahead of the “privileged few”. And the Brexit this privileged few are pushing for will make those families even poorer.
Whether you voted Leave or Remain, nobody said it would be like this and no one voted for the chaos and incompetence on the British side of the negotiating table.
It gets worse, particularly if you belong to one of Britain’s ethnic minority communities. Yes, they have experienced the same economic fallout and see the damage felt by our public services. But our different diverse communities have felt something that we thought we would not have to live through again, certainly not in the same way as the first generation who arrived here decades ago like my father: the normalisation of the hatred that this Brexit debate has unleashed.
In Britain, the level of hate crime committed rose by 49 per cent in the weeks following the referendum. This is now backed by a substantial body of academic research showing that the referendum materially increased hate crime in this country during and after it occurred. The UN’s committee on the elimination of racial discrimination concluded that “British politicians helped fuel a steep rise in racist hate crimes during and after the EU referendum campaign”.
In the evidence they gave to the cross party Home Affairs Committee, anti-hate pressure group Hope Not Hate identified Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and the campaigns of which they were a part for carrying a heavy responsibility for creating the environment in which this happened. In his exchange with me during the committee’s public evidence sessions on this in 2017, Nick Lowles, Hope Note Hate’s director, said: “I think that across the board there was a deliberate attempt to raise issues around such things as the Turkish passport. There were Boris Johnson’s comments on Obama. Those things all contributed to an atmosphere where fact and reality in a way did not matter. It was all about emotion. It was all about trying to polarise the public identity.” I could not put it better myself.
As a result, a small unpleasant minority felt licenced to engage in and vocalise hate due to the disgraceful nature of the Leave campaigns. Stoking hatred and division will be part of their appalling legacy: our BAME communities have already paid the price and are still doing so.
Stockpiling will make post-Brexit mini recession ‘almost inevitable’
Instead of taking responsibility for it, what have the Brexit elite been doing while the disaster unfolds? Rees-Mogg’s City investment firm has shifted money to Ireland amid concerns about being cut off from European investors. Lord Lawson is seeking residency in France. Farage has built up a lucrative second career as a broadcaster off the back of Brexit. And Johnson sacked off trying to deliver what he argued for, resigned as foreign secretary and has gone back to his previously £275,000 a year column-writing. He is more concerned with himself and the Tory party leadership than the country.
So, of the many Brexit cons, few are greater than the idea that this is a fight for the people against the elite. It is now beyond doubt: Brexit is a project of the elite, for the elite – and we need to ensure everyone knows this before it’s too late.
Drinking in moderation
Last week my wife and I watched possibly one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a long time, Drinkers Like Me, where the broadcaster Adrian Chiles takes a long hard look at his own drinking habits. It is intimate and funny, and yet alarming and worrying.
We can all recognise in Chiles our own habits and excuses when it comes to excess alcohol consumption, myself included. So compelling was the programme that it prompted me to download the Drink Aware app afterwards to monitor my own consumption, in an effort to reduce my own intake. Do watch the programme and why not download the app yourself here.
Drink Aware has also today launched, with Public Health England, their Drink Free Days campaign, to encourage us all to have regular alcohol-free days every week – I’m giving that a go too. I’ll let you know how I get on. Chiles has definitely done us a favour in candidly sharing his own habits, prompting us all to consider the damage we might be doing to ourselves through what we consider every day “moderate” drinking which might be anything but.
Chuka Umunna is Labour MP for Streatham
Brexit is a project by the elites, for the elites – the rest of us were never meant to benefit from it
Of the many Brexit cons, few are greater than the idea that this is a fight for the people
Chuka Umunna
@chukaumunna
Jacob Rees-Mogg’s City investment firm shifted money to Ireland amid concerns about being cut off from European investors; Lord Lawson is seeking residency in France; and Johnson sacked off trying to deliver what he argued for
Trump calls his response to Hurricane Maria 'incredibly successful'
Rebel Tory meeting to discuss ousting May dismissed as 'loose talk'
Trump transferred money from emergency relief to fund ICE
EU can 'certainly not' accept May's single market plan, Juncker says
In the past few days, Boris Johnson and his band of Brexiteer supporters have steadfastly refused to accept any responsibility for the unfolding chaos they have visited upon Britain, blaming everyone else but themselves. In his Mail on Sunday piece yesterday, without any sense of irony, the former foreign secretary asked: “Why are they bullying us? How can they get away with it? It is one of the mysteries of the current Brexit negotiations that the UK is so utterly feeble.”
Some in his party argue he and the 80-odd rabid Brexit champions in his party are trying to “bully” Theresa May into accepting the hardest of Brexits – something that cannot command a majority in the House of Commons.
It’s unclear how the EU can have bullied the UK since the negotiations started last June, when they had no idea what the UK government’s position was and are still unsure what the line is. The reason the Chequers summit was convened early in the summer was because this “utterly feeble” excuse for a government (in Johnson’s own words) could not agree with itself what its Brexit position should be, never mind agree anything with the EU.
Even then, the Chequers proposals prompted ex-Brexit secretary David Davis and Johnson to resign. Now former Brexit minister Steve Baker is today saying the issue will split the Tory party – in other words, there is still no common position. Perhaps that’s because, behind all the bluster, every single one of them knows how much of a disaster Britain is hurtling towards.
In June 2016, Johnson said in his Telegraph column after the Brexit vote that “we can survive and thrive as never before” and that “at home and abroad, the negative consequences are being wildly overdone, and the upside is being ignored”. That was his patter before he took to comparing Muslim women to letterboxes and bank robbers, and before he indulged in making grotesque comparisons between suicide bombs and the actions of his prime minister.
Johnson’s chat is straight out of the playbook of Nigel Farage. We know that where Farage goes, Johnson follows. So, a few days before Johnson’s piece had appeared in 2016, Farage had said of Brexit on the Andrew Marr Show that “the worst case scenario economically is better than where we are today and gives us the chance to start thinking globally, and, by the way, bringing prices down for consumers”.
And what has happened to these predictions of Britain’s Brexit elite since the 2016 vote, bearing in mind we have not even left yet?
According to the Bank of England, the average family is now £900 a year worse off. As the governor Mark Carney said: “If you look at where the economy is today, relative to that forecast, it’s more than 1 per cent below where it was despite very large stimulus provided by the Bank of England, a fiscal easing by the government and global and European economies.” No wonder Jacob Rees-Mogg, chair of the hard-right European Research Group group of Tory MPs, is campaigning for Carney’s removal.
This may be peanuts to the Brexit elite leading the charge off the cliff-edge. But it is a huge amount of money to the “just about managing” families May said would always come ahead of the “privileged few”. And the Brexit this privileged few are pushing for will make those families even poorer.
Whether you voted Leave or Remain, nobody said it would be like this and no one voted for the chaos and incompetence on the British side of the negotiating table.
It gets worse, particularly if you belong to one of Britain’s ethnic minority communities. Yes, they have experienced the same economic fallout and see the damage felt by our public services. But our different diverse communities have felt something that we thought we would not have to live through again, certainly not in the same way as the first generation who arrived here decades ago like my father: the normalisation of the hatred that this Brexit debate has unleashed.
In Britain, the level of hate crime committed rose by 49 per cent in the weeks following the referendum. This is now backed by a substantial body of academic research showing that the referendum materially increased hate crime in this country during and after it occurred. The UN’s committee on the elimination of racial discrimination concluded that “British politicians helped fuel a steep rise in racist hate crimes during and after the EU referendum campaign”.
In the evidence they gave to the cross party Home Affairs Committee, anti-hate pressure group Hope Not Hate identified Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and the campaigns of which they were a part for carrying a heavy responsibility for creating the environment in which this happened. In his exchange with me during the committee’s public evidence sessions on this in 2017, Nick Lowles, Hope Note Hate’s director, said: “I think that across the board there was a deliberate attempt to raise issues around such things as the Turkish passport. There were Boris Johnson’s comments on Obama. Those things all contributed to an atmosphere where fact and reality in a way did not matter. It was all about emotion. It was all about trying to polarise the public identity.” I could not put it better myself.
As a result, a small unpleasant minority felt licenced to engage in and vocalise hate due to the disgraceful nature of the Leave campaigns. Stoking hatred and division will be part of their appalling legacy: our BAME communities have already paid the price and are still doing so.
Stockpiling will make post-Brexit mini recession ‘almost inevitable’
Instead of taking responsibility for it, what have the Brexit elite been doing while the disaster unfolds? Rees-Mogg’s City investment firm has shifted money to Ireland amid concerns about being cut off from European investors. Lord Lawson is seeking residency in France. Farage has built up a lucrative second career as a broadcaster off the back of Brexit. And Johnson sacked off trying to deliver what he argued for, resigned as foreign secretary and has gone back to his previously £275,000 a year column-writing. He is more concerned with himself and the Tory party leadership than the country.
So, of the many Brexit cons, few are greater than the idea that this is a fight for the people against the elite. It is now beyond doubt: Brexit is a project of the elite, for the elite – and we need to ensure everyone knows this before it’s too late.
Drinking in moderation
Last week my wife and I watched possibly one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a long time, Drinkers Like Me, where the broadcaster Adrian Chiles takes a long hard look at his own drinking habits. It is intimate and funny, and yet alarming and worrying.
We can all recognise in Chiles our own habits and excuses when it comes to excess alcohol consumption, myself included. So compelling was the programme that it prompted me to download the Drink Aware app afterwards to monitor my own consumption, in an effort to reduce my own intake. Do watch the programme and why not download the app yourself here.
Drink Aware has also today launched, with Public Health England, their Drink Free Days campaign, to encourage us all to have regular alcohol-free days every week – I’m giving that a go too. I’ll let you know how I get on. Chiles has definitely done us a favour in candidly sharing his own habits, prompting us all to consider the damage we might be doing to ourselves through what we consider every day “moderate” drinking which might be anything but.
Chuka Umunna is Labour MP for Streatham
The secret life of fungi: Ten fascinating facts - BBC News
The secret life of fungi: Ten fascinating facts
By Helen Briggs
BBC News
12 September 2018
Fungi come in all shapes and sizes
They're all around us, in the soil, our bodies and the air, but are often too small to be seen with the naked eye.
They provide medicines and food but also wreak havoc by causing plant and animal diseases.
According to the first big assessment of the state of the world's fungi, the fungal kingdom is vital to life on Earth.
Yet, more than 90% of the estimated 3.8 million fungi in the world are currently unknown to science.
"It's such an interesting set of organisms and we really know so little about them," says Prof Kathy Willis, director of science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which led the report.
"They're really weird organisms with the most bizarre life cycle. And yet when you understand their role in the Earth's ecosystem, you realise that they underpin life on Earth."
China is rich in fungal resources
Many people are familiar with edible mushrooms or the mould behind penicillin. But fungi have a range of vital roles, from helping plants draw water and nutrients from the soil to medicines that can lower blood cholesterol or enable organ transplants.
Fungi also hold promise for breaking down plastics and generating new types of biofuels. But they have a darker side: devastating trees, crops and other plants across the world, and wiping out animals such as amphibians.
Jekyll and Hyde
Dr Ester Gaya, who leads a research project at Kew exploring the diversity and evolution of the world's fungi, says fungi are a bit like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
"They can be good and also bad at the same time," she says. "The same fungus, it can be seen as a detrimental thing - it can be bad - but also can have a lot of potential and have a lot of solutions."
The report sheds light on a number of gaps in our knowledge of a group of organisms that may hold the answers to food security. The fungal kingdom contains some of the most damaging crop pathogens. But fungi also recycle nutrients and play a role in the regulation of carbon dioxide levels.
"We ignore fungi at our peril," says Prof Willis. "This is a kingdom we have to start to take seriously, especially with climate change and all the other challenges that we're being faced with."
There are hundreds of types of edible mushroom
Fascinating facts about fungi
Fungi are in a kingdom of their own but are closer to animals than plants
They have chemicals in their cell walls shared with lobsters and crabs
A fungus has been discovered capable of breaking down plastics in weeks rather than years
There is evidence to suggest that yeasts - a type of fungus - were being used to produce the alcoholic drink mead as long ago as 9,000 years ago
At least 350 species are consumed as foods including truffles, which can sell for thousands of dollars apiece, quorn, and those in marmite and cheese
Plastic car parts, synthetic rubber and lego are made using itaconic acid derived from a fungus
216 species of fungi are thought to be hallucinogenic
Fungi are being used to turn crop waste into bioethanol
Products made from fungi can be used as replacements for polystyrene foam, leather and building materials
DNA studies show that there are thousands of different fungi in a single sample of soil, many of which are unknown and hidden - so-called "dark taxa"
Penicillin alone has multiple uses - in antibiotics, the contraceptive pill and cheese production
The report, State of the World's Fungi, involved over 100 scientists from 18 countries. It found:
More than 2,000 new fungi are discovered each year, from a variety of sources, including a human fingernail
Hundreds of species are collected and eaten as food, with the global market for edible mushrooms worth £32.5bn a year
Only 56 types of fungi have been evaluated for the IUCN Red List, compared with more than 25,000 plants and 68,000 animals
Fungi, such as this rust pest, can cause widespread damage
At the last count, there were at least 15,000 types of fungi in the UK, some of which could be on the edge of extinction.
Citizen scientists are helping to identify fungi across the country, adding to a database of more than 1,000 new records.
Dr Brian Douglas of The Lost and Found Fungi Project says fungi are as beautiful as orchids and just as important to protect. "I think we need to teach people, invite people in to admiring fungi."
Colleague Dr Oliver Ellingham adds. "Fungi is a whole another kingdom equal if not greater than in diversity than both the plants and animals."
By Helen Briggs
BBC News
12 September 2018
Fungi come in all shapes and sizes
They're all around us, in the soil, our bodies and the air, but are often too small to be seen with the naked eye.
They provide medicines and food but also wreak havoc by causing plant and animal diseases.
According to the first big assessment of the state of the world's fungi, the fungal kingdom is vital to life on Earth.
Yet, more than 90% of the estimated 3.8 million fungi in the world are currently unknown to science.
"It's such an interesting set of organisms and we really know so little about them," says Prof Kathy Willis, director of science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which led the report.
"They're really weird organisms with the most bizarre life cycle. And yet when you understand their role in the Earth's ecosystem, you realise that they underpin life on Earth."
China is rich in fungal resources
Many people are familiar with edible mushrooms or the mould behind penicillin. But fungi have a range of vital roles, from helping plants draw water and nutrients from the soil to medicines that can lower blood cholesterol or enable organ transplants.
Fungi also hold promise for breaking down plastics and generating new types of biofuels. But they have a darker side: devastating trees, crops and other plants across the world, and wiping out animals such as amphibians.
Jekyll and Hyde
Dr Ester Gaya, who leads a research project at Kew exploring the diversity and evolution of the world's fungi, says fungi are a bit like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
"They can be good and also bad at the same time," she says. "The same fungus, it can be seen as a detrimental thing - it can be bad - but also can have a lot of potential and have a lot of solutions."
The report sheds light on a number of gaps in our knowledge of a group of organisms that may hold the answers to food security. The fungal kingdom contains some of the most damaging crop pathogens. But fungi also recycle nutrients and play a role in the regulation of carbon dioxide levels.
"We ignore fungi at our peril," says Prof Willis. "This is a kingdom we have to start to take seriously, especially with climate change and all the other challenges that we're being faced with."
There are hundreds of types of edible mushroom
Fascinating facts about fungi
Fungi are in a kingdom of their own but are closer to animals than plants
They have chemicals in their cell walls shared with lobsters and crabs
A fungus has been discovered capable of breaking down plastics in weeks rather than years
There is evidence to suggest that yeasts - a type of fungus - were being used to produce the alcoholic drink mead as long ago as 9,000 years ago
At least 350 species are consumed as foods including truffles, which can sell for thousands of dollars apiece, quorn, and those in marmite and cheese
Plastic car parts, synthetic rubber and lego are made using itaconic acid derived from a fungus
216 species of fungi are thought to be hallucinogenic
Fungi are being used to turn crop waste into bioethanol
Products made from fungi can be used as replacements for polystyrene foam, leather and building materials
DNA studies show that there are thousands of different fungi in a single sample of soil, many of which are unknown and hidden - so-called "dark taxa"
Penicillin alone has multiple uses - in antibiotics, the contraceptive pill and cheese production
The report, State of the World's Fungi, involved over 100 scientists from 18 countries. It found:
More than 2,000 new fungi are discovered each year, from a variety of sources, including a human fingernail
Hundreds of species are collected and eaten as food, with the global market for edible mushrooms worth £32.5bn a year
Only 56 types of fungi have been evaluated for the IUCN Red List, compared with more than 25,000 plants and 68,000 animals
Fungi, such as this rust pest, can cause widespread damage
At the last count, there were at least 15,000 types of fungi in the UK, some of which could be on the edge of extinction.
Citizen scientists are helping to identify fungi across the country, adding to a database of more than 1,000 new records.
Dr Brian Douglas of The Lost and Found Fungi Project says fungi are as beautiful as orchids and just as important to protect. "I think we need to teach people, invite people in to admiring fungi."
Colleague Dr Oliver Ellingham adds. "Fungi is a whole another kingdom equal if not greater than in diversity than both the plants and animals."
How Facebook 'became a beast' in Myanmar - BBC News
Sept. 12, 2018.
How Facebook 'became a beast' in Myanmar
More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar
Decades of ethnic and religious tensions, a sudden explosion of internet access, and a company that had trouble identifying and removing the most hateful posts.
It all added up to a perfect storm in Myanmar, where the United Nations says Facebook had a "determining role" in whipping up anger against the Rohingya minority.
"I'm afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended," Yanghee Lee, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said in March.
The company admits failures and has moved to address the problems. But how did Facebook's dream of a more open and connected world go wrong in one south-east Asian country?
Enter Facebook
"Nowadays, everyone can use the internet," says Thet Swei Win, director of Synergy, an organisation that works to promote social harmony between ethnic groups in Myanmar.
That wasn't the case in Myanmar five years ago.
Outside influence had been kept to a minimum during the decades when the military dominated the country. But with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, and her election as Myanmar's de facto leader, the government began to liberalise business - including, crucially, the telecoms sector.
You may also be interested in:
Is refugee crisis 'textbook ethnic cleansing'?
Genocide hate speech 'persists on Facebook'
Blow by blow: How a 'genocide' was investigated
The effect was dramatic, according to Elizabeth Mearns of BBC Media Action, the BBC's international development charity.
"A SIM card was about $200 [before the changes]," she says. "In 2013, they opened up access to other telecom companies and the SIM cards dropped to $2. Suddenly it became incredibly accessible."
For many in Myanmar, Facebook is synonymous with the internet
And after they bought an inexpensive phone and a cheap SIM card, there was one app that everybody in Myanmar wanted: Facebook. The reason? Google and some of the other big online portals didn't support Burmese text, but Facebook did.
"People were immediately buying internet accessible smart phones and they wouldn't leave the shop unless the Facebook app had been downloaded onto their phones," Mearns says.
Thet Swei Win believes that because the bulk of the population had little prior internet experience, they were especially vulnerable to propaganda and misinformation.
"We have no internet literacy," he told Trending. "We have no proper education on how to use the internet, how to filter the news, how to use the internet effectively. We did not have that kind of knowledge."
Ethnic tensions
Out of a population of about 50 million, around 18 million in Myanmar are regular Facebook users.
But Facebook and the telecoms companies which gave millions their first access to the internet do not appear to have been ready to grapple with the ethnic and religious tensions inside the country.
The enmity goes deep. Rohingyas are denied Burmese citizenship. Many in the Buddhist ruling class do not even consider them a distinct ethnic group - instead they refer to them as "Bengalis", a term that deliberately emphasises their separateness from the rest of the country.
Last year's military operation in the north-west Rakhine state was designed, the government says, to root out militants. It resulted in more than 700,000 people fleeing for neighbouring Bangladesh - something that the United Nations calls the world's fastest growing refugee crisis.
A UN report has said top military figures in Myanmar must be investigated for genocide in Rakhine state and crimes against humanity in other areas. But the government of Myanmar has rejected those allegations.
Facebook 'weaponised'
The combination of ethnic tensions and a booming social media market was toxic. Since the beginning of mass internet use in Myanmar, inflammatory posts against Rohingya have regularly appeared on Facebook,
Thet Swei Win said he was horrified by the anti-Rohingya material he has seen being shared. "Facebook is being weaponised," he told BBC Trending.
The BBC Trending podcast, from the BBC World Service
In August, a Reuters investigation found more than 1,000 Burmese posts, comments and pornographic images attacking the Rohingya and other Muslims.
"To be honest I thought we might find at best a couple of hundred examples I thought that would make the point," says Reuters investigative reporter Steve Stecklow, who worked with Burmese-speaking colleagues on the story.
Stecklow says some of the material was extremely violent and graphic.
"It was sickening to read and I had to keep saying to people 'Are you OK? Do you want to take a break?'"
Some posts on Facebook expressed the hope that fleeing Rohingya refugees would drown at sea
"When I sent it to Facebook, I put a warning on the email saying I just want you to know these are very disturbing things," he says. "What was so remarkable was that [some of] this had been on Facebook for five years and it wasn't until we notified them in August that it was removed."
Several of the posts catalogued by Stecklow and his team described Rohingyas as dogs or pigs.
"This is a way of dehumanising a group," Stecklow says. "Then when things like genocide happen, potentially there may not be a public uproar or outcry as people don't even view these people as people."
Lack of staff
The material that the Reuters team found clearly contravened Facebook's community guidelines, the rules that dictate what is and is not allowed on the platform. All of the posts were removed after the investigation, although the BBC has since found similar material still live on the site.
Has Aung San Suu Kyi turned her back on free press?
Suu Kyi 'should have resigned' on Rohingya
What will happen after UN's 'genocide' report?
'They problematic': The view from Yangon
So why did the social network fail to grasp how it was being used to spread propaganda?
One reason, according to Mearns, Stecklow and others, was that the company had difficulty with interpreting certain words.
For example, one particular racial slur - "kalar" - can be a highly derogatory term used against Muslims, or have a much more innocent meaning: "chickpea".
In 2017, Stecklow says, the company banned the term, but later revoked the ban because of the word's dual meaning.
There were also software problems which meant that many mobile phone users in Myanmar had difficulties reading Facebook's instructions for how to report worrying material.
But there was also a much more fundamental issue - the lack of Burmese-speaking content monitors. According to the Reuters report, the company had just one such employee in 2014, a number that had increased to four the following year.
The company now has 60 and hopes to have around 100 Burmese speakers by the end of this year.
Multiple warnings
Following the explosion in Facebook use in Myanmar, the company did receive multiple warnings from individuals about how the platform was being used to spread anti-Rohingya hate speech.
In 2013, Australian documentary maker Aela Callan raised concerns with a senior Facebook manager. The next year a doctoral student named Matt Schissler has a series of interactions with employees, which resulted in some content being removed.
And in 2015, tech entrepreneur David Madden travelled to Facebook's headquarters in California to give managers a presentation on how he had seen the platform used to stir up hate in Myanmar.
"They were warned so many times," Madden told Reuters. "It couldn't have been presented to them more clearly, and they didn't take the necessary steps."
Since last year, the company has taken some action. In August, Facebook removed 18 accounts and 52 pages linked to Burmese officials. One account on Instagram, which Facebook owns, was also closed. The company said it "found evidence that many of these individuals and organizations committed or enabled serious human rights abuses in the country."
How Facebook 'became a beast' in Myanmar
More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar
Decades of ethnic and religious tensions, a sudden explosion of internet access, and a company that had trouble identifying and removing the most hateful posts.
It all added up to a perfect storm in Myanmar, where the United Nations says Facebook had a "determining role" in whipping up anger against the Rohingya minority.
"I'm afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended," Yanghee Lee, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said in March.
The company admits failures and has moved to address the problems. But how did Facebook's dream of a more open and connected world go wrong in one south-east Asian country?
Enter Facebook
"Nowadays, everyone can use the internet," says Thet Swei Win, director of Synergy, an organisation that works to promote social harmony between ethnic groups in Myanmar.
That wasn't the case in Myanmar five years ago.
Outside influence had been kept to a minimum during the decades when the military dominated the country. But with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, and her election as Myanmar's de facto leader, the government began to liberalise business - including, crucially, the telecoms sector.
You may also be interested in:
Is refugee crisis 'textbook ethnic cleansing'?
Genocide hate speech 'persists on Facebook'
Blow by blow: How a 'genocide' was investigated
The effect was dramatic, according to Elizabeth Mearns of BBC Media Action, the BBC's international development charity.
"A SIM card was about $200 [before the changes]," she says. "In 2013, they opened up access to other telecom companies and the SIM cards dropped to $2. Suddenly it became incredibly accessible."
For many in Myanmar, Facebook is synonymous with the internet
And after they bought an inexpensive phone and a cheap SIM card, there was one app that everybody in Myanmar wanted: Facebook. The reason? Google and some of the other big online portals didn't support Burmese text, but Facebook did.
"People were immediately buying internet accessible smart phones and they wouldn't leave the shop unless the Facebook app had been downloaded onto their phones," Mearns says.
Thet Swei Win believes that because the bulk of the population had little prior internet experience, they were especially vulnerable to propaganda and misinformation.
"We have no internet literacy," he told Trending. "We have no proper education on how to use the internet, how to filter the news, how to use the internet effectively. We did not have that kind of knowledge."
Ethnic tensions
Out of a population of about 50 million, around 18 million in Myanmar are regular Facebook users.
But Facebook and the telecoms companies which gave millions their first access to the internet do not appear to have been ready to grapple with the ethnic and religious tensions inside the country.
The enmity goes deep. Rohingyas are denied Burmese citizenship. Many in the Buddhist ruling class do not even consider them a distinct ethnic group - instead they refer to them as "Bengalis", a term that deliberately emphasises their separateness from the rest of the country.
Last year's military operation in the north-west Rakhine state was designed, the government says, to root out militants. It resulted in more than 700,000 people fleeing for neighbouring Bangladesh - something that the United Nations calls the world's fastest growing refugee crisis.
A UN report has said top military figures in Myanmar must be investigated for genocide in Rakhine state and crimes against humanity in other areas. But the government of Myanmar has rejected those allegations.
Facebook 'weaponised'
The combination of ethnic tensions and a booming social media market was toxic. Since the beginning of mass internet use in Myanmar, inflammatory posts against Rohingya have regularly appeared on Facebook,
Thet Swei Win said he was horrified by the anti-Rohingya material he has seen being shared. "Facebook is being weaponised," he told BBC Trending.
The BBC Trending podcast, from the BBC World Service
In August, a Reuters investigation found more than 1,000 Burmese posts, comments and pornographic images attacking the Rohingya and other Muslims.
"To be honest I thought we might find at best a couple of hundred examples I thought that would make the point," says Reuters investigative reporter Steve Stecklow, who worked with Burmese-speaking colleagues on the story.
Stecklow says some of the material was extremely violent and graphic.
"It was sickening to read and I had to keep saying to people 'Are you OK? Do you want to take a break?'"
Some posts on Facebook expressed the hope that fleeing Rohingya refugees would drown at sea
"When I sent it to Facebook, I put a warning on the email saying I just want you to know these are very disturbing things," he says. "What was so remarkable was that [some of] this had been on Facebook for five years and it wasn't until we notified them in August that it was removed."
Several of the posts catalogued by Stecklow and his team described Rohingyas as dogs or pigs.
"This is a way of dehumanising a group," Stecklow says. "Then when things like genocide happen, potentially there may not be a public uproar or outcry as people don't even view these people as people."
Lack of staff
The material that the Reuters team found clearly contravened Facebook's community guidelines, the rules that dictate what is and is not allowed on the platform. All of the posts were removed after the investigation, although the BBC has since found similar material still live on the site.
Has Aung San Suu Kyi turned her back on free press?
Suu Kyi 'should have resigned' on Rohingya
What will happen after UN's 'genocide' report?
'They problematic': The view from Yangon
So why did the social network fail to grasp how it was being used to spread propaganda?
One reason, according to Mearns, Stecklow and others, was that the company had difficulty with interpreting certain words.
For example, one particular racial slur - "kalar" - can be a highly derogatory term used against Muslims, or have a much more innocent meaning: "chickpea".
In 2017, Stecklow says, the company banned the term, but later revoked the ban because of the word's dual meaning.
There were also software problems which meant that many mobile phone users in Myanmar had difficulties reading Facebook's instructions for how to report worrying material.
But there was also a much more fundamental issue - the lack of Burmese-speaking content monitors. According to the Reuters report, the company had just one such employee in 2014, a number that had increased to four the following year.
The company now has 60 and hopes to have around 100 Burmese speakers by the end of this year.
Multiple warnings
Following the explosion in Facebook use in Myanmar, the company did receive multiple warnings from individuals about how the platform was being used to spread anti-Rohingya hate speech.
In 2013, Australian documentary maker Aela Callan raised concerns with a senior Facebook manager. The next year a doctoral student named Matt Schissler has a series of interactions with employees, which resulted in some content being removed.
And in 2015, tech entrepreneur David Madden travelled to Facebook's headquarters in California to give managers a presentation on how he had seen the platform used to stir up hate in Myanmar.
"They were warned so many times," Madden told Reuters. "It couldn't have been presented to them more clearly, and they didn't take the necessary steps."
Since last year, the company has taken some action. In August, Facebook removed 18 accounts and 52 pages linked to Burmese officials. One account on Instagram, which Facebook owns, was also closed. The company said it "found evidence that many of these individuals and organizations committed or enabled serious human rights abuses in the country."
Trump's claim of success in Puerto Rico hurricane response derided - BBC News
Sept. 12, 2018.
Trump's claim of success in Puerto Rico hurricane response derided
Trump: Puerto Rico hurricane response an "unsung success"
President Donald Trump has been criticised for hailing the US response to the deadly Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico last year as "tremendous".
The mayor of its capital tweeted: "If he thinks the death of 3,000 people is a success God help us all."
Puerto Rico only finished restoring full power last month, 11 months after the hurricane hit.
A recent report says 8% left the island after the hurricane and many died due to poor health care and other services.
The island's Governor Ricardo Rossello issued a statement on Tuesday night, describing Maria as "the worst natural disaster in our modern history. Our basic infrastructure was devastated, thousands of our people lost their lives and many others still struggle".
Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the US, is home to some 3.3 million people.
What did the president say?
He was asked at the White House what lessons could be learned from Hurricane Maria as Hurricane Florence bears down on the Carolinas.
Maria, he said, was the "hardest one we had by far because of the island nature", adding: "I actually think it was one of the best jobs that's ever been done with respect to what this is all about.
Why Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico so hard
"The job that Fema [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] and law enforcement and everybody did working along with the governor in Puerto Rico, I think was tremendous. I think that Puerto Rico was an incredible, unsung success."
Mr Trump had said recently: "We have put billions and billions of dollars into Puerto Rico and it was a very tough one. I think most of the people in Puerto Rico really appreciate what we've done."
What has the response been to his latest comments?
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello said in a statement: "No relationship between a colony and the federal government can ever be called 'successful' because Puerto Ricans lack certain inalienable rights enjoyed by our fellow Americans in the states."
The mayor of the Puerto Rican capital San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz, a vocal critic of Mr Trump who earlier described his response to Maria as a "stain on his presidency", said his latest comment "added "insult to injury".
Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted: "Nearly 3,000 people died. That is not a 'success'. That is a tragedy and a disgrace."
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said: "This is an offensive, hurtful and blatantly false comment from the president."
Rosa A. Clemente
✔
@rosaclemente
Thank you .@angela_rye of course he would say that the US response in Puerto Rico was great. Tell that to the over 3000 + Puerto Ricans who lost their lives. What continues to happen in Puerto Rico is mass human rights violations. Puerto Rico Rising https://youtu.be/kK8aMLR6szc
6:15 AM - Sep 12, 2018
New York Democratic primary winner Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said: "Some of my [Puerto Rico] family just got power a few weeks ago. People are developing respiratory issues partly due to airborne fungal spores from lack of proper cleanup. The admin's response to Puerto Rico has been a disaster."
Some Trump supporters on social media accepted there had been failures but said the president had done all he could and that it was Puerto Rican officials who were to blame.
What happened in Hurricane Maria?
Maria made landfall in mid-September last year having just been downgraded to a category four hurricane, with winds of 140 mph (225 km/h) and driving rain.
It caused catastrophic damage to the north-eastern Caribbean and was the most intense cyclone worldwide in 2017.
Six graphics that sum up Puerto Rico disaster
Infrastructure was severely damaged in Puerto Rico and the territory struggled to make repairs to the power grid, only completing the work 11 months later.
Maria was estimated to have caused $100bn (£77bn) in damage.
For long the government there listed the death toll at only 64, although it acknowledged it was probably much higher.
The island's authorities finally accepted a revised toll of 2,975 after a government-commissioned report by experts from George Washington University.
This counted those who died in the six months following the storm as a result of poor healthcare and a lack of electricity and clean water. Repeated power cuts also led to an increased number of deaths from diabetes and sepsis.
The report said that those from poorer backgrounds in Puerto Rico were 45% more likely to have been killed in the aftermath of the hurricane.
Trump's claim of success in Puerto Rico hurricane response derided
Trump: Puerto Rico hurricane response an "unsung success"
President Donald Trump has been criticised for hailing the US response to the deadly Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico last year as "tremendous".
The mayor of its capital tweeted: "If he thinks the death of 3,000 people is a success God help us all."
Puerto Rico only finished restoring full power last month, 11 months after the hurricane hit.
A recent report says 8% left the island after the hurricane and many died due to poor health care and other services.
The island's Governor Ricardo Rossello issued a statement on Tuesday night, describing Maria as "the worst natural disaster in our modern history. Our basic infrastructure was devastated, thousands of our people lost their lives and many others still struggle".
Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the US, is home to some 3.3 million people.
What did the president say?
He was asked at the White House what lessons could be learned from Hurricane Maria as Hurricane Florence bears down on the Carolinas.
Maria, he said, was the "hardest one we had by far because of the island nature", adding: "I actually think it was one of the best jobs that's ever been done with respect to what this is all about.
Why Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico so hard
"The job that Fema [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] and law enforcement and everybody did working along with the governor in Puerto Rico, I think was tremendous. I think that Puerto Rico was an incredible, unsung success."
Mr Trump had said recently: "We have put billions and billions of dollars into Puerto Rico and it was a very tough one. I think most of the people in Puerto Rico really appreciate what we've done."
What has the response been to his latest comments?
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello said in a statement: "No relationship between a colony and the federal government can ever be called 'successful' because Puerto Ricans lack certain inalienable rights enjoyed by our fellow Americans in the states."
The mayor of the Puerto Rican capital San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz, a vocal critic of Mr Trump who earlier described his response to Maria as a "stain on his presidency", said his latest comment "added "insult to injury".
Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted: "Nearly 3,000 people died. That is not a 'success'. That is a tragedy and a disgrace."
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said: "This is an offensive, hurtful and blatantly false comment from the president."
Rosa A. Clemente
✔
@rosaclemente
Thank you .@angela_rye of course he would say that the US response in Puerto Rico was great. Tell that to the over 3000 + Puerto Ricans who lost their lives. What continues to happen in Puerto Rico is mass human rights violations. Puerto Rico Rising https://youtu.be/kK8aMLR6szc
6:15 AM - Sep 12, 2018
New York Democratic primary winner Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said: "Some of my [Puerto Rico] family just got power a few weeks ago. People are developing respiratory issues partly due to airborne fungal spores from lack of proper cleanup. The admin's response to Puerto Rico has been a disaster."
Some Trump supporters on social media accepted there had been failures but said the president had done all he could and that it was Puerto Rican officials who were to blame.
What happened in Hurricane Maria?
Maria made landfall in mid-September last year having just been downgraded to a category four hurricane, with winds of 140 mph (225 km/h) and driving rain.
It caused catastrophic damage to the north-eastern Caribbean and was the most intense cyclone worldwide in 2017.
Six graphics that sum up Puerto Rico disaster
Infrastructure was severely damaged in Puerto Rico and the territory struggled to make repairs to the power grid, only completing the work 11 months later.
Maria was estimated to have caused $100bn (£77bn) in damage.
For long the government there listed the death toll at only 64, although it acknowledged it was probably much higher.
The island's authorities finally accepted a revised toll of 2,975 after a government-commissioned report by experts from George Washington University.
This counted those who died in the six months following the storm as a result of poor healthcare and a lack of electricity and clean water. Repeated power cuts also led to an increased number of deaths from diabetes and sepsis.
The report said that those from poorer backgrounds in Puerto Rico were 45% more likely to have been killed in the aftermath of the hurricane.
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Pope should not resign, but church abuse tribunal needed: Bannon - Reuters
SEPTEMBER 9, 2018 / 8:46 PM / 2 DAYS AGO
Pope should not resign, but church abuse tribunal needed: Bannon
Crispian Balmer
ROME (Reuters) - Pope Francis should not resign over allegations he mishandled a sexual abuse scandal, said Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former political strategist who is close to prominent Catholic conservatives.
However, Bannon told Reuters he was working on setting up an independent, non-partisan tribunal to investigate decades of scandals within the U.S. Church, warning that dioceses across the country faced financial ruin because of the wrongdoing.
In a statement that stunned the church, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano said last month that Pope Francis should stand down for allegedly covering up for a former U.S. cardinal who was accused of sexually molesting children and adult seminarians.
Some media saw the hands of fierce conservative critics of Francis behind the unprecedented attack on a living pope, including U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, who is close to Bannon.
Burke told reporters in Rome last week that he was “deeply shaken” by Vigano’s accusations and called for an investigation. But Bannon, himself a Catholic, clearly distanced himself from Vigano, saying a papal resignation was not appropriate.
“This is as serious as it gets. We can’t have memos and letters and accusations. The pope is from an unbroken chain the Vicar of Christ on Earth. You don’t just sit there and say ‘I think you should resign’,” said Bannon during a visit to Rome.
Instead, he said an independent tribunal had to be created to look into every aspect of the multiplying scandals.
“Until we do that, I don’t think people should be snapping to judgments. This is so serious. This is an existential threat to the heart of the institution of the Catholic Church. It is not about doctrine or dogma of the Church,” he said.
“WITCHHUNT”
Pope Francis has refused to comment on Vigano’s attack, which was the latest blow to the credibility of the Church.
Last month, a grand jury in Pennsylvania released the findings of the largest-ever investigation of sex abuse in the U.S. Catholic Church, finding that 301 priests in the state had sexually abused minors over the past 70 years. Other U.S. states have also launched wide-ranging investigations of their own.
Bannon predicted the Church would have to pay millions of dollars in damages, compensation and legal fees. “You are going to see a tremendous financial liquidation of the Church over the next 10, 15 or 20 years predicated on this scandal,” he said.
Since his election in 2013, conservatives have sharply criticized Francis, saying he has left many faithful confused by pronouncements that the Church should be more welcoming to homosexuals and divorced Catholics and not be obsessed by “culture war” issues such as abortion.
During his time in Rome, Bannon met the head of Dignitatis Humanae Institute (DHI) — a conservative, Catholic-inspired group based in Italy that he supports.
He said he was in contact with “prominent people” in the United States to set up a tribunal and believed it was too important to leave the Church itself to review its failings.
“This has nothing to do with whether you are a liberal Catholic or right-wing traditionalist ... It can’t be seen as a political witchhunt.” he said.
Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Keith Weir
Pope should not resign, but church abuse tribunal needed: Bannon
Crispian Balmer
ROME (Reuters) - Pope Francis should not resign over allegations he mishandled a sexual abuse scandal, said Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former political strategist who is close to prominent Catholic conservatives.
However, Bannon told Reuters he was working on setting up an independent, non-partisan tribunal to investigate decades of scandals within the U.S. Church, warning that dioceses across the country faced financial ruin because of the wrongdoing.
In a statement that stunned the church, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano said last month that Pope Francis should stand down for allegedly covering up for a former U.S. cardinal who was accused of sexually molesting children and adult seminarians.
Some media saw the hands of fierce conservative critics of Francis behind the unprecedented attack on a living pope, including U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, who is close to Bannon.
Burke told reporters in Rome last week that he was “deeply shaken” by Vigano’s accusations and called for an investigation. But Bannon, himself a Catholic, clearly distanced himself from Vigano, saying a papal resignation was not appropriate.
“This is as serious as it gets. We can’t have memos and letters and accusations. The pope is from an unbroken chain the Vicar of Christ on Earth. You don’t just sit there and say ‘I think you should resign’,” said Bannon during a visit to Rome.
Instead, he said an independent tribunal had to be created to look into every aspect of the multiplying scandals.
“Until we do that, I don’t think people should be snapping to judgments. This is so serious. This is an existential threat to the heart of the institution of the Catholic Church. It is not about doctrine or dogma of the Church,” he said.
“WITCHHUNT”
Pope Francis has refused to comment on Vigano’s attack, which was the latest blow to the credibility of the Church.
Last month, a grand jury in Pennsylvania released the findings of the largest-ever investigation of sex abuse in the U.S. Catholic Church, finding that 301 priests in the state had sexually abused minors over the past 70 years. Other U.S. states have also launched wide-ranging investigations of their own.
Bannon predicted the Church would have to pay millions of dollars in damages, compensation and legal fees. “You are going to see a tremendous financial liquidation of the Church over the next 10, 15 or 20 years predicated on this scandal,” he said.
Since his election in 2013, conservatives have sharply criticized Francis, saying he has left many faithful confused by pronouncements that the Church should be more welcoming to homosexuals and divorced Catholics and not be obsessed by “culture war” issues such as abortion.
During his time in Rome, Bannon met the head of Dignitatis Humanae Institute (DHI) — a conservative, Catholic-inspired group based in Italy that he supports.
He said he was in contact with “prominent people” in the United States to set up a tribunal and believed it was too important to leave the Church itself to review its failings.
“This has nothing to do with whether you are a liberal Catholic or right-wing traditionalist ... It can’t be seen as a political witchhunt.” he said.
Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Keith Weir
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