The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- Specter of Jihadi Resurgence Arises in Bangladesh, says ICG
- How Can the NLD Salvage Myanmar’s Diplomatic Affairs?
- Indonesian Police Question Luxury Yacht Crew in 1MDB Probe
- Cambodian PM Denounces ‘Dogs’ for Burning His Effigy in Australia
- Spice Up Your Evening With a Taste of Rakhine Cuisine
- Bangladesh Protests Against Myanmar Troops at Border Where Rohingya Shelter
| Specter of Jihadi Resurgence Arises in Bangladesh, says ICG Posted: 02 Mar 2018 04:05 AM PST YANGON – The International Crisis Group (ICG), which focuses on preventing deadly conflicts, has warned the Bangladeshi government that domestic political polarization could fuel a resurgence of militancy by local jihadist movements, threatening the state's security and religious tolerance of minority groups. The group released a 34-page report entitled "Countering Jihadist Militancy in Bangladesh" via its website on Feb. 28. Based on interviews with security officials, members of the legal community and political and civil society groups, representatives from Islamic parties and umbrella groups, the analysis seeks to explore the roots of Bangladeshi's jihadist groups, their ultimate goals, organizational dynamics, recruitment patterns and links to regional and transitional networks. Resurgent militancy The ICG report states that two groups, Jamaat-ul Mjahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Ansarul Islam (or Ansar), which both claim to represent Islamic State-Bangladesh and have sent large numbers of fighters to Iraq and Syria, dominate the jihadist landscape of Bangladesh. Both are linked with Islamic State (ISIS) and affiliated with al-Qaeda's South Asian branch. Ansar describes itself as a defender of Islam, while JMB has a longer list of enemies, identifying anyone who does not subscribe to its interpretation of Islam as a legitimate target. These two militant groups' attacks have targeted secular activists, foreigners, intellectuals as well as religious and sectarian minorities in Bangladesh since 2013. In the almost three years since an attack on a café in the heart of Dhaka's diplomatic district killed over 20 people, ICG reports a series of attacks have involved different Bangladesh Jihadist groups, including rural-based madrasa students and elite urban young men. Successive governments have taken drastic and often brutal action against JMB, killing thousands of suspects, although the group has not been wiped out and has revived itself in a new form. Meanwhile, Ansar was born out of outrage over the ruling Awami League government's 2010 trials of senior leaders of the country's largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islamic (Jel), who were accused of committing war crimes in the 1971 war of independence. Jel is a close ally of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The verdicts against Jel's senior leaders became a flashpoint within the Islamist community as the trial lacked transparency and was held against a background of intimidation and harassment of defence lawyers and witnesses. Ansar regards the trials as an insult to Islam and subsequently begun recruiting members from among both urban and rural educated youth. The ICG says the ruling Awami League party's tactics against its political opponents, which have included accusing BNP and Jel of complicity in high-profile attacks in recent years, have opened a space for new forms of jihadist activism. The Awami League has repeatedly used the security forces to suppress rivals as it seeks a decisive victory in upcoming 2018 general elections in December. The ICG suggested the Bangladeshi government "should adopt a counter-terrorism strategy anchored in reformed criminal justice and better intelligence gathering." Ansar might be training ARSA militants today Amid the silent threat growing within Bangladesh, an influx of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar's Rakhine State in late 2017 is fueling security concerns in the Bangladeshi government as jihadist groups including ISIS and Pakistani militants have shown an interest in taking advantage of the Rohingya's plight in an effort to mobilize support. The ICG warns the Bangladesh government that jihadists might "exploit" nearly one million stateless Rohingya refugees, who are "particularly susceptible to jihadist recruitment." News reports suggest some Rohingya from refugee camps have already joined ARSA. In April 2016, ISIS's online magazine Dabiq featured the Bangladesh ISIS commander sounding a rallying cry for Rohingya rights, while Al-Qaeda included Myanmar on a 2014 list of key targets. Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, in one of the leading publications in that country, wrote in September 2017, "All Muslims of the world must unite for this cause" and "Myanmar's soil is earnestly waiting for the thumping sound of the footsteps of the conquerors." In December 2017, Akayed Ullah, a Banlgadeshi immigrant to the United States detonated a homemade pipe bomb in a New York subway corridor, injuring five. US authorities apprehended the suspect and found he had an "allegiance to ISIS" and had visited Rohingya refugee camps three months before his violent attack in New York. Although there is no concrete evidence to conclude that ARSA has ties to transnational jihadism, a previous Rohingya militant group, formally known as the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), set up small bases on the Bangladesh border in the past, and collaborated with Jamaat-ul Mujahideen on weapons and explosives training. Some counter-terrorism analysts believe that Ansar might be training and arming ARSA militants today.  The Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) also noted in its report that "Indonesians and Malaysians are seeking to assist persecuted Muslims in Myanmar through contacts with Bangladesh-based Rohingya." At their recent meeting in Singapore in February, ASEAN defence ministers issued a joint statement in which it stated: "We note with grave concern the rise of terrorism in our region, perpetrated by individuals and groups with increasingly sophisticated and deadly tactics and weapons." Meanwhile on Feb. 27, the US Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added ISIS-Bangladesh and the Philippines-based Maute Group, aka Islamic State of Lanao, to its sanction list for global terrorism, along with ISIS-Egypt, Somalia, Tunisia and West Africa. It's unclear whether the US is also trying to verify the link between Bangladesh ISIS and ARSA.  Why is ARSA so silent? After a series of attacks by ARSA on Myanmar forces in 2017, there have been no serious security incidents in northern Rakhine's Maungdaw region, although a couple of camp leaders were murdered on the Bangladesh side, which scared Rohingya from returning to Myanmar. Home Affairs Minister Lt. Col Kyaw Swe and 11 fellow officials from relevant departments recently visited Bangladesh to discuss border security and collaboration on counter-terrorism operations but detailed information from the talks was not released. During the visit, Bangladesh Home Affairs officials handed a list of over 8,000 potential Rohingya returnees to Lt. Col Kyaw Swe but the list provided only one ID photo of the head of each family and no other identifying information for family members or fingerprints in the applications. As a result, Myanmar authorities said they would send back the returnee list to Bangladesh authorities. As for ARSA's silence, Myanmar ethnic affairs analyst U Maung Maung Soe concluded that the group is waiting to see the outcome of a campaign by some members of the international and human rights communities to have Myanmar army chief Sen Gen Min Aung Hlaing referred to the International Court of Justice for the Myanmar military's brutal campaign against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine. In recent weeks, over 100 British MP urged its government to demand the Myanmar army chief be brought before the ICJ while three Nobel Peace Laureates, Yemen's Tawakkol Karman, Iran's Shirin Ebadi and Mairead Maguire from Ireland voiced a similar appeal after visiting refugee camps in Bangladesh. According to Bangladesh news outlets, the Nobel Prize winners also warned Myanmar State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to "wake up", otherwise, she would be listed as a "perpetrator of this crime". Moreover, they bluntly declared that "If she can't stop all this crime, then she has to resign, now." "If ARSA stages further attacks against Myanmar, there could be backlash in terms of the international support for them (the Rohingya), and their political agenda would suffer a great loss," U Maung Maung Soe said. The analyst noted Rohingya promoters in Europe had focused on raising the issue of indigenous rights for stateless people rather than protecting the basic rights of a persecuted community, which suggests it will be hard to reach a repatriation deal given the offer made by Myanmar to accept those who return voluntarily. Thus, ARSA's silence is very likely connected to the pro-Rohingya campaigners' lobbying, he said. "It's hard to believe that they (lobbyists) don't have any connections with ARSA," U Maung Maung Soe said. However, ARSA will probably carry out renewed attacks on Myanmar if the push for Sen Gen Min Aung Hlaing to be tried before the ICC fails to gain traction. In addition, the remaining Muslim population has indicated that ARSA would not be able to call on large numbers of militants to make attacks against Myanmar government targets as in 2017, U Maung Maung Soe said. The post Specter of Jihadi Resurgence Arises in Bangladesh, says ICG appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| How Can the NLD Salvage Myanmar’s Diplomatic Affairs? Posted: 01 Mar 2018 11:52 PM PST Kyaw Zwa Moe: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! This week, we'll discuss Myanmar and its international diplomacy. The diplomatic affairs of a country are critically important for its political, economic and social improvement. Myanmar has faced a lot challenges on the diplomatic front because of its rulers over the past five decades. Though it was expected that Myanmar's international diplomatic relations would recover after the elected National League for Democracy [NLD] government came to power, the conflict in Rakhine State last year and its consequences have reversed the country's political transition and diplomatic relations. Political analyst Dr. Yan Myo Thein and human rights activist Cheery Zahau will join me to discuss how the NLD government can salvage diplomatic relations.
One of the problems facing our country is diplomacy. As I've said, it was thought that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s government would be able to foster diplomatic relations, but the Rakhine issue has taken [Myanmar’s] relations with the international community almost to the lowest level. The international community has blamed [the government] for human right violations and its handling of the issue. Ko Yan Myo Thein, what is your assessment of it? Yan Myo Thein: As you have discussed, international diplomacy is quite weak under the government led by President U Htin Kyaw and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. We are in a transition, but there is still no sweeping institutional change in foreign relations. For example, most of the staff members at the Foreign Ministry are bureaucrats. And almost two-thirds of the ambassadors are retired military officers. Ambassadors play the role of [a football team’s] strikers in international diplomacy. They will be able to respond, discuss, represent their country on the front line. But the institution is weak. Another weak point is we are going with total defense in facing the international community. Sometimes it is really difficult to know exactly what is happening on the ground in areas of war and conflict. Under such circumstances there may be extrajudicial actions. When there are reports and allegations about those cases, the government should, rather than denying those cases, investigate and find out the truth. With such an approach, its relations with international countries would be better, I think. KZM: So it is about its cooperation with international countries. Myanmar denied the UN human rights envoy access to the country. Again, it also rejected the investigation mission demanded by the UN and other western countries into the Rakhine issue. Our country has been quite weak in international relations. While we call our country the Golden Land, we were called a weak state and a failed state because of continuous human rights problems associated with the Tatmadaw government. We were also called a rouge and a pariah state, and a thuggish state, and [a member of the] Axis of Evil by the US along with Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Following the outbreak of the Rakhine issue under the NLD government, they call us a country of rising nationalism. Ma Cheery, how do you assess it? Cheery Zahau: The international relations landscape changed a lot before and after the outbreak of World War II and the emergence of the UN. The UN was established for the sake of people and democracy. Myanmar is one of the founding members. The UN has adopted norms, and there are descriptions, as Ko Kyaw Zwa Moe has mentioned, for countries that don't meet those norms. Our country has continuously ignored those norms of the international community, especially the norms for democratization and for the political and civil rights of the country. That's why the international community has given the country bad names. The international community had pinned very high hopes on the NLD government, because people expected that Myanmar would then be on the right path to democracy and that political and fundamental rights would be guaranteed. But then over the past two years there was not only the Rakhine issue, but also other issues such as the arrest of journalists, media censorship and the arrest of human rights activists. The world knows that. The international community is concerned that political and civil rights are being restricted more and more. So the perception of the international community is that Myanmar does not meet those norms. That perception is further reinforced by the Rakhine issue. Villages were reduced to ashes there. There are satellite images of them. We can't deny there was no arson. The international community is watching and we, especially those in Naypyitaw, can't turn a blind eye to it. That's why the international community is blaming us. Again, the world has seen serious problems since 2012. War is still going on in Syria, and problems still exist in Yemen. South Sudan and North Korea also have problems. Richer countries, especially in Europe, have been suffering the consequences of those crises. They are faced with a refugee crisis, and while they have a big burden to handle, the crisis in our country has sent more than 600,000 people to the neighboring country. Who will feed them? Bangladesh or our country? While those who earned their living from farming and fishing were forced to leave, the world already had crises, so the entire world got angry. To the international community it seems that our country, which has never met those norms, has worsened the crises. So the international community has a negative view of us. KZM: Ma Cheery spoke about causes and effects. But Ko Yan Myo Thein, let's analyze the NLD's policy and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's attitude toward international relations. According to its election manifesto, the policy of the NLD is to promote friendship with the world's countries with an active, independent and non-aligned foreign policy, and to stand firmly by the cause of genuine democracy in handling issues arising from engagement with the countries of the world. This is one of the points of the NLD's policy. As Ma Cheery pointed out, the whole world has blamed this country for not adhering to democratic norms in the past. On Monday, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi spoke about this issue [at the Myanmar Development Effectiveness Roundtable]. Ko Yan Myo Thein, how can you differentiate between her foreign policy and that of her government? YMT: I think the NLD government believes it is critically important to cooperate with the international community on the current democratization of the country. She also spoke about expanding cooperation with the international community at the roundtable. But there are restrictions, I think. There are tough restrictions on the functions of the government and the Parliament because of the 2008 Constitution. In my view, no matter how tough the restrictions are, the leaders of the country, including the state counselor, should try to negotiate with the Tatmadaw leaders to be able to stabilize the democratization of the country. The support and trust of Western countries, including the USA and EU, are very important for our democratization process to gain momentum. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has received that support and trust for many years. And the country needs support and trust now. And we need to utilize that support and trust effectively and wisely. Though the government's policy is to implement an active and independent foreign policy, that policy has restrictions, I think. It appears that our foreign policy always has to take our neighbor China into consideration. It is necessary to build broad trust and understanding between internal forces such as the government, Parliament, political parties, Tatmadaw and ethnic groups. In solving the Rakhine issue, the government has apparently neglected Arakanese lawmakers of the Arakan National Party elected by Rakhine people. Elected ANP lawmakers should participate in solving the issue. It is important to establish a practice in which all can find solutions for similar problems through negotiation. KZM: Speaking of China's foreign policy toward Myanmar and Myanmar's foreign policy toward China, it seems that Myanmar’s government, even the NLD government, has to seek China's help when it has problems with Western countries over those norms. The entire social infrastructure of our country is deteriorating. Frankly speaking, we will need the support of Western and other countries that meet those norms in order to rebuild that infrastructure. Now, not only China, but also Russia protects us. We need to cooperate with them as they [the Chinese] are neighbors. But to build genuine democracy and a good society in the long run, Western countries can help a lot more than China and Russia. Ma Cheery Zahau, what do you think? CZ: Our country is very weak in researching how to deal with each country. China has done very thorough research. It has researched even the small details of how to deal with our country. It has even researched the preferences of individual leaders. Our country has studied nothing about other countries. The leaders of our country apparently receive guests without preparation and pay visits without preparation. KZM: They fail to do homework. CZ: Yes, they don't do homework. They can't practice a foreign policy like that. I don't mean I oppose establishing ties with China; Myanmar has to maintain ties with China. But at the same time, it must be clear about the purpose of maintaining ties. For expediting democratization or what? To promote democracy and civil rights in the society, maintaining ties with China won't work. We can't rely on it for that. But we must cooperate with it in other sectors like trade. A lot of institutional study is needed on how to deal with other countries — for example with ASEAN — and on what benefits we can get, and what they can give and what we can give. Our country has yet to do such research. As the government has no clear direction, it doesn't know what message to send the USA and what message to send the EU. It appears that our country starts to formulate a response only after those countries point out the problem. As a result, we don’t have a say in the international community. Maintaining ties with neighbors like China, Russia and ASEAN is inevitable. But from a security point of view, we buy weapons from Russia and China. They know all our military strengths as well as the technology we use. How can we be safe when our neighbors know all our possessions? And they will surely not look on us [highly]. So if we are to find other friends, we have to please them. We have to try to meet democracy and human rights norms to win those friends. We have to mend ourselves if we want to get good friends. This is the requirement we have to fulfill. KZM: This is the weak point of Myanmar and the government. From the international community's point of view, Myanmar is an important country. Thinking about why the international community should support and have an interest in Myanmar, I found four or five factors. First, Myanmar has a strategic geopolitical position. It lies between China and India and is a member of ASEAN. The Malacca Straits are important for trade between the Middle East and East Asian countries. And Myanmar is rich in natural resources. And talking of public sentiment, people have fought for the cause of democracy for years. The country was under dictatorship for around 50 years and was in isolation for around 30 years. It was a British colony for around 100 years. To what extent should the international community have expectations of such a country? YMT: My view is that the majority of our people are poor. The consequence of poverty is a decline in educational standards. Because of low education levels and severe poverty, people have to live a hand-to-mouth existence and do not bother to care about other issues. So both the international community and our government should educate the people, for example about fundamental rights, human rights and what the international community is about. There is a need for such education on a wide scale among the people. Another thing is that our people were ruled by various forms of dictatorship since 1962, so they have psychological trauma. As a result, I think, they will always be worried about something and have doubts. And they also have nationalism, or a nationalistic mindset, and psychological trauma has made that nationalistic mindset extreme. The international community should think about this, I think. So should the government, Parliament, the Tatmadaw and the educated. They should take these into serious consideration and think about how to heal them. KZM: The international community has a lot of interests in Myanmar. The USA gained credit when Myanmar started democratizing. They said the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar had changed because of their engagement policy. What do you want to suggest to them? Myanmar is a fragile country. The government doesn't have absolute power. The Constitution provides a large space for the Tatmadaw. Under such circumstances, what do you want to suggest to the international community? CZ: Before making any suggestions, the point I would like to make is that our country holds a strategic geopolitical position. We have to sell the benefits of establishing ties with us. Our country is not good at marketing. But the image we are selling to the international community now is that there are human rights violations and that the civil war has not ended. We should design a good plan to present our good points and resources. The democracy the people aspire to will go from strength to strength if we maintain ties with Western countries. The international community, especially the USA, should not ignore us, but continuously engage with us. By engagement I don't mean selling weapons to the Tatmadaw and ignoring human rights. But it should continuously engage with all the stakeholders — the NLD government, ethnic groups, political organizations and civil society. CSOs and the media are the key players in the burgeoning of democracy. The government may lose the election if it doesn't perform well. Then another government will take office. It is the media and civil society that will stay. Therefore, Western countries need to engage more with the media and civil society. KZM: Ko Yan Myo Thein, what is your suggestion for the NLD government and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to improve their diplomatic maneuvers? YMT: There is a need to review the existing institution and policies in practice. There is a need to review their strengths and weaknesses. If the review is carried out promptly — and the necessary reforms can be made to the institution, policies and procedures — we will be able to breathe easy on the international stage in the next two years. KZM: But what if the old guard is not changed while old policies are changed? YMT: In my view, institutional reform should include changes in both policy and in people. KMZ: You mean there is no problem if old personnel have changed their mindset? YMT: Yes. But then, around two-thirds of ambassadors are retired military officers. For example, Myanmar’s ambassador to the UK. Our relations with the UK are very important. But what if the ambassador there is a retired military officer? Again, if we want to make some changes to ties with China, the ambassador should be a civilian ambassador with a political background. Only then will our reforms have greater effect in the international community. CZ: It is very important that the right people are in the right places. KZM: Thank you for your contributions! The post How Can the NLD Salvage Myanmar’s Diplomatic Affairs? appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Indonesian Police Question Luxury Yacht Crew in 1MDB Probe Posted: 01 Mar 2018 10:30 PM PST JAKARTA — Indonesian police on Thursday questioned the captain and crew of a luxury yacht seized in Bali at the request of US authorities, probing alleged money laundering at a Malaysian state fund, they said. The yacht was impounded in Bali on Wednesday amid a multi-billion dollar corruption investigation launched by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and tied to Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Police seized the yacht, Equanimity, after receiving a letter on Feb. 21 from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) requesting help to enforce a court order, Indonesian National Police Spokesman Muhammad Iqbal Abduh said. Police had questioned the captain and crew and would check their immigration papers and see if there was any evidence of a crime being committed, Abduh said in a statement. Citing information provided by the FBI, he said the yacht’s Automated Identification System (AIS) had been switched off several times in waters around the Philippines and Singapore. The AIS system uses satellites to pinpoint locations and switching it off would make it harder to detect the vessel. Over the past 180 days, the Equanimity sailed from the northeast to the northwest of Malaysia and Singapore, and then from the Indonesian island of Bali to Papua and back again, according to shipping data on Thomson Reuters Eikon. There are several points where its movements are unclear. 1MDB is at the center of money-laundering probes in at least six countries, including the United States, Switzerland and Singapore. A total of $4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB by high-level officials of the fund and their associates, according to civil lawsuits filed by the DOJ in the past two years. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak set up 1MDB in 2009 and previously served as chairman of its advisory board. He and the fund have denied any wrongdoing. In August 2017, the DOJ asked for a stay on its civil lawsuits seeking to seize more than $1.7 billion in assets allegedly bought with stolen 1MDB funds because it was conducting a related criminal probe. Among the assets sought is Equanimity, cited as a $250 million luxury yacht bought by Malaysian financier Jho Low, named as a key figure in the US lawsuits. The lawsuits said Low used proceeds diverted from 1MDB to buy Equanimity, which it described as a 91-meter yacht registered in the Cayman Islands. The head of the National Police special crimes investigation unit said Indonesian authorities were not looking for Low. “We have an obligation to search for all on the wanted list or [anyone] included on an Interpol red notice. But I have not seen the name,” Agung Setya told Reuters. Low’s whereabouts are unknown and his Hong Kong company has not responded to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Low was quoted by Malaysia’s New Straits Times daily on Thursday as saying it was “disappointing that, rather than reflecting on the deeply flawed and politically motivated allegations, the DOJ is continuing with its pattern of global overreach — all based on entirely unsupported claims of wrongdoing.” The post Indonesian Police Question Luxury Yacht Crew in 1MDB Probe appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Cambodian PM Denounces ‘Dogs’ for Burning His Effigy in Australia Posted: 01 Mar 2018 09:34 PM PST PHNOM PENH — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, criticized by rights groups for a crackdown on the opposition and media, denounced protesters in Australia as dogs on Thursday for burning his effigy, days after threatening to beat them up. Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for more than 30 years, has forced the closure of an English-language newspaper and the dissolution of the main opposition party and jailed government critics. Rights groups and Western nations have decried the crackdown ahead of a general election set for July. Hun Sen last week threatened to beat up protesters if they burned his image during an upcoming ASEAN-Australia Summit on March 17. That prompted a Cambodian community in Australia to burn his effigy on Saturday and release images online. “This is an insult,” Hun Sen said at a ceremony in Kompong Cham Province on Thursday. “It is tough to bite back when a dog bites our leg,” Hun Sen said, adding that his trip to Australia would go as planned. Hun Sen’s threat to beat up protesters was met with condemnation in Australia. “These are outrageous statements,” Clare O’Neil, an Australian MP, said in parliament on Thursday. “We are living in this beautiful democratic country. Those rights need to be extended to all Australians, including those of Cambodian descent.” Hun Sen has frequently said he wants to remain in power for at least another decade. The dissolution of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party eliminated a major obstacle to his re-election ahead of the July election. The post Cambodian PM Denounces ‘Dogs’ for Burning His Effigy in Australia appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Spice Up Your Evening With a Taste of Rakhine Cuisine Posted: 01 Mar 2018 08:58 PM PST Sule Shangri-La Yangon has re-launched and revamped its famous "Mad for Seafood" buffet, this time tempting diners with the spicy charms of Rakhine cuisine. The buffet at the hotel's Café Sule features an array of soups, salads, fried dishes and curries, and is available from 6-10 p.m. on Saturday nights. In Myanmar, Rakhine is famous for its spicy-sour flavors, achieved through the use of ingredients such as coriander, lemongrass, chilies and lemon juice. The curries tend to be fresher in flavor and less oily and salty than other regional varieties. Most of the dishes involve seafood including prawns, crab, octopus, jellyfish, squid, cuttlefish, clams and lobster. These are served in a variety of ways including grilled, fried, steamed and boiled; all are available at the buffet.  What I like most about this buffet is that I can stand there and have my dish cooked exactly as I want it, as it doesn't take long to do; I also love putting together a fresh seafood salad. And the hotel hasn't forgotten that other famous Rakhine item: Moh Ti, a rice noodle dish which can be enjoyed as either a soup or a salad. As a soup it's served with a sour and spicy broth with fish slices. As a dry salad, the same ingredients are mixed with white-rice vermicelli into a colorful combination adorned with green chili paste, which lends it a greenish hue.  Other worthy Rakhine-style offerings include Ngar Ni Tuu Thoke (dried small fish salad), Gone Thauk Sann (hot and sour mussel stew) and Pinlalsar Mar Lar Shan Kaw (stir-fried spicy seafood and vegetables).  Rakhine cuisine is generally spicy, so ask the chef to go easy on you if you don't like it too hot! The buffet also serves up Mongolian-style seafood. These dishes are also spicy; the grilled lobster had an awesome flavor — fresh and sweet at the same time. Local street food is also represented here in the form of Wat Thar Doke Htoe (pork sticks), and these were yummy. Other international favorites are also available at the buffet, including sushi, grilled beef, dim-sum and many others.
 The Rakhine-style "Mad for Seafood" night is offered on Saturday nights and the traditional international version is presented on Thursday nights, both priced at US$36 net per person. For reservations and further information, call (95 1) 242 828 extension 6421 or 6422 or send an email to restaurantreservations.ssyn@shangri-la.com. The post Spice Up Your Evening With a Taste of Rakhine Cuisine appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Bangladesh Protests Against Myanmar Troops at Border Where Rohingya Shelter Posted: 01 Mar 2018 08:41 PM PST DHAKA — Bangladesh summoned Myanmar’s ambassador on Thursday over an increased security presence near their border where thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been sheltering just inside Myanmar, Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The United Nations refugee agency has expressed concern that thousands of people staying on the strip of land, dubbed “no man's land” because it is beyond Myanmar's border fence but on Myanmar's side of a creek that marks the international border, would be forcibly returned without sufficient consideration for their safety. Nearly 700,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar for Bangladesh after insurgent attacks on Aug. 25 sparked a military crackdown that the United Nations has said amounted to ethnic cleansing, with reports of arson attacks, murder and rape. About 5,300 people had been staying in a makeshift camp on the borderline since late August, but roughly half moved to camps inside Bangladesh after the two countries met to discuss possible repatriation on Feb. 20. Several hundred of them have been moved back to the borderline, two border guards said. On Thursday, Myanmar armed soldiers and police, estimated to number more than 200, came to the border fence and appeared to be moving heavy weapons including mortars to the area, said a Bangladesh army official and the two guards, all three of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. Dil Mohammed, a community leader among the roughly 950 Rohingya families staying at the border, said Myanmar officials used loudspeakers to tell them to move from the area. Protest Note The movement of troops so close to the border violated international norms, an official of Bangladesh’s border guard, Brigadier General Mujibur Rahman, told Reuters. “We are sending them a protest note. We have already asked for a flag meeting,” said Rahman, the force’s additional director general in charge of operations, referring to a meeting of border guards of both countries. “They have removed heavy weapons, such as machineguns and mortars, from the area after our verbal protests.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka said Acting Foreign Secretary Khurshed Alam asked envoy Lwin Oo for Myanmar’s security forces to pull back from the border, warning “such military buildup will create confusion within Bangladesh and escalate tensions on the border.” The action could also hamper the agreed repatriation of refugees, the ministry said in a statement, adding a diplomatic note was handed to the ambassador. Myanmar military spokesman Myat Min Oo said he could not confirm there was any troop activity and declined to comment further, citing a public holiday in Myanmar. A spokesman for the country’s Home Affairs Ministry, Myo Thu Soe, said he was unaware of the troop movements. Myanmar’s main government spokesman, Zaw Htay, declined to comment on Thursday’s activity. On Wednesday, he told Reuters that “terrorists” with links to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which had attacked 30 Myanmar police posts and an army base in August, were sheltering in the border area. Zaw Htay said he believed people were staying there to put political pressure on Myanmar's government and “create a situation where Myanmar security forces and government officials will remove them.” The post Bangladesh Protests Against Myanmar Troops at Border Where Rohingya Shelter appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
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