YANGON: Myanmar’s military said it sacked a top general who was named in fresh EU sanctions against security officials accused of serious rights violations in the Rohingya crisis, including killings and sexual violence.
Myanmar is accused of waging a crackdown in Rakhine state that forced 700,000 to flee that the UN and major western powers have said amounts to “ethnic cleansing.”
Its leaders have come under fire for taking little punitive action against the military, which has maintained its troops were responding to attacks by Rohingya militants.
But the military said late Monday in a Facebook post that Major General Maung Maung Soe, the former head of the western command in Rakhine, had been “purged” for poor performance.
The announcement came after the EU said he was among seven security officials hit with travel bans and asset freezes, but Myanmar did not link his sacking to the new sanctions.
The Facebook post said Maung Maung Soe was first reassigned last November, and that his removal from his position in the western command was to “inspect his responsibility over his weakness while working for Rakhine state stability.”
Maung Maung Soe was also the target of US sanctions last year over the Rohingya crisis.
The statement added that Lt. Gen. Aung Kyaw Zaw — commander of the bureau of special operations and also on the EU list — was permitted to resign in May for health reasons and “weakness in serving duty.”
Canada said Monday it was also imposing sanctions against the same seven figures named by the European Union.
The EU said the individuals were targeted because of their “involvement in or association with atrocities and serious human rights violations committed against the Rohingya population in Rakhine state in the second half of 2017.”
“These violations include unlawful killings, sexual violence and the systematic burning of Rohingya houses and buildings.”
Most Rohingya refugees have settled in squalid camps in neighboring Bangladesh and say they are too afraid to return to Myanmar though both countries have signed a repatriation deal.
Many refugees say they will not return without a basic guarantee of protection.
The United Nations signed a deal with Myanmar this month to allow its agencies to assess conditions on the ground in Rakhine state, which they say are not yet ripe for a safe and voluntary return.
Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has faced global criticism for not standing up more for the Rohingya, though supporters say she has little control over army actions.
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Myanmar sacks top general involved in Rohingya crackdown
Myanmar sacks top general involved in Rohingya crackdown
- Myanmar is accused of waging a crackdown in Rakhine state that forced 700,000 to flee that the UN and major western powers have said amounts to “ethnic cleansing”
- The announcement came after the EU said he was among seven security officials hit with travel bans and asset freezes, but Myanmar did not link his sacking to the new sanctions
Greenland villagers focus on ‘normal life’ amid stress of US threat
- Proudly showing off photographs on her tablet of her grandson’s first hunt, Dorthe Olsen refuses to let the turmoil sparked by US president Donald Trump take over her life
SARFANNGUIT: Proudly showing off photographs on her tablet of her grandson’s first hunt, Dorthe Olsen refuses to let the turmoil sparked by US president Donald Trump take over her life in a small hamlet nestled deep in a Greenland fjord.
Sarfannguit, founded in 1843, is located 36 kilometers (22 miles) east of El-Sisimiut, Greenland’s second-biggest town, and is accessible by boat in summer and snowmobile or dogsled in winter if the ice freezes.
The settlement has just under 100 residents, most of whom live off from hunting and fishing.
On this February day, only the wind broke the deafening silence, whipping across the scattering of small colorful houses.
Most of them looked empty. At the end of a gravel road, a few children played outdoors, rosy-cheeked in the bitter cold, one wearing a Spiderman woolly hat.
“Everything is very calm here in Sarfannguit,” said Olsen, a 49-year-old teacher, welcoming AFP into her home for coffee and traditional homemade pastries and cakes.
In the background, a giant flat screen showed a football match from England’s Premier League.
Olsen told AFP of the tears of pride she shed when her grandson killed his first caribou at age 11, preferring to talk about her family than about Trump.
The US president has repeatedly threatened to seize the mineral-rich island, an autonomous territory of Denmark, alleging that Copenhagen is not doing enough to protect it from Russia and China.
He nevertheless climbed down last month and agreed to negotiations.
Greenland’s health and disability minister, Anna Wangenheim, recently advised Greenlanders to spend time with their families and focus on their traditions, as a means of coping with the psychological stress caused by Trump’s persistent threats.
The US leader’s rhetoric “has impacted a lot of people’s emotions during many weeks,” Wangenheim told AFP in Nuuk.
’Powerless’
Olsen insisted that the geopolitical crisis — pitting NATO allies against each other in what is the military alliance’s deepest crisis in years — “doesn’t really matter.”
“I know that Greenlanders can survive this,” she said.
Is she not worried about what would happen to her and her neighbors if the worst were to happen — a US invasion — especially given her settlement’s remote location?
“Of course I worry about those who live in the settlements,” she said.
“If there’s going to be a war and you are on a settlement, of course you feel powerless about that.”
The only thing to do is go on living as normally as possible, she said, displaying Greenland’s spirit of resilience.
That’s the message she tries to give her students, who get most of their news from TikTok.
“We tell them to just live the normal life that we live in the settlement and tell them it’s important to do that.”
The door opened. It was her husband returning from the day’s hunt, a large plastic bag in hand containing a skinned seal.
Olsen cut the liver into small pieces, offering it with bloodstained fingers to friends and family gathered around the table.
“It’s my granddaughter’s favorite part,” she explained.
Fishing and hunting account for more than 90 percent of Greenland’s exports.
No private property
Back in El-Sisimiut after a day out seal hunting on his boat, accompanied by AFP, Karl-Jorgen Enoksen stressed the importance of nature and his profession in Greenland.
He still can’t get over the fact that an ally like the United States could become so hostile toward his country.
“It’s worrying and I can’t believe it’s happening. We’re just trying to live the way we always have,” the 47-year-old said.
The notion of private property is alien to Inuit culture, characterised by communal sharing and a deep connection to the land.
“In Greenlandic tradition, our hunting places aren’t owned. And when there are other hunters on the land we are hunting on, they can just join the hunt,” he explained.
“If the US ever bought us, I can for example imagine that our hunting places would be bought.”
“I simply just can’t imagine that,” he said, recalling that his livelihood is already threatened by climate change.
He doesn’t want to see his children “inherit a bad nature — nature that we have loved being in — if they are going to buy us.”
“That’s why it is we who are supposed to take care of OUR land.”
Sarfannguit, founded in 1843, is located 36 kilometers (22 miles) east of El-Sisimiut, Greenland’s second-biggest town, and is accessible by boat in summer and snowmobile or dogsled in winter if the ice freezes.
The settlement has just under 100 residents, most of whom live off from hunting and fishing.
On this February day, only the wind broke the deafening silence, whipping across the scattering of small colorful houses.
Most of them looked empty. At the end of a gravel road, a few children played outdoors, rosy-cheeked in the bitter cold, one wearing a Spiderman woolly hat.
“Everything is very calm here in Sarfannguit,” said Olsen, a 49-year-old teacher, welcoming AFP into her home for coffee and traditional homemade pastries and cakes.
In the background, a giant flat screen showed a football match from England’s Premier League.
Olsen told AFP of the tears of pride she shed when her grandson killed his first caribou at age 11, preferring to talk about her family than about Trump.
The US president has repeatedly threatened to seize the mineral-rich island, an autonomous territory of Denmark, alleging that Copenhagen is not doing enough to protect it from Russia and China.
He nevertheless climbed down last month and agreed to negotiations.
Greenland’s health and disability minister, Anna Wangenheim, recently advised Greenlanders to spend time with their families and focus on their traditions, as a means of coping with the psychological stress caused by Trump’s persistent threats.
The US leader’s rhetoric “has impacted a lot of people’s emotions during many weeks,” Wangenheim told AFP in Nuuk.
’Powerless’
Olsen insisted that the geopolitical crisis — pitting NATO allies against each other in what is the military alliance’s deepest crisis in years — “doesn’t really matter.”
“I know that Greenlanders can survive this,” she said.
Is she not worried about what would happen to her and her neighbors if the worst were to happen — a US invasion — especially given her settlement’s remote location?
“Of course I worry about those who live in the settlements,” she said.
“If there’s going to be a war and you are on a settlement, of course you feel powerless about that.”
The only thing to do is go on living as normally as possible, she said, displaying Greenland’s spirit of resilience.
That’s the message she tries to give her students, who get most of their news from TikTok.
“We tell them to just live the normal life that we live in the settlement and tell them it’s important to do that.”
The door opened. It was her husband returning from the day’s hunt, a large plastic bag in hand containing a skinned seal.
Olsen cut the liver into small pieces, offering it with bloodstained fingers to friends and family gathered around the table.
“It’s my granddaughter’s favorite part,” she explained.
Fishing and hunting account for more than 90 percent of Greenland’s exports.
No private property
Back in El-Sisimiut after a day out seal hunting on his boat, accompanied by AFP, Karl-Jorgen Enoksen stressed the importance of nature and his profession in Greenland.
He still can’t get over the fact that an ally like the United States could become so hostile toward his country.
“It’s worrying and I can’t believe it’s happening. We’re just trying to live the way we always have,” the 47-year-old said.
The notion of private property is alien to Inuit culture, characterised by communal sharing and a deep connection to the land.
“In Greenlandic tradition, our hunting places aren’t owned. And when there are other hunters on the land we are hunting on, they can just join the hunt,” he explained.
“If the US ever bought us, I can for example imagine that our hunting places would be bought.”
“I simply just can’t imagine that,” he said, recalling that his livelihood is already threatened by climate change.
He doesn’t want to see his children “inherit a bad nature — nature that we have loved being in — if they are going to buy us.”
“That’s why it is we who are supposed to take care of OUR land.”
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