Australia's Woodside Petroleum to exit Myanmar on human rights concerns

 The Australian gas producer will now begin formal procedure to exit the exploration assets it holds with state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise and other entities

Woodside Petroleum Ltd said on Thursday it will exit its Myanmar operations citing deteriorating human rights situation, nearly a year after a coup plunged the Southeast Asian nation into turmoil.\The Australian gas producer will now begin formal procedure to exit the exploration assets it holds with state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise and other entities including China National Petroleum Corp and Total, among others. Woodside said a non-cash expense associated with the withdrawal would hurt its fiscal 2021 net profit after tax by about $138 million, in addition to the $71 million exploration expense for one of the oil blocks in Myanmar it had flagged earlier.

“Given the ongoing situation in Myanmar we can no longer contemplate Woodside’s participation in the development of the A-6 gas resources, nor other future activities in-country,” Woodside Chief Executive Meg O’Neill said on Thursday. “While Woodside had hoped to… deliver much-needed energy to the Myanmar people, there was no longer a viable option for Woodside to continue its activities.” In February last year, Woodside had said it was cutting its presence in Myanmar following a coup, bringing hundreds of thousands of protesters onto the streets and raising human rights concerns.

War crimes, not genocide committed against Rohingya: Myanmar probe

Military operations from August 2017 forced about 740,000 Rohingya to flee over the border into sprawling camps in Bangladesh

A Myanmar-appointed panel concluded Monday that some soldiers likely committed war crimes against its Rohingya Muslim community but the military was not guilty of genocide, findings swiftly condemned by rights groups.

The “Independent Commission Of Enquiry (ICOE)” released the results of its probe just ahead of a ruling Thursday by the UN’s top court on whether to impose urgent measures to stop alleged ongoing genocide in Myanmar. It conceded some security personnel had used disproportionate force and committed war crimes and serious human rights violations, including the “killing of innocent villagers and destruction of their homes”. But the crimes did not constitute genocide, the panel decided. “There is insufficient evidence to argue, much less conclude, that the crimes committed were undertaken with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical (sic), racial or religious group.” Military operations from August 2017 forced about 740,000 Rohingya Muslim to flee over the border into sprawling camps in Bangladesh.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has always maintained the crackdown by the armed forces, or Tatmadaw, was justified to root out Rohingya insurgents after a series of attacks left a dozen security personnel dead. But refugees carried consistent accounts of widespread murder, rape, torture and arson with them and have so far largely refused to return for fear of their safety…

Facebook and Twitter are getting sucked into India-Pak information battle

With a combined population of 1.5 billion, India and Pakistan are hot growth markets for Facebook and Twitter

Current Affairs: Pakistani online networking campaigner Hanzala Tayyab leads around 300 ultra-patriot digital warriors battling a web war with curve enemy India, in a fight that is progressively sucking in worldwide tech mammoths, for example, Twitter and Facebook. Tayyab, 24, goes through his days on Facebook and encoded WhatsApp chatrooms sorting out individuals from his Pakistan Cyber Force gathering to advance enemies of India substance and influence it to circulate around the web, including on Twitter where he has in excess of 50,000 supporters.

That ranges from featuring claimed Indian human rights maltreatment to lionizing radicals engaging Indian security powers in Kashmir, a questioned Himalayan district at the core of notable pressures among Pakistan and India. Pakistani web based life campaigner Hanzala Tayyab leads around 300 ultra-patriot digital warriors battling a web war with curve enemy India, in a fight that is progressively sucking in worldwide tech monsters, for example, Twitter and Facebook.

Tayyab, 24, goes through his days on Facebook and scrambled WhatsApp chatrooms sorting out individuals from his Pakistan Cyber Force gathering to advance enemies of India substance and influence it to become a web sensation, including on Twitter where he has in excess of 50,000 adherents. That ranges from featuring affirmed Indian human rights maltreatment to lionizing agitators doing combating Indian security powers in Kashmir, a debated Himalayan district at the core of notable pressures among Pakistan and India.

Tayyab’s activity wound up more diligently on Monday when the Pakistan Cyber Force’s Facebook account was brought down, one of 103 Pakistani records the online networking goliath said it had erased as a result of “inauthentic conduct” and spamming. Some Indian patriot accounts have likewise been suspended as of late.

Didn’t do enough to prevent misuse during Myanmar violence: Facebook

A report warned that Facebook must be prepared to handle a likely onslaught of misinformation during Myanmar’s 2020 elections

International News : Facebook Inc on Monday said a human rights report it commissioned on its presence in Myanmar showed it had not done enough to prevent its social network from being used to incite violence.

The report by San Francisco-based nonprofit Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) recommended that Facebook more strictly enforce its content policies, increase engagement with both Myanmar officials and civil society groups and regularly release additional data about its progress in the country.

“The report concludes that, prior to this year, we weren’t doing enough to help prevent our platform from being used to foment division and incite offline violence. We agree that we can and should do more,” Alex Warofka, a Facebook product policy manager, said in a blog post.

BSR also warned that Facebook must be prepared to handle a likely onslaught of misinformation during Myanmar’s 2020 elections, and new problems as use of its WhatsApp grows in Myanmar, according to the report, which Facebook released.

Business Standard OR BS

Rohingya crisis: Return of 'displaced persons' only solution, says Swaraj

India's External Affairs Minister spoke on the issue during her two-day visit to Bangladesh

 

India is "deeply concerned" at the spate of violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State where normalcy will be restored only with the return of "displaced persons", External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday said amidst the raging Rohingya refugee crisis.

Nearly 600,000 minority Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since late August to escape violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State where the army has launched a crackdown against militants.

Myanmar doesn't recognise Rohingya as an ethnic group and insists that they are Bangladeshi migrants living illegally in the country.(economy news)

Bangladesh has sought India's "sustained pressures" on Myanmar for its resolution.

"India is deeply concerned at the spate of violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State," Swaraj said after talks with the Bangladeshi side as part of the fourth Joint Consultative Commission.

She, however, preferred not to use the word "Rohingya" and said: "We have urged that the situation be handled with restraint, keeping in mind the welfare of the population."

Swaraj is on a two-day visit to Bangladesh at the invitation of Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali.

"It is clear that normalcy will only be restored with the return of the displaced persons to Rakhine state.....read more

India's response to the Rohingya crisis is driven by an 'un-fine' balance

Realist response has taken an upper-hand over a humanitarian response

Myanmar is witnessing a military crackdown against the Rohingya ethnic community. Facing extreme violence, hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas have fled from their homes in Myanmar. It is estimated that more than 300,000 have entered Bangladesh. Even as Bangladesh has been stretched in providing relief to these refugees, the Bangladesh government and activists in India have been pushing the Indian government to admit refugees in India. The Indian government for its part has sent relief assistance to Bangladesh for these refugees but has not agreed to accept more Rohingya refugees in India. What is driving the Indian response to this crisis? What are the factors that make this a complex decision? The author analyses in this Business Standard Special.

‘India remains deeply concerned about the situation in Rakhine State in Myanmar and the outflow of refugees from that region’, began a recent statement by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of India. The rest of this short 166-word note focused on strongly condemning the ‘terrorist attacks on Myanmar security forces’, reminded us of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent aid commitment to the strife torn region, and urged the powers that be in Myanmar to handle the situation with ‘maturity’, focus on the welfare of both civilians and security forces, and restore normalcy ‘expeditiously’. Soon after, New Delhi launched Operation Insaniyat offering aid to Rohingya refugees pouring into Bangladesh. Both the statement and the aid make for fitting examples of how India balances competing domestic and foreign policy advocacies and priorities....READ MORE