6 November - 12 November 2017 - 16-min

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8 6 - 12 November, 2017 H Neighbourhood News Hindu Survivors seek to move to Buddhist Majority Areas of Myanmar indus who have fled violence in Myanmar since late August and have taken refuge in Bangladesh along with the Rohingya Muslims, say they are not willing to return to their villages in Rakhine state because they are scared of facing violence again. The Hindu refugees in Bangladesh said that they want to move to India if the Myanmar authorities do not help them resettle in Buddhist-majority areas of the country. “Our village in Rakhine is not safe for the Hindus any more. If [the] Myanmar government helps us move to Rangoon we are ready to go there,” Lolimohan Sil, 52, a barber from Bolibazar, told VOA. “If Myanmar cannot help us live in a safe and peaceful area of the country we want to move to India. India should help us.” A month after Rohingya insurgents attacked 30 police posts and an army camp killing at least 12 people, triggering a campaign by the army against Rohingya villages, Myanmar authorities reported finding the bodies of 45 Hindu villagers in three mass graves. Myanmar officials said it was the Muslim Rohingya militants who killed more than 90 Hindus, including those whose remains were recovered from the mass graves. However, the insurgent group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) denied killing the Hindus, saying it did not target any civilians. Since August 25, over 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar and crossed over into Bangladesh. About 800 Hindus have also fled Myanmar. Immediately after arriving in Bangladesh, the Hindu refugees told local journalists that their loved ones had been killed by the Myanmar security forces and armed local Rakhine Buddhist men. Changing Stories But many of the Hindu refugees later changed their story. Now, none of the Hindu refugees is saying that the Myanmar soldiers or locals killed any Hindus. Some of the Hindu refugees are saying that they could not identify the killers because they were masked, while others are saying Rohingya militants killed their relatives and Hindu neighbors. Hindu refugee Niranjan Rudra said he would not want to return to his village of Chikonchhori in Rakhine because the Rohingya militants, who he referred to as “Kala Party” or Black Party, were still active and they would target the Hindus. “Kala Party or Al Yakin men are still a threat to us in our village. They killed so many Hindus. They will kill us if we go back to our village again. There is no police or military there. So, we will not go to our village,” said Rudra, who has been in Bangladesh since the end of August. “We will feel safe if we can move to Rangoon (Yangon). We will also find peace if we go to India.” Hindu refugee Milon Sil said the Rohingya militants killed the Hindus and they still pose a threat to the Hindus and so with his family he wants to move to Buddhist-majority areas of Myanmar. “In Bangladesh we have got good hospitality. But, Myanmar is our country. We want to go back to Myanmar. But, Al Yakin men are hiding in the area where we lived,” he said. “If the government helps us move to Sittwe or Rangoon, we are ready to return to Myanmar.” Surprised Reporters Some journalists who met Rakhine’s Hindu survivors as soon as they arrived Bangladesh said they were surprised the way they changed their story over the weeks. Nurul Islam, Cox’s Bazar correspondent of Dhaka-based newspaper New Age, said he interviewed Anika Dhar on August 28 when she said to him that Myanmar soldiers had killed her husband and seven other relatives. “Some other journalists too heard the same story from Dhar in the last week of August. But, when I met her in Cox’s Bazar again around the middle of September, she said that she could not identify the killers of her husband and other relatives because they all wore masks,” he said. Dhar was among a group of eight Hindu women who were later returned to Myanmar in a secret military operation. All eight women told the Myanmar media in October that Rohingya militants killed their relatives and Hindu neighbors. “I was stunned when I found that Dhar had changed her story for the second time and blamed the Rohingya militants for the killings. The identity of the killers of the Hindus in Myanmar remains a mystery,” Islam said. Allegations Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh said the Hindu survivors are telling lies. Monir Ahmed, a Rohingya neighbour of Dhar said that when the Myanmar soldiers and Rakhine militia members attacked the Rohingya and Hindus in his village of Fakirabazar on August 27, he managed to slip out. “Myanmar military, Border Guard Police and the Rakhine men killed 30 Rohingya Muslims and 40 Hindus in that attack. Of course the Hindus were not killed by Rohingya (militants). If the Rohingya militants killed them those Hindu survivors would have never fled to Bangladesh along with us,” he said. Rohingya refugee Maung Theing Hlaing said the Hindu refugees are telling lies and putting the blame on the Rohingya militants “simply to please the Myanmar government.” “If the Hindus do not blame the Rohingyas for the killings, they will not be able return to Myanmar. They know if they can please Myanmar government by branding the Rohingyas as the killers they can even occupy the Rohingya-owned lands in Rakhine and live there,” he said. Myanmar has denied allegations that its army has targeted civilians in Rakhine state. Credit : Voice of America (VOA) A T NEW DELHI TIMES Pakistani cleric jailed until hearing on model’s murder Pakistani court has ordered a Muslim cleric to be jailed until his next hearing over possible involvement in the 2016 murder of a social media model. A court official says Judge Mohammad Pervez Khan ordered Mufti Abdul Qawi to jail until his next hearing Nov. 7. The order comes after police completed an investigation of the cleric’s possible involvement in the murder of model Qandeel Baloch. Police could reveal their findings at that hearing. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s 1971 speech receives UNESCO recognition ◆◆By NDT Bureau @NewDelhiTimes info@newdelhitimes.com he historic speech given be Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 7 1971 has been included in the Memory of the World International Register, a list of world’s important documentary heritage maintained by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). “Ebarer sangram amader muktir sangram, ebarer sangram swadhinatar sangram [The struggle this time is a struggle for emancipation, the struggle this time is a struggle for independence]” were the famous lines of Sheikh Mukibur Rehman in the March 7 1971 speech. “Turn every house into a fortress, resist the enemy with everything you have ... Having mastered the lesson of sacrifice, we shall give more blood. God willing [Inshallah], Baloch was found strangled in her home in the city of Multan after posting racy pictures on Facebook of herself with the cleric. Baloch’s brother, Mohammed Wasim Azeem, has confessed to her murder and is facing trial in a Multan court. Nearly 1,000 Pakistani women are killed by close relatives each year in so-called “honor killings.” Credit : Associated Press (AP) Photo Credit : AP Photo we shall free the people of this land,” Bangabandhu also said in his speech. The speech set the tone for the Bangladesh war of liberation. The decision to include the famous address among a list of the documentary heritage of the world was announced by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, according to a statement issued by the Bangladesh ministry of foreign affairs. “The world will now get to know more about our Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and our glorious Liberation War,” said Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali in a statement. “The 7th March speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman provided inspiration to the Bengali people in their quest for freedom and emancipation. The speech also energised the entire nation and prepared the people for the forthcoming Liberation struggle,” he said. “It also served as the ultimate source of inspiration for the countless freedom fighters who joined the Mukti Bahini. Bangabandhu’s speech is played throughout the country during the various national occasions and continues to reverberate in hearts and minds of the Bengali people. This speech continues to enthrall our people and will continue to inspire succeeding generations.” www.NewDelhiTimes.com
6 - 12 November, 2017 9 Canada News C C NEW DELHI TIMES Canada seeks to compensate indigenous taken from families olleen Cardinal often wondered why her parents turned bright red in the sun but she grew dark along with her sisters. The puzzle was solved when she was a young teen, and the woman she had thought of as her mother disclosed that she had been picked out of a catalog of native children available for adoption. Cardinal was one of thousands of indigenous children taken from their birth families from the 1960s to mid-1980s and sent to live with white families, who officials at the time insisted could give them better care. Many lost touch with their original culture and language. It echoes the history of residential schools in Canada. Some 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children were taken from their families over much of the last century and put in government schools, where they were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages. Many were beaten and verbally abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died. The government has since apologized and offered compensation for the victims of residential schools, and now it’s paying compensation for what is known as the “Sixties Scoop” in which children were essentially scooped up from reservations and their native families. But many say the settlement is too little, too late. Cardinal says it won’t undo what was for her a traumatic experience. She was taken from her Plains Cree family in Alberta and sent to a home about 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometers) away alongside a lake in rural Ontario, where she said her two older sisters were sexually abused. “We had to flee that home to escape from physical and sexual violence. My two older sisters were sexually molested,” Cardinal said. A few years earlier Cardinal had been shocked to find out she was native. “As a child you want to hear that you are loved and people wanted you,” Cardinal said. “What I heard instead was, ‘Well, we picked you out of a catalog of native children up for adoption.’” The only catalog Cardinal knew was the Sears catalog — not the lists from government or religious organizations that included pictures of children available for adoption. “I was thinking, ‘There was a catalog of native kids like me?’ That stayed in my mind forever — that I was picked out of a catalog of native children,” she said. The survivors of the “Sixties Scoop” began suing the Canadian government in 2010, claiming damages for the loss of their language, culture and identity. Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba ruled last February that Canada had breached its “duty of care” to the children and found the government liable. A tearful Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett announced the settlement in early October. “This policy was based on race,” Bennett said in an interview later with The Associated Press. “It was unconscionable that government thought that would be better for the child. “We know now that it really isn’t. In terms of health, education or economic outcomes, it is a disaster to take kids away from their language, their culture, their community, their extended family.” The Sixties Scoop settlement for an estimated 20,000 people is aimed at resolving numerous related lawsuits. The survivors will share 750 million Canadian dollars ($586 million), with individual amounts to be determined later. Many said they expect that to be around 50,000 Canadian dollars each. Cardinal said she Colombia leader thanks Canadians for supporting peace effort olombia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning president has thanked Canadians for their support of his country’s peace process. Juan Manuel Santos was awarded the peace prize last year for his efforts to end Colombia’s half century of civil conflict. He says Canada along with other nations were instrumental in maintaining the momentum behind peace talks. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said after meeting with Santos in his Parliament Hill office on 27th October that Canada will provide police training and advice to support post-conflict policing efforts in Colombia Trudeau also left the door open to a possible deployment of peacekeepers to Columbia, characterizing the policing effort as a separate initiative. The president added that he wanted to strengthen economic ties. The two nations signed a free trade agreement in 2008. Credit : Associated Press (AP) Photo Credit : AP Photo might invest the money. “Fifty thousand is not very much money,” she said. “That’s like one year income for a middle class worker.” Cardinal, 44, is happy the government has set aside an additional 50 million dollars for a healing and reconciliation foundation. She is the co-founder and coordinator of the National Indigenous Survivors of Child Welfare Network, which brings together survivors to talk and heal. She now lives in Ottawa and is teaching her four children about their native culture. Many remain close to their adoptive families, but some, like Cardinal, say they were scarred by the experience. She believes she was taken from her birth parents to be assimilated. Most of her biological family has passed away and she wasn’t able to connect with them in the way she had wanted. But her organization has helped others reconnect. Brent Mitchell was taken from his mother in Manitoba when he was 1 and shipped off to New Zealand when he was 5. Records indicate there was alcohol abuse in his birth home. But he said he endured beatings and verbal taunts in the foster homes in New Zealand and sexual abuse outside it by a predator. He struggled to recover, attempting suicide at three different points in his life. “That was always on the cards,” Mitchell said. “They couldn’t give me a pill to take away all the pain and hurt.” Mitchell is 59 now and speaks with a New Zealand accent. He returned to Canada this year. “I met one of my brothers and one of my sisters for the first time,” he said. “It nearly floored me.” But the settlement does not cover Métis Canadians, people of mixed indigenous and non-indigenous heritage like Mitchell. C ◆◆By NDT Bureau @NewDelhiTimes info@newdelhitimes.com Duane Morrisseau-Beck, a Métis who was taken at birth and adopted by a Manitoba family, doesn’t understand why. The government has said it wants to reach a settlement with Métis, too, but Morrisseau- Beck said if the first deal is any indication, it won’t be good enough. “This fails miserably in terms of the compensation that should be awarded,” he said. Morrisseau-Beck struggled with the trauma of being taken from his birth family and became an alcoholic in high school and contracted HIV. He felt estranged from his adoptive family and assumed he would be by himself for the rest of his life and would die alone. But he reconnected with his culture and his birth family just over 20 years ago. His mother believes the adoption papers were forged or signed under false pretenses. “There was always this question of who were my parents. Who is my mom and my dad,” he said. “It left a very distinct mark on my life.” Cardinal spent most of her life trying to be white so that people would accept her, but she now has embraced her indigenous roots. “A lot of us were taken out of the country, taken out of the province, taken so far away from our family and isolated. And a lot of us still haven’t come home yet,” Cardinal said. Credit : Associated Press (AP) Photo Credit : AP Photo Canada to accept 1 million more immigrants by 2020 anada will accept 1 million more immigrants in the country by 2020. On November 1, Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced the Government of Canada’s historic multi-year immigration levels plan that will responsibly grow the number of permanent residents Canada welcomes annually. Beginning with 310,000 new permanent residents in 2018, and growing to 330,000 in 2019 and 340,000 in 2020, this plan sets out the most ambitious immigration levels in recent history. This measured, gradual increase will trend towards one percent of the population by 2020, spurring innovation and representing a major investment in Canada’s prosperity, now and into the future. “This historic multi-year immigration levels plan will benefit all Canadians because immigrants will contribute their talents to support our economic growth and innovation, helping to keep our country at the forefront of the global economy”, said Hussen. An official press release states” Supporting both Canadian businesses and labour market needs, the multi-year immigration plan will foster economic growth in the face of slowing labour force growth and an ageing population. With approximately 60 percent of the increase, over the three year period, in the economic category, this plan helps distribute the benefits of immigration across Canada, responding to a unanimous call by provinces and territories earlier this fall. Increased levels will create the space needed to reduce backlogs and decrease processing times for families sponsoring spouses, children, parents, grandparents, and caregivers. The 2018-2020 multi-year immigration levels plan also fulfills our commitment to offer protection to those in need. Canada’s well-managed immigration system is unique in the world. It places great emphasis on providing assistance to recently arrived newcomers to weather their migration transition period, learn English or French, find meaningful employment, and establish themselves in their communities.” www.NewDelhiTimes.com
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6 November - 12 November 2017 - 16-min

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