Day: July 26, 2022

KUALA LUMPUR— In urging the ASEAN Foreign Ministers to keep the Rohingya issue high on their agenda, the Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General on Myanmar Noeleen Heyzer also highlighted the community’s need for education to prevent a “lost generation”.

 

A media advisory issued on Tuesday during her two-day mission to Kuala Lumpur at the invitation of Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah noted that, Noeleen had also stressed on the importance of legal employment and protection for Myanmar migrant workers and refugees in Malaysia.

 

She also expressed her appreciation to the Malaysian people and government for being a host of the largest Rohingya refugee population in ASEAN, and called for innovative solutions for Rohingya.

 

“Noeleen also acknowledged the important role of the ASEAN Secretary-General and the Ad-Hoc Support Team as part of ASEAN’s commitment on Rakhine, ahead of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on 3rd August,” said the advisory issued by the Malaysian Foreign Ministry.

 

She said it is Myanmar’s responsibility to address underlying issues affecting the Rohingya and establish durable solutions for the voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of all refugees and forcibly displaced persons.

 

“Recognising women’s crucial role in communities and the gendered dimension of the conflict, Special Envoy Noeleen is encouraged by the resilience of women leaders in her engagement to ensure that Myanmar-led solutions include women’s voices and concerns,” the advisory said.

 

“We must not allow the Rohingya people’s sense of being forgotten and abandoned to take root,” Special Envoy Noeleen said. Their right to live in dignity as human beings must be supported and safeguarded by all, including the international community,” she said.

 

According to the UNHCR website, Malaysia hosts some 181,000 refugees and asylum-seekers as of January 2022. Almost 85 per cent of them are from Myanmar, including about 103,000 Rohingyas who fled the Rakhine state.

 

Meanwhile, in a joint press conference with Saifuddin at Parliament building today, Noeleen stressed that she had tried her level best in complementing her role as a special envoy in ensuring on how the humanitarian issues in Myanmar should be implemented through the Five Point Consensus.

 

She described the Myanmar crisis following a military coup on Feb 1 last year as a multi dimensional crisis weakening state and economic institutions, adding that the crisis has pushed 50 per cent of the country’s population into poverty.

 

 

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

DAMASCUS– Syria, yesterday, handed over a total of 146 Tajik nationals, who are family members of the Daesh militants, to their home country.

 

Zabidullah Zabidov, the ambassador of Tajikistan in Kuwait, was in Syria yesterday, to take the Tajik nationals, who had been accommodated in the al-Hol camp, in north-eastern Syria.

 

The al-Hol camp, which is run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is known to be housing refugees, largely family members of foreign Daesh militants.

 

Zabidov said that, the Tajik side had taken the necessary measures and arrangements for the return of Tajik citizens to their country.

 

He hailed the cooperation and support provided by the Syrian authorities, to secure the transportation of children and women, from the al-Hol camp to the Damascus International Airport, from where they would fly home.

 

The process took place in cooperation between the Syrian Foreign Ministry and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

 

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

BRASILIA— Brazilian and Chinese officials are re-discussing a trade protocol so that Brazil can ship corn to China sooner than intended, Brazilian Agriculture Minister Marcos Montes said.

 

Montes said the successful revision of the protocol would allow Brazilian corn to be exported to China in the second half of the year as opposed to next year, as was agreed earlier with Beijing officials.

 

Brazil exports most of its corn in the second half of the year, competing with suppliers like the United States in that time window. China is already Brazil’s biggest soybean buyer, as well as a key destination for Brazilian meat shipments.

 

Montes said Brazil is harvesting a large second corn crop, adding the Chinese are keen to import the Brazilian product.

 

“It will be discussed in the coming days whether we will be able to export the current corn crop,” Montes said, adding discussions to revise the protocol had taken place earlier on Monday.

 

“They want it right away,” Montes said, referring to China’s appetite for Brazil’s production of the current season.

 

The protocol covers corn and other products including peanuts, citrus pulp and soy protein concentrate, Montes said.

 

Brazil has harvested almost 62per cent of its second corn crop in the center south, according to private consultancy AgRural.

 

Second corn represents 70per cent to 75per cent of national production in a given year and is planted after soybeans in the same areas.

 

This year, Brazilian farmers will harvest an estimated 87.3 million tonnes of second corn, AgRural said.

 

Disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has redefined certain agricultural trade routes, leading countries to diversify suppliers.

 

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

JAKARTA, Jul 26 (NNN-ANTARA) – Indonesia’s Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency, yesterday, captured a Sumatran tiger, that entered villages and preyed on livestock of local residents in Tapaktuan District.

 

“Officers found the tiger in a trap, set in Lhok Bengkuang Village, yesterday at 07:30 a.m. local time,” said the agency’s head, Agus Arianto.

 

The tiger entered the residential area in Jun, moving from village to village, and preyed on nine livestock belonging to local residents, in addition to causing fears among villagers.

 

The officers used various ways to capture the animal, which the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies as Critically Endangered, including patrolling, setting up camera traps, and using the services of a handler.

 

Veterinarians will check the tiger’s health, while the officers will look for a suitable location in Gunung Leuser National Park, for releasing the animal, Arianto added.

 

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

GENEVA— The UN human rights chief condemned the execution of four prisoners, including a former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party and a prominent activist, as “cruel and regressive”.

 

“I am dismayed that despite appeals from across the world, the military conducted these executions with no regard for human rights,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.

 

“This cruel and regressive step is an extension of the military’s ongoing repressive campaign against its own people”.

 

The four were executed for leading “brutal and inhumane terror acts”, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said, without saying when or how the men were killed.

 

The executions marked the country’s first use of capital punishment in decades and sparked fears that more death sentences will be carried out.

 

The junta has sentenced dozens of anti-coup activists to death as part of its crackdown on dissent after seizing power last year.

 

Bachelet strongly condemned the fact that Myanmar had gone ahead with the executions despite repeated calls from the UN and the wider international community to refrain from doing so.

 

The executions, she said, “are cruel violations of the rights to life, liberty and security of a person, and fair trial guarantees”.

 

She called for the “immediate release” of all political prisoners and urged Myanmar to “reinstate its de-facto moratorium on the use of the death penalty, as a step towards eventual abolition”.

 

According to the UN, 117 people, including two children, have been sentenced to death since the February 2021 coup. Of those, 41 were sentenced in absentia.

 

Over 11,500 people remain in detention for opposing the coup, Monday’s UN statement said.

 

“Most concerningly, over 30 percent of over 2,100 people killed since February 2021 have died in military custody –- most as a result of ill-treatment,” Bachelet said.

 

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK