There’s often something suspicious about an official publication with an overly long title. The Myanmar junta’s booklet – deep breath – “Facts on the Arrangement of the Myanmar Government for Reception and Resettlement of Displaced Persons on their Return under the Pilot Project” is a good example.

Under pressure at the International Court of Justice in the genocide case against them (see Daily Brief, April 18), the junta apparently wants to be seen to be doing something to coax Rohingya refugees back from Bangladesh. But this booklet, describing transit camps and resettlement camps, is entirely unconvincing – particularly because of what it doesn’t say.

For starters, it doesn’t say anything about the Myanmar military’s crimes against humanity and acts of genocide that sent more than 730,000 Rohingya fleeing across the border in 2017 in the first place. It doesn’t mention that the same military took complete power in Myanmar in a coup two years ago, with a spiral of atrocities across the country as the result.

The booklet also fails to reflect the reality of life for the 600,000 Rohingya who’ve remained in Rakhine State. They’re confined to squalid camps and villages, denied citizenship status, and subject to other systematic abuses that amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid, persecution, and deprivation of liberty.

Anyone who saw how Cyclone Mocha recently tore through Rakhine State and leveled the state capital Sittwe – and how Myanmar’s authorities have compounded the disaster with severe restrictions on humanitarian aid – knows the military junta cannot be trusted to protect people’s lives.

It’s going to take a lot more than a propaganda booklet written by their oppressors to convince Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to return home.

More than 100 Nobel winners have demanded Belarus authorities free Ales Bialiatski, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year and was sentenced to ten years in prison on ludicrous, politically motivated charges in March.

The verdicts against Bialiatski and his colleagues at the rights group Viasna, was an all-too-obvious reprisal for their human rights work in Belarus.

The open letter – organized by PEN International, the literary and free expression group – cuts to the chase:

“Ales Bialiatski has devoted his life to the promotion of democracy and human rights in Belarus. He has dared to hold President Aliaksandr Lukašenka accountable for his brutal, relentless, and systematic crackdown on independent voices. For this, he is paying the heaviest price: ten years in prison on spurious grounds.”

“Bialiatski is a symbol of hope and an inspiration to human rights defenders around the world, who should be celebrated as such. Instead, he finds himself behind bars, alongside five members of the Human Rights Centre Viasna (‘Spring’), which he founded with the very purpose of supporting those harassed and persecuted by the Belarusian authorities.”

I can’t say it any better than that.

(written by Chiara Cera)
 
Journalism is often born in university classrooms and sometimes comes from student reporters uncovering sensitive issues within their universities. 

However, in Indonesia, student media outlets reporting on problems at their educational institution – including serious issues like corruption and sexual misconduct – face severe consequences.

Since 2020, the Indonesian Student Press Association recorded more than 180 cases of alleged press-related abuse in universities. In almost 50 of these, the universities intimidated individuals or closed the student media outlets.

Adding insult to injury, local police often wrongly take the lead on criminal defamation cases involving student journalists and publications. According to a 2017 memorandum of understanding between the independent Press Council and the National Police, any report of alleged defamation involving the media should first be referred to the Press Council.  

University classrooms and student media outlets should not be a place of intimidation and censorship. The Indonesian government and the Press Council should expose this university media crisis and should support student journalists and their rights to press freedom. 

(compiled by Aiza Rodrigues Akhtar)

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• Ireland: UNHCR calls for Ireland to recognize stateless people (RTE)
• Pope sends Vatican official to Bolivia as abuse allegations escalate (AP News)