Far East

NOVANEWS In a modern REX84 style operation, humans are caged like rats, as the government of Thailand declines release of theRohingya people.   Refugees from Burma by Shepard Ambellas   THAILAND — Thousands of Muslim refugees have been caged at detention facilities across the country after fleeing a whirlwind of violence in Burma. However, some speculate this is nothing more then the activation of a beta test for future martial law in Thailand. The very same contingency plans have peen put into effect in the United States during the Reagan administration. As part of Continuity of Government (COG) plans, factions of the US government thought it was necessary to set up detention facilities that could be used in the event there ever was a "mass exodus" from Mexico. However,...

NOVANEWS LASHIO, Myanmar: Hundreds of Muslim families sheltered in a heavily guarded Buddhist monastery yesterday after two days of violence in the northern Myanmar city of Lashio left Muslim properties in ruins and raised alarm over a widening religious conflict. About 1,200 Muslims were taken to Mansu Monastery after Buddhist mobs terrorized the city on Wednesday, a move that could signal the resolve of a government criticized for its slow response to previous religious violence. The unrest in Lashio, a city about 700 km (430 miles) from Myanmar’s commercial capital of Yangon, shows how far anti-Muslim violence has spread in the Buddhist-dominated country as it emerges from decades of hard-line military rule. One man was killed and five people wounded in Wednesday’s clashes, presid...

NOVANEWS Buddhists armed with sticks patrol the town of Lashio, northern Shan State, Myanmar, on Wednesday. (AFP)   AGENCE FRANCE PRSSE LASHIO, Myanmar: Religious riots shook eastern Myanmar for a second day yesterday with one man hacked to death and four injured, a top official said, after an orphanage and mosque were burnt down. Police fired warning shots to disperse rioters after the fresh Buddhist-Muslim clashes in the town of Lashio in Shan state, according to presidential spokesman Ye Htut. “The deceased was hacked to death with a knife,” Ye Htut told AFP, adding that the security forces were taking action to halt the unrest. Several episodes of religious violence have exposed deep rifts in the Buddhist-majority country. Residents said mobs armed with stick...

NOVANEWS The video was largely filmed by police in the town of Meiktila, Burma Intense bloodshed between Buddhists and Muslims last month Man is seen alive, but badly burned lying on the floor as police watch Sparked after row between Muslim shop owner and Buddhist customers HRW: Burmese authorities committed crimes against humanity By JILL REILLY Horrifying footage has emerged of police officers standing by while Burmese Buddhist rioters set fire to a Muslim man. The video was largely filmed by police in the city of Meiktila during intense clashes between a gang of Buddhists known as the '969 squad' and Muslims last month which left 43 people dead. In the grainy footage posted on the internet a man -  almost certainly a Muslim - is seen rolling around on the ground in agony aft...

NOVANEWS By Nile Bowie Global Research As the South-East Asian nation of Malaysia prepares for general elections, distrust of the political opposition and accusations of foreign interference have been major talking points in the political frequencies emanating from Kuala Lumpur. The United Malays National Organization (UMNO) leads the country’s ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, and has maintained power since Malaysian independence in 1957. One of Malaysia’s most recognizable figures is former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who has been credited with ushering in large-scale economic growth and overseeing the nation’s transition from an exporter of palm oil, tin, and other raw materials, into an industrialized economy that manufactures automobiles and electronic goods. The oppositi...

NOVANEWS by Ridwan Sheikh If Aung San Suu Kyi really stands for human rights, then why doesn’t that include Burma’s Rohingya Muslims? September’s glitzy red carpet event in Capitol Hill, commemorating the US Congressional Gold Medal award, the highest civilian accolade given by the U.S government, honoured Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese politician, for her services to ‘democracy’. While back home, in the Western Myanmar state of Rakhine Myanmar (Burma), it is a different picture. The killings and persecution of the Rohingya’s, an ethnic minority group still goes unnoticed. So, why is this happening? The hidden persecution of the Myanmar Rohingya Muslim minority is nothing new, dating back to the 15th century. Thousands of soldiers from Bengal arrived in the region, already inhabited by a s...

NOVANEWS By Deborah Choo  Yahoo! Newsroom Israel had set up Singapore's military machine. (Yahoo! file photo) UPDATED (19 November 2012, 7:37pm. Clarifies that Sleeper's statement on university subsidy is not accurate) A political science lecturer at Yale University says that Singapore is the Israel of Southeast Asia, citing the Asian city-state's military background and power. In a column provocatively titled "Blame the Latest Israel-Arab War on... Singapore" in the Huffington Post, Jim Sleeper cited a world-wide survey published this month ranking Israel as the world's most militarised nation followed by Singapore. The journalist and author also said that soon after Singapore's independence in 1965, then prime minister Lee Kuan Yew had asked Israel to help set up the cit...

NOVANEWS By Nile Bowie Global Research The sectarian violence in Myanmar’s western state of Arakan began in June 2012, and the plight of the persecuted Rohingya ethnic group has since created an international uproar. Displays of solidarity with the predominantly Muslim Rohingya people have been most potent throughout the Islamic world, with a broad spectrum of support ranging from moderate political leaders to extremist groups. While rights advocacy groups robustly condemn Myanmar’s government for its role in the conflict, evidence suggests that the overwhelming majority of violence was attributed to rioting civilians from both the ethnic Rakhine Buddhist community and the ethnic Rohingya Muslim community. The initial violence broke out on May 28th after reports circulated that a Buddhis...

NOVANEWS By Sajjad Shaukat With the official backing of the government, during the anti-Muslim riots, intermittent massacre of Muslims by Hindus has become a permanent feature of India. In the last few years, more than 3,000 unnamed graves of the innocent Muslims, found in mutilated forms were discovered in the various areas of the Indian occupied Kashmir. Notably, human rights groups have disclosed that the unmarked graves included those Muslims, killed by the Indian security forces in the fake encounters. Similarly the genocide of several innocent Muslim women and children by the Serb forces in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Kosovo presents another example. While, these atrocities are still fresh in the minds of every Muslim; recently bloodshed of the Rohingya Muslim community at the hands of t...

NOVANEWS Rohingya people trying to cross the Naf river into Bangladesh to escape the genocide by Kevin Barrett The West, led by the US, is pouring huge sums of money into Myanmar (Burma) and blathering about the supposed “democratization” of that long-time human rights pariah nation. Meanwhile, the Rohingyas – a Muslim ethnic group called “the most persecuted group in the world” by the UN – are facing slow-motion extermination. Though they’ve lived there for centuries, Burma’s government refuses to grant them citizenship, and is trying to get rid of them. Mass murder, pogroms, the burning of homes and mosques – the usual tools of attempted genocide – are being deployed against them. And still the US lavishes money and praise on the regime…while Nobel prize-winning human rights icon Ang San...