The UN High Commissioner for Refugees on Wednesday said that it was alarmed by a mob attack on Rohingya Muslim refugees in Sri Lanka, where government leaders called for stern legal action against perpetrators that included Buddhist monks.
On Tuesday, a group led by Buddhist monks stormed a UN-run safe house for Rohingya Muslims, claiming the residents were terrorists and demanding that they be sent back to Myanmar, prompting police to relocate the refugees.
Dozens of protesters from Sri Lanka’s majority Buddhist community led a mob to a multistory house at Mount Lavinia on the outskirts of the Sri Lankan capital.
In a statement, the UN agency said it was “alarmed and concerned” by Tuesday’s incident and urged the “public and all those concerned with refugees to continue extending protection and to show empathy for civilians fleeing persecution and violence.”
Police on Tuesday took 31 Rohingya refugees, including 17 children, into custody and moved them to a safe location.
A video clip posted by nationalist group Sinhala National Movement on Facebook shows protesters calling the Rohingya “terrorists who killed Buddhists in Myanmar” and saying that they cannot live in Sri Lanka.
On Wednesday, Sri Lankan Minister of Media Mangala Samaraweera condemned the attack, describing it as a “shameful act,” and called for strong action against the perpetrators.
Sri Lankan Minister of Health and Indigenous Medicine Rajitha Senaratne said he was depressed by the attack and urged law enforcement authorities to arrest the attackers.
Sri Lankan Buddhists make up 70 percent of the island’s 20 million people, while Muslims account for 10 percent.
Nearly a half-million Rohingya Muslims have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh in the past year, most of them since Aug. 25, when Rohingya insurgent attacks on Burmese security forces prompted a military crackdown and reprisals by majority Buddhists.
Rohingya have long faced persecution and discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where the government denies them citizenship and considers them illegal immigrants.
Extremist Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka have ties with their counterparts in Myanmar and monks in both countries have been accused of leading attacks on minority Muslims.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NASA on Saturday rolled out its towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft as it began preparations for its first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. The maneuver, which takes up to 12 hours, would allow the US space agency to begin a string of tests for the Artemis 2 mission, which could blast off as early as Feb. 6. The immense orange and white SLS rocket, and the Orion vessel were slowly wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and painstakingly moved 6.5km to Launch Pad 39B. If the
RSS