Rohingya crisis: Satellite images of Myanmar village burning

Rights group Amnesty International has released satellite images which it says show an "orchestrated campaign" to burn Rohingya villages in western Myanmar.
Amnesty said this was evidence security forces were trying to push the minority Muslim group out of the country.
The army says it is fighting militants and denies targeting civilians.
Some 389,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since violence began last month. They have long been persecuted in Myanmar as "illegal immigrants".
At least 30% of Rohingya villages in Rakhine state are now empty, the government says.
They have lived in the state in Myanmar, also known as Burma, for generations but are denied citizenship.
Myanmar has faced international condemnation over the crisis.
On Thursday US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Myanmar's democracy was facing a "defining moment".
"I think it is important that the global community speak out in support of what we all know the expectation is for the treatment of people regardless of their ethnicity," he said in London.
"This violence must stop, this persecution must stop."
A day earlier UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the Rohingya were facing a catastrophic humanitarian situation, and attacks on villagers were unacceptable. The UN Security Council has called for urgent steps to end the violence.

What does the Amnesty report say?

Amnesty said it had new evidence based on fire-detection data, satellite imagery, photos and videos, as well as interviews with eye-witnesses, of "an orchestrated campaign of systematic burnings" targeting Rohingya villages for almost three weeks.
"The evidence is irrefutable - the Myanmar security forces are setting northern Rakhine State ablaze in a targeted campaign to push the Rohingya people out of Myanmar. Make no mistake: this is ethnic cleansing," said Tirana Hassan, the group's crisis response director.
Amnesty said security forces would surround a village, shoot people as they fled and burn down their houses, describing the acts as "crimes against humanity".
It said it had detected at least 80 major fires in inhabited areas since 25 August, following attacks on police posts by the rebel Arkan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa).
No fires of this magnitude had been seen in similar periods over the last four years, Amnesty added.
The rights group said it had also received credible reports of Rohingya militants burning homes of Buddhist ethnic Rakhine but had been unable to verify them.

What do the authorities say?

Myanmar's envoy to the UN has blamed the Rohingya insurgents for the violence in Rakhine state and said that his country would never tolerate such atrocities.
Government spokesman Zaw Htay has urged displaced people to find refuge in temporary camps set up in Rakhine state, but said Myanmar would not be able to allow all those who fled to Bangladesh to return.
On Wednesday, the head of Myanmar's armed forces, Gen Min Aung Hlaing, said that the country "could not accept and recognise the term 'Rohingya' by hiding the truth" (meaning Myanmar's claim that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh).
"Rakhine ethnics [Buddhists] are our indigenous people who had long been living there since the time of their forefathers," he said.

What other evidence is there?

At the government's own admission, 176 Rohingya villages, more than 30% of the total in northern Rakhine state, are now empty.
Reports of atrocities preceded the Amnesty report, with testimony from fleeing Rohingya of involvement by security forces in the razing of their villages.
Though access to Rakhine state is heavily controlled, the BBC's Jonathan Head was one of a few journalists taken on a government-run tour recently and witnessed Muslim villages being burned with police doing nothing to stop it.
While the current crisis has seen nearly 400,000 Rohingya flee, the UN says Bangladesh was already hosting several hundred thousand undocumented Rohingya who had fled earlier violence.
Other Rohingya have been living in camps for displaced people within Myanmar.

Who are the Rohingya?


There were at least a million members of the Rohingya ethnic group living in Myanmar, most of them Muslim, though some are Hindu. They are thought to have their origins in what is now Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, but many have been present in Myanmar for centuries.
The law in Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingya ethnic minority as one of its "national races" and they are effectively denied citizenship. Human Rights Watch describes the Rohingya as one of the largest stateless populations in the world.
"Restrictions on movement and lack of access to basic health care have led to dire humanitarian conditions for those displaced by earlier waves of violence," the group says.
Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called on Myanmar to take the Rohingya refugees back.









North Korea fires second ballistic missile over Japan

North Korea has fired a ballistic missile across Japan, its second such provocative move in weeks.
South Korea's military said the missile reached an estimated altitude of about 770km (478 miles) and travelled 3,700km before landing in the sea off Hokkaido.
Japan's PM Shinzo Abe said his country would "never tolerate" North Korea's dangerous actions.
"If North Korea continues to walk down this path, it has no bright future," he said in a statement.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also condemned the launch, which contravened UN sanctions.
He put the burden of response on China and Russia, nuclear-armed North Korea's main economic partners.
"China supplies North Korea with most of its oil. Russia is the largest employer of North Korean forced labour," he said.
"China and Russia must indicate their intolerance for these reckless missile launches by taking direct actions of their own."

Guam 'within range of rocket'

The South Korean military said the latest launch - the first since sanctions were tightened - took place from Sunan, the district where Pyongyang's international airport is located, just before 07:00 local time (22:00 GMT on Thursday).
The US and Japan said it was likely an intermediate range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
According to the initial estimates, it flew considerably higher and further than the missile fired on 29 August.
Japan had called that launch an "unprecedented" threat, while Pyongyang warned it was only "the first step" in its military operations in the Pacific.
The US Pacific territory of Guam, which North Korea claims to have plans to fire missiles towards, is 3,400km from Pyongyang, so would be within range of the latest missile.
As with the last launch, the rocket flew over Japan's northern Hokkaido island before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
People were warned to take cover as raid sirens sounded.










Trump restores police surplus military equipment scheme

US President Donald Trump has lifted restrictions imposed by Barack Obama on the transfer of surplus military-style equipment to the police.
An executive order provides police with items including bullet-proof helmets and armoured vehicles.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the aim was to enhance public safety.
Mr Obama barred the military from handing over some types of military equipment to police after unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.
The ban followed criticism that police were too heavy handed in dealing with the protests that followed the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer in 2014.
The former US president was concerned about public reaction to images of heavily militarised police on the streets, saying it was important that police were perceived to be part of the community than being seen as an occupying force.

'We have your back'

But Mr Sessions argued that Mr Obama's restrictions went "too far".
"We will not put superficial concerns above public safety," he told a meeting of police officers.
"The executive order... will ensure that you can get the lifesaving gear that you need to do your job and send a strong message that we will not allow criminal activity, violence, and lawlessness to become the new normal.
"We have your back and you have our thanks," he told the police convention.
Under the terms of the executive order, government agencies are compelled to take prompt action to reverse President Obama's rules.
But the order has been criticised by civil rights groups and some Republicans in Congress.
"It is one thing for federal officials to work with local authorities to reduce or solve crime, but it is another for them to subsidise militarisation," Senator Rand Paul said in a statement.
Mr Paul said that he would work to introduce legislation to ensure there was transparency in relation to such transfers so that law enforcement agencies do not to gain possession of equipment which remains prohibited.


North Korea fires missile over Japan in 'unprecedented threat'

North Korea has fired a missile over northern Japan in a move Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called an "unprecedented" threat to his country.
The missile, launched early on Tuesday Korean time, flew over Hokkaido island before crashing into the sea.
The UN Security Council is expected to hold an emergency meeting in response.
North Korea has conducted a flurry of missile tests recently, but this is the first time it has fired what is thought to be a ballistic weapon over Japan.
On the two previous occasions its rockets crossed Japan - in 1998 and 2009 - North Korea said they were for satellite launch vehicles, not weapons.
The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo says this latest launch appears to be the first of a missile powerful enough to potentially carry a nuclear warhead.

Residents told to seek shelter

The South Korean military said the missile was fired eastward just before 06:00 local time (21:00 GMT) from near the North's capital, Pyongyang - which is rare.
Early analysis of the launch suggests the missile:
  • flew a distance of more than 2,700km (1,678 miles)
  • was likely a Hwasong-12, a newly developed intermediate range weapon
  • reached a maximum altitude of about 550km (342 miles), lower than most previous North Korean tests
  • fell into the North Pacific Ocean 1,180km off the Japanese coast after breaking into three pieces
  • No effort was made by Japan to shoot down the missile but it issued a safety warning telling citizens in Hokkaido to take shelter in "a sturdy building or basement".
    US and Japanese forces have just finished a joint drill in Hokkaido while another annual military exercise involving tens of thousands of South Korean and US soldiers is still under way in South Korea.
    The North sees these regular military drills involving the US as highly provocative, perceiving them as a rehearsal for an invasion.
    South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered a show of "overwhelming" force in response to the launch. Four South Korean jets staged a live bombing drill on Tuesday.
Mr Abe said he had spoken to US President Donald Trump and that both agreed to increase pressure on North Korea. The Pentagon meanwhile said the launch did not represent a threat to the US itself but that the military was working to gather more intelligence about it.
Russia also weighed in on the debate, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov saying the country was "extremely worried" about the situation and warning of a "tendency towards an escalation".

Daily Stormer: Cloudflare drops neo-Nazi site

A neo-Nazi site that disparaged a woman who died during protests in Charlottesville has faced another wave of rejection by web companies.
The Daily Stormer's account with Cloudflare - which protects websites from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks - has been terminated.
Cloudflare's chief executive Matthew Prince said he had "had enough", in a company email obtained by Gizmodo.
However, he added that he felt conflicted over the decision.
"Literally, I woke up in a bad mood and decided someone shouldn't be allowed on the internet," wrote Mr Prince.
"No-one should have that power."
On Sunday, the Daily Stormer published an article denigrating Heather Heyer, 32, who was killed after a car rammed into protesters against a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
This led to a backlash in which the site had to switch domain name registrars twice in 24 hours, after GoDaddy and Google both removed it from their services.
Cloudflare's service involves handling web users' requests to view a site and filtering out those that appear to be coming from systems set up to overload the site.
Without such protection, websites can sometimes be knocked offline.
Mr Prince said leaving the site open to DDoS attacks could lead to "vigilante justice", in a blog post published later on Wednesday.
However, he also said: "Our terms of service reserve the right for us to terminate users of our network at our sole discretion.
"The tipping point for us making this decision was that the team behind Daily Stormer made the claim that we were secretly supporters of their ideology."
Earlier in the week, the Daily Stormer was set up as a site on the dark web and later relocated its open web presence to a Russian domain name ending ".ru".
A spokesman for the Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor said it had asked web firm Ru-Center to shut this down.
A BBC check on Thursday morning found that the .ru address no longer appeared to be working.
The Daily Stormer has faced frustration elsewhere in recent days.
Three Twitter accounts associated with the site that had previously been active were suddenly listed as "suspended" on Wednesday.
And cyber-security researcher Joseph Evers announced that he had stopped hosting an internet chat channel he said was used by staff at the Daily Stormer.
Describing himself as having once been a "free speech absolutist", Mr Evers added: "I'm glad to do my small part in countering white supremacy."

Donations blocked

Besides the Daily Stormer's case, this week Paypal reiterated its stance on blocking donations to organisations that promote hate, violence or racial intolerance.
"This includes organizations that advocate racist views, such as the KKK, white supremacist groups or Nazi groups," the payment-processing firm said.
Internet companies were facing a "dilemma" over how to balance support for freedom of speech with a desire not to encourage hate groups, said Prof Eric Heinze, at Queen Mary, University of London.
"Had the Charlottesville events not occurred, the hate sites would still be operating from Cloudflare, GoDaddy, and other such venues," he told the BBC.
"Some might call it satisfactory to wait until actual harm occurs before closing such a site. But others will say that's too little and too late."
BBC NEWS

Trump defends ‘beautiful’ Civil War statues

US President Donald Trump has denounced the removal of "beautiful" Confederate statues amid a heated national debate about US race relations.
"Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments," he tweeted.
"You can't change history, but you can learn from it," he continued.
Mr Trump drew outrage by defending organisers of a white supremacist rally that left a woman dead and dozens hurt.
The rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, supported by neo-Nazis and white supremacists, was in protest of the removal of a statue of Robert E Lee, a general who had fought for the pro-slavery Confederacy during the US Civil War.
It turned deadly when a driver ploughed into a crowd of counter protesters, inflicting fatal injuries on Heather Heyer.
"Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson - who's next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish!" Mr Trump continued in a series of tweets on Thursday.
"The beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!"
The recent removal of controversial statues, including some to leaders of the pro-slavery rebellion defeated in the US Civil War, has been the latest flashpoint in racial tensions across the country.
Critics say monuments to the Confederacy are racially offensive, but supporters say they are important symbols preserving Southern heritage.
Maine's Governor Paul LePage, a Republican, said on Thursday taking down Confederate statues is "just like" removing a monument to the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
But relatives of Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate leader Mr Trump mentioned in his Thursday tweets, wrote an open letter to the mayor of Richmond, Virginia, urging him to remove the statue of their great-great-grandfather and all other Confederate statues in town.
Jack and Warren Christian, Mr Jackson's great-great-sons, said removing the statues would "further difficult conversations about racial justice".
"While we are not ashamed of our great-great-grandfather, we are ashamed to benefit from white supremacy while our black family and friends suffer," the pair wrote. "We are ashamed of the monument."
Robert E Lee V, the great-great-grandson of the famous Confederate general, issued a statement condemning the violence in the wake of the statue removals.
"While the debate about how we memorialise figures from our past continues, we the descendants of Robert E Lee decry in the strongest terms the misuse of his memory by those advancing a message of intolerance and hate," he said in a statement to the BBC.
"He never would have tolerated the hateful words and violent actions of white supremacists, the KKK, or Neo Nazis."
The president's comments came after a week of turmoil over his response to the violent clashes in the small Virginia town.
Mr Trump was criticised for blaming both sides for the violence, but belatedly condemned the white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups on Monday.
During a heated news conference on Tuesday he backtracked and again blamed left-wing counter-protesters for the incident, too.
Amid the fallout over the president's response, corporate leaders and CEOs began resigning from two White House business councils.
On Wednesday, the Strategy and Policy Forum announced it would disband as Mr Trump said he would end the council as well as a manufacturing one.
BBC NEWS

Barcelona: Van hits crowds in Ramblas tourist area

A van has ploughed into crowds in Barcelona's Las Ramblas tourist area.
Spanish police say several people have been injured in a "massive crash", while emergency services are urging people to stay away from the area around Plaça de Catalunya.
Reports from the scene say people are taking cover in nearby shops and cafes.
Reuters news agency reports that emergency services have requested the closure of local metro and train stations.
El Pais newspaper said the driver of the vehicle had fled on foot after mowing down dozens of people.
Steven Turner, who works in the area, told the BBC: "People in my office saw a van ramming into people on Las Ramblas.
"I saw about three or four people lying on the ground."
"There are lots of ambulances and armed police with assault rifles around now."
Details of this incident are still unclear, but vehicles have been used to ram into crowds in a series of attacks across Europe since July last year.
Aamer Anwar said he was walking down Las Ramblas, which was "jam-packed" with tourists.
"All of a sudden, I just sort of heard a crashing noise and the whole street just started to run, screaming. I saw a woman right next to me screaming for her kids," he told Sky News.
"Police were very, very quickly there, police officers with guns, batons, everywhere. Then the whole street started getting pushed back.
"Police officers who got there just started screaming at people to move back, move back."

Las Ramblas

  • Central boulevard that runs 1.2km (0.75 miles) through the centre of Barcelona
  • Runs from the city's Plaça de Catalunya (Catalonia Square) to the Christopher Columbus monument at the seafront.
  • Popular with tourists because of its market stalls, bars and restaurants
  • Barcelona city council restricted traffic flow because of heavy pedestrian use of the street
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