Pneumonia and diarrhea have been affecting Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh and its neighboring areas since first week of January, said Korim Ullah, a refugee from Nayapara refugee camp.

Most of the children from Nayapara official Rohingya refugee camp are suffering from Pneumonia and diarrhea diseases due to winter season, he more added.

According to refugees, the refugee patients are taken to the Nayapara refugee camp clinic but they are only given oral saline and some medicines. But, no death reports with this disease in the camp.

Similarly, the refugee children from Leda unregistered refugee camp (Tal), Kutupalong official refugee camp and Kutupalong unregistered refugee camp are also suffering from pneumonia and diarrhea, Nur Kamal, a refugee from Kutupalong official camp said.

Besides, hundreds of local Bangladeshi children from Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf areas have been suffering from diarrhea and pneumonia and admitted in different clinics or hospitals of Teknaf and Cox’s Bazar as patients are increasing day by day, Ibrahim, a doctor from Teknaf said.

A medical officer Mohammed Saber from Cox’s Bazar said that since started of winter season, Rotavirus – a contagious virus that can cause gastroenteritis (inflammation of the stomach and intestines). Symptoms include severe watery diarrhea, often with vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain – was found in the areas which affect mostly infants and young children and become severely dehydrated and need to be hospitalized and can even die.

About 200 to 250 children have been admitted in Teknaf and Cox’s Bazar hospitals from local areas and only four children were died in Teknaf area, according to Teknaf health center.

Two innocent Rohingya Fishermen have shot dead in Shuja Abad Khayin khali Maung Daw Arakan State by the Burmese criminal terrorist regime on 12 Jan 2016 . According to the report the young Fishermen names Abdul Gaddar s/o Sayedul Amin 34 years old and another Muhammad Rafique s/o Sayed Alam 37 years old .

Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi Monday said bringing peace to the country’s strife-wracked ethnic regions will be a priority for her government when it takes power.

The veteran democracy champion’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party swept landmark November polls that look set to curtail the military’s decades-long chokehold on the country.

But under Myanmar’s complicated junta-era political charter, her party is not expected to take power until February — and Suu Kyi herself is banned from becoming president.

“We have to build peace. Building peace is the first ever duty of a new government,” she told supporters at the party’s Yangon headquarters on Monday, during a speech marking the country’s Independence Day.

“We have to work to include everyone in a signed ceasefire agreement by holding a really effective peace conference,” she added.

The 70-year-old opposition leader had remained somewhat tight-lipped on what her government’s main objectives and who her main players will be, as delicate transition negotiations continue between the incumbent military-backed government and her victorious party.

Myanmar is a patchwork of ethnic identities with over 130 officially-recognised minority groups, many with distinct languages and cultures.

Across vast swathes of these often remote regions, ethnic rebel groups have fought wars against the military for greater autonomy, many of them lasting for decades.

Ethnic minorities have long accused the central government and the military of human rights abuses and resource grabs.

Myanmar’s outgoing quasi-civilian, military-backed government recently inked ceasefires with a clutch of ethnic armed groups, with a landmark peace conference due to start next Tuesday.

But several major conflicts persist and some of the most significant insurgent outfits have yet to sign up to the deal.

Suu Kyi has said her party supports a federal future and has made ethnic affairs and peace a central pillar of her party manifesto for Myanmar, where ethnic minority groups have fought decades-long wars for greater autonomy.

But she was criticised in the run-up to the polls for failing to reach out to minority parties.

“All people have to participate in our struggle,” she told supporters. “Tatmadaw (the army) must participate. Ethnic groups must participate.”

Suu Kyi is acutely aware that even once her government takes power, its rule will be limited.

The military retains huge power with a quarter of parliamentary seats reserved for unelected soldiers, and military appointees in charge of key security ministries.

The ban on Suu Kyi taking the top position of president stems from her having married a foreigner and having foreign born children.

Outgoing president Thein Sein steps down on March 31. His successor will be chosen in a vote by Myanmar’s two legislative houses and the military parliamentary bloc.

Suu Kyi has vowed to rewrite the junta-era constitution and be “above the president” when her government takes power.

A Rakhine (Magh) man suspected to be a militant member from Arakan Army (AA) was caught while plotting to create unrest in ‘Aung Mingalar’ Quarter in Sittwe (Akyab) Township yesterday, according to the local reports.

It was around 9:30AM yesterday (January 3, 2015) when a Rakhine man entered ‘Kyauk-Yoe Kwet Sone’ in ‘Aung Mingalar’ quarter from the side of the Rakhine sub-quarters in ‘Kundan’ Quarter. The local Rohingyas caught him with the help of the local elder, U Shwe Hla, as they became suspicious of him carrying out activities to trigger unrest.

As soon as he was caught, they called the Police from No. 1 Police station in Sittwe. The In-charge of the Regional Security Police, U Kyaw Thaung, arrived and the local Rohingyas handed him (the suspected militant) over to the police officer. 

It has been learnt that FIR has been lodged against him subsequently after the arrest. 

As the intense fighting between the Burmese (Myanmar) Military and the Arakan Army (AA), a Rakhine militant outfit, broke out in late December 2015, there have been many attempts to create violence against Rohingyas all over Arakan state as a tactic for ‘Public-Attention Diversion.’ 

Similarly, the Burmese domestic media directly or indirectly controlled by Rakhine interest groups have been playing similar roles by arbitrarily alleging the Genocide Victims, Rohingya Muslims, to have links with foreign extremist groups [the links that never exist in reality.

Myanmar authorities have denied an application for a planned seminar on the ethnic identity of Rohingya Muslims living in the troubled western state of Arakan (Rakhine), according to an official Thursday.

Rohingya – whom the United Nations consider to be the world’s most persecuted ethnic minority — have been fleeing Myanmar in droves since 2012, in fear of violence that some human rights groups consider to be state sponsored.

A senior official confirmed to Anadolu Agency on Thursday that Yangon’s regional government had decided Wednesday to block the seminar, expressing concern that it could have sparked anger among the public.

“According to the decision of the cabinet meeting yesterday, we informed the organizers today that [they] were not permitted to hold the seminar,” the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with media.

“The seminar is not necessary at this time as even the President doesn’t accept the ‘Rohingya’ word.

Anadolu Agency was unable to reach organizers and participants of the “Consideration on the Ethnic Identity of So-called Rohingya” event for comment.

More than one million Rohingya Muslims – who the government denies citizenship in their own land, living in Arakan (Rakhine), which has witnessed a series of violent outbreaks between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and minority Muslims since mid-2012.

According to the Arakan Project, a group monitoring rights violations and migration across the Bay of Bengal, the conflict has left hundreds dead and more than 140,000 – mostly Rohingya — confined to internal displacement camps.

Following a human trafficking crisis in Southeast Asia earlier this year, Myanmar’s neighbors had called on the country to resolve its Muslim Rohingya issue — which human rights groups have claimed is the source of the trafficking problem.

Myanmar has responded to any criticism of its internal problems by accusing outsiders of interfering in its affairs.

A French national working with an Islamic NGO has been arrested in Bangladesh, reportedly accused of “suspicious activities” that could mean up to 10 years in jail. He was working with the Rohingya minority, Muslims who have fled persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Puemo Tchantchuing, who prefers to be known as Moussa Ibn Yacoub since his conversion to Islam, was arrested on Tuesday 22 December and has been detained since then.

As well as being accused of “suspicious activities”, punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment, he may be charged with using a false identity, because the name he uses is not the one on his passport and identity card, according to lawyer Samim Bolaky.

He was working for the French-based NGO Baraka City, which says he was stopped at a checkpoint while going to schools and orphanages in the south of the country where the Rohingya camps are situated.

“He is being kept in catastrophic conditions in cells that contain more than 40 prisoners,” Bolaky said.

He also faces charges for not registering with the authorities, according to Baraka City, which says that since the Rohingya are considered illegal immigrants it is not possible for the NGO to declare its presence legally.

The French embassy in Bangladesh has provided the “usual protection” and he is waiting to appear in court, France’s foreign ministry said.

Baraka City, which was founded by strict Salafist Muslims, manages a budget of several million euros.

French police have searched its premises several times and its bank accounts have been closed on more than one occassion but no connection to terrorist groups has ever been established.

Over 97,000 people had signed a Facebook petition for the detained man’s release on Sunday afternoon.