The perspective towards Rohingya refugees needs to shift from viewing them as a burden to recognising them as a competent community

Shan State in eastern Myanmar has been rocked by fighting since late June when the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) renewed an offensive against the military along a major trade highway to China.

The junta appears more vulnerable than ever. The formerly 500,000-strong military currently stands at around 150,000 troops or fewer and is severely overstretched.

Reportedly, various armed organisations and small groups are active within the Rohingya camps.

Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Ito Naoki today said it is unlikely to see a full-scale Rohingya repatriation anytime soon due to the situation in Myanmar at this moment.

The Myanmar military’s continuous air and ground assaults against the Arakan Army (AA) along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in the past few weeks have triggered fears of fresh entry of Rohingyas into the country.

Bangladesh must have meaningful dialogue with all actors involved for repatriation of Rohingya refugees.

War crimes investigators got hold of thousands of pages of documents that shed new light on Myanmar’s campaign to expel the country’s ethnic minority -- the Rohingya, as well as efforts to hide the strategy from the world.

The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (FFM) has urged the international community to cut off all financial and other support to Myanmar’s military.

The world must cut off financial and other support for Myanmar's armed forces, a UN fact-finding mission said today, repeating a call for top generals to be prosecuted for abuses against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

The Myanmar military issues a rare apology, acknowledging that two photographs it published in a book on the crisis over the Rohingya Muslim minority were "published incorrectly".

Mentioning that the findings of a new report indicate widespread human rights abuses by the Myanmar military and its other security forces, the United States says it held high-level military individuals in Myanmar responsible for the situation.

The US government hits four Myanmar military commanders and two military units with punitive sanctions, accusing them of "serious human rights abuses" and "ethnic cleansing" in violently expelling minority Rohingya from their homes.

The UN Security Council asked the Myanmar military to let it investigate rights abuses in Rakhine, but was told the “internal matter had already been investigated enough” and those responsible had been punished.

Rights bodies have come up with new evidence that fires are still torching Rohingya villages in Rakhine while Myanmar military have laid landmines during attacks on villages and along the Bangladesh border. Amnesty International has assessed three new videos taken inside Rakhine as recently as Friday afternoon showing large plumes of smoke rising from Rohingya villages as well as satellite imagery with smoke visible over burnt-out structures.

“They pushed me away. I couldn't even fight back because I had my baby with me and he could have gotten hurt,” Shanwara Begum in her mid-twenties says, her arm wrapped around her two-year old boy. Her eyes are a rare light shade of blue. They might have sparkled once; now they are dull.