Support for kurdish fighters a in syria. Those are the headlines on aljazeera the stream is up next stay with us. Facing realities growing up when did you realize that you were living in a special place the socalled secret city getting to the heart of the matter while activist jailed just because she expressed herself hear their story on talk to aljazeera at this time. Hi im femi oke a and imo it could be loud today a stream update on a story weve covered extensively here and across the aisle dizzier and that work the crisis the United Nations is confronting several issues at once this is back to continue violence while the million mom military the arrests of journalists covering the story and the abundant problems facing refugees in neighboring bangladesh as always tweet us your comments or if youre watching live on you tube take part in the chat and you too could be in the stream. Of storms. The u. N. Is sounding the alarm about another potential crisis facing me in march for his refugee the march monsoon season since august around six hundred seventy thousand were him have fled their homes in me amar to bangladesh in an effort to escape the violence against them this month alone more than fifteen hundred refugees have fled across the border and thousands more are expected now the u. N. Estimates one hundred seven thousand refugees are living in areas of baghdad desh prone to flooding or landslides and joining us to talk about this in Dhaka Bangladesh a journalist choudhry in frankfurt germany. Activists and blogger in new york Katherine Mahoney shes the senior spokesperson with the United Nations high commissioner for refugees and here in our studio matt wells hes a senior crisis advisor with amnesty. The International Welcome everyone to the stream i want to start with a member of our community this is priya an International Lawyer who tweeted in this about the upcoming monsoon season multiple accounts have painted a very dire picture of the camps already and these are the camps in bangladesh with the onset of the monsoon there will be greater risk of water Borne Disease and epidemics mudslides logistical difficulties with food and essential provisions and thats just to name a few grave concerns tanveer what are preparations looks like for the upcoming season. Well the u. N. Agencies are saying that up to a hundred thousand people are under this condition we have i was just reported from around the family and i struggle i fear when he was that monsoon season and i had my fellow have been in knee deep water watching woman with their babies in. The water in the rain with their kids exposed to weather twenty four hours no i under the very Poor Condition congested about five hundred thousand refugees living in a between could apollo and kali thats just two of the areas and the infrastructure is a very poor during the rainy season a lot of people have to walk down to the camp to get their food the shelters are basic bamboo pole type being made out of plastic. Tents are weather proof and much better condition but thats grossly inadequate. From that. A. Logical leave the near bare bengal and prone to heavy monsoon cycling in the bay of bengal and during the season these people are not really protected i mean the winds will blow away most of this kind considering all the situation that needs to be much more robust activity there considering the u. N. Say that the funding is getting dried out you know they need more funding for food as well as the infrastructure donors are reluctant to give in more fun so this is a very impending and multidimensional problem down there kathleen i wont see coming how we prepare and how the refugees got a rebel. Yeah i couldnt agree more this truly is a race against time to prevent a crisis for people who have quite simply already suffered enough who dont belong is currently the Worlds Largest refugee camp so imagine People Living in incredibly precarious situation its overcrowded the risks for. Public Health Problems are rife as you mentioned we do estimate that one hundred thousand People Living in this camp are in areas that are prone to landslides and flooding were talking about a about a third of the settlement which could flood so currently the government of bongo that is leading this massive humanitarian and Emergency Preparedness effort were in the process of working with the government and all of the humanitarian partners to move tens of thousands of people out of flood prone areas were working with to provide sandbags to prevent flooding were trying to negotiate access to new land to move people to places that are safer were also desperately concerned that the efforts that weve already put in place to provide humanitarian aid could also be swept away in this human in this monsoon season so really this is a massive effort thats under way and it has massive means and everybody is truly rallying together to make this situation better but it is it is a huge problem you know there are members of our community who are linking the upcoming months to see the monsoon season with things that are even worse this is protect the rain about their handle they write in that their legal team took statements from over sixty one refugees in bangladesh last december asking them about their challenges they talked about everything from access to education and labor to medical and food and they go on to say though the impending monsoon sounds far safer than. Creation to me in mar where the military can continue its campaign of starvation rape and mass murder against the redemption this is a. The words of this person who tweeted that we talked about impending repatriation where are we with that program and i think talk of repatriation is really premature repatriation needs to be rooted in the principles of being safe and voluntary and dignified and the reality is right now the abuses being committed by the me and our military have yet to even stop as we reported last week they are in effect starving out the remaining population in northern Rakhine State they have blocked access so people cant go out to the rice fields in order to harvest rice they have burned markets or blocked access to other markets they have with along with vigilantes they have looted cattle buffaloes cows basically all of the range of wealth has been taken away and its been made impossible even to go out to harvest rice fields and so the result has been now you know growing Food Insecurity and people consistently telling me in recent weeks when i was in bangladesh that they are arriving now in bangladesh because they have been driven to the point of starvation and so at this time in particular in the aftermath of what was a horrific campaign of violence involving widespread killings widespread Sexual Violence against women and girls in the targeted burning of range of villages we need to address these issues first in the culture of impunity that is allowed to me and my military to get away with this as well as the underlying conditions that we say amount to apartheid in terms of the long standing denial of the ability to move around freely to access education to Access Health care is the population has been systematically persecuted and discriminated against for years and those issues have to be addressed before we can talk about the ability to safely return people to northern Rakhine State and they these are stories that you tell in your blog. Activism and your research that youll do and i want to show you something on my laptop or this comes from the government from their Facebook Page and its always difficult for us here now to say where to go. The government perspective so we went. To see what they have to say the new month government will not tomorrow and also will write spiral one sestak out strong evidence i will for all Human Rights Violations often investigation prosecutors will take actions according to your. What do you make of that. The only see but recently if you see this story of the Associated Press they have exposed their five miles. Betty. I spoke with many very jump from that with ive been there are some very gender some really enjoy a village or are living inside that very good old where are they. Are and also what i have always stood five video on my facebook and that reader as well so all the government you know simply dismiss. That too and also they have been doing these things. Sixteen we have many story told many every day yes but they simply dismiss as if fake news and you know the event attacked me last night only on their state Media Television and their state news people are and they called me that i am posting there on the big news and even they dismiss all they really. Are the fig tree yesterday their interview with their prophet so yeah. Channel of bull she also said you know they are dismissing everything like you know there is. There is no any atrocity against their own people and also there is no rape this is they will never admitting that they are committing the crime again is. Nine hundred Seventy Eight they will never admit that they are these you know side. Boss or do yes. So channel four is a British News Network or put a channel in the United Kingdom and we just share this with our game firm. Information committal the ground went to the locations that were mentioned in the a. P. News story as where the bodies were buried and found out that it is not true naysay thats what you were saying there again they you say someday and they say no that didnt happen yeah let me get it jumping why did the government option you sitting there i was on the floor with the baby turtle did they didnt go to the place where there was great are they just go into the. Village and they came back and. Theyre not. Hiring you said that they didnt find any was great didnt want to bring in another member and i hear what youre saying there may i want to bring in another member of the community have ebola is in the u. S. Hes a member of the iraq and rangel National Organization and this is what he told the stream about repatriation efforts theres enormous change of a teacher of the myanmar government and to me today tours to the rangers is to the identified ranges as bengali in total course from others and you see rangers continue entering into bangor there is due to continuing violence and brutality against them you know come and jess it would be worse just simply moving the fugitive from bangladesh to another town in north dakota state catherine he doesnt think that its possible what is what sea u. N. H. C. R. Position on what conditions are like for repatriation. Absolutely i couldnt agree more with what everybody is saying we are hearing nothing but hauling reports of violence harrowing accounts of individuals witnessing the murders of their husbands their wives their childrens people are fleeing villages that are have essentially been razed to the ground under no circumstances do we believe that conditions are conducive to return at this stage and for us we believe that the solutions to this crisis for a crisis of seven hundred thousand people flood the border and for many hundred thousands more inside myanmar the solutions to this crisis lie inside me and mar intil we have a guarantee that there is peace and security and one that is sustainable we cannot advocate for the return even a voluntary one for people to return to me and mark the conditions simply are not conducive we cannot guarantee peace and security and intel the root causes of this crisis are addressed. Were not going to have a solution tell me how do you get like they say i hear you just give me one my just to check in with ted there for a moment had his head light had bangladesh you and overseen of the hinge of refugees to me and how do you get that situation but we here in ne and catherine talking about how it is so dangerous for the refugees to go back why did i just say lets do this. Just a few days ago the defrocking minister say that they have an agreement with the un to monitor this and he couldnt going to detail exactly on one or more capacity rather we know under the agreement myanmar has never agreed for a u. N. Participation in the process and what other guests say it is exactly true we still have room to refugees crossing into buying up there just on february tenth and the week before that approximately over two hundred people crossed into buying with that and they have been very similar stories what other record does that say that there still are trust that has been going at the big weapon has been burned so under this condition and the International Community can very visibly see the situation is definitely not conducive corney any victims to go into that place and expect some sort of confidence to leave there without some sort of international guarantee despite what bangladesh and myanmar saying to diffuse diplomatic tension and to get benefit of to create understanding and defuse the tension so that there is a bilateral communication going on which is a good step but this is definitely not a time where theyre trying to which it should be able to go back to. State without some sort of guarantee and that he returned saying there about this being about defusing diplomatic tensions or someone online who would agree this is via you tube life and she will says now no one knows when they will get back to their home country without any recognition of citizenship from the me and my governor. An issue weve covered here on the stream and he goes on to say the Bangladesh Government should have agreed on a specific timeline to thin the back was there a timeline and where did it go wrong i mean various times there has been the governments have put forth a timeline for us the idea of a specific timeline is actually problematic and that then. Returns might not be might not be rooted in the principles of being safe and voluntary thats also what we need to ensure and so if you set a hard time line and say they have to go back by this point and its still not safe in northern Rakhine State as all of my fellow panelists have pointed out then the they shouldnt be returned it again it has to be rooted in being safe and voluntary and and i think it is an important point with while the Bangladeshi Government has talked about the involvement of the u. N. To me and more governments is still you know not indicated that it will allow the type of involvement from the u. N. That we need to see and at the same time it is to severely restricting aid access in northern Rakhine State its limiting the ability of humanitarian actors there to get assistance to the who are still there who desperately need it its also severely restricting the ability of independent investigators to go to northern Rakhine State and to document the types of atrocities that have been. Out i want to share his to this without its really this was something to get out recently youre talking about the briefing document you were involved in putting together you just back from the region two weeks ago and you say here the military has stuff this is the mom that she has starved. Right from the way his remains. State give us one story tell us one story because hes so much about the one that were never going to forget you know i mean i took so many and the devastating because these are people who. One man for example you know he stayed as part of a. Village was burned he stayed as members of his family were killed he stayed in the market in his village was torched by mean more soldiers he stayed as all of his life stuck in the livestock of other engine his village were taken away by the military and by other ethnic groups in the area where he couldnt or some at least a you know afterwards when the military then stopped him from going to his rice fields and it got to a situation where he couldnt get enough food for himself for his family he saw that his Young Children were in effect starving because of what the military was continuing to do the fact they are continuing to squeeze the population more than five months into this campaign and so its only that whats forced him and other people who recently arrived to bangladesh to even we cant. Yet it cannot be from want dont know theyre. Going to trouble you dont. You dont so will. I be bloody i washed i went i want to get you live what have you got the realities the kind of. Ready they had then if you look at. August it got up. And it will all goes well and it is. Any special mission. You can get there but you cannot get the old know we cant wrap up this conversation without talking about an explosive expose and by reuters about a massacre and i was also can you give us an example so we can connect the story and that story that right instead its now two of the organizations journalists jale wallowed. Were investigating the killings of a hinge on muslims in northern Rakhine State and the journalists reporting that ten people. Happen shot and will happen to death by a group that included that but it snowballs and soul jets them up who are chief of writers told the street a little bit earlier today that the organization stands behind the story and those teach us the story also highlights the importance of high quality indepth reporting that so badly needed in myanmar as it goes through democratic transition. Both well known until so apart from being fantastic reporters are also great husbands great sons great friends and they we are in touch with them when they come out to the court for almost weekly hearings and we know that they very strongly supported the decision to publish the story. They were in the courtroom this week they will be back. In Court Next Week as well and we expect. The judicial process to take some time and thats why we are very you know we we appreciate any expressions of interest and encourage moment and support as the reporters. Spend their time behind bars danny is now for we have. Hes a Senior Reporter were funny. Would it be fair to say that you were poor and you two stories that are probably more sympathetic to the administration government. You know what i know this inclusion is all a lot in a body a done anything major now that will come in and you know maybe go to the right. Because you know the people on media going down on the nation and the media and even on the media that got in on the. Little people angry on on the above you look. At the names in the media and then look at media. Media. Of all military and you know the problem there like that the op ed the right has to take on that most people who were not to need to know they became very angry and couldnt get up there the need for. Reporting you know its not only on one reporter and the anthonys in the media its all. Two on the albany like beyond that what you know well if its trust and media is going down this could be one reason we got the video comment this isnt local newspaper editor any im finding this is what he told the stream we need to be simply. Before we write any piece and before we publish any peny we must be being followed the the calmest amen emanating from me and an International One ideation. About the life of the average out of english because a weekend with the violence fast. That is. Very very comforting. So matt he talks about some of the challenges facing reporters like him you of course couldnt actually go in to see the camps yourself you were using satellite imagery is that correct can you talk about some of the challenges we have access throughout of course to the part that many people who are in bangladesh and so frequently interviewed the many who have fled across into bangladesh and weve supported that with satellite imagery to see again the very targeted systematic nature of the military is burning you see in some of these villages that are mixed that aboriginal population where within you know five ten meters apart you have the entire area completely burned to the ground every last structure and the areas completely intact and weve interviewed people from those villages who describe where they live in the population lives and it lines up it corroborates in terms of who did this to me and more military and to whom the population in these villages and so i think you know our reporting when you look at what reuters was able to do with this indian report its incredibly thorough and its not just testimony from victims from witnesses but also from the perpetrators of the specific incident and it lines up with what weve reported with what Human Rights Watch has reported about what journalists you know from the most respected Media Outlets in the world have reported again and again and again that this is been a Systematic Campaign led by the Myanmar Military against their and just civilian population across Northern Lights i have a headline here which from the New York Times it says well the way he has we are just going to school down here he gave us a very different perspective from inside as to how they feel the world is reporting about you do you wont see him jet fuel an outside of do you want them to come back. You are. Or wont be going out of the. World in your mind. Or going to be. In the morgue when youre already agreed you are in no where a group who. Were ok i thank you too i guess for this update on a very complicated long running story thank you matt tam via ne for joining us and also catherine as well of course this story we will continue to cover it at al jazeera dot com and you can find the link on i online at how a. J. Stream just checking in from the house a story going down on line i will interview this week from andrew who is from reuters and links to a petition that you can sign to help get those reporters released. And so watching everybody take a. What makes this moment this era were living through so unique this is really an attack on truth itself is a lot of misunderstanding a distortion isnt of what free speech is supposed to be about the context is hugely important level right to publish if you have a duty to be offensive or provoke the podium and eyes people to setting the stage for a serious debate up front at this time on aljazeera. Is always telling you how famous he was going to make thats how he presented hello my name and body without consciousness it is northwest representatives kind of. Teacher put it. I said you are a member of the were on the special meeting about the nail and he said no. Thats not the topic i knew immediately this is a cover you have used on the main man city aljazeera investigation which foot wall of silence this time. Aljazeera. Where ever you are. Steve bannon Donald Trumps former right hand man is questioned by investigators over alleged russian meddling in u. S. Politics. And im fully back to boyer watching aljazeera live from doha also