Iranian Lawmakers to Visit Myanmar Next Month

TEHRAN (FNA)- An Iranian Parliamentary delegation will visit Myanmar next month to study the situation of the oppressed Muslim minority in the country, a senior legislator informed on Saturday.

"The preliminary agreements have been made for the visit of the Iranian parliamentary delegation to Myanmar," Vice-Chairman of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mansour Haqiqatpour told FNA on Saturday.

He noted that officials of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS), Iranian foreign ministry, and the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) will be accompanying the delegation during the visit to Myanmar to study the situation of the Muslims in that country.

More than 22,000 people from mainly Muslim communities have been forced to flee their homes in Western Myanmar after a fresh wave of violence and arson that left dozens dead, the UN said in a report on October 29.

The whole neighborhoods were razed in Buddhists' attack on Muslims in Rakhine state a week earlier.

Some 75,000 people are already crammed into overcrowded camps following clashes in June.

The United Nations chief in Yangon, Ashok Nigam, said government estimates provided in late October said that 22,587 people had been displaced and 4,665 houses set ablaze in the latest bloodshed.

"These are people whose houses have been burnt, they are still in the same locality," he told AFP, indicating that thousands more who had fled in boats towards the state capital Sittwe may not be included in that estimate.

"It is mainly the Muslims who have been displaced," he said, adding that 21,700 of those made homeless were Muslims.

The latest attack against Muslims has killed more than 80 people, according to a government official, bringing the total death toll since June to above 170.

Human Rights Watch on Saturday released satellite images showing "extensive destruction of homes and other property in a predominantly Rohingya Muslim area" of Kyaukpyu.

Myanmar's 800,000 Rohingya are seen as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh by the government and many Burmese - who call them "Bengalis".

The United Nations considers Rohingya as one of the most persecuted minorities on the planet.

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Amnesty International's T. Kumar to Speak at the Islamic Society of North America's Convention

Amnesty International's T. Kumar to Speak at the Islamic Society of North America's Convention Advocacy Director T. Kumar to Speak on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar (Burma) Contact: Carolyn Lang, clang@aiusa.org, 202-675-8759 /EINPresswire.com/ (Washington, D.C.) -- Amnesty International Advocacy Director T. Kumar will address the Islamic Society of North America's 49th Annual Convention "One Nation Under God: Striving for the Common Good," in regards to the minority community of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar (Burma) on Saturday, September 1, at 11:30 am at the Washington DC Convention Center.

American Buddhists Promote 969 Movement With Website

Irrawaddy News: July 9, 2013 A group of American Buddhists has launched an English-language website promoting the 969 movement, in response to negative media surrounding the ultra-nationalist Buddhist campaign in Burma. The website aims to dispel “myths” about the movement, with a letter from nationalist monk Wirathu to a Time magazine reporter whose article about 969 was banned in Burma. “We’re not officially endorsed by Ven Wirathu at this time but will send a delegation to his monastery soon,” a spokesperson for the site said via email, adding that the group would create a nonprofit to coordinate “969 activities worldwide in response to religious oppression.”

Rohingya Activist Nominated for Human Rights Award

PHR congratulates Zaw Min Htut, a Burmese Rohingya activist, on his nomination for the 2011 US State Department Human Rights Defenders Award . Zaw Min Htut has been working for Rohingyas’ rights through the Burmese Rohingya Association of Japan since he fled Burma in 1998. Prior to that he was a student activist in Burma, and was detained for his participation in protests in 1996. In Japan, Zaw Min Htut has organized protests at the Burmese embassy and has written books on the history of Rohingya.

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