The Stateless Rohingya Blog

SAN FRANCISCO -- In Myanmar, there is now a three-month wait for a hotel reservation. An hour-long flight from nearby Bangkok -- one of the few means of entering the country -- costs around $800. In the wake of recent elections, tourists are now flocking to this one-time global pariah. But for members of the Bay Area Burmese Diaspora community, refugees mostly, recent signs of opening are being greeted with guarded optimism. Some question just how far the country’s ruling military regime is willing to go with its promise of reform.

From a stock photo in 2011, a group of 91 Burmese Rohingya “boat people”  were arrested and detained in Phuket, Thailand. (PHOTO: Phuketwan.com) DILI, Timor Leste—An investigation is underway into the case of 26 Burmese asylum seekers who were on a boat that ran out of fuel en route to Australia, landing near East Timor. The boat, with 26 Burmese asylum seekers and an Indonesian captain, left Indonesia on March 21 but ran out of fuel on March 27 near Wetali, on the south coast of East Timor, according to the East Timorese Prosecutor-General’s dispatch document on the case.

By  Tom Andrews The writer, a former U.S. representative from Maine, is president of  United to End Genocide . Last Sunday international election monitors and media outlets reported a remarkable event in Burma.   Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi   — who spent years under house arrest, and sometimes in prison, fighting for democracy and justice — was elected to parliament. All week, calls have grown for all   economic sanctions and international pressure   on the Burmese regime to be lifted.

By Hla Hla Htay (AFP) David Cameron is due to meet Nobel laureate Suu Kyi on April 13 (AFP/File, Mark Richards)  YANGON — British Prime Minister David Cameron is due in Myanmar this week on the first visit by a top Western leader since decades of military rule ended last year, government officials said Monday.

Burma's President Thein Sein (2nd L) and US President Barack Obama (2nd R) are pictured during the ASEAN-US Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, on 18 November 2011. (Reuters)