The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Rathedaung Township: Twenty two villagers were arrested from Anukpin village of Rathedaung Township earlier and on June 27, again 60 villagers were arrested from the said village by army and Nasaka. After arrest, they were sent to Rakhine villages where they were tortured severally by Rakhine villagers. After that, they were sent to Akyab. The fate of the arrested villagers is not known to their relatives. The village has about 1000 houses, of them, 60 houses were burned down by Rakhines with the help of army and Nasaka though they have responsibility to give security of the Rohingya villagers, said a villager from Rathedaung on condition of anonymity.

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  High ranking police officers –District police head, Township police head with other junior polices-   are selling the rice which the police personnel and Rakhines loot rice from Rohingya shops since June 10, according to an elder from Maungdaw. “The police officers are sending rice bags from ESB (Electricity supply station compound) to Mozeullah shop of Karee (Khanpara) village every day since June 27.”

T here are wildly divergent estimates of the death toll from ethnic and religious violence in the Burmese state of Arakan. Mainstream media reports and the Burmese government are claiming that fewer than 100 people have been killed in violence they describe as clashes between the Buddhist Rakhine majority and Muslim Rohingya minority communities.

Rohingyas wait for aid outside a mosque after the Friday prayers in Sittwe on 18 May 2012. (Reuters) The Burmese army and police force have played a leading role in targeting Rohingya Muslims in northern Arakan state through mass arrests, arbitrary violence, rape and systematic discrimination since a state of emergency was declared on 10 June, according to a group of UK-based NGOs speaking to the British parliament on Wednesday.

The President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK), Tun Khin together with Benedict Rogers (East Asia Team Leader, Christian Solidarity Worldwide) and Chris Lewa (Co-ordinator for Arakan Project) presented evidence of the persecu tion of Rohingyas in Arakan State at a meeting in the British Parliament today. The meeting was chaired by Baroness Kinnock, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Burma, and focused on the current crisis in Arakan State, Burma.

By  Francis Wade   Much has been made of the recent sectarian unrest in western   Burma   and its ramifications for the country’s fragile reform process. It’s important to note that the violence and subsequent outpouring of anti-Rohingya anger is not a niche issue confined to a specific locale – instead it should be viewed as something   more pervasive among many Burman and Arakanese, both inside   Burma   and abroad, that threatens to contaminate the wider discourse on how to move the country forward.