The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Guterres, UNHCR chief A storm of criticism has flared again over Myanmar's treatment of ethnic Rohingya - and its request to the United Nations refugee agency last week to resettle more than half a million of them to countries overseas. But Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) - who told Myanmar's President Thein Sein it was not possible to deport the Rohingya - tried to play down the affair in an exclusive interview in Bangkok on Friday.

The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, in a statement issued in Jeddah today, strongly condemned the renewed repression and violation of human rights of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim nationals since last June  2012  that has resulted in deaths of innocent civilians, burning of their homes and mosques and forcing them to leave their homeland. He added that over the past three decades, the Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim citizens have been subjected to gross violation of human rights including ethnic cleansing, killings, rape, and forced displacement by Myanmar security forces.

Two Rakhines with arms arrest in Maungdaw On July 14, at about 5:30 pm, two Rakhine villagers namely U Maung Soe Tha and U Soe from Oo Daung (Rakhine) village with guns pretending to be army robbed Rohingya villages of Maungdaw south and raped Rohingya  women . However, they were arrested by the Nasaka personnel from Sector No. 8 of Maungdaw Township, said a villager.  “Rohingya villagers are demoralized by the persecutions of police, Hluntin (riot police), army and Sarapa (Military Intelligence) since June 8. Meanwhile, some of the Rakhine goons taking this advantage, they ( Rakhine goons) went to Rohingya villages and robbed the goods and raped  women by pretending as army. Where did they get guns and uniforms?”

June 20 marked the World Refugee Day. It was supposed  to raise awareness of the plight of the estimated 42 million displaced people worldwide. A United Nations report released that week showed that 800,000 people were forced to flee across borders last year --  more  than any time since 2000. In a message to mark the day,  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, “We must not turn away from those in need. Refugees leave because they have no choice. We must choose to help.”

the government of Myanmar continues to persecute and discriminate against the Rohingya minority. The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, in a statement issued in Jeddah today. He strongly condemned the renewed repression and violation of human rights of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim nationals since last June 2012 that has resulted in deaths of innocent civilians, burning of their homes and mosques and forcing them to leave their homeland.

According to the  unofficial  reports, more than 20,000 Muslims have been killed, tortured and displaced by the extremist Buddhists in Burma’s Rakhine province, the worst sectarian killing in this part of the world over  the years . The violence had killed 29 people in a day and displaced more than 30,000, said Htein Lin, secretary of the Ministry for  Border  Affairs. 

By Dr. Habib Siddiqui June 30 came and went. It was the dateline set by the Thein Sein government of Myanmar for an inquiry report on current violence in the Arakan state, triggered by the lynching of ten tablighi Muslims (visiting from Rangoon) on June 3. That violence soon turned into a well-orchestrated pogrom against the Rohingya Muslims of Arakan (the Rakhine state) in Myanmar (Burma). According to several human rights groups thousands of unarmed Muslims may already have been killed in the apartheid state of Myanmar. Many Rohingya young men, picked up by the government forces, have simply disappeared, and are now feared death. Many victims – old and young, afraid of being ambushed and tortured to death by the racist Rakhine extremists and their partners-in-crime -- the government forces, have ventured out to seek asylum as refugees in Bangladesh.

Aid has struggled to reach those affected by sectarian unrest in early June, as abusive treatment by Burmese authorities continues. The UN announced on Friday that 10 aid workers in Arakan state had been arrested, five of whom were UN staff. Some have been charged, although the details remain unclear. Rates of malnutrition among the Muslim Rohingya, who have borne the brunt of emergency measures implemented in the wake of fierce rioting in early June between the minority group and the majority Arakanese, are said to be "alarming". The vast majority of aid workers assisting the Rohingya in Arakan have been either evacuated or forced to flee in recent weeks.

June 13,  2012  - a Rohingya  Muslim  man who fled Myanmar to Bangladesh to escape religious violence, cries as he pleads from a  boat  after he and others were intercepted by Bangladeshi border authorities. Photo: Anurup Titu / AP (Washington, DC - July 12, 2012) The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) expresses  its profound concern about the current violence against members of the Rohingya Muslim community, which have long experienced great hardship and oppression in their  home  country of Myanmar.