The Stateless Rohingya Blog

The Myanmar president is expected to visit Bangladesh soon which we welcome most enthusiastically. This paper and, we feel the people of Bangladesh, are fully committed to the best of relations between our two countries, However, it would be an unforgivable act of betrayal of our national interest if we did not put the recent comments of the Myanmar president regarding the Rohingyas in his country in the proper perspective.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu (Photo: Cihan) Turkey, which is concerned about continuing violence against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, seeks to bring the plight of this community onto the international agenda, calling on the international community to end its silence on the situation affecting the Southeast Asian country.

Tehran, July 16, IRNA - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast voiced Islamic Republic of Iran’s deep concern over the reports on mass killing of Muslims in Myanmar, here on Monday. Referring to the reports about mass murder of Muslims in sectarian violence in Myanmar, he called for the immediate intervention of the Myanmar government as well as the international institutions, including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to investigate the case and help for stopping it.

Two months of horrific escalations of violence have engulfed western Burma's Rakhine State. While the conflict lurches between reproach and revenge, the media seems to be at a crossroads between better reportage and being forgotten by the drive of the news cycle. The violence threatens to extinguish the tentative embers of hope that have been kindled by the last year's incomplete reform process.

Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar tried to cross the Naf River into Bangladesh to escape sectarian violence. (File Photo) Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has expressed deep concern over the massacre of Muslims in Myanmar, urging an end to violence in the southeastern Asian country. “It is expected that the Myanmar government will prepare the ground for solidarity, national unity and [asserting the] rights of Muslims in the country and that it will avert violence and a human catastrophe in this regard,” Mehmanparast said on Monday.

AID groups have warned of an impending humanitarian catastrophe in western Myanmar as authorities attempt to isolate tens of thousands of the displaced ethnic Rohingya minority in camps described by one aid worker as “open air prisons”. Aid has struggled to reach those affected by sectarian unrest in early June. The UN announced on Friday that 10 aid workers in Arakan state had been arrested, five were UN staff. Some have been charged, although the details remain unclear.

Burma is continuing to gain international acceptance as it moves away from military rule and towards a  more  representative system of government. Among the latest developments, landmark talks between Burma's president Thein Sein and the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a major business conference in Cambodia.

(Commentary) – As president of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC), I feel it is important to express my deep regret for the failure of the world to react appropriately to the killing and persecution of Muslim ethnic Rohingya in Rakhine State, Burma. It is also regrettable that the recent visit of United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Southeast Asia occupied the attention of most international media while neglecting and thus tolerating the casualties of grave crimes against humanity in Burma.