The Stateless Rohingya Blog

A Rohingya mother is seen in a refugee camp in Teknaf. PHOTO: AFP The calamitous ordeal of the Rohingya community of Myanmar has received woefully  inadequate media coverage  over the years despite having been declared one of the most hectored, tyrannised and aggrieved tribal minorities in the world by the United Nations. This observable fact can be unswervingly attributed to the  media  oligopolists; they are undermining the  copious atrocities  being committed against Muslims in different parts of the world in general, as part of a ploy to legitimise the ongoing war on terrorism.

(Commentary) – Even as the world smiled benignly at the democratic opening up of Myanmar and the extended foreign tour of its opposition leader, Aung San SuuKyi, the country’s complex domestic dynamic, hidden for years, has surfaced.  The spillover of the sectarian violence that began in early June has simultaneously exposed the difficulties of democratision and the plight of Myanmar’s many underprivileged ethnic minorities.

Dr. Habib Siddiqui Last week, I came across Kanbawza Win's long article – “Killing two birds with a stone or a Win, Win Situation” (Eurasia Review, July 19, 2012) – discussing his thesis for solving the Rohingya crisis in western Burma. As a global citizen who has worked for decades to make our world a more inclusive one away from the brunt of racism and bigotry, I could not resist the temptation to read Mr. Win’s piece. After all, Mr. Win is part of the so-called pro-democracy movement for Burma. He has been critical of the military regime that has been ruling Burma. He is also considered by many to be the voice of reason within the Burmese exiles. 

Abid Bahar Which Country is this? If you live in this country through generations and you are a Muslim Rohingya, you might be one of the unlucky persons on earth, because you have your neighbor, a racist named Ko Ko Gyi, who travels to the West but keeps his hoodlums in his neighborhood in Arakan to drive you and your family out of your ancestral home.

By Anbarasan Ethirajan BBC News, Teknaf, near Bangladesh-Burma border Zohara Khatun says she and her family ran for their lives - her father was killed Zohara Khatun is still reeling from the trauma of seeing her father killed in western Burma in June. "My father was shot dead by the Burmese military in front me. Our entire village was destroyed. We ran for our lives. I still don't know what happened to my mother," she said, sitting in a thatched hut in a fishing village near the town of Teknaf in south-eastern Bangladesh. Ms Khatun is one of the Rohingya Muslims who have managed to cross into Bangladesh following the communal unrest in western Burma's Rakhine province.