The Stateless Rohingya Blog

By Gautam Sen: The Rohingyas, numbering nearly a million and thereby constituting a significant portion of the approximately 55 million population of Myanmar, are recognised by the UN as one of the most persecuted ethnic minorities in the world. The level of persecution has only varied over the past few years, and has worsened now. General Ne Win, former dictator Premier of erstwhile Burma (now Myanmar), caused the greatest misery to the Rohingyas and started the process of their deprivation by stripping them of Burmese citizenship in 1982. There has been no reversal of this trend by successive military junta leaders. Instead, further socio-economic isolation and persecution has been brought upon the Rohingyas by successive governments in Yangon. As per conditions presently prevailing in Myanmar, the Geneva Convention on Refugees of 1951 and its Protocol of 1967 are being grossly violated in respect of the Rohingyas. Burma – India Relations The geographical proximity of the

President Thein Sein during interview with VOA Burmese Service chief Than Lwin Htun, Naypyitaw, August 13, 2012. B urmese President Thein Sein says his government will open schools to improve the education of minority Rohingya Muslims who accuse the majority Buddhist state of persecuting them. In an exclusive interview with VOA Burmese Service chief Than Lwin Htun in Naypyidaw, Thein Sein also said he believes it is necessary to modify  the country's 1982 Citizenship Law , which grants Burmese nationality to third-generation immigrants. He did not elaborate. The Burmese government refuses to recognize the country's estimated 800,000 Rohingya Muslims as an ethnic group and denies them citizenship. Many Burmese consider the Rohingya to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Rohingya Muslims, who fled Myanmar to Bangladesh to escape religious violence, sit in a boat after being intercepted crossing the Naf River by Bangladeshi border authorities in Taknaf,

The aftermath of ethnic violence in Myanmar leaves tens of thousands of Rakhine and Rohingya refugees in its wake. Sittwe, Myanmar -  Monsoon rains have done little to dampen heated ethnic tensions in Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine state, where dozens have died in tit-for-tat attacks over the past two months. Scars of the conflict are visible in the charred blocks of land, where entire villages were burned to the ground by angry mobs armed with knives and metal poles. The aftermath is particularly evident in the Narze quarter of the capital Sittwe, which has become a ghost town since the Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya were evacuated to keep the peace. The refugee camps and villages lacking food now house 70,000 people, according to police Lieutenant Colonel Myo Min Aung. Violence flared after the alleged rape of a Buddhist woman and the retribution killing of ten Muslims. Days of fighting between the Rakhine and Rohingya ensued, bringing the official death toll to 78.

N asaka commits suicide in Maungdaw Township Maungdaw, Arakan State:  A Nasaka (Burma’s border security force) of Nasaka area No. 5 of Maungadw north, Arakan State committed suicide on August 13, at about 10:00 pm while sitting in a house of Rakhine village named Aukpruma, according to a Nasaka aide.

Indonesia has urged the Organization of the Islamic Conference to take action to help stop bloody conflicts in Myanmar and Syria, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said, as the international organization prepared for an emergency summit on Tuesday.   The OIC has scheduled an emergency summit to implement recommendations formed after OIC foreign ministers met on Monday in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to discuss issues facing the world's Muslim community. Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Tuesday that Indonesia had urged the ministers to devise a concrete strategy to stop the violence and killings in Myanmar and Syria. “Just condemning various problems faced by Muslims is not a policy,” he said. “The OIC should take concrete and constructive steps to overcome the various problems of the  ummat  [Islamic community].” In Myanmar, he said, the OIC should act to help stop the killings of the Rohingya Muslim minority, who have been targeted by violence in the state of Rakhine. Human Rights

Maungdaw, Arakan State:   More than 3000 Rohingyas had fled  from their villages of  Rathedaung Township since August 8, according to an elder from Maungdaw south. “These Rohingyas are from Thet pying, Thara pying ,Anauk pying and others villages of Rathedaung and they had fled from their village to save their lives after threatening  Rakhines .”