The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Rohingya refugee camps outside the Arakan State capital Sittwe.  (Photo: Channel 4 News) A top UN envoy says that the recent visit of Turkey Foreign Minister Ahmet Ahmet Davutoglu to  violence -hit Arakan (Rakhine) State shows the Burmese government sincerely wants to solve the crisis. “This has also demonstrated the willingness of the Myanmar government to cooperate with the international community to alleviate the suffering of its people. Such positive steps will help support Myanmar’s ongoing process of democratization and reform,” said Vijay Nambiar, the special advisor on Burma to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Referring to the recent fact-finding visit led by the Davutoglu, Nambiar said the trip was significant for international transparency. Senior officials from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation were also included. The delegation visited camps where Muslims and Buddhists displaced by the violence are now living. The Turkish humanitarian aid distributed

Karyn Becker defines ethnic cleansing on Model United Nations Far West as " the elimination of an unwanted group from a society, as by genocide or forced migration". Historically, Rohingya faced ethnic cleansing before and after Independence of Burma in 1942 and 1948, and on a number of state-sponsored occasions under former dictator, general Ne Win and now from the semi-quasi civilian government. When it comes to Rohingya, Burmese society is influenced with malevolent propagandas against Rohingya as "Bengali", "Illegal Immigrant", "Influx virus",  "lower class" and even "terrorist" although Rohingya have history of being in Arakan state for hundreds of years, have been suffering untold discriminations and persecutions for more than 50 years, and considered by United Nations as one of the most persecuted people in the world. The hostility has intensified after an alleged raping of a Buddhist girl by three Rohingya boys which h

Dhaka, Aug 15 (bdnews24.com ) -- In a recent communal violence , the largest area of the Muslims in the Myanmarese city of Sittwe was razed to the ground, BBC said on Wednesday, quoting a UK broadcaster.  A team from Channel 4 news reportedly gained  access  to Sittwe, an area that has been off-limit to reporters for months. The crew filmed an area which once housed more that 10,000 Muslims and now is only rubble.  Communal clashes broke out in the Rakhine state in late May over the alleged rape and murder of a Buddhist  woman by three Muslims. In retaliation, 10 Muslims were killed by a mob.  In the following violence, which spread across the state, houses of both Muslims and Buddhists were burnt down. Most Rohingya Muslims have been moved out of Sittwe to temporary camps.  The Myanmar government declared a state of emergency following the outbreak of violence and imposed a ban on foreign media visiting the region.  The area of Sittwe known as Narzi, which the Channel 4 News team film

Buddhists are considered an indigenous ethnicity both in Bangladesh and Myanmar; Rohingya are considered foreigners both in Bangladesh and Myanmar. Courtesy: southerncrossreview.org (SITTWE Akyab, Myanmar) - All religions in the world help people lead stable social lives; providing communities ethic, morality, and spiritual development that help to establish a peaceful society. Every religion has a right to claim that “it is the best religion” but no religion can claim that “this is the only best religion in the world”. Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama in 500 B.C. In the beginning, it had a lot of followers because it could help for peace and justice. In China, during the Han dynasty, people fed up with internal conflicts and Buddhism showed them peaceful lives that caused Buddhism to spread to China. On the Indian sub-continent, Buddhism did not stand longer; when Asoka converted to Buddhist, he contributed a lot to spread Buddhism throughout Asia. He gathered

President of Arakan Rohingya National Organization, Nurul Islam (white shirt)  during a visit to meet lawmakers in Jakarta. (file photo) REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Ethnic Rohingya has lived in Myanmar for dozens years in Myanmar, but Myanmar's government does not treat them equally. "We do not ask much, we just want to be equal," the President of Arakan Rohingya National Organization, Nurul Islam, said during his visit to Republika on Monday night. Ethnic Rohingya does not have any freedom. They cannot move freely from one region to another. "If we want to go to other regions, we must apply and get recommendation. Then we should wait for a year or even four," he said. They also cannot send their children to school. Yet, Buddhist community is quite different in this case, as they share the region of Arakan but live more prosperous than the Muslim community.  Nurul said that the situation make Rohingya live in despair. Most of them were desperate and

A distraught Rohingya man is comforted by a Bangladeshi border guard. (Photo: Reuters) WASHINGTON DC—Prominent Muslim American groups have come together to launch Burma Task Force USA with the objective of raising the profile of the Rohingya issue while speaking out against alleged atrocities and human rights violations which have forced thousands to flee and seek refuge in neighboring Bangladesh. “We demand that those responsible for the mass rapes and mass murder of thousands of Rohingyas be charged with crimes against humanity and genocide by the International Court of Justice,” Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, chairperson of Burma Task Force USA, demanded on Monday. The Burma Task Force is based on a previous successful effort of American Muslims, the Bosnia Task Force, where its members worked with the interfaith leadership and women’s rights organizations against the genocide of Muslims in the former Yugoslavia. Mujahid said the objective of the group is to stop perceived e

Graphic visuals of violence and the distressing conditions in which the displaced people are living have further inflamed public opinion in some countries, reports Shubha Singh. Myanmar is coming under a new kind of international pressure over the conditions of its Rohingya ethnic minority in the Rakhine region. To add to the Myanmar government's discomfiture, the pressure has come from sections considered to be friendly to the Myanmar government. Earlier it was regional neighbours, Indonesia and Malaysia, both fellow members of ASEAN, who voiced critical comments. They were later joined by Saudi Arabia, Egypt [ Images ] and Pakistan in criticising the Myanmar government's handling of the violence against the Muslim minority. The Rohingya issue has caught international attention and it is likely to be discussed in the special meeting of the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Conference), called by Saudi Arabia King Abdullah in Mecca later this week. The situation in Syria and

With the Eid around the corner, the plight of the persecuted Rohingya Muslims in Burma appears to have taken a turn for the worst, according to sources who contacted the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organisations (MAPIM). The umbrella group's secretary general Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid said Muslims were currently subjected to several restrictions, including from performing prayer at mosques in Arakan, especially in the town areas. “Prayers are allowed at mosques in the rural areas, that too only for the Zuhr (noon) and Asr (afternoon) prayers, while Friday prayer is not at all allowed," said Azmi . According to his sources, not more than 10 Muslims are allowed to hold congregational prayer. At the Maungdaw district, there are some 178 mosques and prayer halls while not more than 20 mosques are located in the urban areas. The south of this district has seen some of the worst attacks against Rohingya Muslims and their properties. The dire situation and the l

Hundreds of people gathered in Bradford’s Centenary Square last night for a peaceful protest to highlight the plight of civilians dying in Burma. Representatives of Burma's minority Rohingya community Residents gathered close to the steps of Bradford and  Keighley Magistrates’  Court  to hear community leaders speak at the rally, which was organised to highlight mounting violence and atrocities facing Burma’s minority Rohingya community. Many protesters carried banners and placards condemning the crisis, where people are being driven away from their homes across the sea to Bangladesh. Respect party leader Salma Yaqoob told the rally: “We are here today because we care about what goes on in Burma. People from all parties and all faiths are here to say we will not be silent and we will not look the other way.” Leader of Bradford Council David Green (Lab,  Wibsey  ) said the rally would “send out a message that the people of Bradford have not forgotten the plight of the peop

Tents set up for internally displaced people on the side of the road in Thet Kel Pyin camp, Rakhine state, Myanmar. Photo: OCHA 14 August 2012 –  The recent mission of the Turkish Foreign Minister and senior officials of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to Myanmar’s state of Rakhine – which recently experienced deadly ethnic clashes that displaced thousands of people – was welcomed today by the top United Nations envoy to the Southeast Asian country.“Such positive steps will help support Myanmar’s ongoing process of democratization and reform,” the Special Adviser of the Secretary-General, Vijay Nambiar, said in a statement on the fact-finding visit led by the Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoðlu, undertaken at the invitation of the Government of Myanmar. Recent tensions between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in the western state of Rakhine have left at least a dozen civilians dead and hundreds of homes destroyed, as well as at least 64,000 people displaced. The Tu