The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Rohingya in the region are confined to designated areas while all around them monks and authorities stoke anti-Muslim sentiment. And this disdain for the group seems to be receiving the tacit approval of the majority of Myanmar people _ with even Aung San Suu Kyi silent Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in Western Myanmar, has become a city full of stray dogs. Hundreds of them roam the streets abandoned by their owners, who were among the thousands forced to take refuge in camps for internally displaced people or otherwise relocate after a murderous wave of sectarian violence between the Buddhist Rakhine majority and the Muslim Rohingya minority erupted in the region two months ago.

Foundation distributes essential supplies in Myanmar Abu Dhabi: The Khalifa Bin Zayed Humanitarian Foundation has sent a relief team to Myanmar to organise humanitarian aid for the Rohingya Muslims. This is in line with the directives of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan to provide emergency aid in the wake of the atrocities against the Rohingyas.

Several weeks ago, I wrote about  communal violence in Burma in the frontier area between Burma and Bangladesh. The violence arose among the Rohingya, a largely Muslim minority and the Rakhines, a largely Buddhist majority of Arakan state, giving the conflict a religious coloring. The violence led to a flow of Rohingyas to Bangladesh.

The recent violence against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar has brought to the fold the hidden tensions within a society long isolated from the international community.  This is part two in a series of two articles. Read part 1  here . An 'Open' Myanmar?

August 31, 2012 |  Azizah al-Hibri  and Robert P. George, Commissioners For Muslim Americans and other concerned citizens in Indianapolis and elsewhere in the nation, news of still more violence against the largely Muslim Rohingya of Burma highlights the plight of one of the world’s most persecuted communities and the need for a global response. The latest bloodshed, coupled with two prior months of riots and murders, has left more than 700 dead and 80,000 homeless. This violence has been compounded by the behavior of the Burmese security forces who, according to major human rights organizations, have participated in killings and rapes as well as mass arrests against the Rohingya.