The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Rohingya Muslims. Photo: AFP The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has asked that Myanmar give citizenship to the Muslim Rohingya people after months of deadly sectarian violence in the western state of Rakhine. The Rohingya’s statelessness is at the heart of two major outbreaks of fighting between the Buddhist and Muslim communities that has left 180 people dead and forced 110,000 Rohingya into makeshift camps.

Boys displaced by the recent violence in Pauktaw sleep in open air at Owntaw refugee camp for Muslims outside Sittwe November 1, 2012.  REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun (MYANMAR   Pauktaw, Arakan state:  Today, morning, a group of 150 persons including government officers and local elders went to the Mayur Kool (Siekey Pyin) village of Pauktaw Township and started citizenship checks of Rohingya villagers according to a villager from Pauktaw Town. At the rear of violence in Arakan State, officials initiate citizenship checks. Authorities have launched operations to hunt down again Rohingyas following weeks of fresh communal violence.

British MP Rushanara Ali (left), MP Jonathan Ashworth (center), and Jakril Hoque from NGO Restless Beings, protest at the British Foreign Office in London as part of the Global Day of Action for Rohingya Rights, on Thursday, November 8, 2012. (PHOTO: Restless Beings) About 150 activists rallied outside the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in central London on Thursday, November 8, as part of a Global Day of Action in solidarity with the Rohingya community in Burma. “It is evident that there is state-level complicity in the systematic attacks against the Rohingya, having long shifted from just inter-communal violence,” said Global Day of Action organizers Restless Beings.

Maungdaw, Arakan State:   Nasaka (Burma’s border security force) allegedly arrested a Rhingya youth on November 6, in Maungdaw over the allegation that he was involved in the riots of June 8 and instigated the violence, said a neighbor of the victim who denied to be named. “The victim was identified as Roffique (25), son of Ismail, hailed from Panug Zaar village of Maungdaw Township.”

Rohingya Muslims living in Malaysia protest outside Malaysia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Putrajaya on Nov 8, 2012. AFP BANGKOK, (Nov 8, 2012) : Rohingya Muslims' statelessness is at the heart of bloody unrest that has torn through western Myanmar, but experts say the regime is unlikely to risk public ire by lifting them from citizenship limbo. Rakhine state remains explosively tense after being convulsed by two major outbreaks of fighting involving Buddhist and Muslim communities since June that have left 180 dead and more than 110,000, mainly Rohingya, crammed into makeshift camps.