The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Authorities concerned –Burma border security force (Nasaka), police, army and Sarapa (Military Intelligence) - increase harassment against the Rohingya people in Maungdaw after the bigoted violence in June 2012, an elder from Maungdaw Town said on condition of anonymity.   Nasaka personnel of Lake Ya Nasaka outpost camp arrested Maulana Hashim (50), Sayed Alam and two other villagers of Lake Ya (Kumir Khali) village, under the Nasaka area No. 4 of Maungdaw Township over false allegation of human trafficking on February 3 and instigated the local villagers not to take photographs which was taking by Nasaka personnel recently, said a close friend of Maulana Hashim preferring not to be named.     “It is just a plan to extort the money from them. The Nasaka demanded kyat 20 million to release.”   “However, they were released today after taking grantee to pay demanded money to the Nasaka officer. How will they pay a huge amount of money?”

RTT News February 05, 2013  The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), the world's largest Muslim organization representing 56 countries, has called for a seat for the OIC in the U.N. Security Council, Arab media reported. "One of the important objectives for which I have been exerting a lot of efforts was to have a seat for OIC in the Security Council to represent 1.5 billion Muslims in the world," OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told reporters in Cairo on Monday. Poverty, lack of economic integration, Jewish settlement in occupied Arab territories, and "Judaization" of Jerusalem were some of the problems the Islamic community was facing now, he said and added that the OIC had set out a plan to develop Jerusalem in cooperation with the Palestine Authority and the Islamic Development Bank. Ihsanoglu said more diplomatic efforts were needed to mobilize international support for recognition of Palestine as a State by the United

Aidworkers say thousands of displaced Rohingya still receive no humanitarian aid(Partners Relief and Development) DVB  by HANNA HINDSTROM 5 February 2013 Thousands of Muslim Rohingyas, who were uprooted after sectarianclashes in western Burma last year, are still not registered as internallydisplaced persons (IDPs) by the government and continue to be deniedhumanitarian assistance, local sources have warned. An international aid worker, who recently returned from theconflict-torn Arakan state, told DVB that she visited remote areas around thestate capital Sittwe, where people were forced to beg for food from locals andregistered IDPs in order to survive. “What most of the world is not aware of are the refugees thatare not living in [registered] camps,” said Oddny Gumaer from Partners Reliefand Development. “And those people are living in conditions that are so badthat I’m sure if the international community doesn’t do something very soonthey are going to die.”

Burma Campaign UK February 5, 2013 Burma Campaign UK today welcomed Early Day Motion 838 on Burma, tabled by members of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Burma (APPG Burma). So far 57 MPs across all parties have signed the motion, calling for international observers, full international access to deliver humanitarian aid, and the repeal of the racist 1982 citizenship law in Burma. An Early Day Motion (EDM) is a kind of parliamentary petition. The motion concerns the ongoing attacks against the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority in Burma. The British MPs noted that in October 2012 the attacks also began against the Kaman Muslim ethnic minority and that the police, state security and also national Burmese Army soldiers were reported to be taking part in some of the attacks. They also express concerns about the request of President Thein Sein for international assistance in deporting all Rohingya from Burma, which gives encouragement to the those carrying out the

The baby born on a boat off Thailand's Andaman coast has no homeland Photo by phuketwan.com By Chutima Sidasathian   PHUKET: His name is Muhamad Hamid and he is perhaps destined to remain a symbol of the hopelessness of the Rohingya cause. He was born at sea on a boat on December 24, but because his people are stateless and unwanted, there is no official record of his birth. He has no homeland, no place of belonging. His birth came on the eleventh day at sea as his mother, NuSu, 34, and her companions fled persecution and ethnic cleansing in Burma. Fortunately it rained on each of the days following Muhamad's birth, enabling him to be washed. Otherwise, precious drinking water would have had to be used.  By December 27 the Rohingya boat had landed in Thailand, on the Andaman coast north of Phuket.  Muhamad is now a name on the list of women and children being held at a refuge for women and children in Phang Nga, the province north of Phuket.  On the