The Stateless Rohingya Blog

South African peace activist Desmond Tutu speaks at the Baldwin Library in Rangoon on Feb. 27, 2013. (Photo: Kyaw Phyo Tha / The Irrawaddy) The Irrawaddy February 27, 2013 RANGOON — South African peace activist Desmond Tutu called on Burma’s leaders to embrace the idea that “freedom is cheaper than oppression” during his first visit to the country, and pressed them to end violence against Rohingyas and other minorities. Speaking on Wednesday at Rangoon’s Baldwin Library, run by the US embassy, Tutu laced his talk with coded references to the ongoing racist attacks against Rohingya Muslims and wars in ethnic areas, which he said threatened a “new apartheid.” “If you want to truly be free then it must be all of you together,” he told the 100-strong audience that included former political prisoners, ethnic leaders and monks who spearhead the 2007 Saffron Revolution. “Very many people around the world have held you in their hearts, have prayed for you and continue to do so,” h

The Independent UK February  27, 2013 By Emanuel Stoakes The international community has been shamefully unresponsive to this crisis The news last week that around a hundred refugees from Burma had slowly starved to death after 25 days at sea may have shocked those unfamiliar with the current state of affairs in Asia’s newest ostensible democracy. The harrowing  reports more recently of mass rapes, involving torture, in the country’s western Rakhine state will likely have had a similar impact. But to those who have been keeping up with the daily reports of intimidation, harassment and violence directed at ethnic minorities in Burma news of these latest horrors was heartbreaking, but unsurprising. It was likewise grimly un-startling to read that in both cases the victims were from the most vulnerable of all ethnic groups in the country, the imperiled and desperate Rohingya minority. This is because the Rohingya are perhaps Asia’s most vulnerable race, who

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Natala (New settlers) villagers – -living along the Maungdaw – Alay Thankyaw highway road- torched thatch fields from mountain near the Natala villages and Rohingya villages on February 12,, said a Rohinya – an owner of a thatch field – on condition of anonymity. “A group of Natala villagers -settled by the concerned authorities – went to mountain and torched the thatch fields which were belong to Rohingyas community.” Mostly thatch fields from mountain are belonging to Gawdhu Sawra,Du Nyaung Pin Gyi ( Dong Khali),  Noapara, Sarcombo and Thayai Gonetan(Knonena para) of Maungdaw south, said a farmer on condition of anonymity The farmer also said that Rohingya community is facing difficult to cut thatches from the mountain side as all the thatches field are burned down. Some thatches fields are in the mountains side, but the Natala didn’t allow the Rohingya to cut the thatches and disturbing the Rohingya who went to the mountain. “Rohingya commu

Enlarge: Ethnic Rohingya boat people from Burma sit at Malahayati harbour after they were rescued in the Indonesia's Aceh province on February 16, 2011. © 2011 Reuters By AFP + DVB   27 February 2013 Fishermen have rescued more than 100 ethnic Rohingya asylum seekers from Burma who were found drifting in a wooden boat off western Indonesia, an official said Wednesday. The 121 Rohingya, including six women and two children, were found adrift late Tuesday by fishermen around 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the village of Cot Trueng, on the northernmost tip of Sumatra island in Aceh province. “Their boat ran out of petrol as they tried to sail from Myanmar [Burma] to Thailand,” village chief Mukhtar Samsyah told AFP , adding that they had fled Burma to escape sectarian conflict. He said the Rohingya were found in a weak condition but had recovered after being given food, water and a place to sleep. “They’ve all been sent to an immigration detention c