The Stateless Rohingya Blog

A woman carries a load on her head through a neighbourhood that was partially burned down during the clashes between Muslims and Buddhists earlier this year, in Meikhtila. Image by: DAMIR SAGOLJ / REUTERS Sapa-AP April 28, 2013 Wrapped in a saffron robe, Buddhist monk Wirathu insists he is a man of peace. Never mind his nine years in prison for inciting deadly violence against Muslims. Never mind the gruesome photos outside his office of Buddhists allegedly massacred by Muslims. Never mind that in the new Myanmar, the man dubbed the “Burmese bin Laden” has emerged as the spiritual leader of a pro-Buddhist fringe movement accused of fueling a bloody campaign of sectarian violence. Wirathu insists the world has misunderstood him. “If they knew my true ideas, they would call me saviour,” he says. Wirathu has become the figurehead of a virulent strain of religious nationalism being spread by some of the most venerated members of Burmese society: Buddhist

ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION  ARAKAN, BURMA  Press Release  April 28, 2013  We condemn the police shooting, on 26 April 2013, of a group of Rohingya children for their peaceful protest chanting “Rohingya, Rohingya” when hostile operational team consisting of immigration, military, NaSaKa, police and village administrators came to Thet Kay Byin village near Ba Du Pha Rohingya displacement camp in Arakan’s capital Sittwe (Akyab), to perform the current operation forcing the Rohingya to register as “Bengali” for the census. A 15 year old boy namely Mohammad Ali S/o Kabir Ahmed of Thet Kay Bin was injured in the shooting and is now taking treatment in a private clinic. From 26 April the police have arrested six innocent Rohingya people under concocted charges. They are U Ba Tha (47), U Kyaw Myint (46), Mohammad Hussain (45) Saw Lay Ma (35), San Lin (45) and Kyaw Khin (40). The police are also hunting down more Rohingya elders in an attempt to terrorise the

News Analysis/ Photo Album Above  Phuket_Wan: April 27, 2013 PHUKET: The boy born at sea is thriving, just like all the Rohingya children who have spent three months in care at a refuge centre north of Phuket. They run, they jump, they play football and hang from trees, like very active pieces of fruit. When these children first came ashore from their rickety Rohingya boats, they were motionless. They did not move much. Their faces were rigid and unsmiling. This is probably natural when your life is endangered on a perilous voyage, fleeing Burma, the homeland where they are not considered citizens and where violence, rape and brutality are common these days. The difference in the behavior of the children now is remarkable, as our photographs show. How long will their happiness last? It's now three months since Thai officials ruled that the Rohingya ''rescued'' from boats and from human trafficking camps would be assessed and their fut

  Burmese Rohingyas face long-term misery in IDP camps in Sittwe. photo IHH Sunday Leader: April 27, 2013 The Sri Lankan government has been urged to press the Burmese government to put an immediate stop to the abuses against the Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State. Human Rights Watch said that the Sri Lankan authorities have witnessed the results of the crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing that are being perpetrated in Arakan state, since the navy had in February rescued Rohingya Muslims on boats that were pushed back out to sea by Thailand. Human Rights Watch said in a new report released last week that the Burmese authorities and members of Arakanese groups have committed crimes against humanity in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State since June 2012. The 153-page report, ‘All You Can Do is Pray: Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Burma’s Arakan State,’ describes the role of the Burmes