The Stateless Rohingya Blog

 Ready for trouble: Members of the pro-Buddhist, anti-Muslim group 969 gather at a market in Yangon on April 4. | AP Yadana Htun Associated Press April 30, 2013 OKKAN, Myanmar - Anti-Muslim violence flared anew in central Myanmar on Tuesday as angry mobs destroyed two mosques and set fire to hundreds of homes and shops in unrest that injured at least 10 people in the predominantly Buddhist nation. Associated Press journalists who travelled to the area, about 70 miles (110 kilometres) north of the commercial capital of Yangon, saw terrified Muslim families who fled their homes, hiding in dense vegetation. Many, in a state of shock, cried as fires burned in the night. Two mosques in the town of Okkan were damaged and looted. Columns of smoke rose outside Okkan, where regional police chief Win Naing said mobs launched arson attacks in three villages. He said there were no immediate reports of deaths in the unrest, but at least 10 people had been injured.

Teknaf, Bangladesh: The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) held 35 Burmese citizens locally known Rohingyas from Bangladesh-Burma border during the last two days, said BGB official of Balukhali. According to sources of BGB 17 battalion of Cox’s Bazar, and 42 battalion of Teknaf, they arrested 35 Burmese citizens from different border points of Bangladesh-Burma border. The BGB members of Balokhali and Tumbro border out-posts and Nikkongchhari BGB members under the Bandarban Hill District arrested the Burmese nationals. Later, BGB sent them back to Burma after providing them food and medicine. They crossed the Burma-Bangladesh border as a hope of taking temporarily shelter in Bangladesh, but they met difference in Bangladesh as they previously hope, said a local youth. Why are the Rohingya people fleeing from Arakan, Burma? Since June last year, Rohingya community has been increasingly persecuted by the Burmese security forces along with Rakhine extremists. They are c

These three siblings lost their dad. He was killed when he was trying to get food for his family. Something is very wrong in a country when finding food for your children to save their lives is a crime worthy of death. Photo: Oddny Blog Jared Ferrie Reuters: April 30, 2013 MEIKHTILA, Myanmar - In Myanmar's central heartlands, justice and security is elusive for thousands of Muslims who lost their homes in a deadly rampage by Buddhist mobs in March. Many are detained in prison-like camps, unable to return to neighborhoods and businesses razed in four days of violence in Meikhtila that killed at least 43 people, most of them Muslims, displaced nearly 13,000, and touched off a wave of anti-Muslim unrest fuelled by radical Buddhist monks. "It's for their own security," said a police officer at a camp inside a sports stadium on Meikhtila's outskirts. The camp holds more than 1,600 people guarded by police with orders not to let them leave, said th

Residents walk past buildings burning in riot-hit Meiktila, central Myanmar. (Credit: AFP)   Radio Australia   April 30, 2013 Plans to control the birth rate of Muslim Rohingyas in Myanmar has been described as "chilling". A Myanmar Government Commission report has recommended a family planning program be implemented to curb the growth of the country's Muslim Rohingyas. The region has been plagued by ethnic clashes between the Buddhist majority and Muslim minority. Fighting over the past year has left hundreds dead and tens-of -thousands homeless. The Commission found that the high birth rate of Rohingya has been a factor in the tensions. It also recommends sending more troops into troubled regions to quell the violence. But Human Rights Watch says the recommendations are disturbing and will only increase tensions. Phil Robertson says Government troops are guilty of stoking the flames of racial hatred in the fledgling democracy.

Hoosiers Fighting For The Rohingya (part of the Sc reamers series) (Yeah, my graphic artist made a spelling error...) Alders Ledge: April 29, 2013 If you have ever watched the Travel Channel then chances are you have seen the show Bizarre Foods. It is one of my favorite shows and has inspired me totry the foods that the host samples from around the world. So much so that I rarely pass up an oddity in the supermarket anymore. And yeah, that means that if there happens to be a place selling edible insects... I've probably ordered, purchased, and sampled everything they have. But the combining of this passion with the work Alder's Ledge does was a long process. I rarely find that people who are willing to listen to me when I talk about genocide are up for eating afterward. And the people willing to eat my not so bizarre dishes rarely want to talk about genocide while eating. So the thought of combining the two has been hard to decide upon. So why is Alder&#