The Stateless Rohingya Blog

This picture shows a mosque destroyed after hundreds of extremist Buddhists armed with bricks stormed a group of Muslim villages in Okkan in Myanmar on Wednesday, May 1, 2013. Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denounced the recent attack by extremists on Muslims in the city of Okkan in Myanmar that led to the destruction of the community’s houses and holy sites. Hundreds of extremist Buddhists armed with bricks stormed a group of Muslim villages in Okkan, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Yangon, on Wednesday. The Buddhist mob targeted Muslim shops and destroyed at least two mosques that left one man dead and ten others injured.  Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the clashes in Myanmar would lacerate the feelings of the people in the Islamic world and put at stake the achievements made through political and economic reforms in the country.  He lamented the destruction of the holy sites as well as threats against Muslims’ lives, and expressed

President Thein Sein attends a UN event in Bangkok (Reuters) DVB News: May 02, 2013 President Thein Sein resigned on Thursday as chairman of the leading Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and will be replaced by his political rival and party vice-chairman Shwe Mann, according to the Union Daily. Thein Sein is technically barred from taking part in “party activities” during his term of office under Burma’s 2008 constitution, but has continued to lead the USDP since becoming president in March 2011. Despite mounting criticism over his dual role, Thein Sein was re-elected as party chairman in October last year. Shwe Mann, who is also the speaker for the lower house of parliament, is set to replace the president in his former role, it was officially announced at the end of a three-day USDP youth congress on Wednesday. Thein Sein and Shwe Mann have locked horns in the past – notably in a heated dispute over the role of Burma’s constitutional tribunal last

OHCHR May 1, 2013 GENEVA – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana, today welcomed some forward thinking recommendations from the Rakhine Investigation Commission report. However, he expressed concerns over the lack of recommendations to address impunity and ensure investigations into credible allegations of widespread and systematic human rights violations targeting the Muslim community in Rakhine State.  “The Investigation Commission’s report contains many worthwhile recommendations, which I encourage the Government of Myanmar to implement,” Mr. Ojea Quintana said after reviewing the recommendations of the 27-member Investigation Commission set up last year by the Myanmar President to look into the violence between communities in Rakhine State that took place in June, and then subsequently in October.  “There are important recommendations on addressing the dire humanitarian situation in the Muslim camps fo

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  A Maulana (religious leader) was arrested by Nasaka    (Burma’s border security force) on April 15, while he was crossing the Ywet Nyo Daung bridge of Maungdaw north, over the allegation that he was a smuggler, said a close friend of the victim. “The victim was identified as—Maulana Salay Ahmed (32). Son of Noor Ahmed hailed from Wet Pyin village under the Powet Chaung village tract of Nasaka area No.5 of Maungdaw Township.” On that day, in the evening, he went to Kyet Yoe Pyin market after crossing the said village which is situated nearby Nasaka camp No.12. At that time, the Nasaka personnel from the camp halted him from going to market and accused him that he was a smuggler. So he was detained in the camp, said a local businessman. Though the arrestee frequently asked the Nasaka personnel that he is not a smuggler and he is a religious teacher of an Arabic school.  But Nasaka did not take any attention to the arrestee. “It is deliberate action a

Breaking News: May 01, 2013 Buddhist mobs hurling bricks attacked two mosques and torched more than 100 homes in central Burma, killing one person and injuring at least nine more. It was the latest anti-Muslim violence to shake the nation, after a series of clashes in late March. Yesterday, terrified Muslim families who fled the assaults around Okkan, about 70 miles north of Yangon, could be seen hiding in forests along roads and crouching in paddy fields afterward. Some, in a state of shock, wept as their houses burned in the night and young men with buckets tried to douse the flames. The unrest was the first reported since late March, when similar Buddhist-led violence swept the town of Meikthila, further north, killing at least 43 people. It highlighted the failure of reformist President Thein Sein’s government to curb increasing attacks on minority Muslims in a nation struggling to emerge from half a century of oppressive military rule. Residents