The Stateless Rohingya Blog

AFP May 6, 2013 YANGON — Myanmar's president on Monday pledged to uphold the "fundamental rights" of Muslims in strife-torn Rakhine state, in the wake of deadly religious unrest that has spread across the country. In a speech to the nation following the release last week of an official report into last year's violence in western Rakhine that killed around 200 people, Thein Sein said the country should aim for "peaceful coexistence". "Regarding Rakhine, our government will take responsibility for upholding Muslims' fundamental rights," he said, adding that ethnic Rakhines, who are mainly Buddhist, "will not be neglected". Rakhine state remains deeply divided following major eruptions of unrest in June and October that saw mobs rampage through villages and torch thousands of homes, displacing 140,000 mainly Rohingya Muslims. Waves of anti-Muslim unrest have spread across the country this year. Buddhist monk

Kuwaiti Shiite Muslim member of Parliament Saleh Ashour Gulf News: May 6, 2013 TEHRAN, May 6 (KUNA) -- A Kuwaiti parliamentary delegation partaking in an Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) meeting on Monday denounced the killing of Muslims in Myanmar. "We condemn and denounce the killing, slaying, intimidation and persecution of Muslims in Arakan region in Myanmar," the head of the delegation, MP Saleh Ashour addressed the APA meeting. He said a Kuwaiti parliamentary team would visit Myanmar by the end of this month in order to have a first-hand look at the violation of the political and human rights and conditions of Muslims in Myanmar. He highly commended a draft resolution on the fight against terrorism and foreign occupation, which he said ran compatible with the principles and goals of the APA charter, which supports the security, peace and stability of all world peoples in general and Asian peoples in particular. Ashour stressed the signific

Market in Bahmo, Kachin State, Myanmar photo  by  ab wieringa AFP May 5, 2013 YANGON (AFP) - Two Buddhists have been arrested after Muslim shops were destroyed in northern Kachin State, police said Saturday, in a new outbreak of religious violence. Myanmar is in the grip of acute religious tension after a deadly wave of unrest in March that saw monks and Buddhist mobs attack Muslim areas in violence that has edged towards the country's main city Yangon. But it is the first time similar violence has been reported in the majority- Christian Kachin State, which is also home to a patchwork of ethnic and religious groups who have found work in the jade and timber industries. "We arrested two people at the scene... and are still interrogating them. We will charge them if there is enough evidence," a police official in Kachin State told AFP, speaking anonymously, following Thursday night's violence. Bordering China the remote resource-rich region is curre

Date: 4th May 2013 Strongly condemn hostilities against Burmese Muslims 1. Under U Thein Sein’s government, Muslims in Burma have been targeted animosity andhostility to unprecedented level, in the form of distributing malicious pamphlets,disseminating of hate speech videos, organising public sermons by extremist monks whichfanning enmity and hatred wide spread. 2. The level of verbal abuse, physical assaults, lootings and arson attacks on Muslims women,children and elders are to the highest historical peak under U Thein Sein’s government. 3. The same U Thein Sein's government have used live bullets, crushed and crack down thepeaceful protest of farmers from Letpadaung, who have been farming their own farms andstanding up for their rights and livelihoods whereas heartlessly and immorally neglected toprotect and safeguard Muslims of Meiktilar; watching coldly when the mobs attack andkilled brutally including children, who were burned alive with wounds. All of these bar

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Dipu Moni. JEDDAH: IRFAN MOHAMMED Arab News: May 6, 2013 The solution to end the violence that has led to thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar for Bangladesh rests with the Myanmar government, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni told Arab News in an exclusive interview yesterday. She said her country has raised the plight of Myanmar refugees in the OIC and the UN, but the issue is an internal matter that only Myanmar is able to solve. “(The) solution lies where the problem exists, and the solution has to be found within Myanmar.” The Rakhine state of Myanmar has been wracked by sectarian violence. An estimated 500,000 Muslim refugees have crossed the border into Bangladesh, but only 29,000 are in the country legally. Rohingya Muslims have been the target of Buddhist-led attacks and their killings have been described by human rights organizations as ethnic cleansing. Moni said the continuing attacks have taken a financ