The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina  DhakaTribune: May 20,2013 The bilateral talks were held at the Chiang Mai International Convention and Exhibition Centre on the sidelines of 2nd Asia Pacific Water Summit Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday sought Thai support to convince the Myanmar leadership for giving citizenship to the Rohingyas to stop their displacement as refugees. In a bilateral meeting with her Thai counterpart Yingluck Shinawatra, Sheikh Hasina also sought Bangkok’s support to become ASEAN dialogue partner, integrated part of East West Corridor and Mekong Ganga Cooperation. The bilateral talks were held at the Chiang Mai International Convention and Exhibition Centre on the sidelines of 2nd Asia Pacific Water Summit here. Briefing reporters after the talks, PM’s Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad said both leaders discussed issues related to mutual interests including activities of the Joint Trade Committee, problems of beginning the construction

New York, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR May 20, 2013 Report Details Terror and Killing of 24 Students and Teachers from a Muslim Boarding School PHR today released a report detailing the organized attacks against Muslims that took place in central Burma in late March and resulted in the killing of at least 20 children and four teachers. The report provides evidence that state authorities, who idly stood by watching the events unfold, are complicit in these crimes. The rights group also issued policy recommendations for addressing anti-Muslim violence on the day Burmese President Thein Sein is scheduled to attend an historic meeting with President Obama in Washington, DC. “President Obama must use this occasion to persuade Burma’s leader that the only path from tyranny to democracy is through the promotion and respect of human rights,” said Richard Sollom, the report’s lead author and PHR’s director of emergencies. “One concrete step toward this goal is for President Thein

A member of Border Guards of Bangladesh comforts a Rohingya from Burma who was arrested while trying to get into Bangladesh, in Teknaf, June 18, 2012. Photo Reuters Teknaf, Bangladesh: Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) pushed back twenty four Rohingyas after arresting along the border on May 19, Kamal, a local from Teknaf said. “They were arrested from different points of border by BGB after being conducted operation where they were entering the Bangladesh without knowledge of Bangladesh authority.” According to BGB officials, a BGB team of Shapuri Dip under the Teknaf Battalion No. 42 conducted a drive in border areas and arrested them. BGB officials also said BGB pushed back them again to Burma through the point of Shapuri Dip later. The Rohingya ethnic group of Burma frequently crosses the Burma-Bangladesh border by row boat and on foot because of persecution and harassments by the concerned authorities of Burma and Rakhines, according to sources. The Rohingya

Muslim Rohingya women prepare their meal at a temporary relief camp on the outskirts of Sittwe, on May 17, 2013 (AFP/File, Soe Than Win) By Shwe Yinn Mar Oo AFP  May 20, 2013 SITTWE, Myanmar — Myanmar's victims of sectarian strife were spared the full force of Cyclone Mahasen, but many are now returning to flimsy tents in flood-prone camps with the monsoon just weeks away. Myanmar's Rakhine state is pockmarked with makeshift settlements for up to 140,000 people -- mainly Rohingya Muslims -- displaced by sectarian unrest last year that claimed about 200 lives and saw whole villages razed. Many were evacuated last week ahead of Cyclone Mahasen, which later veered into neighbouring Bangladesh. But most have now returned, according to Kirsten Mildren of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). "They are actually no better off than where they were last week before the storm," she said, adding the cyclone was simply a

Yuri Gripas/Reuters -  Myanmar President Thein Sein attends a town hall event at the Voice of America in Washington May 19, 2013.  By Anne Gearan  Washingtonpost:  May 20, 2013 The military that ran Burma for decades will continue to  play  a major role in the country, the former Burmese general who has presided over the transformation of a nation that only three years ago was considered one of the world’s most repressive said Sunday. The army has a proud history in Burma and “will always have a special place” in government, Burmese President Thein Sein said in an interview Sunday with The Washington Post, on the eve of a  White House  meeting with President Obama. Thein Sein dismissed as “pure fabrication” the allegation from human rights monitors that the Burmese army condones or even participates in ethnic pogroms against the nation’s Muslim minority. The army “is more disciplined than normal citizens, because they have to abide by military

Engy Abdelkader  Human Rights Attorney Huffingtonpost Post:   May 20, 2013   On Monday, Burmese President Thein Sein is due to visit the White House. The visit represents another milestone in recently burgeoning U.S.-Burma relations, and an opportunity to engage Thein Sein on the significance of respecting international human rights norms -- such as protecting its minority Muslim population's religious freedoms -- to continued Burmese democratic reform. The country's otherwise tainted record on religious freedom, including escalating communal violence, threatens to undermine its transition from one-party, autocratic military rule to more representative governance. It adversely impacts our global security as well. By way of background, more than 75 percent of the world's population resides in countries where official restrictions on religious freedom prevail. Despite laudable strides toward democratic reform, Myanmar (also referred to as Burma) is among those

Hasan Kamoonpuri Oman Daily Observer May 20, 2013  AFTER the initial euphoria that followed some reforms by the civilian-led government of Myanmar in 2011, it’s again in the news; this time for the killing of Rohingya minority. The hopes of Rohingyas that much needed reforms on their citizenship rights were on the way, the first for 65 years, have been dashed. Myanmar’s injustice is on full display in its Rakhine state where 140,000 displaced Rohingyas in makeshift camps are facing very hard times. Recent rains and floods have further worsened the conditions of the Rohingyas, who have faced torture, neglect and repression since 1948 when Myanmar achieved independence. More recently, the violence since June 2012 has left over 4,000 Rohingyas dead, a further 8,000 missing, over 140,000 homeless and 700 women abused. The root cause is Myanmar’s racist attitude for not recognising one million Rohingyas as its own citizens, which has long made them vulnerable to discrimina