The Stateless Rohingya Blog

A boy from a Rohingya internally displaced persons (IDP) camp looks up as he huddles next to his mother while queuing for food in a school, where they were evacuated to shelter from cyclone Mahasen when it landed, outside of Sittwe, May 17, 2013. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun Reuters AlertNet : May 22, 2013 LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Ethnic Rohingya trapped in squalid camps in western Myanmar are living in conditions that are "a cross between apartheid South Africa and the West Bank", a British MP said following a trip to the region. Some 140,000 people in Rakhine State were uprooted after two rounds of violence last year between Buddhist Rakhines and Muslim Rohingya - described by rights groups as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Refugee groups say 90-95 percent of the displaced are Rohingya. The two communities are now segregated. Unlike the displaced Rakhines, the Rohingya are not allowed to leave their camps so they can no lo

 Photo by LARRY DOWNING /Reuters Radio Australia:  May 22, 2013 Just a day following historic White House talks between President Obama and Myanmar's reformist head of state Thein Sein, a trade and investment deal has been struck between the two countries. The Obama administration suspended most sanctions on Myanmar last year and is hoping the new trade agreement will show the country tangible benefits for embracing reform, including better protection for workers rights. While some human rights groups say it's too soon to reward Myanmar, others, such as business consultant and former British envoy Derek Tonkin, say sanctions should now be lifted completely. Presenter: Sen Lam Speaker: Derek Tonkin, advisor to Bagan Capital Limited and former British ambassador to Vietnam and Thailand TONKIN: I think we are approaching a point at which we can begin to speak of 'normalisation of relations' between Myanmar and the outside world. In some cas

Rohingya Muslims stand beside the word "Rohingya" written on a road between the camps for people displaced by violence near Sittwe, April 28, 2013. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj   By AYE NAI  DVB News: May 22, 2013 Nine Rohingyas, who were  arrested  late last month for refusing to register  as “Bengalis” at a displacement camp in western Burma, will be prosecuted for instigating riots, according to a state official. Arakan state’s attorney general Hla Thein told DVB that the group is likely to be hit with multiple charges including rioting and injuring public servants, when they appear at their next court hearing on Sunday. “They are going to be pressed with charges at the court on 26 May for rioting, hurting a public servant – a Tatmadaw (military) official was hospitalised after sustaining head injuries during the incident, aggravated theft for snatching phones off some public servants trying to report the situation to authorities and criminal intimidation fo

A Burmese soldier patrols through a neighborhood burned in recent violence in Sittwe, Arakan State. (Photo: Reuters) Alders Ledge   May 21, 2013 The Anonymity Of Myanmar's Murderers  (The Darkness Visible series) When Hitler came to power the world was shown the face of the evil that had befallen it. That little mustache and comb-over hair style has come to define what it means to be evil for many of us. No matter how you dressed the man, no matter how many kissing baby scenes are shown to us of him, Adolf is still the man who launched the Holocaust. For Jews, Romani, Sinti, Communist, Poles, and countless other victims the simple addition of that mustache to an image invokes the memory of his terror. A similar attachment to the image of Pol Pot can be found in Cambodian communities around the world. The memory of what happened when the Khmer Rouge took power still haunts the landscape of Cambodia. The men who helped bring about the horrors of the "party"