The Stateless Rohingya Blog

By RASHVINJEET S.BEDI  The star online June 11, 2013  PETALING JAYA: For the past two weeks, Myanmar national Muhammad Sadek, 41, has not stepped out of his house for fear of losing his life. However, on Monday, the Rohingya Arakanese Refugee Committee (RARC) program co-ordinator took a chance and went back to work at a Myanmarese restaurant near Kotaraya. However, when he arrived there, he was pursued by two people who appeared to want to do him harm. These were people whom he knew personally, and both happened to be Buddhists. "They were once my friends, but not anymore. We used to work on political issues together but the issue has now gone back to religion," said Safiq, who is staying put at home for the time being. Several violent clashes between Buddhist and Muslim Myanmar nationals have occurred in the Klang Valley, resulting in the death of two and another two in critical condition. Mohd Sadek claims he was targeted because of his

A Rohingya woman and her child at a makeshift camp outside Sittwe in Myanmar's western Rakhine State. Photo: IRIN UN News Centre 11 June 2013  The fatal shooting of three Rohingya women is the latest example of law enforcement officials operating with complete impunity in western Myanmar, an independent United Nations expert today said, calling on Government authorities to investigate the incident. “The human rights violations being committed against the Rohingya in Rakhine State are widespread and systematic and there continues to be absolutely no accountability for what is occurring there,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana. Calling for authorities to investigate all reported violations of human rights against the minority group, he added that there is no way of “glossing over this state of affairs” with the genuine progress that is being made in other areas. The police reportedly fired indiscrimi

Jason Szep and Andrew R.C. Marshall Reuters June 11, 2013 Myanmar's Immigration Minister has expressed support for a controversial two-child limit on a Muslim minority group that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the United Nations call discriminatory and a violation of human rights. Khin Yi, Minister of Immigration and Population, is the most senior official to publicly support the recently announced enforcement by local authorities of a two-child policy in northwestern Rakhine State for Rohingya Muslims, a stateless minority termed "Bengalis" by the Myanmar government. "This will benefit the Bengali women," Khin Yi said in an interview with Reuters. His comments coincide with mounting international concern over the treatment of minority Muslims in the majority Buddhist country following outbreaks of communal violence that have killed hundreds of people since last year and made more than 140,000, mostly Muslims, homeless. Co

Inter Press Service June 10, 2013 UNITED NATIONS - As the situation in Myanmar deteriorates, thousands of Rohingyas have fled the country in search of a safe haven.  Reports continue to emerge depicting inhuman and squalid conditions in the temporary camps where these displaced people live.  Local officials in the Rakhine state of Myanmar recently called for the strict implementation of a “two-child policy” on Rohingya Muslims. Even though this announcement has been condemned by human rights groups around the world, the crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar is far from over.  In an interview with IPS correspondent Sudeshna Chowdhury, Dr. Wakar Uddin, director general of of the Arakan Rohingya Union, a non-governmental organisation incorporated in the United States, urged the international community to stand up for the Rohingyas of Myanmar, also known as Burma.  While the international community has taken note of the sectarian violence against the comm

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni   Kamran Reza Chowdhury DhakaTribune: June 11, 2013 Saudi Arabia goes ahead to legalise Myanmar nationals Riyadh has requested Dhaka to provide documents on the Rohingya Muslims who entered Saudi Arabia through Bangladesh, as the country goes ahead to legalise Myanmar nationals, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni has said. Replying to a question from Awami League MP Nurul Islam, the minister told the House Monday that the BNP-Jamaat-government’s tacit support during 2001-2006, coupled with the corruption of the passport department helped the illegal Rohingyas to get Bangladeshi passports. “They received passports mainly from the Chittagong office. They started working in Saudi Arabia with legal documents,” Dipu Moni said. She said the Bangladesh consulate office in Jeddah stopped renewing passports issued during BNP’s rule. “I want to make it clear that the present government has not issued any passports to Rohingyas.” The mi

Los Angeles June 9, 2013 Taking into accounts of all the crimes committed against Rohingya and the Muslim population of Burma and based on the United Nation’s Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Article II,the crimes against humanity in Myanmar have risen to the level of genocide. Therefore, the Myanmar Muslim Genocide Awareness Convention (MMGAC) has declared the following resolution on protection and prevention of genocide against Rohingya and the Muslim population in Myanmar. 1. MMGAC, in the strongest term, condemns the violence against the Muslim population of Myanmar that has entered the stages of genocide. We demand the Government of Myanmar to protect the Rohingya and the Myanmar Muslim to the fullest extent and bring the rule of law to the land that it governs. 2. The Government of Myanmar must bring the perpetrators of the crimes targeting the Rohingya and the Muslim population of Myanmar to justice. 3. The Government o

Blind in one eye after being beaten in the head during forced labor, the man fled from Burma in the mid 1990s and is one of an estimated 300,000 undocumented Rohingya now living in the southern part of neighboring Bangladesh. (2006) (Greg Constantine) By Denise Hruby  The Cambodia Daily  June 10, 2013 Unwanted by their own government, violated and loathed by their neighbors and stripped of their citizenship, 300,000 Rohingya, a Muslim minority from Burma, have resettled in neighboring Bangladesh. Their refugee camps were meant to be temporary, but, for some, have served as a home for over 20 years. The fate of the Rohingya, said photographer Greg Constantine, is today’s most extreme example of statelessness, and despite the past years’ attention on the ethnic conflict, nothing has changed for the better. Since 2006, Mr. Constantine has been traveling to Bangladesh to document the life and suffering of the Rohingya. “When I first went, I was shocked that so lit