The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Benedict Rogers Conservative Home July 13, 2013 Tomorrow, Burma’s President Thein Sein will arrive in London. Until a year ago, the idea of a Burmese General with blood on his hands making an official visit to the United Kingdom would have been inconceivable. His visit is a sign of how much and how fast not only Burma, but British Government attitudes towards Burma’s regime, have changed.  In the past two years, President Thein Sein’s Government has certainly introduced reforms that have changed the atmosphere and landscape significantly. A key turning-point came when  he met Burma’s democracy leader and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in Naypyidaw for the first time in 2011 . That paved the way for a series of reforms, including the release of many political prisoners; increased space for political activists, civil society and the media; improvements in freedom of expression; and preliminary ceasefires with most of the ethnic armed resistance groups. In 2012, Aung Sa

A young Rohingya man bearing the scars of a shooting by Local Buddhists during the violence in June 2012. Photo by  Dougal Thomas . Hanna Ingber New York Times July 12, 2013 Myanmar’s Muslim minority has faced a series of deadly attacks over the past year that have tarnished the country’s image even as it is trying to transform itself into a stable, peaceful democracy after decades of military rule. As my colleague Thomas Fuller has reported,  sectarian clashes in the western state of Rakhine  in 2012 left at least 167 dead and forced 100,000 people, most of them Muslims, to flee their homes. Buddhist mobs went on a  rampage in Meiktila  in central Myanmar in March, killing dozens. And critics say a  radical Buddhist movement  has fanned the flames of discrimination, discouraging Buddhists from doing business with Muslims or intermarrying. The violence has raised fears among  Muslims in Yangon  and elsewhere that they, too, could come under attack. Asked on Faceboo

KPN News: July 12, 203 Teknaf, Bangladesh: More than 137 Rohingya, Burmese citizen had arrested along the border by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) since July 1, 2013, according to BGB official. “The Rohingyas were arrested from different parts and points of border after being conducted operation by the border forces.” BGB arrested fifty-nine Rohingya from different areas of border in raided July 10 morning, said Dil Mohamed, a local from border. “They were pushed back to Burma through the points where they entered to Bangladesh illegal.” Lt. Col. Kalid Hassan commanding officer confirmed and said “BGB pushed back them to their homeland, Burma after providing food and medicine.” However, the concerned authorities of Bangladesh arrested more than 427 Rohingya people along the Bangladesh-Burma border and sent them back to Burma in June 2013. According to sources, Rohingya frequently try to enter the Bangladesh from Burma for shelter in a Muslim neighboring

Rohingya children prepare a meal at a camp for internally displaced people on the outskirts of Sittwe, May 17, 2013. Photo AFP Radio Free Asia: July 12, 2013 Myanmar will only consider providing citizenship to Muslim Rohingyas who meet certain “legal requirements” the government said Friday in response to a call from U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to address the grievances of the stateless ethnic minority. Myanmar’s deputy minister Ye Htut said that the Rohingyas, who rights groups say bore the brunt of two waves of deadly communal violence that rocked Rakhine state last year, would be granted citizenship based on the country’s decades-old citizenship law. Around 800,000 Muslim Rohingyas live in Rakhine state but most of them, according to rights groups, have been denied citizenship as they are considered by most in Myanmar and the government to be illegal immigrants. Most people in Myanmar call the Rohingyas “Bengali,” indicating that they have illegally immigrated fr

Myanmar President Thein Sein shakes hands with Senator The Hon Bob Carr, Foreign Affairs Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, at the Credentials Hall of the Presidential Palace on July 10, 2013. Photo: President's Office Radio Australia: July 12, 2013 Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr says Australia won't use foreign aid as a bargaining tool with Myanmar, despite being "apprehensive" about the future of the country's minority Rohingya Muslim population. Senator Carr has raised their plight during talks with the government in Naypyidaw, but he's ruled out accepting large numbers of Rohingyas as refugees, even though they are not considered to be citizens of Myanmar. Presenter: Naomi Woodley Speaker: Bob Carr, Australian Foreign Minister BOB CARR: Australia takes a keen interest in their plight and in the need for reconciliation and harmony within this part of Myanmar. NAOMI WOODLEY: How was that message received by the