The Stateless Rohingya Blog

President of Myanmar, Thein Sein (L) in 10 Downing Street Photo: EPA By Michael Harris Telegraph UK : July 18, 2013 Unless the Foreign Secretary ups the pressure on Burma the apparatus of the military dictatorship will remain, writes Michael Harris If you want to know how much has changed in Burma since the much-vaulted transition, try and put on a punk gig in the capital, Rangoon. It’ll take two months and require the signatures of eight bureaucrats from varying levels of government. You may never get permission. But to punks in Burma, the idea they may even be able to play publicly at all is progress. This is transition Burma, a country full of contradictions where the military no longer hold captive Aung San Suu Kyi and have released some of the thousands of her fellow political prisoners – yet the full apparatus of the military state still exists. The worry is, while the UK and US drop sanctions and William Hague took the time to congratulate President Thein Sein i

BDNews24: July 17, 2013 The beatings were accompanied by threats: If his family didn't produce the money, Myanmar refugee Abdul Sabur would be sold into slavery on a fishing boat, his captors shouted, lashing him with bamboo sticks. It had been more than two months since Sabur and his wife set sail from Myanmar with 118 other Rohingya Muslims to escape violence and persecution. Twelve died on the disastrous voyage. The survivors were imprisoned in India and then handed over to people smugglers in southern Thailand. As the smugglers beat Sabur in their jungle hide-out, they kept a phone line open so that his relatives could hear his screams and speed up payment of $1,800 to secure his release. "Every time there was a delay or problem with the payment they would hurt us again," said Sabur, a tall fisherman from Myanmar's western Rakhine state. He was part of the swelling flood of Rohingya who have fled Myanmar by sea this past year, in one of the

Burmese government troops patrol in conflict-ridden Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, in this June 2012 file photo. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) KPN News July 16, 2013 Maungdaw, Arakan State: The high officials of Maungdaw district announced again imposing of emergency act 144 in the areas today, according to an official from Maungdaw. “The authority – district administration officer and township administration officer – announced in Maungdaw about imposing of emergency act 144, after dissolving Burma border security force (Nasaka), as most of Rohingya from rural areas traveled to Maungdaw town for their household shopping and their personnel matters which was not able before for blockage  and harassment of Nasaka.” The Rohingya people traveled to Maungdaw mean, to gather and see relatives in Maungdaw which was not able since July 2012 for blocking of security force especially Nasaka. The gathering of Rohingya in Maungdaw become eyesore for high officials who try to s

   Rohingya child's collect fire wood from the jungle and sell it (T eknaf Bangladesh) Stephanie March ABC Australia July 17, 2013 Bangladesh capital Dhaka has cracked down on migration from neighbouring Myanmar, closing its border, refusing to support asylum seekers and turning back boats. Surakatun and her family have been eating boiled leaves and rice for the past three days. It's a normal lunch at the unofficial refugee camp in Kutupalong - once the pots are empty, that's it. "My husband is old now so if I don't go out and beg we go hungry," she said. Like everyone in the camp, Surakatun is a Rohingya who has fled violence in Myanmar - she would rather endure this harsh existence than go back there. "If you see your daughter being dragged in front of you and being violated sexually would you bear that? Would you allow that to happen?" she said. In June and October last year, violence broke out between Buddhi