The Stateless Rohingya Blog

U Kyaw Hla Aung, 73, an activist/lawyer (photo /IRIN) Karen News July 22, 2013 A prominent human rights group has called into question President Thein Sein’s recent commitment to clear Burma’s jails of prisoners of conscience by the end of the year, with a human rights activist jailed in Rakhine State the same day the announcement was made. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma issued a statement calling for the President’s words are not enough and it needs “concrete action towards emptying Burma’s prisons of all political prisoners and ensuring no one is arrested for their political beliefs or activities.” 
 AAPP acknowledge President Thein Sein’s sentiments, and speech but said they did not go far enough. “But words are not enough – the hundreds of political prisoners still behind bars and the thousands who have been conditionally released need action.” On the same day President Thein Sein made his pledge to delegates at a conference

Photo credit: AP | In this photo taken Sunday, July 21, 2013, Buddhist monks and residents watch police examining a car after an explosion in Mandalay, central Myanmar. A small explosion went off Sunday near a firebrand monk as he was giving a sermon during a Buddhist ceremony, wounding five people, police and witnesses said Monday. (AP Photo) AYE AYE WIN Associated Press July 22, 2013 YANGON, Myanmar - (AP) -- A radical Buddhist monk blamed Muslim extremists Monday for a small bomb that detonated in Myanmar just a few meters (yards) from where he was delivering a sermon, though police said it was too early to speculate. Five people were injured, but only slightly. The blast, which occurred at 9 p.m. Sunday during a religious ceremony on the outskirts of Mandalay, comes as the predominantly Buddhist nation of 60 million struggles to contain religious violence that has claimed more than 250 lives in the last year. Most of the victims have been members of the count