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Showing posts from August 26, 2013

Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims become homeless after fresh unrest in Myanmar

Hundreds of Muslims in Myanmar become homeless after Buddhists burnt their homes and shops in Sagaing region of the violence-wracked country. Local officials say more than 300 people are currently sheltering at a school after Buddhist mobs torched their homes two days ago.  On Saturday, around a thousand anti-Muslim rioters rampaged through villages in the northwestern town of Kanbalu in the central region of Sagaing. The mobs set fire to Muslims’ properties and attacked rescue vehicles.  Sources say dozens of houses and shops were left in charred ruins.             "The fires burned until last night, but they have now been extinguished after it rained heavily," said Myint Naing, a local MP for the opposition National League for Democracy party. This is the fourth anti-Muslim riot to break out in central and northern Myanmar this year.  Similar violence in the Western Rakhine state last year left nearly 200 people dead; most of them were Rohingya Muslims. 

Pressure Mounts for Rohingya to be Freed

Children who arrived on a Rohingya boat off Phuket on January 1 Photo by phuketwan.com/file For years, thousands of ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar's Arakan State have set sail to flee persecution by the Myanmar (Burmese) government.  The situation significantly worsened following sectarian violence in Arakan State in June 2012 between Muslim Rohingya and Buddhist Arakanese, which displaced tens of thousands of Rohingya from their homes.  In October 2012, Arakanese political and religious leaders and state security forces committed crimes against humanity in a campaign of ''ethnic cleansing'' against the Rohingya.  During the so-called ''sailing season'' between October 2012 and March 2013, more than 35,000 Rohingya are believed to have fled the country.  International pressure on Thailand to provide temporary protection to Rohingya arriving on its shores resulted in the current detention policy. Since January, more than 1800 Rohingya