The Stateless Rohingya Blog

 By Hanna Hindstrom DVB News: 28 August 2013 Two US-based journalists have been blacklisted by the Burmese government after they visited conflict-struck western Arakan state to cover the ongoing persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority, DVB has learned. The reporters, who work for an independent photography agency, say they were verbally told by officials at the Burmese embassy in Washington DC earlier this month that they were banned from returning to Burma. Officials reportedly told Matt Rains and Alia Mehboob from Lux Capio Photography Agency that they could not be issued visas because they had entered “restricted” Muslim areas on a previous visit to Arakan state and should “try again in a year”. In April, on their most recent trip to the restive state, the reporters were besieged by a Buddhist mob while visiting a mosque on the outskirts of Sittwe’s Muslim quarter, Aung Mingalar, before being detained by immigration authorities and sent back to Rang

Rohingya from Thailand - Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand (BRAT) – had organized a press conference on The Rohingya "unwanted and alone in Thailand…” at Student Christian Centre (SCC), Bangkok on August 24, at about 9:30 to 13:00 hour, according to U Maung Kyaw Nu, President, BRAT.     Participants in the event   The key speakers who delivered their speeches in event were:-  Dr. Niran Pitakwatchara, National Human Right Commissioner of Thailand; Mr.Surapong; Kongchantuk, ;Human Rights Committee, Lawyers Council of Thailand; Mr.Sunai Phasuk; Advisor of Human Rights Watch; Ms.Saowanee Khomepatr Director, Bureau of Anti-Trafficking in Woman and Children, Ministry of Social Development and Human Security; Mr.Sarawoot Sriwannayos, Former President of Young Thai Muslim Organization; the Media award winner John Spark ; Ms.Chtima ,Editor of Phuketwan; U Maung Kyaw Nu,President of Burmese Rohinya Association in Thailand where M.s.Thananuch Sanguansak, Editor of Fea

The Genocide Happening Right Now That Nobody Is Talking About © AP PolicyMic   August 27, 203 Over the last two years, the positive news of Myanmar embracing democracy and engaging with the developed world has been consistently offset by reports of  sectarian violence  between Buddhists and the minority Rohingya Muslim population. Estimates suggest that 300 Muslims have been killed and up to 300,000 displaced since the military junta nominally ceded power in 2011. No longer is this violence restricted to the state of Rakhine where the majority of Burmese Muslims live. Major incidents are reported in states as far south as Thaketa, just a few miles from Yangon, the cultural, historic and business capitol of the country which is now awash with western businessmen drinking expensive cocktails in expensive hotels. This worrying trend of more frequent and more widely spread violence threatens to derail the country’s turnaround. As violence in Myanmar creeps closer to the cap

Al Jazeera August 27, 2013 At least eight of the 37,000 who fled anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar have died while detained in Thailand. An estimated 37,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since January because of the anti-Muslim violence there. But according to reports, Thailand has also seriously mistreated the refugees. Since January, eight Rohingya men have died in detention centres run by the Thai immigration department, the report said. Al Jazeera's Veronica Pedrosa reports from southern Thailand.

Armed policemen stand on alert in the streets of Htan Gone village, Aug. 26, 2013. (Photo: AFP) By   Radio Free Asia August 27, 2013 Residents and legislators in central Myanmar’s Sagaing region expressed anger on Monday over a lack of action by authorities in containing Buddhist mobs who went on a rampage burning Muslim shops and houses at the weekend leaving hundreds homeless. Hundreds of rioters armed with swords and sticks torched dozens of shops and houses in Htan Gone village in Sagaing's Kanbalu township beginning Saturday in the first of spreading anti-Muslim violence to hit the region. Nearly 50 houses were burned down and 318 people were left homeless—many of them staying with friends and relatives or at a Muslim Arabic school in the areas after the two-day violence triggered by reports that a Buddhist woman was sexually assaulted by a Muslim man. Several people who moved to contain the violence were injured after being hit by slingshots and