The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Photo: The Daily Star The Hindu News September 22, 2013   With the arrest of 107 Rohingya Muslims over the past three months for illegally trying to enter West Bengal, the Border Security Force (BSF) has taken up the matter with the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB). Senior BSF officers, who were part of the delegation at the Director General-level talks held in Dhaka earlier this month, told  The Hindu  here on Sunday that they had urged the BGB “not to push them” into India. Owing to ethnic violence in Myanmar, Rohingya Muslims had been moving into Bangladesh over the last few years. From there they enter India in large numbers taking the help of touts, according to Additional Director General (East) BSF, B.D. Sharma. BSF authorities pointed out that such infiltration had been occurring near the border outposts in West Bengal’s Dakshin Dinajpur, Nadia, Malda and North 24 Parganas districts.  During talks with the BGB, the BSF authorities pointed out that t

By A.F.M. Khairul Basher  The Daily Star September 22, 2013 Every human being has the right to live in his birthplace irrespective of religion, colour and race. But in case of Rohingyas in Myanmar, it is different and difficult. Rohingyas have been living in the state of Arakan in Myanmar since the 8th century, but have not been recognised as citizens. After decades of oppression and marginalisation by the General Ne Win in 1962 and passing of the Citizenship Law in 1982, Rohingyas have been officially stateless. Buddhist Rakhines are carrying out repression of Rohingyas. Many cases of torture and human rights abuses against Rohingya have been documented by international organisations. The UN and OIC have the responsibility to pressurise the Myanmar government to recognise the legitimate right of Rogingyas to live in peace in their homeland. Bangladesh, having sea and land border with Myanmar, has the responsibility to give due attention to this issue through bilateral an

By UNESCO September 20, 2013 Yangon : The Ministry of Education in Myanmar has approved UNESCO’s peace education project in Northern Rakhine State. The announcement of the project’s approval aptly coincides with the International Day of Peace on 21 September with the theme of “Education for Peace.” This reaffirms the commitment of the Ministry of Education to promote peace education as a means for fostering mutual respect for cultural diversity at the school level and to jointly implement the project with UNESCO through funding support from the Belgium government. Following the recent communal violence in Rakhine State, resulting in an ongoing humanitarian situation which has affected hundreds of schools and thousands of students, the government of Myanmar and international community has identified peace education as one of the priority to address underlying causes of the communal tension. The overall aim of the peace education project is to enhance the capacity of school