The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Burmese soldiers march during ceremonies on March 27, 2010, marking the 65th anniversary Armed Forces Day in Naypyidaw. Soldiers from the Burma Army have been accused of sexual violence in the country’s border areas. (Photo: The Associated Press) By Lawi Weng The Irrawaddy January 8, 2014 RANGOON — The Burmese military has launched an investigation into allegations that a soldier raped a 13-year-old girl in the country’s southeast, amid continued reports by civilians that sexual abuse by armed forces remains a dire problem despite political reforms. A soldier from the Burma Army’s Infantry Battalion 31 has been accused of raping the girl at her home in Kawzar sub-township, Mon State, while her parents were away. He was reportedly visiting the house to pick up dry vegetation to build thatched roofs for his battalion’s housing. The girl was discovered by a community leader, who brought her to a local hospital. “The girl told me that her hands were tied and she was

  M.A.R. Fareed   Al Jazeera January 06, 2014    About 1,500 Rohingya Muslims displaced from Myanmar camp in Hyderabad city but basic amenities eludes them. Tarpaulin sheets and open sewage greet visitors in Rohingya camps in Hyderabad [MAR Fareed/Al Jazeera] For hundreds of Rohingya - a Muslim minority group in Myanmar - settled in makeshift camps in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, it is a daily struggle for survival. More than 1,500 Rohingya people who were displaced from Myanmar have been camping in the city for more than a year, but basic amenities such as food, clean water, medicine and clothes still eludes them. They arrived in India after being attacked by the ethnic Rakhine Budhists, while Myanmar's government forces did little to stop the violent assaults. A number of widows and pregnant women are living in precarious conditions, but children are the worst affected, with many falling sick due to the lack of proper food and medicine.

Rohingya Music & Song  Music and song reflect lives of people the way they think, feel, express and the way they are. Likewise, the lives of Rohingyas are influenced with one of the most important factors of culture; music and song. Rohingyas use many traditional instruments such as Tobla and Juri in combination of modern musical instruments. Song plays an oral medium for transmitting emotion, feeling and sentiment of Rohingyas in order to keep their history alive to the majority of non-literate commu-nity through religious, philo-sophical and country songs.    In summer time, many Rohingya youngsters go for singing under the moonlit nights with or with-out their musical instruments to feel fresh. There are also many groups of singers and musicians who release songs of all genres, and even it is easy for anyone who wants to dedicate a song for special one mentioning the name in the song from his or her fa-vourite singer. Howla is a kind of popular song