The Stateless Rohingya Blog

By Nurul Islam KPN News Immediately after the two genocidal onslaughts against Rohingya and Kaman Muslims in Rakhine State (Arakan) in June and October 2012, random operations were launched by the immigration authorities, guarded by police and armed forces, to verify the citizenship of the Muslims – to verify who has the right to be a citizen of Myanmar, and who does not. The operations began quietly with no public announcement and the villagers were taken by surprise. They had not been told what the operations were for. Rumours spread that, during the process of verification, the interviewing officers would ask the Rohingyas some intricate questions and classify them as Bengalis with a view to deporting them to third countries as stated by President Thein Sein and Dr. Aye Maung, Chairman of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP), which dominated the Rakhine state government. So, the Rohingyas, who were discriminated against and victims of genocide, were

By  Francis Wade Asian Correspondent February 17, 2014 Next month the Burmese government will begin the country’s first nationwide census since the early 1980s. As preparation for the start date on 30 March gets underway, several groups have highlighted their concerns about how the census could work to further inflame violent nationalism and exclude minority groups. The International Crisis Group  released a strong briefing  last week that covers various important issues associated with the census, focusing in particular upon the requirement to list religion and ethnicity – a real danger at present given the recent violence directed towards the country’s Muslim population, and the Rohingya minority in particular. As the ICG briefing notes, the problems are manifold, and affect all of the country’s ethnic groups (the number of which is contested). It says that minorities will only be allowed to field representatives for local government if their population, as recorded by