The Stateless Rohingya Blog

By  Radio Australia March 12, 2014 Thousands of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar still lack health care two weeks after the government ordered the international medical charity MSF to leave Rakhine State . Reports are now emerging of deaths in the camps housing those displaced by the long-running sectarian violence in the state. MSF's operations were suspended late last month when it was accused of prioritising the treatment of the Rohingya community over local Buddhists. The organisation has since been allowed to resume its work in Myanmar, but not in Rakhine State. Former US Congressman Tom Andrews has been in the country for a month. He leads the Washington-based NGO, United to End Genocide, and he's been visiting the camps where displaced Rohingya are struggling to survive. Correspondent: Karon Snowdon Speakers: Tom Andrews, former US Congressman and president of the NGO, United to End Genocide ANDREWS: The United Nations has described

Photo By Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP  By  Associated Press   March 12, 2014 THE' CHAUNG, Myanmar —  Noor Jahan  rocked slowly on the floor, trying to steady her weak body. Her chest heaved and her eyes closed with each raspy breath. She could no longer eat or speak, throwing up even spoonfuls of tea. Two years ago, she would have left her upscale home — one of the nicest in the community — and gone to a hospital to get tests and medicine for her failing liver and kidneys. But that was before Buddhist mobs torched and pillaged her neighborhood, forcing thousands of ethnic Rohingya like herself to flee to a hot, desert-like patch of land on the outskirts of town. She was then stuck in a dirt-floor bamboo hut about a quarter-mile from the sea. She and others from the Muslim minority group have been forced to live segregated behind security checkpoints and cannot leave, except for medical emergencies. Often not even then. Living conditions in The' Chaung village and

By Protect the Rohingya Protect the Rohingya, a South African based awareness organisation that advocates for the rights of the Rohingya, and the Muslim Lawyers Association of South Africa have co-authored a report on behalf of the Rohingya which they call, ‘Hear Our Screams, Making a case f or the Rohingya Genocide’. The information is structured in relation to the eight stages of genocide, as proposed by Gregory H. Stanton on Genocide Watch[1]. The facts presented within the eight stages are analysed normatively within the framework of the international law on genocide.  The outcome is that, amid an atmosphere of extermination, a genocide against the Rohingya is both probable and possibly already underway.  The report contains maps of the areas affected by the violence, a historical overview of the conflict followed by an exposition of the legal instruments pertaining to genocide within the framework of international law and a detailed presentation of the brutal condit

Photos taken by Osman Sagirli, Turkish journalist, currently in the region with IHH team By Fatimah Carbonated.TV  March  11, 2014 Not only is the Rohingya Muslim minority of Myanmar (Burma) being persecuted, it’s also deprived of much-needed medical supplies that can help heal the physical wounds from the  ethnic genocide  that has been carried out against them for about two years now. International aid group “Doctors Without Borders” (aka in French as Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF) stated last week that the Union Government of Burma ordered them to cease its operations over  accusations of biased relief efforts . Rohingya activists claim the ban will leave nearly 700,000 people without access to vital medical care in the Rakhine State – the country's second-most impoverished region which has also been plagued by ethnic rioting. Moreover, most of the clinics in western Rakhine have been shut down except a general hospital. However, the Rohingya peopl

Galagoda Atte Gnanasara, left, and Ashin Wirathu are spearheading a new vision for a religion once based on principles of non-violence. By  Jake Scobey-Thal Foreign Policy March 11, 2014 The  photo  of two monks looks innocent enough. One of the men presents the other with a birthday present. It’s difficult to make out, but it looks to be some sort of gold figurine on a red velvet base. In fact, the photo would be totally uninteresting if it weren’t for the fact that these men are two of the world’s most important leaders of a dangerously radical brand of Buddhism. The man on the right is Myanmar’s Ashin Wirathu. Known as the ‘‘bin Laden of Buddhism'', Wirathu leads the country’s 969 movement, which sees the country’s Muslim minority as an existential threat to its majority Buddhist population. The man on the left is Sri Lanka’s Galagoda Atte Gnanasara, the face of hardline Buddhism in the island nation. Together, these two robed radicals anchor a powerfu