The Stateless Rohingya Blog

By  Hereward Holland Al Jazeera April 14, 2014 Muslim Rohingya are excluded from political representation as a result of not being counted. Myanmar's million-plus Muslim Rohingya population doesn't officially exist on government records. Branded "Bengali" and considered illegal immigrants, they've been living under systematic discrimination since sectarian violence erupted in 2012 in the coastal Rakhine state. In the past six months,  resentment  of aid groups has been building among some Buddhists because of charities' perceived preferential treatment of the Rohingya, who make up the vast majority of those displaced by the recent unrest. Many aid groups that once provided life-giving support to the Rohingya's squalid camps have either been banned or forced to flee, their compounds ransacked by Buddhist mobs. The mobs gathered after a UN-backed national census, the country's first in 30 years. The headcount officially began on

By Sindhi Khan | Maungdaw, Arakan State April 15, 2014 Rvision TV The Police members of anti-Crime Squad such as Inspector Incharge Thaung Tun, Sergeant Hla Myint and Corporal Maung Chay @Than Tun some of the longest serving police officers in Maungdaw Police Station. Besides, they have become the richest police officers in town through money extortion from local Rohingyas. Though illegal activities such as abuse of power and money extortion have been reported and mentioned in media various times, they remain untransferred from the station, retained their same ranks and posts, no any other sorts of action have been taken against them. According to a police officer in the station, they have been able to escape legal actions because they have contacts with the higher officers and regularly bribe them to escape actions. These police officers have recently stepped up extorting money from Rohingyas saying “there is a complaint against you. You are involved in illegal business. Yo

Nori Slum lies on his bed in the Dar Paing camp in Rakhine state (photo by John Zaw) By John Zaw, Sittwe Myanmar UCA News April 14, 2014 Supplies aren't getting through and time is running out in Myanmar Nori Slum’s ribcage, already much too visible on his emaciated torso, rises and falls in rhythm with the hacking cough he developed a year ago. The 45-year-old developed tuberculosis last year, forcing him to be quarantined away from his family in their hut in the Dar Paing camp for displaced persons outside of Sittwe in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Many of the camp’s residents are dependent on the medicine provided by international aid groups, but Nori has gone more than a week without his. In late March aid organizations were forced to evacuate the region after orchestrated attacks on offices and equipment by Buddhist mobs angered at aid going to people like Nori Slum, a member of the Rohingya minority whom Rakhines believe to be illegal Bengali immig