The Stateless Rohingya Blog

ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION ARAKAN Date: 24 April 2014 Press Release: ARNO Confutes Rohingya  accept Bengali classification Our attention has been drawn to the news item appeared in Bangkok post, dated 23/04/2014 under caption, “Rohingya accept Bengali classification” where the newspaper quoted U Myit Kyine, head of the Immigration and Population Department, stating “More than 6,000 families came and told officials to register them as Bengali,” Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) believes the above statement is but another physiological approach of the government to influence the Rohingyas to identify themselves as Bengalis, a term that implies they are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. Backing out of its earlier promises to implement the census in line with the international standards allowing anyone to self-identify his ethnicity, now the government has not only barred the use of the term ‘Rohingya’ as ethnic identity but a

Rohingya IDP at makeshift tents in Sittwe (Akyab), Myanmar. The Ethnic Minority have been victims of institutionalized persecution and state-sponsored genocide. (Photo: VOA) Compiled by M.S. Anwar  Rvision TV April 26, 2014  1-     Confinements of Rohingyas in Rathedaung Township Rohingyas in Rathedaung Township are facing severe crises for their survival due to confinements and travel restrictions by authority. They are unable to travel to markets in the downtown of Rathedaung to buy foods, medicines and other necessary stuffs. Thus, on 23 rd  April 2014, some Rohingyas from the village of Aaga-Taung in Rathedaung were travelling to the bazaar of Nyaung Village of Buthidaung Township by an engine boat. However, Security Force at the village didn’t allow them to step on the land and forced them to go back.  (Report by CR MYARF) ………………………………………………………… 2-     Money Extortion from Rohingyas by the Administrator of Pha-Yung-Chaung Daw Ruwaida (daughter of) Aamir H

In this Nov. 28, 2013 photo, a boat which was intended to carry fleeing Rohingya Muslims until doubts arose about its seaworthiness, is docked at a lagoon near the The' Chaung refugee camp on the outskirts of Sittwe, Myanmar. Although the United Nations considers the Rohingya to be among the most persecuted groups on earth, nearby countries easily reachable by boat have been implementing policies and practices to ensure that Rohingya refugees don't wash up on their shores. (AP Photo/Kaung Htet)THE ASSOCIATED PRESS By   Associated Press April 26, 2014 SITTWE, Myanmar  – The two children stood on the beach, torn between land and sea. They couldn't go back to their tiny Muslim village in Myanmar's northwest Rakhine because it had been burned down by an angry Buddhist mob. In the chaos, they became separated from their family and gave up hope of finding them alive after seven months of searching. The only way was forward. Hungry and scared, Mohamad

Police arrive in Mingalar-zayyon Ward, Meikhtila, as houses in the city burn on March 21, 2013. (Photo: RFA) By Rachel Vandenbrink Radio Free Asia April 25, 2014 Any resolution to the religious violence threatening Myanmar’s nascent reforms must come from within the country, according to experts who notice some Buddhist monks already confronting anti-Muslim rhetoric spread by extremist groups.  Although foreign governments and NGOs—as well as the broader international community—want an end to the problem, they can only play a supporting role in addressing the tensions without having their efforts backfire, the experts said this week at a Washington conference on ethnic and religious tolerance in Myanmar. They warned that the communal tensions between the country’s majority Buddhists and minority Muslims will have to be closely watched ahead of the release of results from a national census fraught with ethnic controversy due in July and political parties gearing

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz By Burma Campaign UK April 26, 2014 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned Burma of possible international consequences if they continue to “tolerate impunity” for human rights abuses against the Rohingya. Speaking at a meeting of the Partnership Group on Myanmar in New York on 25th April, the Secretary General stated: “In the pursuit of the human rights agenda, any impression that the authorities tolerate impunity could generate negative pressures within the international community and among different parts of Myanmar’s population.” The Secretary General yesterday also described the situation in Rakhine State as “alarming” and “completely unacceptable”. He stated that the government of Burma had a “solemn duty” to “ensure the safety and protection of all civilians in Myanmar, no matter what their religious or ethnic affiliation.” The warning over impunity follows the recent report by the UN Special R