The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Enforced confinement has created further danger for Rohingya Muslims, pictured here in refugee camps outside Sittwe in Rakhine State, Burma. Nic Dunlop By Nic Dunlop NewsWeek October 27, 2014 Thin Taw Li refugee camp filled me with foreboding. Although I had visited camps where people had fled civil war, this was the first time I had been among a people who face ethnic cleansing. The camp is home to more than three thousand Rohingya who fled sectarian violence in Burma’s Rakhine state. For decades the Rohingya Muslims have been subjected to systematic persecution by their largely Buddhist countrymen: denied citizenship, suffering forced labour, rape and killings. The United Nations has described them as “the world’s most persecuted minority” and other observers have warned of an impending genocide. In 2011, after decades of repressive military rule, a radical reform programme began. Elections were held, a new government was formed and Aung San Suu Kyi was rel

People who belong nowhere  By M. Mizanur Rahman and Tasfi Sal-sabi The Daily Star October 27, 2014 REFERRING to statements by some residents and an expert, Aljazeera reported on October 25 that a growing sense of despair had caused a mass migration of at least 8,000 Rohingya Muslims from western Myanmar in the last two weeks. The number of people who have fled since communal violence broke out two years ago is more than 1,00,000. Usually, the popular destinations of these Rohingya people are Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand, Pakistan and India. In the last few decades, thousands of Rohingyas migrated to Bangladesh from Myanmar. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das The Rohingya are one of the most down-trodden ethnic minorities in modern history, having been denied citizenship and basic human rights by the Myanmar government. For the Rohingyas, security of life, food, accommodation, arbitrary arrest, detention, sexual harassment and means of earning have been major problems eve

By KPN October 27, 2014 Maungdaw, Arakan State: Amy committed robbery against four Rohingya villagers in Maungdaw north, Arakan State, Burma on October 22 in the morning, said Hamid, a village elder from the area.   “The robbery was took place at Balu Khali (Thee Chaung) village under the Powet Chaung village tract of Maungdaw Township.” The house owners (victims) are identified as—Anwar (25), son of Abdu Munaf; Shuraz Zaman (50), son of Amir Bokshu; Abdu Shuker (30), son of Abdu Malek and Maulana Yousuf (45), son of Abdu Matalab,  Hamid more added. The day before October 22, some of the collaborators or local agents of BGP (Burma Border Guard Police) informed to army that some of the RSO members penetrated to Balu Khali village from Bangladesh and taking shelter there. Therefore, about 200-army went to that village to see whether it was true or not, but, the army did not find any clue of RSO members, Ayub Ali, a businessman from the locality. However, the army c