The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Tomas Munita for The New York Times By  Jane Perlez New York Times November 7, 2014 SITTWE, Myanmar  — The  Myanmar  government has given the estimated one million Rohingya people in this coastal region of the country a dispiriting choice: Prove your family has lived here for more than 60 years and qualify for second-class citizenship, or be placed in camps and face deportation. The policy, accompanied by a wave of decrees and legislation, has made life for the Rohingya, a long-persecuted Muslim minority, ever more desperate, spurring the biggest flow of Rohingya refugees since a major exodus two years ago. In the last three weeks alone, 14,500 Rohingya have sailed from the beaches of Rakhine State to Thailand, with the ultimate goal of reaching Malaysia, according to the  Arakan Project , a group that monitors Rohingya refugees. The crisis has become an embarrassment to the White House ahead of a scheduled visit by  President Obama  to  Myanmar  next week. T

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing delivers a speech at a parade in Naypyidaw to mark Armed Forces Day, the anniversary of Burma taking up arms against the occupying Japanese. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) By Emelina Perez November 7, 2014 [JURIST] An investigation [report, PDF] conducted by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School [official website] determined three Myanmar Army commanders committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Thandaung Township, Kayin State, between January 2005 and December 2006. The study explains that beginning in 2005, the Myanmar Army engaged [press release] in human rights violations when they fired mortars, killed villagers, burned homes and laid landmines in the village, displacing more than 42,000 residents. Military policies authorized targeting civilians, according to the report, through methods such as armed tactics and destruction of property. The evidence collected by the clinic includes witness accounts of the