The Stateless Rohingya Blog

A report by International Crisis Group says Myanmar's Muslims are 'not ripe for radicalization' but could be pushed to violence if voting right is removed   (Credit: Arche-Nova) By Joshua Carroll October 23, 2014  YANGON, Myanmar: Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar could be pushed towards civil disobedience or violence if moves to strip them of their right to vote are successful, according to an influential report. The International Crisis Group‘s 38-page advisory said the Rohingya, the Muslim minority from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, see their voting rights as “their last remaining connection to politics and means of influence.” The report warned the situation in Rakhine is likely to become much more volatile as next year’s general election approaches. It added that sectarian violence, which has killed hundreds and displaced tens of thousands, mostly Rohingya, is a “significant threat” to the country’s nascent democratic reforms. At the heart of Rohing...

By Mainul Islam Khan Anadolu Agency July 27, 2014 DHAKA, Bangladesh : As Eid-al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, nears, just around the corner, it does not affect Seno Ara in any way. She is busy with her paddle sewing machine, fashioning clothes for the other Rohingya women - refugees, like her and many others, in the camp in Kutupalong of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. Seno Ara, 27, lives in a tiny shack made of bamboo sticks and poly sheets, with a five-feet-high and two-feet-wide door, and no window. Since there is no electricity in the camp and no light inside her home, she must find the light of day on her doorstep, to sew. “We have neither Eid, nor pleasure,” says Seno Ara. “We do not have money to have even new cloths for Eid.” She has been living in this unofficial Rohingya camp for six years. (The unofficial camp takes in all the refugees that the nearby official UN-run one, at full capacity, cannot). She was forced to migrate a...

By Assed Baig Anadolu Agency March 21, 2014 Many Muslim victims continue to live in Internally Displaced People camps, still dreaming of returning home. It’s been one year since a Buddhist mob rampaged through the central Myanmar town of Meiktila, killing local residents and setting fire to their homes. Today, the violence is o ver, but many of the Muslim victims continue to live in Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps, still dreaming of returning home.  The violence started after a mob attacked a Muslim-owned gold shop in the center of Meiktila following a dispute. Later that evening, a Buddhist monk was dragged off a motorbike and beaten by a group of Muslims. He later died in hospital. Over the next two days over 40 people were killed by the mob, which also set about destroying Muslim homes, setting fire to mosques and attacking religious schools.  "They brought them out and killed them with swords," said Thin Thin OO - an eyewitness to th...

By  Assed Baig Anadolu Agency February 26, 2014  In Sittwe, the capital of the Rakhine state in Western Myanmar, reaching Rohingya camps and villages means navigating past police checkpoints manned by armed officers. The Rohingya are not allowed beyond this point. They are essentially trapped in their own areas because leaving requires special permits that can only be obtained through a long and expensive process. "We look at that checkpoint everyday, we can never go past there. We’re stuck here, how many people have the money to pay for the permits and bribes to be able to travel to other areas?" says Tahir, a driver who took the Anadolu Agency (AA) to the Rohingya camps. Boxed in by land, their only route of escape is the sea, where hundreds have perished trying to reach Malaysia, Bangladesh and sometimes more distant destinations. Regardless, they still risk the perilous journey, sometimes paying people traffickers only to end up in the hands of crim...

By Anadolu Agency (AA) February 07, 2014 Reports in Myanmar say attacks by Buddhist mobs and police. Anadolu Agency (AA) has heard testimonies from eyewitnesses to a massacre that allegedly occurred last month in the village of Du Chee Yar Tan, in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. The claims made by the interviewees, whose identities cannot be revealed for their own safety, appear to implicate the  Myanmar  authorities in a cover-up of mass killings; allegations that, if verified, may hasten calls for an international inquiry into the incident. Last month a group of local Buddhists, backed by police, rampaged through the village killing at least 40 people, according to a United Nations statement and human rights organisations. A radically different version of events has been put forward by the Myanmar government, who deny that any Rohingya  Muslims  were killed and insist that the only victim was an ethnically  Rakh...

By   Anadolu Agency December 12, 2013 A United States committee has approved a resolution urging Myanmar to stop maltreatment of Rohingya ethnic minority living in Burma  Washington - The U.S. House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific has approved a draft resolution which urges the government of Burma to end the persecution of the Rohingya people, mostly in the western Rakhine state.  Introduced to the committee on November 18, 2013, the resolution was approved at the 1st Session of 113th Congress on Dec. 11 which was headed by Steve Chabot, US Representative for Ohio's 1st Congressional District.  The resolution H. Res. 418 also urges the government of Burma to respect internationally recognized human rights for all ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma.  For the final approval of the resolution, it should be ratified firstly by United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee and then by General Assembly of US House of Repre...

Anadolu Agency  July 13, 2013 Burmese politician Suu Kyi can solve the problems of the Rohingya people if she came to power, Ambassador of Bangladesh Zulfiqur Rahman said   ANKARA - Neslihan Dogan   Ambassador of Bangladesh in Ankara Zulfiqur Rahman on Friday said that Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese opposition politician and chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Burma can solve the problems of the Rohingya people if she came to power.   The Ambassador of Bangladesh to Turkey Rahman, who has been serving for the past three years in Ankara, talked to the Anadolu Agency (AA) about the situation of Rohingya Muslims.    Rahman said that Bangladesh had been hosting the Rohingya Muslims for the last 35 years and that they started coming to Bangladesh in 1978. "The government accepted 30,000 registered refugees who are still in the camps. There are another 400,000 people who have never been registered as refugees," Rahma...