The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Arakan Army troops on parade in Laiza, Kachin State, in April 2014. (Photo: Moe Myint / The Irrawaddy) By Lawi Weng /The Irrawaddy January 8, 2015 RANGOON — A commander and “several” other members of the Burma Army have been killed in recent fighting with the Arakan Army in Kyauktaw Township, according to state-run media, which on Friday reported that the military intended to “remove” the ethnic armed group from Arakan State.

By Aman Ullah October 08, 2014 On Burma attaining independence on 4th January 1948, it ceased to be a part of the British Commonwealth which it left of its own choice. However, at that time the inhabitants of the country consisted of persons of indigenous, mixed and foreign stock. Citizenship was partly defined by the Constitution thereby assuring citizenship rights to the indigenous and mixed races, but the task of defining citizenship more completely was left to the parliament. Laws were promulgated by the Parliament from time to time to define citizenship and to provide for its acquisition and anyone who was not a citizen was classified as a foreigner.  The “Residents of Burma Registration Act” was enact in 1949 as Act No.41, 1949 and a nine members committee was formed June 1950 to draft it’s rules in the name of ‘National Registration Rules Drafting Committee’ headed by U Ka Si, Secretary for Home Affairs. After finalizing the draft the committee submitted it to the Gover...

Rohingya & Rakhine Women take part in sewing training funded by UNHCR in Maungdaw, Myanmar. © UNHCR/K.Lynn By  Aung Aung  February 12, 2014 Inter-communal peace is acceptance of cultural and religious identity. Cultural diversity is inevitable both in Western and Eastern democracies. But over the past three decades, the term ethnic and religious has been being misused by the regime of Burma that caused 100s of violence against humanity throughout Burma. After 2nd World War, communal conflicts in the World took place known as Cold War which caused lost of millions of lives. Following the 9-11 terrorist attacks, new communal conflicts were systematically conducted by the particular politicians all over the World in the name of “War on Terrorism”. Myanmar regime took advantages of “War on Terrorism” started Buddhist propaganda by building Dhammaryun (Buddhist preaching house) in every street, every ward, every village and every school. Real road to pea...

When Social Development and Human Security Minister Pavena Hongsakul visited Rohingya boat people at the immigration detention centre in Phangnga last month, she was appalled by their poor living conditions.  To squeeze more than 200 people in a very small space is inhumane, she said. Since it is the same situation for hundreds of Rohingya boat people at police stations in other provinces, she proposed giving   these asylum seekers a more decent temporary shelter by making use of old refugee camps.  Her proposal has been met with silence from the army, the police, provincial and immigration authorities. Given the locals' resistance due to lack of local consultation, it seems the refugee camp idea is over. Interestingly, the offer by local Muslim communities to use their mosques as temporary shelters for the Muslim Rohingya boat people has also fallen on deaf ears. Shortly after Ms Pavena's visit, the Rohingya detainees at Phangnga staged a mass jail break.  R...

Hundreds of Muslims in Myanmar become homeless after Buddhists burnt their homes and shops in Sagaing region of the violence-wracked country. Local officials say more than 300 people are currently sheltering at a school after Buddhist mobs torched their homes two days ago.  On Saturday, around a thousand anti-Muslim rioters rampaged through villages in the northwestern town of Kanbalu in the central region of Sagaing. The mobs set fire to Muslims’ properties and attacked rescue vehicles.  Sources say dozens of houses and shops were left in charred ruins.             "The fires burned until last night, but they have now been extinguished after it rained heavily," said Myint Naing, a local MP for the opposition National League for Democracy party. This is the fourth anti-Muslim riot to break out in central and northern Myanmar this year.  Similar violence in the Western Rakhine state last year left nearly 200 people dea...

Children who arrived on a Rohingya boat off Phuket on January 1 Photo by phuketwan.com/file For years, thousands of ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar's Arakan State have set sail to flee persecution by the Myanmar (Burmese) government.  The situation significantly worsened following sectarian violence in Arakan State in June 2012 between Muslim Rohingya and Buddhist Arakanese, which displaced tens of thousands of Rohingya from their homes.  In October 2012, Arakanese political and religious leaders and state security forces committed crimes against humanity in a campaign of ''ethnic cleansing'' against the Rohingya.  During the so-called ''sailing season'' between October 2012 and March 2013, more than 35,000 Rohingya are believed to have fled the country.  International pressure on Thailand to provide temporary protection to Rohingya arriving on its shores resulted in the current detention policy. Since January, more than 1800 Rohingya...

The government must decide quickly on temporary shelters for displaced Rohingya until more permanent solutions are found, a member of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) says.  NHRC commissioner Niran Pitakwatchara said he was concerned the Rohingya currently being detained in Thailand were being deprived of basic rights.  The migrants, many of whom have arrived in southern Thailand by boat this year, have been kept in scattered shelters and detention centres for seven months and the government should now decide what to   do about them, Mr Niran said. The Rohingya migrants are kept in poor living conditions in temporary shelters, and also suffer exploitation by trafficking gangs, and extortion from smuggling gangs, he told a seminar titled: "The Rohingya : Unwanted and Alone in Thailand".  "Though Thailand is not a [UN refugee convention] signatory, state ministries could actually hasten their authority in  providing decent and appropriat...

Ten Rohingya refugees escaped the Ranong Immigration detention center in a dawn breakout yesterday. Photo: Gazette file PHUKET: Ten Rohingya detainees escaped at dawn yesterday from a detention facility at the Immigration Office in Ranong, the popular visa run destination for many expats and tourists in Phuket. The incident is the latest in a series of Rohingya escapes from various facilities in the past few months. The 10 escapees were part of a group of 118 Rohingya detainees at the facility. The Ranong Immigration Office has begun a manhunt for the 10 runaway Rohingya. "We have handed out their photos to motorcycle-taxi riders, community leaders and local people in a bid to track them down," office chief Ekkorn Bussababordin said, adding that he believed the 10 escapees were still in Ranong. Col Ekkorn said that he would step up security measures at the detention facility to prevent further escapes. Thousands of ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar's Arakan Sta...

PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN –    A total of 34 Rohingya migrants remain at large after 37 of them escaped from a detention centre in Muang district early yesterday. The detention centre in Prachuap Khiri Khan houses 119 Rohingya. The escape took place around 2am Saturday at the centre in tambon Klongwan, which has two buildings housing 119 Rohingya who were transferred from Phangnga in January. The site is approximately 10 kilometres away from the Sing Khon temporary checkpoint with Myanmar. Weera Sriwattanatrakul, the governor of Prachuap Khiri Khan province, said the security guards at the site had fallen asleep while on duty. More than 200 police and other officials began a search within a radius of five kilometers from the detention site and found three escapers walking along a road. Mr Weera said the government needed to find a solution for dealing with the Rohingya, thousands of whom have fled persecution in Myanmar. Many Rohingya have ended up in Thailand in poor ...

With the Eid around the corner, the plight of the persecuted Rohingya Muslims in Burma appears to have taken a turn for the worst, according to sources who contacted the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organisations (MAPIM). The umbrella group's secretary general Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid said Muslims were currently subjected to several restrictions, including from performing prayer at mosques in Arakan, especially in the town areas. “Prayers are allowed at mosques in the rural areas, that too only for the Zuhr (noon) and Asr (afternoon) prayers, while Friday prayer is not at all allowed," said Azmi . According to his sources, not more than 10 Muslims are allowed to hold congregational prayer. At the Maungdaw district, there are some 178 mosques and prayer halls while not more than 20 mosques are located in the urban areas. The south of this district has seen some of the worst attacks against Rohingya Muslims and their properties. The dire situation and the l...