The Stateless Rohingya Blog

By  Francis Wade Asian Correspondent February 17, 2014 Next month the Burmese government will begin the country’s first nationwide census since the early 1980s. As preparation for the start date on 30 March gets underway, several groups have highlighted their concerns about how the census could work to further inflame violent nationalism and exclude minority groups. The International Crisis Group  released a strong briefing  last week that covers various important issues associated with the census, focusing in particular upon the requirement to list religion and ethnicity – a real danger at present given the recent violence directed towards the country’s Muslim population, and the Rohingya minority in particular. As the ICG briefing notes, the problems are manifold, and affect all of the country’s ethnic groups (the number of which is contested). It says that minorities will only be allowed to field representatives for local government if their population, a...

A Buddhist monk shows an anti-Rohingya message on his palm. Pic: AP. By  Francis Wade Asian Correspondent January 24, 2014 As more details emerge of the  massacre  on January 13 of at least 40 Rohingya men, women and children in western Burma, the government predictably has gone on the defensive. The UN is now claiming that police in the remote village of Du Chee Yar Tan, northern Arakan state, were among the mob of Arakanese who attacked and killed villagers, allegedly in response to the slaying of a policemen following an earlier bout of violence in January that left at least eight dead. Even though the death toll is likely a conservative one, it stands as the deadliest single incident in Arakan state since October 2012. The first international media outlet to report on the massacre was Associated Press, drawing on eye-witness testimonies collected by The Arakan Project, which for years has maintained an extensive list of sources on the ground in north...

Controversial Buddhist monk Wirathu. Pic: AP. By Mark Inkey Asian Correspondent January 01, 2014 The past year has seen a rise in religious intolerance against Muslim people in Burma fanned by radical Buddhists whose most vocal spokesperson has been the monk Wirathu. The problems first surfaced in 2012 in Arakan State when tensions between Buddhists and the minority Muslim Rohingya erupted into violence. In the months of June and October 2012, 192 people were killed in mob violence. In 2013 the attacks increased and spread to other areas with Muslims of any background, rather than just Rohingya Muslims, becoming targets. Bill Davis, one of the authors of a Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) report on violence against Muslims published in August 2013 said: “The deadly wave of violence in Burma has spread beyond the Rohingya devastating Muslim communities throughout the country.” The most serious of these incidents occurred in Meiktila, a town in central Bur...

Rohingya migrants sit on a police van in southern Thailand. Pic: AP. By Saksith Saiyasombut & Siam Voices  Asian Correspondent  December 19, 2013 The Royal Thai Navy has filed defamation charges against international journalists for their reports on authorities being involved in human trafficking of ethnic Rohingya refugees. The move sends a chilling reminder to the media about the dismal state of press freedom in Thailand, the easy exploitation of flawed laws and how little outside inquiry Thailand’s military tolerates. Ever since  the deadly persecution of the Rohingya people , an ethnic minority denied citizenship in Burma, in 2012 that caused tens of thousands to flee, mostly on frail and overcrowded vessels on the Andaman Sea, the plight of Rohingya refugees in Thailand has been well documented in the past 12 months*.  Reports of abuse, rape, inhumane detention conditions and human trafficking  have persistently accompanied the ...

By Zin Linn Asian Correspondent July 31, 2013 Burma’s President Thein Sein received a British delegation led by Speaker of the House of Commons, UK Parliament Mr. John Bercow and party at the Credentials Hall of the Presidential Palace in Nay-Pyi-Taw on Tuesday, the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper said today. The British Speaker of the House of Commons was accompanied by six parliamentarians of UK Parliament. According to the newspaper, President Thein Sein and Mr Bercow had discussions on the release of political prisoners as well as taking penalizing actions against those involved in the conflicts between the two communities in Rakhine State and some other districts.  The two also talked about some issues such as humanitarian assistance to victims in conflict-stricken areas, constitutional amendments, humanitarian assistance for victims in Kachin State and peacemaking development to terminate domestic armed conflicts. They also discussed the freedom of worship an...