The Stateless Rohingya Blog

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...

Posted by Assed Baig: March 30, 2013 Muhammed sits sketching a stick man and then he picks up a green pencil crayon, colouring in the man he has drawn. No one has bothered to ask these children about what they witnessed during last year's massacre of the Rohingya in Burma. No one seems to care what children have to say. Ten or so children sit in a bamboo hut, in what is now a make-shift Rohingya village at the end of a dusty road. The village is nothing but a collection of huts and tents put up in sand. This is not where these children are originally from, they were forced here after they were chased to the water amid sword, spear and gun attacks while their homes in the Kyauk Phyu village were burnt down last year. The sun beats down; the children surround us, wanting to see the foreigners. The American doctor, (I won’t reveal her name for her protection) works with the Rohingya and pays special attention to these children. She seems like the only one that wan...