The Stateless Rohingya Blog

By   BBC News June 2, 2014 Clashes between Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar may have subsided, but there is a new crisis brewing in the camps housing Muslim Rohingya. Some readers may find details of this report by the BBC's Jonah Fisher disturbing. Arriving by boat near Kyein Nyi Pyin camp, there's no obvious sign that something is wrong. The rickety wooden jetty is busy. A pile of timber has just been offloaded and a procession of Rohingya men is transporting the logs to the camp about 1km inland. The full force of the monsoon rains are due in Rakhine 1state soon and the wood is being used to build more houses and to strengthen those that have already been built. It's nearly three years since the 4,000 Rohingya Muslims of Kyein Nyi Pyin were driven off their land by gangs of Rakhine Buddhists, and the camp now has a permanent feel. There are corrugated iron roofs, latrines and drainage ditches. Work has even started on a solar powered "Video Ho...

By Jonah Fisher BBC News March 6, 2014 Getting into Aung Mingalar as a journalist is relatively simple. We visited a couple of government offices, had a letter written for us and then after having our documents forensically examined, were allowed in. For the Buddhists who dominate the Rakhine capital, Sittwe, it is even easier. Their buses, rickshaws and motorbikes just get waved through by the  police. Many even use the main road as a short cut just to reach another part of town. For the residents of Aung Mingalar, however, things are very different.  The 4,000 Muslim Rohingya who live inside are effectively prisoners - restricted first by the police checkpoints and then by the Rakhine Buddhist community that surrounds them on all sides and constantly looks on.  "The police will not allow us out, because if they do, they know we will be beaten by the Rakhine [Buddhists]," a young Rohingya man said. Rohingya residents of Aung Mingalar ...

The attacks were said to have taken place near the town of Maungdaw BBC News January 23, 2014 More than 30 Rohingya Muslims were killed in attacks by Buddhists last week in Burma's Rakhine state, the BBC has been told. Two international aid officials who were granted access to the area in the far west of the country said they had found evidence of a mass killing. Human rights group Fortify Rights claims a series of attacks took place over five days last week. The government and local officials have strongly denied claims of a massacre. Revenge attacks The latest development follows reports of clashes between Rohingyas and the police in the Maungdaw township over the past month. It is thought tensions initially arose amid reports that several Rohingyas had been killed trying to flee over the border into Bangladesh. Things escalated after a local policeman was reported missing, presumed killed. Local Rakhine Buddhists aided by the...

photo MYMetro BBC News November 03, 2013 Dozens of people are missing after a boat carrying refugees from ethnic conflict in western Burma (Myanmar) sank in the Bay of Bengal. About 70 Muslims from the Rohingya minority, inc luding women and children, were aboard, police in Burma said. They are thought to have left a camp around the Rakhine state capital. Aid agencies have warned of a growing exodus of Rohingyas, who have been displaced by communal violence, attempting the dangerous sea journey. The boat was thought to be bound for Malaysia, where thousands of Rohingyas have sought sanctuary since violent clashes with Buddhists erupted last year. Over the past two years, hundreds of thousands of minority Muslims have been forced to flee Burma. Many Rohingya Muslims are living in tents or temporary camps. Aid agencies say the relentlessly grim conditions will push record numbers out to sea, in flimsy boats, where they are very vulnerable to...

By Jonah Fisher BBC News August 29 2013 Time magazine labelled Wirathu "The face of Buddhist terror" This week, religious violence has once again flared in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Hundreds of Muslim homes have been burnt to the ground in Sagaing region after being attacked by Buddhist mobs. In just over a year more than 200 people, mostly Muslims, have been killed and many more displaced as unrest has spread from Rakhine state in the west to towns across the country. Many are blaming a controversial monk and the nationalist organisation he helps lead for the rising tensions. In a classroom at one of Mandalay's most famous monasteries, a teacher is at work. Shin Wirathu is taking a class of young monks at Masoeyin through the five precepts or pillars of the Buddhist faith. This morning, he is lecturing on the importance of avoiding sexual misconduct. "Yes venerable monk," the young men chant in unison, as Wirathu softl...

Rohingya hamlet Ah Nauk Pyin is surrounded by a ring of Buddhist villages By Jonathan Head BBC News , Rakhine  July 1, 2013 It has been a year since sectarian fighting broke out in Burma's westernmost state, forcing 140,000 people from their homes and casting a dark shadow over the promising start made by the new reformist government. Ugly anti-Muslim sentiment that was evident in those first clashes between Buddhists and the Rohingya minority in Rakhine state last June and October has now spread, setting off assaults on Muslim communities in several parts of the country. Nearly all of those displaced in Rakhine state were Rohingyas, and their plight has drawn in substantial international assistance, channelled through major NGOs and UN agencies. The Burmese government has become conscious of the negative publicity created by the long-standing discrimination against Rohingyas. It has authorised one official inquiry into the violence, and is co-operating w...

Parts of Lashio, such as this market, were destroyed in the unrest BBC News June 12, 2013 A Burmese Muslim man has been sentenced to 26 years in jail for an attack on a Buddhist woman that led to at least two days of violence in Shan State in May. Nay Win, 48, was convicted for setting the woman alight at a petrol station. After the attack, Buddhist youths armed with sticks roamed the streets in the town of Lashio in search of Muslims. In recent months there have been several clashes between the two communities throughout Burma, but so far only Muslims have been jailed. In March, at least 43 people - mostly Muslims - died in violence that erupted after an argument at a Muslim-owned shop in the central town of Meiktila. The owner of the shop and nine other people, also Muslims, were imprisoned last month for that violence. Ethnic violence in Rakhine state last year left nearly 200 people dead and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes. ...