The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Moe Rue Husom, who also goes by Min Aung, shows his recently obtained green ID card, indicating that he is a naturalized citizen under Burma’s 1982 Citizenship Law. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) The Irrawaddy October 10, 2014 MYEBON TOWNSHIP, Arakan State  — Similar to other camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Arakan State, tales of suffering are in no short supply here in Myebon, where the displaced have languished in hardscrabble living conditions for nearly two years. But these Rohingya Muslims have a little more hope than most. Here, at least, some members of the persecuted minority have had an opportunity that many others have not: the chance to receive government-issued ID cards, affording some of the rights of citizenship for the first time. All they have to do, the government says, is renounce any claim to an ethnic Rohingya identity. The Myebon IDP camp was selected by the government to pilot a national verification plan, the implica...

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...

Abu Tahay, is a Rohingya Politician with the Chairman of Union Nationals Development Party in Myanmar. (Photo: Vitri Angreni) B y Vitri Angreni October  06, 2014 Myanmar's national government has reportedly drafted a plan that will give members of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority a choice: accept ethnic reclassification as ‘Bengalis and the prospect of citizenship, or be detained. Many Rohingya lost documents in the widespread violence, or have previously refused to register as "Bengalis" because they say the term implies they are illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh. Most of Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya already live in apartheid-like conditions in western Rakhine after deadly clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in 2012. Abu Tahay, is a Rohingya Politician with the Chairman of Union Nationals Development Party in Myanmar. He is visiting Jakarta and explained to Vitri Angreni why they reject the plan. Here is a transc...

Displacement Rohingyas sit at a camp near Sittwe, Rakhine state, in April (Photo by John Zaw) By John Zaw, Mandalay UCA News September 24, 2014 Ethnic Rakhines in Sittwe lashed out this week after the government on Monday granted citizenship to 209 minority Muslims displaced by sectarian violence sweeping through Rakhine state. Rakhine residents in Myebon township have shut their shops, avoided markets and remained at home as a means of lodging discontent against a rare government effort to protect the rights of minority Rohingyas. “Our Rakhine community doesn’t accept that more than 200 Bengalis have been granted citizenship,” said Lower House member of parliament Pe Than, using a widely employed term for Rohingyas that implies the Muslims are illegal aliens from Bangladesh. “The verification process has been so quick and the township level board didn’t listen to the voices and recommendations of the Rakhine community leaders,” he continued. Rights group...

By Fakhruddin Ahmed The Daily Star August 25, 2014   ROHINGYA crisis has been weighing on the world's conscience for decades.  The UN Human Rights Council lists Myanmar's 800, 000 Rohingya Muslims among the world's most persecuted minorities.  Residents of Myanmar for over 600 years, Rohingyas have been stripped of their Myanmar citizenship.    Oppression and expulsion have been repeatedly perpetrated on them by Myanmar's Buddhist majority for centuries.  An estimated 300,000 Rohingyas languish in Bangladeshi and Thai refugee camps. Rohingya villages have been cordoned off, and many Rohungyas have been confined to concentration camps.  Humanitarian agencies such as Doctors without Borders have been barred from entering and treating patients in those camps. Rohingyas are perishing while the world looks away. Rohingya is an Indo-European Rohingya language; the words Rohingya means a resident of the state of Arakan.  Myanmar ...

Gulf News February 10, 2013 By Benjamin J. Hayford  Obtaining support from Myanmar’s Buddhist monks is key to gaining popular support for the recognition of the persecuted ethnic minority The move towards greater freedom and representative government in Myanmar over the last few years is a welcome one. But President Thein Sein and his associates in the military have a long way to go towards achieving democracy, human rights, and a market economy. One area of human rights that demands immediate attention is a crisis involving a sizable ethnic and religious group, the Rohingya — one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, according to the United Nations. Imagine life as part of a society that lacks a formal national identity. Now picture that society, devoid of citizenship, being persecuted for having different religious beliefs than the surrounding ethnicities within the country — barred from owning land, travelling, or even attending school. Thi...