The Stateless Rohingya Blog

By Tariq A. Al Maeena Gulf News October 19, 2013 The international community must focus its attention on the atrocities unleashed on the minority Rohingya Muslim community in Myanmar The month of October has been very brutal towards the Muslim minority in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. While most of the media’s attention is focused on the chemical warfare in Syria, or the post-US deficit showdown scenario, very little was being reported on the continuing ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. Perhaps it is because the unfortunate victims happen to be poor Muslims and there are no strategic gains to be garnered by trumpeting their sorry state. Recently, however, an AP journalist reported that a mob of Buddhists armed with swords and knives invaded a predominantly Muslim village, striking at Muslims as they went along and burned down their homes. Zaw Lay Khar, an eyewitness, said she was petrified when she saw a throng of about 40 armed Buddhists approaching her home. Unde...

Photo AFP By Mizan Rahman (Dhaka) Gulf Times August 28, 2013 Bangladesh coastguards pushed back 11 Rohingyas to Myanmar early yesterday after they were held trying to cross into Bangladeshi waters in Teknaf sub-district of southeastern Cox’s Bazar district. Coastguard sources said a patrol team from the Teknaf Station detained the 11 Myanmar nationals as they were trying to enter Bangladesh in a small wooden boat at Niting around 9pm on Tuesday. The detainees were Nur Alam, 20, Hafez Ahmed, 22, Ahsan, 15, Labdhu, 20, Osman, 22, Abdul Alim, 17, Jonayed, 19, Rashid Ahmed, Ruma Begum, 17, Hamida Begum, 16, and Rahima Khatun, 15. Following interrogation, the arrested were pushed back into Myanmar around 3am yesterday. Authorities said they could not provide shelter to the Myanmar Muslims, as those already given refuge have triggered social and economic problems. Officials in Cox’s Bazar yesterday attributed the fresh influx to hundreds of Muslims in My...

Kuwaiti Shiite Muslim member of Parliament Saleh Ashour Gulf News: May 6, 2013 TEHRAN, May 6 (KUNA) -- A Kuwaiti parliamentary delegation partaking in an Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) meeting on Monday denounced the killing of Muslims in Myanmar. "We condemn and denounce the killing, slaying, intimidation and persecution of Muslims in Arakan region in Myanmar," the head of the delegation, MP Saleh Ashour addressed the APA meeting. He said a Kuwaiti parliamentary team would visit Myanmar by the end of this month in order to have a first-hand look at the violation of the political and human rights and conditions of Muslims in Myanmar. He highly commended a draft resolution on the fight against terrorism and foreign occupation, which he said ran compatible with the principles and goals of the APA charter, which supports the security, peace and stability of all world peoples in general and Asian peoples in particular. Ashour stressed the signific...

Ethnic Rohingya asylum seekers, who were rescued from their boat off Sumatra island, sit inside a bus to be taken to a detention center in Lhokseumawe, Aceh province, Indonesia, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. The wooden boat carrying 121 hungry, weak Rohingya from Myanmar was found adrift by fishermen about 25 kilometers (16 miles) off the coast. By Ramzy Baroud |Gulf News March 12, 2013 More voices must join those who are speaking out in support of the rights of the Muslims of Myanmar and their perpetual suffering must end “Transparency is the most important word”. That was the pledge made by a Burmese official, Aung Kyaw Htoo on March 4, during a press conference in the capital Rangoon. It was aimed at wooing foreign companies to invest in his country’s energy sector. Largely untapped oil, gas and other industries in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, promise to magnify the country’s economic potential and reap huge profits for everyone involved — regional and w...

Khalifa Foundation has distributed urgent aid totalling 5,200 tonnes Gulf News  March 04, 2013  Burma: The Khalifa Bin Zayed Humanitarian Foundation (KZHF) has distributed another 2,600 tonnes of food aid to Myanmar Muslims, completing its third and last phase of the urgent aid totalling 5,200 tonnes of relief items among 850,000 beneficiaries. As per directives of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the assistance was purchased from the local markets of Myanmar in cooperation and coordination with the Embassy of Kuwait to be shipped by sea to “Rakhine (Arakan)” for distribution among the affectees there. 

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...