The Stateless Rohingya Blog

In this Aug. 14, 2014 photo, Shwe Maung, an ethnic Rohingya member of Myanmar’s Parliament who represents Rohingya Muslims of Rakhine State, poses for a photo with a brown, tassled fez-like cap on a side table next to him in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP) By Matthew Pennington October 24, 2014 WASHINGTON (AP) — An influential Washington think tank is criticizing Myanmar's government for presiding over a "humanitarian catastrophe" in western Rakhine state and doing little to track down perpetrators of Buddhist-on-Muslim violence around the country. Those criticisms come in a very mixed assessment by the Center for Strategic and International Studies of the situation in Myanmar, three years after it began a historic transition to democracy from decades of oppressive and ruinous military rule. The centrist think tank, which has the ear of the Obama administration, visited Myanmar in August and issued its report Wednesday. President Barack Obama, who counts U.S. ...

People gather and watch boats with refugees on board arrive in Sittwe, Rakhine State, Oct. 28, 2012. (AP / Khin Maung Win) By  Matthew Pennington The Associated Press March 24, 2014 WASHINGTON  -- A former U.S. congressman who visited camps housing tens of thousands of people displaced by communal violence in western Myanmar is warning that minority Rohingya Muslims face a life-threatening lack of medical care and live in fear of attack. Tom Andrews, president of the U.S.-based activist group United to End Genocide, was issuing a hard-hitting report on Monday after a monthlong trip to the country also known as Burma. The former Democratic lawmaker is calling for President Barack Obama to use his leverage with Myanmar's government to demand protection for the stateless Rohingya. "Clearly the danger signs are very present and growing that we could be seeing a catastrophe. There's been significant loss of life already," Andrews told The Associated...