The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Rakhine State Chief Minister U Maung Maung Ohn speaks to the press. Photo: Mizzima By Kay Zuu, Min Aung Khine Mizzima News October 23, 2014 Some European countries have challenged the Myanmar authorities to prove the claim that Rohingya do not exist in Myanmar by providing strong evidence, according to Rakhine State Chief Minister U Maung Maung Ohn. The minister raised the issue during an October 22 press conference held at the Rakhine State government office on the subject of the recent Asia-Europe Meeting held in Italy that was attended by Myanmar President U Thein Sein. Myanmar has come under fire over its handling of the Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine State who the government refers to as “Bengalis”, claiming they are illegal immigrants. U Maung Maung Ohn said these European governments suggested that the Myanmar central government should publish a book to “prove” that Rohingya do not exist in the Rakhine State. “There are some books published by some cou...

Immigration and Population Minister U Khin Yi gestures during a news conference about the census, in Yangon on December 14. Photo: Hein Htet/Mizzima By Mizzima News March 05, 2014 Immigration and Population Minister U Khin Yi has been asked by four Rakhine Nationalities Development Party MPs to ensure that ‘Rohingya’ cannot be used as a category in the census due to begin late this month. The MPs said that if Rohingya were allowed to use the term to identify themselves during the census it could lead to conflict in Rakhine State because Rakhine Buddhists would oppose any such move. The four, U KhinMaung (AmyothaHluttaw) and PyithuHluttaw MPs U Htun Aung Kyaw, U Phay Than and Daw Khin Saw Wai made the request at a meeting with U Khin Yi in Nay Pyi Taw on the evening of March 4. “If they are allowed to be listed in the census as ‘Rohingya’, problems may arise,” said U Phay Than (Myebon Township). “If they list those Bengali people as ‘Rohingya’ in the census,...

Doctor from MSF medical team asking for the history of illness of a child with diarrhoea at MSF clinic in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Pauk Taw township, February 3, 2013. (Photo: Kaung Htet / MSF) By Kyal Pyar and Kay Zue Mizzima News February 17, 2014 Residents of Rakhine State have sent a petition to President U Thein Sein asking him to expel Medicins Sans Frontieres, the head of a women’s group told Mizzima on February 15. The President has been asked to expel MSF from the state by the end of the month because Rakhine people were dissatisfied with its work, said the chair of the Rakhine Women’s Network, Daw Nyo Aye. The demand follows a series of protests held in big towns in Rakhine State since February 3 at which Myanmar and foreign non-government organizations were accused of showing discrimination in providing assistance to victims of communal violence. The protests had also demanded that all NGOs leave the state within a week. The decision to write to the...

British Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire delivers a speech during a press conference at the British Council in Yangon on January 30, 2014. Photo: Hong Sar / Mizzima By Manny Maung Mizzima New s Junuary 30, 2014 Violence targeting Muslims and the escalating humanitarian situation in Rakhine State could gravely undermine Myanmar’s reform process, Britain’s Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire warned in Yangon on January 30. Mr Swire expressed disappointment at the government’s apparent reluctance to address inter-communal violence. “I have been appalled to hear of further tragic deaths this month in northern Rakhine and we have called for an investigation into this,” Mr Swire said. “On the humanitarian front, the rise of intimidation and threats towards UN and international staff attempting to deliver life-saving food and medical supplies … is utterly unacceptable and actually quite shocking,” he said. Mr Swire said other violent incidents targeting Muslims throu...

Photo IPD camp By Mizzima News,  January 09, 2014 The Rakhine State government says its budget for supporting the residents of camps holding about 130,000 people displaced by communal violence will be exhausted in a month. State Finance Minister U Aung Kyaw Min said the government was spending about 20 million kyats a week on the camps, which shelter about 100,000 Muslims and about 30,000 Buddhists displaced by eruptions of sectarian violence that began in June 2012. “To be honest, we don’t even have enough money left for a month,” U Aung Kyaw Min told Mizzima on January 8, adding that about 30,000 million kyats and US$3,000 remained in the budget for the camps. “Donors help us with donations whenever we are facing a shortage,” he said. The chair of the State cabinet’s information committee, U Hla Thein, said the Rakhine government was mainly funding the cost of health care and other necessities to the IDPs, including some food such as beans and pulses....

  In this Thursday, March. 21, 2013 photo, a group of people try to destroy a building in Meikhtila, Mandalay division (AP Photo) Mizzima News December 12, 2013  Court proceedings in the wake of communal violence in Myanmar have often seen Muslims sentenced more quickly and to harsher punishments than non-Muslims, a Mizzima investigation has found. Analysts say court processes and decisions reveal injustices that have been present in the legal system for years and have reinforced perceptions of bias among non-Buddhist communities. But perceptions of bias are not justified in all cases, the investigation found, and in each community where sectarian violence has occurred, the patterns of arrests, prosecutions and convictions have varied. The sensitivity of the issue can make it difficult to obtain information about total numbers of arrests and convictions – assuming it is available – and to elicit comment from officials. When figures were requested f...

Photo Nasaka Written by Kay Zin Oo  Mizzima News September 20, 2013  Maungdaw Township Administrative Chief Kyi Than has urged the Rakhine state Minister of Security and Border Affairs Colonel Htein Lin to deploy more police to provide security in Maungdaw District, which is at a distance of five miles from the Bangladesh border. Chief Kyi Than made the demand in a meeting between the Rakhine state government and the Rakhine state General Administrative Department held on September 17. “After the Na-Sa-Ka (Border Area Immigration Control Force) was dissolved, police battalions have provided security. But southern and the northern regions of Maungdaw District are border areas and security has to be tight. Therefore, I have asked Colonel Htein Lin to deploy more policemen in the area,” he told Mizzima. The state government informed Mizzima that more than 700 security police have been deployed across Maungdaw District. Attorney General Hla Thein sa...

A young woman casts her vote at a polling booth during Myanmar's historic general election held after 20 years in 2010. Photo: Mizzima By Nan Hnin Lwin Mizzima News September 15, 2013 The status of white card holders' right to vote in the forthcoming 2015 general election is still uncertain. The Election Commission (EC) and Immigration Department are playing the blame game by denying their responsibility on the issue. The white cards are provisional identity cards issued by the Immigration Department to citizens whose identity and nationalities could not be ascertained. Khin Yee, Minister of the Ministry of Immigration and Population said, “The Immigration Department is responsible for granting citizenship. Setting rules on the  right to franchise is not our job. We cannot decide who can and cannot cast votes,” to Mizzima's query on September 15 at a press conference held in the Yangon Region Legislative Assembly building. Similarly, the Union Ele...

Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann and Chairperson of the Committee for Rule of Law and Tranquility Aung San Suu Kyi, right, attend a committee meeting at the Yangon Division Parliament on Sept. 7, 2013. Photo: NLD By Xinhua Mizzima News September 09, 2013 Speaker of Myanmar's parliamentary House of Representatives (Lower House) U Shwe Mann stressed the utmost importance of the rule of law in the country, calling on all the people to abide by the law, official media reported Sunday. Telling the organizations for the rule of law in Yangon, U Shwe Mann said stability and peace could not prevail in the nation in the absence of the rule of law and it may harm the country's sovereignty. He urged the concerned organizations to give suggestions on the rule of law with positive attitude instead of blaming each other. He pointed out that the parliament is responsible for the rule of law and enactment of the just laws which the people can ab...

Muslim Rohingyan refugees from Myanmar try to break out a Thai detention centre to celebrate Eid al-Fitr. Photo: EPA Mizzima News August 16, 2013 Thailand has urged Myanmar to bring back home a number of Rohingya migrants who had illegally entered Thailand since the last several months. Thai Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul called on his Myanmar counterpart Wunna Maung Lwin Wednesday to take steps to repatriate an estimated 1,700 Rohingya refugees who had fled fighting inside Rakhine state. The refugees sailed dilapidated boats in the Andaman Sea and disembarked in Thailand's southern coastal provinces since earlier this year. The Thai government's latest move apparently followed the recent event in which 261 Rohingya migrants had escaped from the compound of the Thai Immigration Police's office in Pang-nga province where they had been detained, pending deportation back to Myanmar. Surapong said he will also meet with representatives of t...

Displaced Rohingya in Rakhine State. PHOTO: Evangelos Petratos/EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection/Flickr By Kay Zin Oo Mizzima News July 23, 2013 Myanmar’s Minister of Immigration and Population Khin Yi told reporters on July 21 that his office has requested assistance from Islamic leaders and international organizations in collating the names and numbers of Muslim refugees from the communal violence that plagued Rakhine State last year. Minister Khin Yi said, “We asked for help from Islamic leaders and international organizations to persuade the Bengali [Rohingya] people to accept the work being conducted. Many refuse to collaborate with the authorities, but accept the non-government bodies and international organizations.” He said that they must finish this head count in Rakhine State before a nationwide census which is scheduled to be conducted from March 30 to April 10, 2014. “Conducting a census has nothing to do with the military or politics,” he ...

This file picture taken on June 12, 2012, shows a resident riding her bicycle past burned houses amid communal violence in Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar's western state of Rakhine. AFP PHOTO / FILES By Mratt Kyaw Thu          Mizzima News: July 1, 2013 At least three houses belonging to Muslims have been burned down in Ann Daw Township in the seaport city of Thandwe in Rakhine State, following an altercation between members of the Rohingya community and Buddhist Rakhines on Sunday evening. No deaths of injuries have so far been reported, and a curfew has now been called in the township. Mizzima confirmed at 9:30 pm on Sunday that three homes belonging to Muslim families were on fire. Rumors circulated that other buildings in the nearby quarter of Kalarsu had also been set alight. No security forces appeared to be present; sources said that police had been mobilized in the downtown area of Thandwe. Gangs of people carrying swords a...

Aung San Suu Kyi at today’s World Economic Forum BBC debate in Naypyidaw (Photo: Simon Roughneen) Written by AFP Mizzima News June 21, 2013 Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has criticised a proposal by nationalist monks to restrict marriages between Buddhist women and men of other faiths, describing it as a violation of human rights, a report said Friday. "This is one-sided. Why only women? You cannot treat the women unfairly," Radio Free Asia quoted the Nobel Peace Laureate as saying in an interview. "I also understand that this is not in accordance with the laws of the country and especially that it is not part of Buddhism," the veteran activist said. "It is a violation of women's rights and human rights." Under the proposal—spearheaded by the controversial Mandalay cleric Wirathu—non-Buddhist men wishing to marry a Buddhist woman would have to convert and gain permission from her parents to wed or risk 10 yea...

Photo: UNOCHA/David Ohana Mizzima News: May 8, 2013 The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission has urged the government and the Central Committee for Implementation of Stability and Development in Rakhine State to urgently implement the recommendations of the Rakhine Investigation Commission in the strife-torn region. In a statement released in state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar on May 8, the rights group called for “just and effective actions to be taken in accordance with law against the perpetrators of the acts of violence that had occurred; steps to be taken to build mutual trust for the physical and mental rehabilitation of the victims”. It also recommended a special children's education program in the affected areas to build “mutual trust”. The Rakhine Investigation Commission's report released on April 29 recommended doubling security forces in the state, for Myanmar to “immediately” resolve Rohingya's citizenship status and recog...

Mizzima News: March 12,  2013  Discrimination against Rohingyas in Myanmar must be addressed, said Tomás Ojea Quintana, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, speaking in Geneva on March 11. The [Myanmar] Government must establish the truth about what happened in Rakhine state during the two waves of communal violence last June and October, and hold those responsible for human rights violations to account,” said Quintana in a report presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council.  Following a visit to Myanmar last month, Quintana said that nearly 120,000 people are now living in camps in Rakhine State with a lack of adequate healthcare, and noted that conditions were worse in camps sheltering Rohingyas and other Muslims. “The situation in this area is extreme,” he warned on Monday. Quintana cautioned the government to ease restrictions on freedom of movement for the people who remain in camps before the start of the rainy sea...

Myanmar President Thein Sein (left) meets with Italian President Giorgeo Napolitano in Rome on March 7, the same day an Amnesty International report called on the UN to be aware of continuing rights abuses in Myanmar. (PHOTO: Myanmar President's Office) Mizzima News  March 8, 2013    Amnesty International has appealed to the UN Human Rights Council to continue closely monitoring the human rights situation in Myanmar in light of President Thein Sein's visit to Europe. In a statement released on March 7, the human rights NGO called for “the mandate of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar to be renewed” and for “the Myanmar Government to guarantee sustained international human rights monitoring to promote and protect human rights alongside national human rights mechanisms.” The release coincided with the Myanmar president's welcome in Italy where he met with his Italian counterpart Giorgeo Napolitano, who co...