The Stateless Rohingya Blog

By Bill O’Toole Myanmar Times November 03, 2014 In the lead-up to the 2010 general election, the Union Solidarity and Development Party faced a problem in Rakhine State. A Muslim woman sits in front of temporary shelters in Sittwe township, Rakhine State. (Ko Taik/The Myanmar Times) Replicating their strategy elsewhere in the country, they sought to recruit influential locals to stand as candidates in the election, which was touted by the military as a key step in the nation’s road to democracy. However, they ran into well-organised opposition from the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party. Though established just a few months earlier, following the release of election laws in March, the RNDP had managed to generate significant local support by tapping into widespread animosity toward the central government from ethnic Rakhine. The USDP needed allies in the region. Controversially, they turned to the Rohingya. “USDP approached us, they said we should pa...

By Bill O’Toole Myanmar Times October 9, 2014 Less than two weeks after being convicted of rioting in a Sittwe court, Muslim community leader U Kyaw Hla Aung was released under a presidential amnesty on October 7. U Kyaw Hla Aung was arrested on July 15, 2013, following a clash in the Baw Du Pha IDP camp when a group of young Muslims refused to fill out an immigration department form that identified them as “Bengali”. The situation escalated to the point where the youths allegedly attacked several immigration police. Shortly afterward, U Kyaw Hla Aung was arrested and accused of inciting the group to attack the police. Many observers said the charges were directly related to U Kyaw Hla Aung’s longstanding political activism and legal assistance on behalf of detained Muslims in Rakhine State. While 3073 prisoners were freed on October 7, Yangon-based attorney U Robert Sann Aung said U Kyaw Hla Aung was one of just a handful who could be described as a “politic...

By Ei Ei Toe Lwin Myanmar Times September 29, 2014 Rakhine State officials insist a citizenship scrutiny project in Myebon township has not been suspended, despite media reports to the contrary and protests from local Rakhine residents. Citizenship scrutinizing card for Rohingya as Bengali+Kaman More than 1000 people have applied for citizenship through the pilot project. Of these, 209 were granted full or naturalised citizenship according to 1982 Citizenship Law at a ceremony on September 22, including 40 identified as Bengalis and 169 as Kaman. However, Eleven Media reported the program hads been stopped because of concerns that some Muslims were carrying fake documents identifying them as Kaman, an officially recognised Muslim ethnic group from Rakhine State. U Maung Maung Than, a director general in the Ministry of Immigration and Population, said the reports were incorrect. “The program is continuing,” he said. “The regional government is impleme...

Photos created by kalle.bergbom By Wa Lone Myanmar Times August 25, 2014,  Two years after inter-communal violence first broke out in Rakhine State more than 310,000 people are still in need of humanitarian assistance there, says the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Pierre Péron, public information and advocacy officer at UNOCHA, said those in need included both Muslim and ethnic Rakhine residents. The number of international humanitarian staff in Rakhine State decreased sharply after attacks on UN and NGO facilities in March following accusations that they favoured Muslims. Most of the 300-plus staff from NGOs and INGOs who were temporarily relocated following the attacks have returned to Sittwe. But Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland, which previously had more than 500 staff in Rakhine, has not been able to resume its activities since they were suspended by the government in February, despite being invited to do so last ...

A census enumerator, right, asks a Muslim woman to collect information at Thae Chaung village in Sittwe, Rakhine State, western Myanmar, Tuesday, April 1, 2014. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win) By Fiona MacGregor    Myanmar Times August 04, 2014 Census results on Myanmar’s ethnic populations will not be published until after the 2015 general election, an official in charge of the census has told The Myanmar Times. The revelation, which comes following concerns that figures on ethnicity and religion could prompt further communal conflict, has prompted some observers to conclude the results are being held back for political reasons. However, those involved in the process say the delay is due to data-input difficulties after a higher-than-expected number of people chose not to identify as one of 135 set ethnic groups on the questionnaire. “The ethnic information cannot be released [as early as planned],” said Daw Khaing Khaing Soe, director of the Ministry of Immigration a...

By Myanmar Times On July 15, 2013 One year ago this week – President U Thein Sein stood next to David Cameron in London and told reporters, “By the end of the year there will be no prisoners of conscience in Myanmar.” A member of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) looks through prisoner records on July 10. (Yu Yu/The Myanmar Times)A member of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) looks through prisoner records on July 10. (Yu Yu/The Myanmar Times) He touted his newly formed Remaining Political Prisoner Scrutiny Committee as the mechanism to achieve this aim. The committee, he said, would review the cases of all “prisoners of conscience” and make recommendations for their release. One year later, dozens of democracy activists sit in jail for non-violent political offences, while hundreds of others have been arrested on spurious criminal charges linked to political activities. Since January, there have been few prisoners...

AP Photo By Bill O’Toole   Myanmar Times April 07, 2014 Criticism of Myanmar’s census hit fever pitch last week when residents of Rakhine State were not allowed to self-identify according to their wishes, with even the United Nations appearing to turn on the government for its apparent back-flip. But experts say the census was “doomed from the start”, and that donors and the UN had more than enough warning of the likely problems but did little to act on them. In particular, a risk assessment commissioned by donors “clearly warned” of many of the problems facing the program now, including flawed data and the inflaming of ethnic tensions, a person familiar with the report told The Myanmar Times. The report was never released publicly and UNFPA did not respond to requests for information about its conclusions last week. But there were many more public warnings about the census’ likely impact. “Many individuals and organisations, both domestic and inter...

By Tim McLaughlin The Myanmar Times March 19, 2014 A political party has called for Rohingya to participate in the upcoming national census but also urged the government to ensure they are able to respond to questions freely and without intimidation. The Democracy and Human Rights Party said it “enthusiastically welcome[es] the 2014 nationwide census” and “urged all Rohingya to fill in your ethnic name correctly and independently without any spelling errors”. The statement was released by the group’s chairman last week. Because the Rohingya is not an officially recognised ethnic group it has not been assigned a numerical code for the census. However, individuals who wish to identify as Rohingya will be able to select “other” and then write in Rohingya. Members of the DHRP and the National Democratic Party for Development (NDPD) had in January called for Rohingya to be given a numerical code, but their attempts to have the census changed were unsuccessful. The Democra...

Rohingya MP U Shwe Maung By Kayleigh Long Myanmar Times February 07, 2014 Union Solidarity and Development Party MP U Shwe Maung has been questioned by police in Nay Pyi Taw over comments he made to Democratic Voice of Burma about possible police involvement in a fire that broke out in a Muslim village in Rakhine State late last month. More than a dozen homes were destroyed in the blaze at Du Chee Yar Tan West village near Maungdaw in northern Rakhine State on January 28. U Shwe Maung said the February 4 interrogation came at the behest of President U Thein Sein, who sent a letter to Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Speaker Thura U Shwe Mann requesting permission for police question the MP. The interview lasted about 90 minutes and was conducted at his USDP living quarters in Nay Pyi Taw. It focused on allegations that U Shwe Maung, a Rohingya, had defamed the state and police by saying that residents believed security forces were involved in starting the fire. ...

By Wakar Uddin Myanmar Times January 13, 2014 Myanmar is uniquely rich with an array of cultures, traditions and linguistic attributes. While diversity can be one of this country’s strengths, it has also sowed the seeds of discord for too long. Instead of helping Myanmar become a leader in Asia, it has held the country back, stifling development and creating chronic insecurity for its people. A Rohingya man sits in a mosque in Sittwe township shortly after it was damaged by a Buddhist mob in October 2012. Photo: Kaung Htet The precise identity and the composition of ethnic minorities in Myanmar have always been quite vague and often arbitrary. Although the government has officially put the number of ethnic minority groups at 135, many have challenged this number and the official list of categories. Some claim they have been left off the list; others say there are too many categories. The citizenship of one particular ethnic group, the Rohingya – of which I am...