The Stateless Rohingya Blog

By  Francis Wade Asian Correspondent February 17, 2014 Next month the Burmese government will begin the country’s first nationwide census since the early 1980s. As preparation for the start date on 30 March gets underway, several groups have highlighted their concerns about how the census could work to further inflame violent nationalism and exclude minority groups. The International Crisis Group  released a strong briefing  last week that covers various important issues associated with the census, focusing in particular upon the requirement to list religion and ethnicity – a real danger at present given the recent violence directed towards the country’s Muslim population, and the Rohingya minority in particular. As the ICG briefing notes, the problems are manifold, and affect all of the country’s ethnic groups (the number of which is contested). It says that minorities will only be allowed to field representatives for local government if their population, a...

Photo created by Soe Thu Moe By Aung Aung Sittwe February 05, 2014  Nazi Government of Burma has been conducting racist and Nazi propaganda in order to hold power since 1988. When the who le population of Burma demanded democracy in 1988, Nazi leaders of Burma started implementing racism and Nazism in the name of Buddhism; built Dhammaryun, Buddhist preaching house in every street, every ward, every village, and every school, broadcasting Buddhist propaganda from National Media, formed terrorist gangs in everywhere. Since 1990, Nazi Khin Nyunt formed NaSaKa for Rohingya Genocide, persuaded majority Buddhists by carrying a huge idol called Kyaukdawgyi Paya from Mandalay to Yangon.  Nazi Government of Burma has been terrorizing all minorities of Burma since 1988 using Buddhism. I know Buddhism very well, Nazi Government has been systematically using Buddhism and soldiers monks for hatred, racism, and violence. The World know how did Nazi Government treat with ...

By GovUK January 31, 2014 FCO Minister Hugo Swire will answer your questions on Burma live via Twitter on 4 February. Burma has seen remarkable progress over the past two years, and the UK is committed to supporting a successful transition to democracy and human rights for all the people of Burma. But we are clear that more remains to be done. The UK government is gravely concerned about the ongoing violence in Rakhine State. We are also pressing for constitutional reform, supporting the ethnic peace process and taking action on human rights abuses, including combating the use of sexual violence. Following his recent visit to the country, Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire will answer your questions on the UK’s policy towards Burma live via Twitter on Tuesday 4 February from 0930 - 1015 GMT. You can submit questions using the hashtag #askFCO, and you can follow the Q&A on Mr Swire’s Twitter page @HugoSwire Further information Follow Foreign Office Mi...

By   Editorial of New York Times December 11, 2013 Anti-Muslim sentiment in Myanmar is threatening to derail the significant progress the country has made toward democracy since the military junta formally stepped down in 2011. In June and in October 2012, rampages in Rakhine State against Rohingyas, a minority Muslim group, left scores dead. Tens of thousands fled their homes. In October this year, mobs attacked Muslims in a rampage that killed a 94-year-old grandmother, among other victims. A far smaller number of Buddhists have also been victims of lethal violence. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have fled Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority nation. Most sought asylum in Bangladesh and Malaysia. Recently, thousands have taken refuge in or been forcibly displaced to camps within Myanmar where they are virtual prisoners. Humanitarian aid groups have been denied access to these camps. A group of radical Buddhist monks known as 969 and their de facto leader Ashin Wirathu are ...

The body of a Rohingya man killed with his hands bound. The body was one of 18 Rohingya corpses, including that of a boy, dumped by police outside Sittwe on June 13. All the bodies showed grievous wounds. Police ordered local residents to bury the bodies in a mass grave that was shown to Human Rights Watch. | Text and photo courtesy of Human Rights Watch Newsdesk.Asia June 30, 2013 The Burmese government is accused of aggravating the abuse committed against Rohingya Muslims in the ongoing violence gripping the minority group and the Buddhist ethnic Rahkine people. Over 70 groups have signed a petition calling on the Burmese government to step in and end the violence that have ‘disproportionately victimized’ the stateless Rohingya Muslims. The groups also challenged Burma to “answer allegations of crimes against humanity being perpetrated by state actors against the Rohingya.” Some officials, they said, are also allegedly “siphoning off humanitarian supplies.” “...

Carrying belongings Muslims refugees get off a vehicle as they arrive at a rescue camp in Meikhtila about 550 kilometers (340 miles) north of Yangon, Myanmar, Friday, March.22, 2013. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win) BBC News:  May 21, 2013 Six Muslim men have been jailed for their role in religious clashes in the Burmese town of Meiktila in March. One of the men was jailed for 34 years for killing a monk; the others received sentences ranging from two to 14 years for crimes including unlawful assembly and religious disrespect. At least 43 people - mostly Muslim - died in the violence that erupted after an argument at a Muslim-owned shop. So far no Buddhists have been convicted in connection with the deadly clashes. The monk was knocked down from his motorbike by a group of Muslim men, beaten and killed, according to reports. Apart from the monk, Meiktila's violence was almost entirely directed against the Muslim minority. It sp...

Photos created by Kalle Bergbom : IPS News Agency May 03, 2013 BANGKOK, May 3 2013 (IPS) - Rendered the nowhere people in their own homeland, thousands of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar are fleeing inhuman living conditions, lack of humanitarian aid and rising sectarian tensions in their country. And the very state that is supposed to protect them now stands accused of ‘ethnic cleansing’. The Muslim Rohingyas and Rakhine Buddhists have had a history of conflict dating back to World War II. The latest round, however, was ignited in June 2012 when 10 Rohingya Muslims were killed by ethnic Arakanese, followingthe rape of a 28-year-old Arakanese woman. It sparked off a cycle of violence in which an estimated 200 non-Rohingya Muslims, Rohingya and ethnic Arakanese have been killed and more than 125,000 displaced. The horror peaked in October last year when security forces assisted ethnic Arakanese in razing villages in nine of the 21 townships in Arakan, in western Mya...

Associated Press April 29, 2013 YANGON, Myanmar — A Myanmar government commission investigating sectarian violence in the country’s west last year has issued proposals to ease tensions — including doubling the number of security forces in the volatile region and introducing family planning programs to stem population growth among minority Muslims. An executive summary of the report, obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, said concerns by Buddhists over the rising population of Muslims they see as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh have “undermined peaceful coexistence” between the two communities. It said family planning education should be voluntary, but “would go some way to mitigating” toward ameliorating the crisis. Two outbreaks of unrest between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims left nearly 200 people dead and forced more than 125,000, mostly Muslims, from their homes. The violence appeared to have begun spontaneously in June, but by October it...

A woman carries a load on her head through a neighbourhood that was partially burned down during the clashes between Muslims and Buddhists earlier this year, in Meikhtila. Image by: DAMIR SAGOLJ / REUTERS Sapa-AP April 28, 2013 Wrapped in a saffron robe, Buddhist monk Wirathu insists he is a man of peace. Never mind his nine years in prison for inciting deadly violence against Muslims. Never mind the gruesome photos outside his office of Buddhists allegedly massacred by Muslims. Never mind that in the new Myanmar, the man dubbed the “Burmese bin Laden” has emerged as the spiritual leader of a pro-Buddhist fringe movement accused of fueling a bloody campaign of sectarian violence. Wirathu insists the world has misunderstood him. “If they knew my true ideas, they would call me saviour,” he says. Wirathu has become the figurehead of a virulent strain of religious nationalism being spread by some of the most venerated members of Burmese society: Buddhist ...

President Thein Sein at the press briefing: AP BY YADANA HTUN,  Associated Press, April 14, 2013 YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's president said Sunday his country needs to learn from the violence and instability that has wracked the Southeast Asian nation over the last two years if it is to overcome the challenge of democratization. Thein Sein spoke in a radio address broadcast to mark the  start  a day earlier of a traditional New Year holiday that is celebrated by revelers across Southeast Asia with friendly water fights. Thein Sein, a former general, took office two years ago after Myanmar's long ruling junta stepped down. He has since led an unprecedented transition toward democratic rule, releasing political prisoners, easing censorship and signing cease-fire deals with all but one of the nation's rebel groups. But the country has also been plagued by a war with ethnic Kachin rebels in the north, sectarian violence in western Rakhine state, and ...

KILLING FIELDS: Right, the madrasa where more than 40 Muslims were killed on March 21. Bangkok Post April 13, 2013 Eyewitnesses to a massacre at an Islamic school say it was carried out by Buddhists, and many contend it stems from a coordinated effort with ties to the top Mon Hnin, a 29-year-old Muslim  woman  from Meiktila, in central Myanmar, spent the night of March 20 with her daughter and mother-in-law hiding in terror in the bushes on the fringes of her neighbourhood. A wave of murderous anti-Muslim riots led by Buddhist extremists had exploded earlier that day in the dusty town with a population of 100,000 people, located 130km north of the capital, Nay Pyi Taw. Like the houses of many other Muslims in the town, the one belonging to Mon Hnin, whose name has been changed for  security  reasons, had been destroyed by a Buddhist mob in the Mingalar Zay Yone quarter and she and her relatives had to take refuge in the first place they could find. The...