The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Aung San Su Kyi gives a speech about constitutional reform in Rangoon to thousands of supporters on May 17. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) B y  Simon Roughneen       The Irrawaddy June 3, 2014 RANGOON  — Aung San Suu Kyi’s constitutional reform roadshow is due to hit Sittwe sometime over the coming weeks, but it is not yet confirmed whether the opposition leader will speak in the troubled Arakan State capital. “It is not sure yet whether The Lady will travel,” said Kyi Toe, a senior member of the National League for Democracy (NLD), referring to Suu Kyi by her popular nickname. “We are still in planning,” Kyi Toe told The Irrawaddy on Monday. With Suu Kyi, an MP, currently attending the recently reconvened Parliament in Naypyidaw, June 28 and July 12 dates have been proposed for the event. Burma’s biggest opposition party, the NLD, along with the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society, a group of prominent former student dissidents, are...

By Sufyan bin Uzayr International Policy Digest April 11, 2014 Aung San Suu Kyi, October 22, 2013 (Claude Truong-Ngoc/Wikimedia Commons) Respected Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, Thanks to the internet, I have the luxury of putting together this open letter for you (though of course, a busy Nobel Laureate such as yourself must be having better things to do than reading this letter). Last month, at the third Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), you met the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina. Both of you discussed various issues, such as the importance of providing micro-loans to rural women and the need to restrict the trafficking of meth pills in the region. It was good to hear that steps were being taken for the betterment of the entire region. However, something was missing. Yes, the plight of the Rohingya people in Myanmar. Did you forget about them? Of course you did! You are a busy lady, after all! ...

Burmese politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi addresses a room of journalists at the International Media Conference in Yangon, Burma on March 9, 2014 (Photo: Brian Pellot) By  Brian Pellot Regional News Service March 9, 2014 “A politician thinks of the next elections. A statesman thinks of the next generation.”  Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s most famous citizen, politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, made this distinction to a packed room of journalists at the International Media Conference in Yangon Sunday afternoon. Daw Suu, as she’s known in Myanmar (Burma), is an internationally recognized and revered stateswoman. She’s also an active politician, thinking about  running for president  in the country’s 2015 elections. Suu Kyi’s  continued silence  on the Rohingya situation in western Myanmar begs the question: Are political priorities overshadowing her concern for the next generation? Myanmar is one o...

By  Harun Yahya Arab News When after years of house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi aptly described by many as the architect of democracy and human rights was allowed to enter politics, citizens of the world must have had heaved a sigh of relief. Her entry into the political arena was not only seen as a good omen for democracy in Myanmar but also raised expectations of many that it would put an end to the plight of the defenseless Rohingya Muslims in the province of Rakhine. Ironically, on both fronts the situation is not very reassuring. Despite Suu Kyi’s willingness to take part in the 2015 general elections, the sword of Law 59f is hanging over her political career, which bars anyone with family members who owe allegiance to a foreign power from participating in polls. Analysts believe it was a shrewd clause deliberately inserted into the constitution by the military junta to cope with such a situation. On the other hand, relentless oppression against Rohingyas, the m...

By Sameera  Carbonated.TV  Junuary 17, 2014 Thousands of Rohingya Muslims are being slaughtered by Buddhist monks and the Military Junta In Burma, yet pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winning human rights activist, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains eerily silent over the issue.  Burmese authorities have waged a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims since June 2012. According to a Human Rights Watch  report , the Burmese government and local authorities are responsible for the forced displacement of more than 125,000 Rohingya and other Muslims in the country. It also stated that the tens of thousands of the displaced people have been denied access to humanitarian aid and are unable to return home. What is most prominent apart from the atrocities taking place in the country is the silence of Suu Kyi. She has decided to avoid the issue and take a neutral stance over the blatant violation of human rights. Check out:  At...

Aung San Suu Kyi at a World Economic Forum BBC debate in Naypyidaw in June 2013. (Photo: Simon Roughneen / The Irrawaddy) By SANAY LIN & SIMON ROUGHNEEN  Irrawaddy News November 28, 2013  RANGOON — U Wirathu, the Mandalay-based monk who heads the “969” anti-Muslim movement, believes that democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi would not be a good president for Burma. “I wish [President] Thein Sein to be re-elected. If he refuses to go for the post, my vote will go to Shwe Mann,” said the controversial monk—whose speeches and sermons are said to have fueled anti-Muslim violence across Burma since June 2012. Both Suu Kyi, the former dissident and now opposition parliamentarian, and Shwe Mann, a former No. 3 in the old military junta, have stated their interest in becoming president after the 2015 parliamentary elections. Incumbent Thein Sein, Shwe Mann’s Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) colleague, has not said whether or not he will put his name for...

Aung San Su Kyi Photo (Reuters) By Ibrahim Shah BurmaTimes October 25, 2013   “Daw Aung San Suu Kyi—the Burmese pro-democracy icon, opposition leader and Nobel laureate— criminally silent and utterly failed to highlight or condemn the increasingly ongoing ethnic cleansing against Rohingya and other ethnic Muslims across the state.” The deceptive and tactic responds of DASSK concerning ongoing anti-Muslim violence in Burma that are exposed as injustice, mockery and baseless absolutely: In an interview with the BBC on Thursday 24th  October  2013 — DASSK employed tactic devices to mask her hidden crimes of silence to speak up for against anti-Muslim violence and to avoid condemnation of international critics and to bring equivalence between Buddhist miscreants and  Muslim victims. DASSK said “It’s not ethnic cleansing. … I think it’s due to fear on both sides. And this is what the world needs to understand—that the fear is not just on the s...

By David Blair The Telegraph October 24, 2013 I never thought I would write this, but Aung San Suu Kyi sent a shiver down my spine when she appeared on the Today programme this morning. Her equivocal attitude towards the violence suffered by Burma’s Muslim minority was deeply disturbing. I’m sorry to say that she employed the standard devices used by people who want to play down – and avoid condemning – something utterly reprehensible. The first common tactic is to draw a parity between perpetrators and victims. Suu Kyi duly said: “This is what the world needs to understand: that the fear is not just on the side of the Muslims, but on the side of the Buddhists as well.” She went on: “Yes, Muslims have been targeted, but also Buddhists have been subjected to violence. But there’s fear on both sides and this is what is leading to all these troubles and we would like the world to understand: that the reaction of the Buddhists is also based on fear.” Hang on a m...

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...