The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing delivers a speech at a parade in Naypyidaw to mark Armed Forces Day, the anniversary of Burma taking up arms against the occupying Japanese. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) By Emelina Perez November 7, 2014 [JURIST] An investigation [report, PDF] conducted by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School [official website] determined three Myanmar Army commanders committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Thandaung Township, Kayin State, between January 2005 and December 2006. The study explains that beginning in 2005, the Myanmar Army engaged [press release] in human rights violations when they fired mortars, killed villagers, burned homes and laid landmines in the village, displacing more than 42,000 residents. Military policies authorized targeting civilians, according to the report, through methods such as armed tactics and destruction of property. The evidence collected by the clinic includes witness accounts of the...

US President urges Myanmar leader to support civil and political rights of the stateless Rohingya Muslims minority. Burmese President Thein Sein meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in Yangon 2012 Photo (AFP) US President Barack Obama has urged Myanmar's president to address ethnic tensions in his country, while also discussing political reforms with the opposition leader. The White House said Obama had separate telephone conversations on Thursday with President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, ahead of a second presidential visit to Myanmar next month. His visit in mid-November comes amid growing US concerns about human rights abuses in Myanmar, including the jailing of journalists and alleged oppression of stateless Rohingya Muslims and other ethnic minorities caught in conflict with government troops. Obama urged Sein to take additional steps to address ethnic tensions and support the civil and political rights of the Rohingyas. T...

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's latest report on Burma has once again drawn global attention to the sad plight of Muslims known as Rohingyas in that Buddhist country. His annual report to the UN General Assembly's Third Committee, which focuses on human rights, raises serious concerns about the condition of Muslims who are victims of ethnic and religious tensions created by official policies and hate campaigns by some radical monks, particularly Wirathu whom Time magazine describes as the "face of Buddhist terror." This has so poisoned the atmosphere that even the democratic reforms initiated by President Thein Sein are working to the disadvantage of Rohingyas. While the government intensifies its campaign of hate, opponents of the regime don't want to alienate the Buddhist majority by supporting the minority. Even the leader of the democracy movement, Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is avoiding any criticism of the government on the Rohingya issu...

By MYARF Rvisiontv.com October 16, 2014 Maungdaw, Arakan State:  Myanmar’s tyrannical Border Guard Police (BGP) has been arbitrarily arresting and detaining innocent Rohingya people all over Maungdaw Township since late September, the local Rohingyas report. The police raid Rohingya villages and vandalize and ransack their homes. Besides, they harass Rohingya women and beat and torture Rohingya men passing by different police-check posts located at every-three-mile on high ways. Most of the arrests of the innocent people have been being made under the false allegation of having links with *RSO in Bangladesh.   Myanmar's Border Guard Police Raid and Vandalize Rohingya at Any Gven Time (Photo: MFQ/ Rohingya Vision) “BGP arrested a 16-year-old Rohingya teenager, Sadek Hussain (son of) Aamir Hamza, in Ngakura (also called Nagpura) village around 11AM last Monday. He was (falsely) accused of using Bangla SIM Card and having links with RSO. He was severely...

  By  Dr. Habib Siddiqui It is good to read Bertil Lintner’s latest article “The Muslims of Myanmar” in the Irrawaddy. For years, his misconstrued article in the Far Eastern Economy has been the only staple for pseudo-experts on terrorism watch in south and south-east Asia. It was a flawed article on several points. The most striking assertion being the so-called link of al-Qaeda with some Rohingya groups that have been vocal about human rights of their people. Based on my own research on this sensitive subject I found out that there was absolutely no truth to the myth propagated by him, which was based on secondary and tertiary sources. We can probably guess who were feeding him such mis- or dis-information at the expense of the Rohingya people and their legitimate rights. The fascist,  hatemongers within the Rakhine and Buddhist community inside Burma exploited his half-baked flawed thesis towards fear-mongering against the Rohingya people as if the mythical Mu...

UN envoy Vijay Nambiar (Photo AP) By Edith M. Lederer Associated Press May 2, 2014 NEW YORK — The top U.N. envoy on Myanmar said Thursday the most pressing priority for Muslims in violence-torn Rakhine state, who are considered illegal immigrants, is to get on the path to citizenship. Vijay Nambiar, the secretary-general's special adviser on Myanmar, warned in a speech to the International Peace Institute that unless this is done the security of the Rohingya Muslims will remain threatened, "and that is sure to affect the international reputation of the country." Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation which only recently emerged from a half-century of military rule, considers the Rohingya Muslims to be immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship and related rights, even though many were born to families who arrived in the country generations ago. In the last two years members of the religious minority have been the target of bloody a...

By MYARF RvisionTV May 01, 2014 1-     Rohingyas Facing Hardship in Lives Due to Threats by Authority Many poor Rohingya people in the village of Kyein Chaung (Bawli Bazaar), northern Maungdaw, lead their livelihoods by gathering wood and firewood from nearby forests and selling them in local markets. Therefore, they need to pay money to forestry department for access permits to the forests. On 28th April 2014, SaRaPha (Military Security and Intelligence), Police, Security Force (Hlun Htein) and SB (Special Branch Police) issued a combined declaration that Rohingya wood-gatherers have to pay Kyat 50,000 to the said authority. Else, they threatened to arrest the Rohingya people. The wood-gatherers had to stop their work as they are unable to pay Kyat 250,000 to different departments of Maungdaw authority.  They are facing troubles to lead their livelihoods. …………………………………………………………………… 2-     Rakhine Extremists Stole Four Goats Belong to ...

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz By Burma Campaign UK April 26, 2014 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned Burma of possible international consequences if they continue to “tolerate impunity” for human rights abuses against the Rohingya. Speaking at a meeting of the Partnership Group on Myanmar in New York on 25th April, the Secretary General stated: “In the pursuit of the human rights agenda, any impression that the authorities tolerate impunity could generate negative pressures within the international community and among different parts of Myanmar’s population.” The Secretary General yesterday also described the situation in Rakhine State as “alarming” and “completely unacceptable”. He stated that the government of Burma had a “solemn duty” to “ensure the safety and protection of all civilians in Myanmar, no matter what their religious or ethnic affiliation.” The warning over impunity follows the recent report by the UN Special R...

Suspected Uighurs are transported back to a detention facility in the town of Songkhla in southern Thailand after visiting women and children at a separate shelter March 26, 2014. Picture taken March 26, 2014. By Andrew R.C. Marshall & Amy Sawitta Lefevre Reuters April 10, 2014 After a two-hour trek through swamp and jungle, Police Major General Thatchai Pitaneelaboot halts in a trash-strewn clearing near Thailand's remote border with Malaysia. "This is it," he says, surveying the remains of a deserted camp on a hillside pressed flat by the weight of human bodies. Just weeks before, says Thatchai, hundreds of Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar were held captive here by one of the shadowy gangs who have turned southern Thailand into a human-trafficking superhighway. With Thatchai's help, Thailand is scrambling to show it is combating the problem. It aims to avoid a downgrade in an influential U.S. State Department annual report ...

MYARF Report | Written by M.S. Anwar 26th March 2014 Rvisiontv.com (Scroll down for updates and pictures) Northern Maungdaw, Arakan- Around 3AM on 26th March 2014, Rohingya shops at the market of village of Dudan (Ludain), northern Maungdaw, were set ablaze apparently by two unidentified Rakhine extremists. It has been reported that seven shops have burnt to ashes to till date. Many other shops have also been partially destroyed. “Local Rohingyas spotted two stranger Rakhines nearby the market of Ludain just before the curfew time on 25th March 2014 night. And the Rohingya shops caught fire around 3AM of the same night (i.e. 26th March 2014 morning). There were around 40 shops at the market. Of them, seven shops got burnt to ashes. Many other shops were partially burnt. Some Rohingyas were able to save some shop-stuffs” said a local of the village. “No Rohingya is allowed to go out of his/her home during the curfew time at night. But Rakhines can roam anywhere at t...