The Stateless Rohingya Blog

UN Special Rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana arrives at his Rangoon hotel on  Sunday. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Mr Tomas Ojea Quintana visited Burma from July 30 for four days  accompanied by other members visited Maungdaw Township, Arakan today (July 31), at about 1:30 pm by three Helicopters, according to an elder from Maungdaw.

Military Intelligence arrested Anwer the owner of three diamond jewelry shop  yesterday when he was sitting in his shop, according to a  trader from Maungdaw. Sarapa (Military Intelligence) arrested Dil Mohamed (30), son of Abul Boshor, the current village administration officer of Maung Nama village tract of Maungdaw Township, and Ms Mahmuda Khatun (20), the domestic servant of Zubair, the ex-village Chairman of Maung Nama village Tract, on July 27. Ms Mamuda Khatun was picked up from Zubair’s house.

Dr. Habib Siddiqui In his book – Worse Than War – Daniel Jonah Goldhagen says that during mass murders, the murderers themselves, their supporters and those who wish to stand idly by practice linguistic camouflage. And this has been the case with the apartheid regime in Myanmar when it comes to its national project towards exterminating or purging out the Rohingyas.

UN human rights expert on Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, left for Rakhine State on Tuesday to look into reports of abuses against Rakhine Muslims. Burma’s foreign minister told the media on Monday that “maximum restraint” was used in Rakhine State to quell the sectarian violence.

Hyderabad:  Persecuted in their own country, a group of 25 Muslims from Myanmar have reached Hyderabad to take refuge here. The group, fled Myanmar to escape ethnic violence in Rakhine state, have taken shelter at a 'dargah' at Balapur in the old city and were waiting to be recognized as refugees by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

Muslims burn a picture of President Thein Sein in front of the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok. (Photo: Reuters) The Burmese government said on Monday that the recent violence in Arakan State, western Burma, has been politicized internationally as religious oppression. Burma’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a press conference in Rangoon on Monday where officials sought to explain the recent violence in Arakan State to diplomats, NGO workers, religious leaders and journalists in attendance.

The Burmese foreign ministry “strongly rejects the accusations made by some quarters that abuses and excessive use of force were made by the authorities” in dealing with the unrest in Rakhine State, it said in a statement issued on Monday.  “The unfortunate incidents are confined to a few townships in Rakhine State [and] it constitutes inter-communal violence relating only to some portion of the population in the State,” said the statement.