The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Washington, D.C. 10 February (Asiantribune.com):  The new US Secretary of State John Kerry will make no changes to US policy on Burma, the State Department said, adding that Kerry met with a group of Burmese women leaders on Wednesday, February 7 while one of his assistant secretaries is due to visit Burma next week. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday met with a group of Burmese women leaders who are visiting the US “Yes,” said State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland, when asked if Kerry is likely to continue with the US’ Burma policy that was started under his predecessor Hillary Clinton. Earlier on Wednesday, Kerry met with four Burmese women activists who are visiting the US as part of a program supported by Goldman Sachs and The McCain Institute. The group included two members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, Khin Than New and Zin Mar Aung. The latter is on the party’s women’s affairs committee. “I think he was very moved ...

Naikonchari, Bangladesh:  A flag meeting between Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Burma’s border security force (Nasaka) was held at Dusari Union, near Bangladesh-Burma border yesterday at about 10:00 am, according to BGB official. “They discussed different issues such as— drug trafficking, to maintain good  relation , illegal intrusion of Rohingya to Bangladesh, smuggling goods to and fro from Bangladesh and etc.” 16 members of both sides, BGB and Nasaka had participated in the meeting, BGB members from Bangladesh side led by Lt. Col. Mahabu Rahaman of Naikonchari  Battalion No. 15 while Nasaka personnel from Burma was led by the Commander U Min Min Than of Nasaka area No. 1, according to sources. The Nasaka Commander also had raised the issue of two (GE) army engineers who were abducted on November 7, 2012 by unknown persons while they were erecting pillars on Burma-Banladesh border, sources said. Regarding the  event , Burma’s border security forces rai...

Maungdaw, Arakan State:   Four Rohingya minor children from one family of Rohingya community were slaughtered and one Rakhine was killed and three wounded by unknown miscreants in Maungdaw north yesterday night, said a village admin office member who denied to be named. “On that night, a group of unknown miscreants went to Deen Mohamed’s house of Khaza Bill (Sapaikone) village,under Nasaka area No.5 of Maungdaw north while he was not present in the house. He has been working with GE military at Burma- Bangladesh border. After entering the house, the miscreants slaughtered all four minor children – Nuruzawma, Rozena Begum,Yasmin Ara and Mozena, aged 10, 8, 6 and 4 (three females and one male) in the house. The miscreants also abducted the mother –Roza- of the children and she is yet to be found.” The house is out of the main village, at around one Furlong away from the main village Khaza bill, so the villagers did not hear any screaming from the house last nigh...

Source Oman Tribune: February 10, 2013   The sufferings of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar cannot be ignored any more by the international community. That their situation is serious is evident from the revelation by the Thai authorities that 6,000 Rohingyas have arrived in Thailand since October when violence against them was unleashed in Rakhine state. Thousands of others are languishing in neighbouring Bangladesh. Hundreds of others reportedly have plans to flee Myanmar and the persecution there. The million-dollar question is, what is the international community doing to help the Rohingyas ? Not too long ago, the Americans were vocal about the lack of democracy and the violation of human rights in Myanmar. Why are they silent now? This is not the first time that the Rohingyas are being persecuted. In the mid-1990, the Myanmar government was involved in a systematic assault on the rights of these people and hundreds of thousands sought refuge in Bangladesh. The subse...

Workers from Myanmar throng a nationality verification centre in Bangkok ahead of the original Dec 14 registration deadline, which has now been extended to March 16. (Post File Photo) Bangkok Post 9 Feb 2013 Myanmar hopes Thailand will allow more time for documenting an estimated one million migrant workers if the nationality verification (NV) process can't be finished by the March 16 deadline. Deputy Labour Minister Myint Thein made the comment on Saturday during a visit to Bangkok to assess progress in the NV programme. He also demanded that Thai authorities ensure the cost of getting passports and completing the NV process is not too high. The government earlier set a deadline of Dec 14 for completing the process but the job proved too big, so the cabinet set a new deadline of March 16. Migrant workers not  registered  by then could face the threat of deportation. This time, Myanmar has asked for visa-free privileges and passports for children...

Posted by Dr.  Habib Siddiqui  In 2007 JARO under the able leadership of Mr. Salim Ullah hosted the first international conference on the Rohingyas of Burma (Myanmar) in two cities of Japan, which included Tokyo. Recently, I came across the newly released videos from this conference. I was invited as the chief guest and keynote speaker in this conference. The videos can be seen  here  in piecemeals (8 part series).  As you will notice, my concerns about the Rohingya people in a flawed democracy came so true with the latest unleasing of the pogroms against them - this time a collaborative one between the state actors and racist, criminal Rakhine politicians of the Arakan state.

  Maungdaw, Arakan State : The concerned authority – Township administration office – again extended the emergency Act 144 to another two months in Maungdaw today, according to official announcement. The Maungdaw district was imposed emergency Act 144 since June 8, 2012 bigoted violence between Rakhine and Rohingya communities in Maungdaw Town and it was extended once after three months and now again extended again for two months, said a politician from Maungdaw. “In Maungdaw, the authority are using emergency Act 144 to harass and oppress Rohingya community from their social activists – movement, praying in mosque, working for survival, marriage and gathering for funeral – and to extort money from Rohingya with so called warrant list which was not declared to public but when the security personnel need to use.” The worse thing is not allowed to gather for funeral pray, but if you had paid money, you are allowed to pray and gather, said an elder from Maungdaw. ...