The Stateless Rohingya Blog

UNHCR : Briefing Notes February 22, 2013 This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 22 February 2013, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. UNHCR is concerned about a rising numbers of deaths in the Indian Ocean involving people fleeing their countries for safety and better lives elsewhere. This includes many Rohingya from Myanmar. Already in 2013, several thousand people are believed to have boarded smuggler's boats in the Bay of Bengal, among them Rohingya from Rakhine state or from Bangladesh's refugee camps and makeshift sites.  Most are men, but there are also increasing reports of women and children on these often-rickety boats making the journey southwards. We estimate that of the 13,000 people who left on smugglers' boats in 2012, close to 500 died at sea when their boats broke down or capsized. While UNHCR is still gathering data from 2012 on deaths ...

Rescued Rohingya Muslims sit at a Sri Lankan immigration detention center in Colombo on Wednesday.(Eranga Jayawardena / Associated Press / February 20, 2013) Los Angeles Times  February 22, 201  By Emily Alpert  By the time their rickety boat was rescued last week off the eastern coast of  Sri Lanka , nearly a hundred of the weakened passengers had lost their lives – roughly three times as many as survived. The starving people had endured nearly two months at sea, trying to flee the western state of  Myanmar  where hundreds were slain last year, the  United Nations  refugee agency said Friday. The Rohingya Muslims say they undertook the arduous journey out of fear for their lives. The outpouring of Rohingya from western Myanmar and  Bangladesh  refugee camps has made the Indian Ocean “one of the deadliest stretches of water in the world,” the U.N. refugee agency said Friday. It estimated that last year, nearly 50...

Muslim refugees gather at Thechaung camp refugee camp upon arrival in Sittwe, Rakhine State, western Myanmar, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. (AP / Khin Maung Win) 9News World February 22, 2013 Australia will boost aid by $2.5 million to Myanmar's (Burma's) displaced ethnic communities, but has ruled out an "open door" policy to ethnic Muslim Rohingya seeking asylum in Australia after fleeing sectarian violence. Foreign Minister Bob Carr, after meeting Thai counterpart Surapong Tovichakchaikul, said Australia ruled out allowing the Rohingya to be part of its resettlement policy after advice by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "We don't want to give the impression that for Rohingya, (those) desperate people (who) come to Thailand, they have a route to Australia because the settlement, the settlement of this displacement lies in changing policies to (give) effect to changed policies within Rakhine province," Senator...

Bangla Times:   February 21, 2013   M.S. Anwar The world has been witnessing the well-planned Genocide of Rohingyas and Kamans in Arakan, Burma for more than eight months now. Consequently, Rohingyas and Kamans are now without foods, any access to medical treatments and their other ways to livelihoods are blocked. They are being arbitrary arrested, tortured and killed. Their properties are being looted and women being raped. Religious buildings are locked down and so and so atrocities have been being carried out against them under the so-called international radar. Not surprisingly though, the heinous crimes Rohingyas and Kamans are successfully being covered up. Their outcries are falling into deaf ears. Less attention and (less) importance are given to their dying plights. No effective steps to prevent the continuing Genocide of them have been taken yet. Nor does it seem it will be taken in the future. To avoid such extremely vulnerable conditions, Rohingyas and ...

Friday, February 22, 2013     (Menafn - M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) --The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is calling for urgent action to prevent the rising numbers of people killed trying to cross the Indian Ocean in smugglers' boats, particularly the increasing numbers of women and children from the stateless Rohingya community. "It is clear that the Indian Ocean has become for people fleeing their countries one of the deadliest stretches of water in the world," the agency's spokesman, Andrej Mahecic, told journalists in Geneva. The agency estimates that out of the 13,000 people who left on smugglers' boats in 2012, close to 500 died at sea when their boats broke down or capsized in the Bay of Bengal. "Already in 2013, several thousand people are believed to have boarded smugglers boats in the Bay of Bengal," Mr. Mahecic added. Of particular concern is the Rohingya community from western Myanmar...

Myanmar President Thein Sein met with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti in the Lao capital Vientiane in November 2012. (Photo: President's office) Mizzima News: February 22, 2013 Thein Sein has received official invitations to visit five European countries in the near future, according to an announcement in state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar on February 22.  The Myanmar president will travel to Norway, Finland, Austria, Italy and Belgium in what will be the first of his official overseas trips of 2013. The latest invitations come following the relaxation of sanctions and improvement in bilateral relations with the European countries.  Norway opened an embassy in Yangon in November 2012; Finnish Minister of International Development visited Myanmar in January; and the President of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce met with Thein Sein in Naypyitaw earlier this month.  Italy recently stepped up cooperation with Myanmar under the supervis...

Shwe Maung represents Buthidaung constituency in northern Arakan state. (Photo: DVB) Hanna Hindstrom Democratic Voice of Burma February 22, 2013 A member of parliament has fired back at claims that Rohingya Muslims do not exist in Burma, after a senior government minister allegedly accused the group of fabricating its history in a parliamentary discussion on Wednesday. It follows media reports that the Deputy Immigration Minister, Kyaw Kyaw Win, on Wednesday formally denied the existence of a Rohingya race in Burma, referring to a stateless Muslim minority isolated near the Bangladeshi border. But Shwe Maung, who is a native Rohingya, slammed the allegations, quoted in the English-language version of Burma’s state media outlet the New Light of Myanmar, as historically and factually inaccurate. “We should not simply deny there are no Rohingya, if we do that it would be irresponsible, we need a study,” said the MP, who represents Buthidaung constituency in nort...