The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Maungdaw  Cíddar Fara ( Village ) Maungdaw, Arakan State: High officials from Maungdaw have collected huge amount of money from new appointed village administration officers sine last February 15, said a village administrator officer who paid huge money to high officers.  “The high officials – U Kyi San, Township administration officer and U Aung Myint Soe, District administration officer- were collecting huge amount of money from the candidate who had run village administration officer election and getting number three position in the election. After receiving the money form the last number candidate, issued appointment letter for post of village administration officer.” “Even, the high numbers of getting votes from the villagers in the village administration officer election, had also to pay money (starting from one million to 6 million) to the high officers to get official appointment letter, according to a former village administration officer from Maungdaw. ...

Deutsche Welle March 05, 2013    The government of Myanmar has indicated that it plans to usher in a new era of business transparency in its oil, gas and other industries. Auctions for the rights to explore deposits are being prepared. Myanmar's government on Monday announced a new drive to open its economy to badly needed foreign investment. Energy Ministry officials pledged a new era of transparency particularly in the country's oil and gas industry. The ministry's assistant director, Aung Kyaw Htoo, promised international standards would be upheld in auctions for the rights to explore and exploit lucrative energy reserves. "Transparency is the most important word," he said at a conference in Yangon with several major foreign oil firms attending. In January, Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, invited potential investors to tenders for 18 onshore oil blocks, with a further 50 offshore blocks expected to be opened to offers by April...

Bangla Times March 05, 2013 By Mohamed Ibrahim  To implement its Human Barrier policy the government of Burma has taken a plan to establish Model Villages to populate the Rohingya majority areas of Arakan by the Rakhaine and Buddhists people. Model villages have been established in the confiscated lands of the Rohingya communities. The government has replaced Rohingya Holy places, historical monuments and relics by building monasteries, pagodas and other Buddhist structures. Under the border area development program the junta has provided each of Rohingya lands for cultivation, 0.2 acres of land for housing. They distributed each of the new settler families with kyat 40,000 as lump sum monetary help, Kg 40 per head free of cost per month, one pair of bullocks and one bullock cart. Each of such model villages has been provided fifteen 5 Hp Honda Tractors. The Thein Sein has a policy of relocation Burmans or Rakhine Families into new Model Villages comprising the...

flags of the eu member countries Visiting Leader Should Endorse UN Presence, Grant Full Humanitarian Access HRW March 5, 2013 “EU leaders should treat the reform efforts to date in Burma as just the start of a process, not the end. They should of course encourage President Thein Sein’s reforms but also press him to address the hard reality of serious ongoing human rights violations in Burma.” Lotte Leicht, EU director (Brussels) – European Union leaders should press Burmese President Thein Sein on adopting key rights reforms during his visit this week to Brussels, Human Rights Watch said today. Thein Sein is set to meet a top-tier roster of leaders on March 5, including Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament; José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission; Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council; Catherine Ashton, EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy; and others. Burma ’s president should be...

Ramzy Baroud Onislam.net March 4, 2013 One fails to understand the unperturbed attitude with which regional and international leaders and organizations are treating the unrelenting onslaught against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, formally known as Burma. Numbers speak of atrocities where every violent act is prelude to greater violence and ethnic cleansing. Yet, western governments’ normalization with the Myanmar regime continues unabated, regional leaders are as gutless as ever and even human rights organizations seem compelled by habitual urges to issue statements lacking meaningful, decisive and coordinated calls for action. Meanwhile the ‘boat people’ remain on their own. On February 26, fishermen discovered a rickety wooden boat floating randomly at sea, nearly 25 kilometers (16 miles) off the coast of Indonesia’s Northern Province of Aceh. The Associated Press and other media reported there were 121 people on board including children who were extremely weak, dehydrate...

Khalifa Foundation has distributed urgent aid totalling 5,200 tonnes Gulf News  March 04, 2013  Burma: The Khalifa Bin Zayed Humanitarian Foundation (KZHF) has distributed another 2,600 tonnes of food aid to Myanmar Muslims, completing its third and last phase of the urgent aid totalling 5,200 tonnes of relief items among 850,000 beneficiaries. As per directives of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the assistance was purchased from the local markets of Myanmar in cooperation and coordination with the Embassy of Kuwait to be shipped by sea to “Rakhine (Arakan)” for distribution among the affectees there. 

Maungdaw, Arakan State: A drug trafficker – police personnel – was arrested by Burma border security force (Nasaka) while going to Akyab by road through Maungdaw- Alay Than Kyaw highway on February 27, according to an officer from Nasaka. “Maung Maung Than, Police Corporal, hired a Rohingya jeep for transferring his household items to Akyab through the highway of Maungdaw- Alay Than Kyaw where the Nasaka searched him and the jeep by getting information about drug trafficking. The Nasaka from area number 7 found huge amount of Yaba tablets inside his house hold items.”   “The Nasaka personnel from area number 7, investigated the police corporal in their commanding office where the Maung Maung Than confessed, he and other two Rakhine are involved in drug trafficking. The Nasaka arrested also the two Rakhines where the filed a case in Maungdaw police station for drug trafficking.”   The drug (Yaba) will drop on the road to Akyab to traffic the drug to Banglades...