The Stateless Rohingya Blog

How popular/widespread is the 969 movement, and how likely is it to keep gaining steam?  By  Dr. Maung Zarni: April 4, 2013 As a new nationalist movement with a clear message of 'racial and religious purity', a false sense of Buddhist victimhood and cultural and economic nationalism -- not dissimilar to Germany's Nazism in the 1930s - 969 is gaining popularity for 3 reasons: first, some of the militant Buddhist preachers from nationally well-connected Buddhist teaching colleges (such as Wirathu) effectively scapegoat the country's Muslims for the general economic hardships and cultural decay in society, portraying the Burmese as victims at the hands of organized Muslim commercial leeches and parasites; second, 969 preys on the historical and popular anti-Muslim racism among the majority Buddhists; and, last but not least, virtually all state institutions at all levels, including the police, intelligence, the army, local civil administration and eve...

Indonesian police officers carry the body of an illegal migrant from after a brawl between Buddhist and Muslim asylum seekers from Burma. Pic: AP. India Today April 5, 2013 Buddhist and Muslim asylum seekers from Myanmar brawled with rocks and knives on Friday at an immigration detention center in Indonesia, leaving eight combatants dead and another 15 injured, police said. The melee broke out at the center in North Sumatra province, where more than 100 Rohingya migrants - most intercepted off Indonesia's coast in rickety boats - and 11 illegal fishermen from Myanmar were being held together, said local police chief Endro Kiswanto. He said witnesses told police the clash started after a Muslim Rohingyaconfronted a Buddhist fisherman about sectarian violence in their homeland. Insults were traded, and people began fighting with rocks and knives. Eight Buddhists were killed, and 15 Rohingya were injured. Three other Buddhists escaped unharmed, Kiswanto said. ...

Facebook image Salem-News.com April 5, 2013 KUALA LUMPUR) - Myanmar Ethnic Rohingyas Human Rights Organization Malaysia (MERHROM) received numerous urgent calls from Rohingyas in the Arakan State of Myanmar. On 2nd April 2013 at 2.45 a.m. in Maung Nifara Village of Maungdaw Township, Rohingyas villagers saw 35 Rakhines Buddhists gathered near the mosques in the village. The Rakhines brought petrol, matches and lethal weapons with them. The Rohingyas immediately reported to the security forces, namely Nasaka and Police. The security forces brought the 35 Rakhines to another place and questioned them. The Nasaka and the police then told the Rohingyas to return home without explaining the intention of the Rakhines gathered near the mosque. The Rohingyas believe that they were planning to burn the mosque. However there is no action taken against the Rakhine group who clearly has a plan to burn down the mosque. On 3rd April 2013, at about 3:00 a.m. in Butthidaung, a ...

Refugees pass time at a stadium amidst riots in Meikhtila on 22 March 2013. (Reuters) By Assed Baig DVB News: April  4, 2013 Reports of what actually took place in the central Burmese town of Meikhtila are still emerging, but internally displaced persons (IDPs) are beginning to speak out and tell the world of what they witnessed with their own eyes. “They beat them in front of me. I was watching. I can still see it.” Noor Bi, is crying as she describes the moment when she saw her husband and brother murdered in front of her eyes as she fled Meikhtila. The mob outnumbered the police and they were unable to protect the Muslim minority of the town. The 26-year-old is now a widow with a three-year-old son. As she told her story and what she witnessed, the people around her in the make shift IDP camp now set up in the grounds of a Muslim school in Yindaw – around 10 miles south of Meikhtila – began to cry. Grown men sobbed at hearing her ordeal. “They beat the...

• What is the government doing as a plan to stop the violence (genocide) against the Burmese Muslims? • What will the government do in order to rebuild their homes and mosques and reviving their livelihoods? • Why have federal, state and local governments manifestly failed to protect Muslim citizens of Myanmar? Anti Muslim leaflets and pamphlets have been spreading throughout Myanmar since the escalation of the violence in Rakhine state that began in June last year (2012). During the period of the 20th to 28th of March 2013, 28 Mosques were burned down and thousands of Muslim homes destroyed by so-called “Buddhist” extremists. This is not a communal conflict – this is an attack against Muslim people, Myanmar’s pogroms. With no exception, the violence was overwhelmingly committed by the well-organized “Buddhist” mobs against Muslim families and communities, including children and babies. According to the UN, since the anti-Muslim violence erupted on 20 March the resultant ...