The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Jakarta Post: April, 16, 2013 TANGERANG: The police of Mauk district, Tangerang regency, detained on Monday 16 migrants from Myanmar who were hiding on an offshore floating fish trap. Chief Insp. Suhendar said that local fishermen filed a police report after discovering the migrants on the fish trap earlier in the day. “We are collecting data on the migrants. We will hand them over to the immigration office for processing,” Suhendar said. Khalid Husain, 27, one of the migrants, said they had traveled from Myanmar on a vessel heading for Australia via Malaysia and Indonesia. “We are so scared of the ongoing political conflict that has claimed many lives,” he said, adding that each of them had paid the equivalent of Rp 3 million (US$309) to an agent who promised to help them enter Australia to seek asylum. Indonesia has sheltered many migrants from the Rohingya ethnic group in Myanmar. The Rohingya, who are not recognized as a minority group by the Myanmar...

Unregistered Kutupalong refugee camp in raining   Kutupalong, Bangladesh: A sudden rain gusted up Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh on April 16 at 3:30 pm, according to Anwar from Refugee camp. “The sudden rain gusted up the camp upside down, most of shacks from unregistered camp were destroyed and refugee are now facing very difficult to stay inside the shacks as heavy rain fell in the camp.” “I fixed the roof of my shack in the summer as prepare for coming raining season, but the sudden rain gusted up and blew up my roof from shack. How I manage again to fix it, it is very expenses to collect woods, bamboos and plastics,” said Amina Begum, a widow from the camp. The sudden rain gusted the Kutupalong Refugee camp – registered and unregistered – are facing same problem – the roofs – but unregistered camp is more effect than registered. The registered camp’s sheds are repairing by the government of Bangladesh and UNHCR, but the unregistered are not able to re...

A UNHCR member of staff discusses accommodation with colleagues and displaced people at the Ohn Taw Gyi IDP camp near Sittwe, capital of Rakhine state  © UNHCR/P.Behan IRIN News: April 16, 2013 BANGKOK, 16 April 2013 (IRIN) - Ongoing tensions between Buddhist and Muslim communities in Myanmar's western Rakhine State have created a threatening environment for aid workers, hindering assistance to more than127,000 displaced persons.  “Access to IDPs [internally displaced persons] is being seriously hampered by ongoing intimidation [of aid workers] by some members of the local community,” noted the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Yangon.  Humanitarian organizations, including medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières, report aid staff have faced accusations by the local Rakhine community - who are mostly Buddhist - that their assistance favours the Muslim Rohingya minority.  The majority of the displaced are Rohingya, b...

Rohingya Genocide 1942 - Present  (part of The Darkness Visible series) Thousands of the Muslim Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have not been registered and have received little assistance. A woman sits on the side of the road with her grandchild at the old Tal Camp near Teknaf. The government has since relocated the camp residents to a safer and less congested area.  © UNHCR/G.Constantine. Alders Ledge: April 15, 2013 How long should the a people have to suffer before the world decides to act? How often do they have to be killed in senseless pogroms and orgies of violence? Why do they have to grow-up in a culture of oppression and fear? Why do they have to raise their children without food or education? When will the cycle of neglect and abuse end? Since the days of British colonialism in Myanmar the Rohingya people have been been subject to systemic racism in the governments that have come and gone over the years. The British gave them just enough to ke...

ERC and Egypt delegation Mohamed Farooq Mayupress: April 15, 2013 (Frankfurt) International Society for Human Rights Germany (IGMF) held 41st Annual Conference on April 12 – 14, 2013 at Gustav-Stressmann Institute in Bonn, Germany. About 200 persons have participated from different countries of the world; Cuba, China, Turkey, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Iran, USA, UK and Burma (Myanmar) etc. In the Conference, the human right expert participants specially discussed over human rights violations against ethnic minorities across the world, persecution, extra judiciary killing, abusing, harassment, rapes on women, imprisonments, free of speech, religious activities restriction. They tried to find out remedy and prevention of minor communities with democratically reforms having equal right in the society. Mr.Ibrahim, the Secretary of Media and Informationand Mr.M.Hussain Azmi, the Deputy General Secretary have been welcomed on behalf of the European Rohingya Council (ERC) for ...

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  A house of Rohingya people was completely burnt down into ashes by Natala villagers with the help of Nasaka (Burma border security force) yesterday night, at around 10:00pm, a close relative of the victim who did not identify his name. “The victim is identified as Dil Mohamed, hailed from Kilaidaung village (Dou Chee Yartan), under the Nasaka area No.7 of Maungdaw north, Arakan Sate.” Besides, two men —father and son from Aley Than Kyaw village tract of Maungdaw Township had been stabbed by the Natala villagers yesterday while they were sleeping in a hut at night out of the village. They have a vegetable farms nearby a Mountain and they have to watch their farm at night for guard of being stolen. They were sent to local clinic for medical treatment but they were not allowed to admit there. As a result, the victims are taking treatment from the village quack doctors. It is not possible to send the victims to Maungdaw general hospital as the road...

Saudi Gazette April 15, 2013 JEDDAH — Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu Sunday warned against widening of the circle of violence against Muslims in Myanmar to neighboring areas, in reference to the outbreak of violence committed by Buddhist extremists against Muslims in Sri Lanka. In his speech at the emergency OIC Contact Group meeting on Rohingya Muslim minority, Ihsanoglu reiterated that the violence against Muslims in Myanmar was unacceptable and should not continue. “Such violence is a clear indication of the government’s negative approach in dealing with ethnic and religious tensions that erupted last summer,” he said. Ihsanoglu called on member states of the Contact Group to take action through communication with the international community to implement recommendations of the OIC Islamic Summit held in Makkah. He also suggested requesting OIC member states which are members in the Contact Group and which have...