The Stateless Rohingya Blog

PressTV: April 20, 2013 A political analyst says the international community and particularly the West has not pressured the government in Myanmar to stop the violence and to stop this genocide or ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people. The comments came after the UN refugee agency warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Myanmar as the country’s displaced Rohingya Muslims face the threat of monsoon floods. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday said it is “seriously concerned about the risks facing over 60,000 displaced people in flood-prone areas and in makeshift shelters.” Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar account for about five percent of the country’s population of nearly 60 million. They have been persecuted and faced torture, neglect, and repression since the country's independence in 1948.  Press TV has conducted an interview with Kevin Barrett, from the Muslim-Christian-Jewish Alliance, to further discuss the issue. What follows is ...

Shelter is a vital need for displaced people in Myanmar's Rakhine state. UNHCR is concerned that everyone has a place to shelter during the coming rainy season. © UNHCR/P.Behan UNHCR April 19, 2013 MYANMAR, Yangon, April 19 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency on Friday called for urgent action and increased financial support to improve conditions for displaced people in Myanmar's Rakhine state and avert a humanitarian catastrophe when seasonal rains start in a few weeks time. "UNHCR is seriously concerned about the risks facing over 60,000 displaced people in flood-prone areas and in makeshift shelters," a spokesperson said. From May to September, the monsoon season is expected to unleash heavy rains and possible cyclones in Rakhine state, where more than 115,000 people remain uprooted after last year's inter-communal violence. The most critical sites are in Sittwe, Pauktaw and Myebon, where the displaced are living near the coast and are vulnerable...

Buddhist monks in Mandalay protest last year against an attempt by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to open an office in Burma. (Photo: Man Thar Lay / The Irrawaddy Irrawaddy News: April 19, 2013 Burma’s government has rejected calls for an international inquiry into recent waves of anti-Muslim violence, following media reports that the world’s top Islamic body would request to send a delegation to the country to discuss the unrest. “In my opinion, recent conflicts inside the country are [Burma’s] internal affairs,” government spokesman Ye Htut told The Irrawaddy on Thursday, adding that the government had not yet received a formal request for access from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Ye Htut, who is also Burma’s deputy minister of information, said the government had taken good care to handle religious tension and violence against Muslims in the Buddhist-majority nation. “So I believe there is no reason for an international organization to...

File photo shows internally displaced Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine. PressTV; April 19, 2013 The UN refugee agency has warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Myanmar as the country’s displaced Rohingya Muslims face the threat of monsoon floods. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday said it is “seriously concerned about the risks facing over 60,000 displaced people in flood-prone areas and in makeshift shelters.” "From May to September, the monsoon season is expected to unleash heavy rains and possible cyclones in Rakhine state, where more than 115,000 people remain uprooted after last year's inter-communal violence," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters. The official was referring to the deadly attacks by extremist Buddhists in 2012 against the western state of Rakhine’s community of Rohingya Muslims, described by the UN as one of the most persecuted minority groups in the world....

(caption: Rohingya refugees, who are fleeing ethnic violence in Burma, were detained by Indian police on Neil Island before being taken back to their “unseaworthy” boats and “escorted” back to Burmese waters.) Himaya Quasem Asia Times Online April 19, 2013 PHUKET - In a narrow, damp alley at the heart of this bustling tourist hotspot sits a row of tin-roofed shacks. Hidden from view, they house Rohingya Muslims who have fled sectarian bloodshed in neighboring Myanmar. Described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, the Rohingya - including women and children - have been fleeing the country by boat in growing numbers to escape communal rioting, which has killed an estimated 200 people and left tens of thousands homeless. Although Myanmar has been widely praised for adopting democratic reforms after years of isolation, a recent spate of ethnic clashes has raised fresh concerns about its stability. Last month, Buddhist mobs ...

Aung San Suu Kyi speaks during a lecture at the University of Tokyo, April 17, 2013.  Photo: RFA Radio Free Asia: April, 17, 2013 Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi expressed sadness Wednesday that some of Burma's Muslim leaders whom she met recently felt as if they did not belong to the country. In rare comments on sectarian violence at a news conference during her Japan visit, she said Buddhist-majority Burma must learn to accommodate divergent views and that the minority Muslim community must be made to feel secure . "I've met some Muslim leaders very recently," she said of her talks last week with representatives from the country’s leading Islamic groups following deadly March violence between Muslims and Buddhists in central Burma. "It is very sad, because none of them has been to any other country apart from Burma. They did not feel that they belonged anywhere and it was sad for them that they were made to feel that they didn...

who has branded Muslims as "the enemy". Photo: AFP   Kate Hodal Guardian April 18, 2013 Thousands watch YouTube videos of 45-year-old 'Burmese Bin Laden' who is inciting violence against country's Muslim minority His name is Wirathu, he calls himself the "Burmese Bin Laden" and he is a Buddhist monk who is stoking religious hatred across  Burma . The saffron-robed 45-year-old regularly shares his hate-filled rants through DVD and social media, in which he warns against Muslims who "target innocent young Burmese girls and rape them", and "indulge in cronyism". To ears untrained in the Burmese language, his sermons seem steady and calm – almost trance-like – with Wirathu rocking back and forth, eyes downcast. Translate his softly spoken words, however, and it becomes clear how his paranoia and fear, muddled with racist stereotypes and unfounded rumours, have helped to incite violence and spread misinform...