The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Aung San Suu Kyi at today’s World Economic Forum BBC debate in Naypyidaw (Photo: Simon Roughneen) Written by AFP Mizzima News June 21, 2013 Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has criticised a proposal by nationalist monks to restrict marriages between Buddhist women and men of other faiths, describing it as a violation of human rights, a report said Friday. "This is one-sided. Why only women? You cannot treat the women unfairly," Radio Free Asia quoted the Nobel Peace Laureate as saying in an interview. "I also understand that this is not in accordance with the laws of the country and especially that it is not part of Buddhism," the veteran activist said. "It is a violation of women's rights and human rights." Under the proposal—spearheaded by the controversial Mandalay cleric Wirathu—non-Buddhist men wishing to marry a Buddhist woman would have to convert and gain permission from her parents to wed or risk 10 yea...

Postnoon: 20 June 2013 Rohingya refugees from Burma continue to pour into Hyderabad and no proper account of them seems to be maintained. Though a humanitarian issue, the security risk involved is ignored. From 5,000 a few months ago, the number of refugees from the strife-torn Myanmar (Burma) has risen to some 12,000 now in the absence of any check on the inflow of Rohingya refugees from the Rakhine state of Burma. Myanmar’s 8,00,000 Rohingyas are stateless people today after the ethnic Buddhists drove them out. They are denied citizenship in Myanmar and are rejected by Bangladesh. The UN calls them, “one of the most persecuted people in the world.” In the past one month alone, 35 families totalling 200 members reached the City. A revisit to the camp in Balapur, Shaheennagar and surrounding areas shows that the government of India and the State government appear unconcerned about them. Many of them have no refugee status and some claim to have cards from the UN high...

KPN News :  19 June 2013  Nasaka (Burma border security force) officers nearly killed a Rohingya man from southern Maungdaw after a unprovoked beating that left him unconscious and bleeding from the mouth, according an elder from his village. “Nasaka personnel from area 7 went to Molana Mohamed Jalal, 40; son of Nazir Ahmed, home in Aley Than Kyaw village at midnight on June 17. They tried to enter the home after breaking the door.” After the home owner woke, he screamed for help after seeing the armed men at his door speaking in Burmese, according to a Nasaka source. Villagers rushed to the scene after hearing the screams, but Nasaka fired shots into air, according to various sources. Jalal was then dragged from the house and beaten still he was unconscious. Villagers believe the Nasaka officers went to Jalal’s home to rob him. They only beat after he accused them of stealing and this made them very angry, a close relative of the victim said. Late...

(Photo: Dr. Maung Zarni  Facebook) BERNAMA: June 19, 2013 KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 (Bernama) -- Former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi urged the Muslim minority in Asean countries, including those in Myanmar, to give priority to education. He said that the Muslim communities should seek to empower themselves with education and pursue knowledge which is relevant to their needs in the 21st century. Abdullah said this in his keynote address at the International Forum on Plight of Muslims in Burma in the 21st century: An Initiative for Solution and the Way Forward, held at the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS), here, Wednesday. He said that apart from education, the development of youths and economy of the Muslim communities were also important aspects to be considered in order to achieve a better future for the respective Muslim minority. However, Abdullah, who is patron of IAIS Malaysia, stressed that in trying to achieve thi...

An assessment team talks to displaced people in Pauktaw camp in rural Rakhine, Myanmar, where more than 20,000 Rohingya live. Photo: mildren/OCHA UN News Centre 19 June 2013  The United Nations human rights chief today  urged  Myanmar’s Government to tackle continuing discrimination against ethnic minorities, warning that failure to act could undermine the reform process in the country. “Myanmar today can act as a source of inspiration by showing how governments can be transformed by a renewed commitment to human rights,” said the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. “However, the ongoing human rights violations against the Rohingya community in Rakhine state and the spread of anti-Muslim sentiment across the State and beyond is threatening the reform process and requires focused attention from the Government.” Myanmar today can act as a source of inspiration by showing how governments can be transformed by a renewed commitment to human rights...

NTDTV : June 19, 2013 Thousands of Rohingyas flee from Myanmar each year on rickety boats seeking refuge and jobs in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, but the number has swelled since unrest last year.  After independence in 1948, Myanmar's new rulers tried to limit citizenship to those whose roots in the country predated British rule.  A 1982 Citizenship Act excluded Rohingya from the country's 135 recognized ethnic groups, denying them citizenship and rendering them stateless.  Bangladesh also disowns them and has refused to grant them refugee status since 1992. The government puts their number at one-point-three-three-million in the country of 60-million people, and say one-point-zero-eight-million are in Rakhine State.  Only about 40-thousand have citizenship. Myanmar's transformation from global pariah to budding democracy once seemed remarkably smooth.  After nearly half a century of military dictatorship, the quasi-ci...

The man accused of raping a Rohingya woman being sheltered in Thailand Photo by phuketwan.com By Chutima Sidasathian and Alan Morison Phuket_Wan June 18, 2013 PHUKET: A man confessed tonight to raping a Rohingya woman who escaped from a shelter north of Phuket with the intention of taking her two children to join her husband in Malaysia.  Instead, the woman became embroiled in the local people trafficking network that highlights just what a person is worth and how kin will abuse each other for money.  Most of the women and children who have absconded from shelters in Phang Nga and on Phuket have gone over the wall with the intention of joining family in Malaysia. The case of Mrs X, as we shall call her, shows how difficult it is to know who to trust and how the arrival of more and more Rohingya along Thailand's coast has corrupted some local police and made some local traffickers rich.  Often, the traffickers have turned out to be people tha...