The Stateless Rohingya Blog

A Buddhist man brandishes a machete amid rising tensions in Sittwe, Burma. Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters By Editorial of Oman Tribune August 18, 2013 Nearly two years after the unprecedented violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, six Buddhists are about to be tried. The six are responsible for the lynching of 10 Muslim bus passengers that sparked the violence. Although the trials are being held a bit late in the day and is the result of a lot of international pressure, there is a degree of satisfaction that at least a few of the guilty are being punished at last. The fact, however, is that many more Buddhists are evading the law for the killing of Rohingyas. More than 200 Rohingyas were killed in the violence in the country’s western Rakhine state and about 50 in Meikhitila that led to thousands fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh and other nearby countries like Thailand. Even today, scores of Muslims are leaving Myanmar.  The reasons for the continuin...

(Photo 17 August 2013) Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni visited to Kutupalong Rohingya Refugee Camp  Justnews August 17, 2013 Cox’s Bazar, Aug 17 (Just News): Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni today said process is going on to send back Rohingyas to their homeland and expressed the hope that they (Rohingyas) would go to Myanmar very soon. "The government is keeping strict vigilance as the Rohingyas would get their right to citizenship in Myanmar," she told reporters after visiting Kutupalong Rohingya Refugee Camp at Ukhiya here. The Foreign Minister said Bangladesh, a densely populated country, is facing enormous problems here with the excessive Rohingya refugees. "We have finalized to send them (Rohingyas) back to their homeland through discussion with Myanmar authority but could not do so due to riot there," Dipu Moni categorically said. "We have already urged Myanmar about safe return of Rohingyas so that they could come back to their ho...

A security guard stands by a camp for displaced Rohingyas near the Rakhine state capital Sittwe on May 15, 2013. (RFA) Radio Free Asia August 16, 2013 A leader of the minority Rohingya Muslim community in western Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state has called for a meeting between representatives of his group, local ethnic Buddhists and the government to put an end to deadly clashes in the region. Abu Tahay, chairman of the Union Nationals Development Party (UNDP), said the three groups should include an international arbitrator to independently judge on issues that have led to clashes between members of his minority group and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, which last year left nearly 200 dead and 140,000 displaced. “We need a group that can exert influence on both communities, such as an international intermediation group,” Abu Tahay told RFA’s Myanmar Service in an interview in Washington on Tuesday. “If so, this group could decide on the arguments. It would create a ...

Parliament speaker Shwe Mann talks to members of the media at the lower house in Naypyidaw on August 16, 2013. Myanmar's quasi-civilian government has announced a series of political and economic reforms since coming to power in 2011 after the end of nearly half a century of military rule. AFP PHOTO Bangkok Post August 17, 2013 Myanmar's parliamentary speaker Friday said the government will be instrumental in any amendment to the nation's military-drafted constitution, which currently bars opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from the presidency. Parliament speaker Shwe Mann talks to members of the media at the lower house in Naypyidaw on August 16, 2013. Shwe Mann said the government will be instrumental in any amendment to the nation's military-drafted constitution, which currently bars opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from the presidency. Opposition members of parliament and democracy activists have raised fears military lawmakers, who have 25 ...

Muslim Rohingyan refugees from Myanmar try to break out a Thai detention centre to celebrate Eid al-Fitr. Photo: EPA Mizzima News August 16, 2013 Thailand has urged Myanmar to bring back home a number of Rohingya migrants who had illegally entered Thailand since the last several months. Thai Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul called on his Myanmar counterpart Wunna Maung Lwin Wednesday to take steps to repatriate an estimated 1,700 Rohingya refugees who had fled fighting inside Rakhine state. The refugees sailed dilapidated boats in the Andaman Sea and disembarked in Thailand's southern coastal provinces since earlier this year. The Thai government's latest move apparently followed the recent event in which 261 Rohingya migrants had escaped from the compound of the Thai Immigration Police's office in Pang-nga province where they had been detained, pending deportation back to Myanmar. Surapong said he will also meet with representatives of t...

Ukhiya , C ox's Bazar:  According to our source, more than 15 unregistered Rohingya refugees from Kutupalong makeshift are beaten inhumanly by local Robber Gang and admitted to MSF Hospital in Bangladesh on 13 th  August 2013. Source said there were two local robber gangs namely Shazan Gang and Abdu Salam Gang who always torture, loot, rape and kill the innocent Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Today, many unregistered Rohingya men and women went to forest like other day by giving 30 taka per person to robber Abdu Salam Gang to collect and bring firewood to sell as their livings but during their way back home from forest, Shazan Gang kidnapped more than 15 Rohingya and beaten barbarously. Among them, Md Hossain, son of Shab Miya from block D-4 of Kutupalong unregistered camp admitted to nearby MSF Hospital due to severe injury. And other people are released with the ransom of 2,000 taka for each. Rohingya refugees have been living in Bangladesh with insecu...

Al Jazeera: August 15, 2013 UN Special Rapporteur calls for release of activist who posted photo from clashes between Rohingya and security forces. An activist has been arrested in Myanmar after posting photos on Facebook from violent clashes between displaced Muslims and security forces in country’s restive state of Rakhine, police and an activist have said. It was not immediately clear what charges Than Shwe, a 29-year-old Rohingya Muslim, would face. A police officer who refused to give his name because he was not authorised to speak to the media said on Wednesday that the man was trying to cause trouble during a visit by UN special rapporteur on human rights. Tomas Ojea Quintana was touring the region after the deadly clashes. Quintana has urged the state government to release the activist, Thailand based  The Irrawaddy  newsmagazine reported. Aung Win, a well-known Rohingya activist said said that Than Shwe’...