The Stateless Rohingya Blog

A dead body of Rohingya found in Naf River Bank KPN News: August 19, 2013 Teknaf, Bangladesh: Rohingya dead bodies were found by the police of Teknaf , near Dumdum Meah on August 18, said an officer from Teknaf police. 30 Rohingyas who crossed the Naf River with small row boat which capsized and sank in the River on August 16 and dead bodies were found after capsized the boat till now, the officer said. “Three dead bodies have been rescued by the Teknaf police since capsizing the rowboat on August 16.” They dead bodies were sent to Cox’s Bazar government hospital for autopsy, said an aide of police. According to sources, many victims of Rohingya have been missing in Naff river after boat sank. The boat capsized because of over loaded and it was also got heavy rain during crossing the Naff River. They were illegally crossing the river to Burma from Bangladesh at night through the entry point of Zadimora under the Teknaf police station, said Mohamed Hasso...

  Tomas Ojea Quintana (C), United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation, walks with Rohingya Muslims as he visits Aung Mingalar in Sittwe, Burma, August 13, 2013. By   The Myanmar Times August 18, 2013 Tomas Quintana, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, makes headlines whenever he visits Myanmar. This is not surprising. He is outspoken – too outspoken for many, as he often draws attention to uncomfortable truths. But many who have met Mr Quintana, including staff at The Myanmar Times when he visited our office in February, have found him to be sincere in his desire to report on and improve the human rights situation in Myanmar. He has campaigned on many important issues, including political prisoners and the culture of impunity in the military. Anyone who disagrees with his observations should have the right to express their views, through a peaceful protest, Facebook post or opinion article. Reasoned a...

A checkpoint leads into the Aung Mingalar sector of Sittwe. Photograph: Tom Farrell Buddhist extremists are stirring up hatred of Rohingya and other Muslims in a display of racism that is part of a political agenda By   Tom Farrell The Irish Times August 19, 2013 Just beyond the administrative buildings in Sittwe, capital of the state of Rakhine (Arakan) in northwestern Burma, a checkpoint halts all unauthorised travel into the town’s last Muslim quarter. The police sit around looking listless in the tropical heat. A few hundred metres beyond is Aung Mingalar, into which about 7,000 mostly Rohingya Muslims were confined following last year’s violence. In June and October last year, vicious clashes between Muslims and Buddhists convulsed Rakhine. Buddhists, who form the majority, targeted the Rohingya, a much despised minority. They were divested of their citizenship in 1982 and have so far seen few benefits during the rapid liberalisation after March 2011 w...

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 ...