The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Report by Sindhi Khan | Written by M.S. Anwar September 28, 2013 | Maung Daw, Arakan RvisionTV.com M any  Rohingyas were severely beaten  up  and tortured by the tactical operation commander at the military regiment in Taung Phyo sub-township, northern Maung Daw for speaking to some  international  observers. “Jafar Alam S/o Shomsul Hoque (Age 45), Rahimullah S/o Karimullah (Age 38) and Ayub S/o Ali Chand are local residents of the village of Ye Aung Chaung of Mi-Htaike village tract, Taung-Pyo sub-township, northern Maung Daw. On 18 th Septemeber 2013, the former two Rohingyas visited the latter’s home and were having some discussions. And it was at around 1:30PM of the day. Meanwhile, Military and Security Force raided the house of the above-mentioned Ayub (who is a 100-household leader) under the banner of Guest-Check operation. They arrested and detained the three Rohingyas respectively for visiting and hosting without the perm...

By KPN News September 28, 2013 Maungdaw, Arakan State: The Maungdaw authority –Immigration department- is going to enlist the Rakhine Buddhist from Bangladesh who were settled in Maungdaw since September 23, according to an officer who deny his name. The project was started after Chief Minister held meeting with Maungdaw officials while he visited Maungdaw on 22 September, the officer said. The Immigration officer are collecting the family list and photograph to all the new settlers who had come from Bangladesh- Bangladeshi Rakhine. The government will give them the IDs card and will issue new family registration card which mean they are from Burma and staying in the Maungdaw and Buthidaung, the officer more added. The new settlers are welcome by Burmese authority and Arakan State government, Rakhine politicial party and local Rakhine. The Bangladeshi Rakhine who were living in the Chittagong hill tract where they works hard for their survival. When Rakhine political party...

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday there's much to be done to ensure accountability for the perpetrators of crimes against Muslim Rohingyas in Burma. (Reuters) Associated Press 27 September 2013 A group of Western and Asian governments are lauding Burma’s progress toward democracy but warning outbreaks of communal violence could undermine the reforms. Foreign ministers meeting Thursday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly said in a statement that Burma urgently needs to address the political and economic grievances of the Rohingyas, including the question of their citizenship. The Rohingyas are a minority Muslim group that has suffered badly in sectarian clashes over the past year with majority Buddhists. Oftentimes, security forces have stood by. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said there’s much to be done to ensure accountability for the perpetrators. In a sign of the shifting international attitudes toward Burma, the former pari...

By Burma Times September 27, 2013    BurmaTimes   (edited by Ibrahim Shah ) Dr. Maung Zarni,an exile, commentator, critic and expert on the political affairs of Myanmar. His research interests include the political economy of violence, international development and conflict, as well as democratic transitions in Asia. He is Visiting Fellow (2011-2013) at the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, London School of Economics and Political Science, and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.   Zarni spoke with PRAXIS on February 28, 2012 while he was attending a  World Peace Foundation   seminar on advocacy and human rights. PRAXIS : What do you think are the greatest prospects and greatest challenges facing Myanmar – both socially and economically – as it emerges from the last six decades of direct military rule and global isolationism? Zarni : On the future of Burma: No one is in a position to ...

KPN News September 27, 2013   Maungdaw, Arakan State: Nwahyon Taung village admin officer –Thein Maung and Ye Maung Thein- a Land survey officer of Maungdaw had been extorting money from villagers since last August with fake promise to register their land, said a member of village admin office.  The village admin officer –Thein Maung –was recently appointed by authority policy to control Rohingya village with Rkhine community in administration section, the member said. The village admin officer with land survey officer warned the villagers to change their name from old owner – father who died – or it will seize by authority as the owner wad died, said a villager who gave money to change the name from his late father to his name. The village admin officer and land survey officer asked to pay kyats 20,000 per acre where they had received 660,000 kyats for 33 acres. But, still, the villagers didn’t received any document which was transfer from the name of his la...

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (centre) addresses a ministerial meeting of his Group of Friends on Myanmar. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe By UN News Centre 26 September 2013 – Commending Myanmar for its remarkable progress, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today stressed that the South-east Asian country must continue its democratic transition and overcome the inter-communal violence that is threatening it. “Myanmar continues a journey towards a more open and broad-based democracy. Its robust civil society will play an increasingly crucial role as a bridge between government and citizens, in the process strengthening accountability, transparency and participation,” Mr. Ban told a ministerial meeting of his Group of Friends on Myanmar, which met on the margins of the 68th General Assembly in New York. Mr. Ban praised President Thein Sein’s commitment to bring the country towards peace, democracy and an open market, as well as the recent release of various political prisoners. How...

New WASH concerns as the dry season approaches (Photo: David Swanson/IRIN) By IRIN News September 26, 2013 YANGON - Aid workers are calling for stronger interventions to expand access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in western Rakhine State, where sectarian violence more than a year ago has left close to 200,000 people in need. “WASH activities need to be scaled up and dramatically improved by all aid agencies and government partners working in Rakhine,” Vickie Hawkins, deputy country director for the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Myanmar, told IRIN, describing current standards and coverage as “very uneven”. “WASH is a critical issue for Rakhine because of the health implications it can have for the whole community,” said Bertrand Bainvel, country representative for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the cluster lead for WASH. “We’ve made progress, but sustaining and expanding it requires a lot of work.” According to the UN Office for the Coord...