The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Burma Times December 5, 2013 ( Maungdaw) Police from Maung Daw Township are collecting extortion from the villagers of different villages at the check post of Shwe Zar Bridge in Maung Daw Township on 5th December 2013. The check post was settled at the starting point of the bridge during the violence of 2012. And they comparatively are taking greater amount from the villagers. Police of the checkpoint has fixed a new extortion rate as 3000kyats per taxi and sometimes 500kyats per head. Before some weeks, suddenly they suspended their extortion taking from the villagers at check point and again they activated their naughty activities in this week. Yesterday the police had extorted 6000kyats from two shopkeepers of Oo Shin Kya village under Maung Daw district yesterday. Besides they also harass to the villagers by checking the goods and taxi. Another villager from Nga Kura village under Maung Daw Township said on the condition of anonymity that the school teachers of the N...

  Rohingya Muslims are being detained at a clandestine site in the Thai jungle where it is alleged they are sold to brokers and held to ransom Chutima Sidasathian and Alan Morison in Phuket South China Morning Post December 4, 2013 A special correspondent for the Post is assisted up a steep slope near one of the secret refugee camps in the jungles of southern Thailand. Photo: Phuketwan A special correspondent for the  South China Morning Post  has been led to a secret refugee camp deep in the Thai jungle, where an escapee said about 1,500 Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar are being hidden in appalling conditions.   The former detainee said at least 16 people had died and many women had been raped by fellow detainees during his nightmarish two weeks in the camp. He was among thousands of Rohingya boatpeople detained in Thailand prior to supposed repatriation to Myanmar. In reality, sources said, Thai immigration authorities have held them in secr...

Dolly Beach: where the asylum seekers had been camping. Photo: Supplied By Lucy Carroll December 5 2013 A group of Rohingya asylum seekers spent three days camped out on a Christmas Island beach unnoticed, eating crabs and coconuts to survive, after their boat sank on Monday. Eight people walked out on to a main road on the island on Thursday to seek help, while another 17 remained on the beach. All 25 asylum seekers have now been taken into immigration detention. Christmas Island councillor Gordon Thomson said the asylum seekers had been camping on Dolly Beach for three days. "They walked [out] along a very steep track for about six kilometres. They found themselves on one of our main roads where they were seen and police and custom officers scrambled to pick them up." A group of Rohingya asylum seekers spent three days camped out on a Christmas Island beach unnoticed, eating crabs and coconuts to survive, after their boat sank on Monday. ...

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  A truck of  GE army killed a big cow of Rohingya  on the road  and took away to their headquarters of Maungdaw north for their food, on December 2, morning, Maung Nu ( not real name), a close relative  of the victim said. “The cow owner is identified as---Taher, 52, son of Aman Ullah, hailed from Darga Para (Kyauk Hla Khar) village, under the police area No.5 of Maungdaw Township.” The big cow was killed by the truck No.14 of GE army while crossing the road. There was no car on the road because of rural area so that there was no reason to make an accident with the cow. It was a deliberate attack behind the cow as they need red meat without paying money, said an eyewitness of the accident preferring not to be named for security reason. The owner of the cow is a poor man, if he sells it at the open market, he will get Kyats 500,000. As for him, he has lost a lot of money, the relative continued.  Earlier, Nasaka (Bu...

A Muslim girl in Meikhtila cries as she is taken to a temporary shelter during an outbreak of violence in March. (Photo: Tay Za Hlaing / The Irrawaddy) By Lawi Weng The Irrawaddy December 4, 2013 RANGOON — Local authorities are preparing to resettle hundreds of Muslims displaced by inter-communal violence in March between local Buddhists and the Muslims in Meikhtila Township, Mandalay Division, according a state-run newspaper. Muslim neighborhoods of Meikhtila were razed to the ground during the violence. Authorities say Muslims made up the majority of the 7,845 people who have since been living in temporary camps outside the town. A report in the New Light of Myanmar on Tuesday said the government will provide plots of land or apartments to resettle about 400 Muslim victims of the violence. The report was unclear on the details of the resettlement plan, but said a coordination meeting was held at the end of last month among the government authorities to deci...

Latifar with her baby. (SBS) By 9News Australia December 04, 2013 Lawyers for a Rohingya asylum seeker's baby, who was born in Australia, have applied for a protection visa for the newborn. Ferouz was born in a Brisbane hospital last month after his mother Latifar, his father and two siblings were transferred there from a Nauru detention centre. The family, who come from Myanmar, do not want to return to the Pacific Island nation because premature Ferouz and his mother, who suffers from diabetes, are still very weak. Last week their lawyers struck a deal with the Department of Immigration allowing the family to stay in Brisbane until their case was heard for "procedural fairness". Maurice Blackburn associate Murray Watt says an application for a protection visa for Ferouz was lodged on Wednesday. "Ferouz's family come from a persecuted minority group in Myanmar that is not recognised as citizens by the government there," Mr W...

Date: December 4, 2013 Conference Announcement & Invitation  “STOP THE GENOCIDE & RESTORE THE ROHINGYAS’ CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS IN MYANMAR (BURMA)” We are delighted to announce the First Rohingya Conference in the USA which will be held on December 14th, 2013 (12:30 pm to 7:00 pm) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). The Conference is jointly sponsored by the Burmese Rohingya American Friendship Association (BRAFA) and the Rohingya Concern International (RCI). It is also co-sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Hmong Diaspora Studies Program and Risale Center of America. We cordially invite you to join the conference which is open to the public. Your presence will greatly honor us. Registration is not required. The Purpose of the Conference The primary objective of the conference is to make the American people aware of the plights of the Rohingyas and draw their opinion and support in favor of the Rohingyas’ demand f...