The Stateless Rohingya Blog

People try to calm down Ahmed's mother at a mosque, where the body of her young son lies. By Zigor Aldama Al Jazeera February 04, 2014  Displaced Rohingya Muslims struggle with persecution and Buddhist resentment. Sittwe, Myanmar -  A checkpoint guarded by three bored-looking policemen in the middle of a narrow road separates two very different worlds. On one side in Sittwe, capital of Myanmar's western state of Rakhine, people lead a common life: They're free to go wherever they please, marry whomever they want, and to attend religious ceremonies in their Buddhist temple of choice. Behind barbed wire on the other side, nearly 150,000 people are crowded into a dozen or so camps for internally displaced people. They are the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group not recognised among the 134 official ethnicities of the country, and considered by the  United Nations  as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. They can't leave the ca...

By Tun Khin  Huffington Post February 04, 2014  Following the violent attacks against the Rohingya of Burma in June and October 2012, where hundreds were killed and more than 140,000 forced to flee their homes, no-one doubted that more attacks would take place. It was just a question of where and when. Now we have the answer. The where was Du Chee Yar Tan village, the when was 14th January. Estimate of the dead vary from seventy to ninety. The United Nations has confirmed at least 48 killed. The government of Burma has denied anything happened, except the killing of one policeman. Trying to piece together exact details of what happened has not been easy. The remoteness of the area, lack of ways for local people to communicate, threats to local people not to reveal information, and the government ban on people visiting the area, mean that establishing facts is very difficult. My organization, the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK has received direct and indi...

MYARF Report | Written by M.S. Anwar 3rd February 2014 Rvisiontv.com Maungdaw, Arakan: Police at the HinThaRa (Hossara) Bridge Checkpost of Zawmadat (Lambaaguna) village tract, southern Maungdaw, raped two Rohingya minor girls at their gun-points around 3PM on 28th January 2014. Both girls are from the village of HinThaRa of Zawmadat village tract. “Around 3PM on 28th January 2014, two girls from the village of Hossara (HinThaRa) went to their farmlands to pluck vegetables. Their farmlands are not so far from the police checkpost of Hossara Bridge. A few Policemen went there and raped the two girls at their gun-points. The particulars of the girls are: 1) T*s**n (daughter of) Y*s*n (Age 16) (the detailed form of the name is witheld for privacy’s sake.) 2) S*f**r* (daughter of) Y*n*s* (Age 15) (the detailed form of the name is witheld for privacy’s sake.)” said a local elder from a nearby village. Rapes of girls/women of Rohingya and other minorities by Mya...

USDP Lower House member Shwe Maung. (Photo: Twitter/Shwe Maung) By  Paul Vrieze & Htet  Naing Zaw Irrawaddy News February 04, 2014 RANGOON — Shwe Maung, a ruling party parliamentarian representing the Rohingya majority township of Buthidaung in strife-torn Arakan State, said he was called in for questioning on Tuesday by the Home Affairs Ministry on allegations of defaming the Burmese police force and state. He said he was being interrogated because of recent comments he gave to news agency Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), in which he suggested that police could have been responsible for the burning of 16 homes in Du Char Yar Tan village in Maungdaw Township on Jan. 28. The village is the site of the  alleged killing  of possibly dozens of Rohingya Muslims earlier last month. Shwe Maung, a Lower House MP of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), said Union Parliament Speaker Shwe Mann had received a letter from President Thein Sein “r...

Statement From Members Of The European Burma Network February 03, 2014 Members of the European Burma Network express their deep concern at reports of further massacres of members of the Rohingya ethnic group in Burma. The report by the United Nations that at least 48 Rohingya men women and children have been killed, and that police were involved, provides yet more evidence that the current approach by both the government of Burma and the European Union to address ongoing abuses against the Rohingya is failing. Members of the European Burma Network are concerned by the muted response of the European Union to the latest reported massacre. We are also concerned about reports of rape and mass arrests. No action has been taken by the government of Burma or the European Union in response to continuing and consistent reports of the use of rape in Rakhine State since the latest wave of violence began in 2012. The United Nations confirmed the deaths of 68 Rohingya in jail followi...

By  Financial Express Bangladesh February 03, 2014 Observing that it will take time to initiate the safe return of Rohingya refugees to their homeland from Bangladesh, US Senior Adviser for Myanmar Judith Beth Cefkin on Monday sought the continuation of support they are getting in Bangladesh on purely humanitarian ground. Addressing a media roundtable at American Centre, the visiting US offi cial emphasised that security concerns related to the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and the humanitarian issues in the regard need to be separated, and that Bangladesh should not detract from providing refuge to Rohingyas fleeing their country only on the ground of safeguarding the border. Myanmar is going through simultaneous reforms in different areas, including the democratisation in politics, dissolution of the centralised economy by the institution of open market economy and the move towards restoring peace and stability in society, and the US government expects Bangladesh’s...

By GovUK January 31, 2014 FCO Minister Hugo Swire will answer your questions on Burma live via Twitter on 4 February. Burma has seen remarkable progress over the past two years, and the UK is committed to supporting a successful transition to democracy and human rights for all the people of Burma. But we are clear that more remains to be done. The UK government is gravely concerned about the ongoing violence in Rakhine State. We are also pressing for constitutional reform, supporting the ethnic peace process and taking action on human rights abuses, including combating the use of sexual violence. Following his recent visit to the country, Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire will answer your questions on the UK’s policy towards Burma live via Twitter on Tuesday 4 February from 0930 - 1015 GMT. You can submit questions using the hashtag #askFCO, and you can follow the Q&A on Mr Swire’s Twitter page @HugoSwire Further information Follow Foreign Office Mi...