The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Photos created by kalle.bergbom By Wa Lone Myanmar Times August 25, 2014,  Two years after inter-communal violence first broke out in Rakhine State more than 310,000 people are still in need of humanitarian assistance there, says the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Pierre Péron, public information and advocacy officer at UNOCHA, said those in need included both Muslim and ethnic Rakhine residents. The number of international humanitarian staff in Rakhine State decreased sharply after attacks on UN and NGO facilities in March following accusations that they favoured Muslims. Most of the 300-plus staff from NGOs and INGOs who were temporarily relocated following the attacks have returned to Sittwe. But Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland, which previously had more than 500 staff in Rakhine, has not been able to resume its activities since they were suspended by the government in February, despite being invited to do so last ...

Special Adviser for Myanmar Vijay Nambiar. UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras By UN News August 25, 2014 The United Nations Special Adviser for Myanmar today wrapped up a visit to the country during which he visited Rakhine state to see first-hand the progress made to provide aid to local communities, as well as actions being taken to address underlying causes of recent violence. This was the eighth visit to Myanmar in the past year for Vijay Nambiar, who took part as an observer at a meeting on national reconciliation between the Government and ethnic armed groups – the first of its kind held in the country. “On behalf of the Secretary-General, Mr. Nambiar called on all involved to take a leap of faith and to set aside all narrow agendas in the common interest of peace and a unified Myanmar,” UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric. Several waves of clashes between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, the first of which occurred in June 2012, have affected hundreds...

By MYARF & M.S. Anwar 1:00AM (Myanmar Time), Monday, August 25, 2014 Maungdaw, Arakan State ׀   Rvisiontv.com The Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) opened fire at a Rohingya farmer in southern Maungdaw last Saturday night as they failed to arrest two other bypassing Rohingyas for ransom, hence causing the poor man’s death, say the locals of Maungdaw. The victim is identified to be U Abdul Hoaque (son of) U Mohammed Jalil and a father of two children. He hailed from Zaydi Pyin hamlet of Kyauk Pandu village tract, southern Maungdaw Abdul Hoque (Age 35) was deliberately killed by Myanmar’s Border Guard Police “U Abdul Hoque, a farmer, owned few acres of agricultural lands. It was around 9:30PM on August 23 that he was going to another part of the village to hire some farmers so as to cultivate paddy on his lands the next day. There were two more people, unknown to him, bypassing him and along the village street at the same time. The Border Guard Police (BGP) ca...

By Fakhruddin Ahmed The Daily Star August 25, 2014   ROHINGYA crisis has been weighing on the world's conscience for decades.  The UN Human Rights Council lists Myanmar's 800, 000 Rohingya Muslims among the world's most persecuted minorities.  Residents of Myanmar for over 600 years, Rohingyas have been stripped of their Myanmar citizenship.    Oppression and expulsion have been repeatedly perpetrated on them by Myanmar's Buddhist majority for centuries.  An estimated 300,000 Rohingyas languish in Bangladeshi and Thai refugee camps. Rohingya villages have been cordoned off, and many Rohungyas have been confined to concentration camps.  Humanitarian agencies such as Doctors without Borders have been barred from entering and treating patients in those camps. Rohingyas are perishing while the world looks away. Rohingya is an Indo-European Rohingya language; the words Rohingya means a resident of the state of Arakan.  Myanmar ...

Two Rohingya women cuddle their newborns at a camp in Kutupalong, Cox's Bazar. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das Foreign Secy-Level Meeting with Myanmar  By Rezaul Karim The Daily Star August 22, 2014 Repatriation of Rohingya refugees, border management, human trafficking, boosting trade and investment, and introduction of coastal shipping will be high on the agenda at the Bangladesh-Myanmar meeting to be held in Dhaka on August 31. The foreign secretary-level Eighth Foreign Office Consultation will also discuss issues like regular holding of security dialogues, import of gas from Myanmar, confidence-building measures to remove misunderstanding between the two neighbouring countries, cooperation in areas of climate change, energy, agriculture, education and increasing border trade and tourism. Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque and Myanmar Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs U Thant Kyaw will lead their respective sides in the talks. An eight-member Myanmar delega...

Rohingya women are pictured at the Thae Chaung camp for internally displaced people in Sittwe, Arakan State, on April 22, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) By Lawi Weng The Irrawaddy August 22, 2014 RANGOON — Buddhist Arakanese leaders are considering a proposal that would see Rohingya Muslims without documentation proving their right to citizenship detained in camps. The plan will be discussed publicly in the Arakan State capital, Sittwe, in the coming days, said Than Tun, an Arakanese leader and a member of the state’s Emergency Coordination Committee, and comes as a citizenship verification project is restarted for Muslims in Arakan State. Clashes between ethnic Arakanese and Rohingya broke out in mid-2012 and about 140,000 people, mostly Muslims, still live in temporary camps after fleeing their homes. Arakanese Buddhists see the Rohingya, who are not a recognized ethnic group under Burmese law, as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and refer to them as Bengalis. T...

Rohingya boat people (mostly men) arrive on Phuket in January of this year. Photo: (EPA, Yongyot Pruksarak) By UNHCR August 22, 2014 This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 22 August 2014, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. A new UNHCR report on irregular maritime movements in South East Asia estimates that 20,000 people risked their lives in sea crossings in the first half of this year. Many were Rohingya who fled Myanmar and arrived in the region suffering the effects of malnutrition and abuse during the journey. Several hundred people were also intercepted on boats heading to Australia. The report has been produced by a newly-established Maritime Movements Monitoring Unit at UNHCR's Regional Office in Bangkok which collates information through direct interviews, and from media reports, partners and governments. It focuses on departures from the Bay of Bengal and elsewhere pas...