The Stateless Rohingya Blog

By Sarah Naeem ARU News October 05, 2014  New York . The OIC Ministerial Contact Group convened at the 69th United Nations General Assembly in New York.  Important issues on Rohingya ethnic minority and strategies to find a permanent and lasting solution were discussed in the meeting. Delegations from several countries have expressed their concerns on the lack of progress on Rohingya issues in Arakan. They discussed strategies on engagement with the Government of Burma not only by OIC perspective, but also from the ASEAN perspectives as bilateral relations with Burma that many countries maintain. Among all the Ministerial delegations, they agreed that efforts in dialogue for ethnic and communal reconciliation in Arakan must be stepped up, but there are also needs for more serious and urgent approach for short-term solutions that could set the stage for long-term dialogue and reconciliation efforts. The Special Envoy of the OIC to Myanmar, Tan Sri Dr. Syed...

Mohamed Farid, 35, a Rohingya from Kha Moung Zeik (Fakira Bazar) was tortured to death by the Burmese Border Guard police (BGP) at their headquarters in Maungdaw, Arakan State between 3rd October and 5th October according to Halim, a Maungdaw based human rights watchdog. Halim said that Farid, who lived in BGP area No. 2, was arrested on 3rd October by the BGP who alleged he was linked with the rebel group the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO). He was then sent to BGP headquarters in Maungdaw where he was tortured to make him confess to being a member of the RSO. Farid refused to admit being a member of the RSO or to name any other RSO members. He told the BGP he was a trader and had no links to the RSO. The BGP then tortured him from 3rd to 4th October until he was seriously injured. He was then sent to Maungdaw hospital during the night of 4th to 5th October and he died there on 5th October according to a village administration officer who wishes to remain anonymous. ...

  BROUK President Tun Khin at US State department BROUK President Tun Khin expressed deteriorating situation of Rohingya in Arakan State, Burma to US Senate, State Department, US Assistant Secretary, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, National Endowment for Democracy and many NGOs in Washington DC on September 22 and 23, the information said. “I expressed to all high level US officials about Rohingya deteriorating situation in Arakan State, Burma before President Barack Obama will be visiting Burma for the second time in coming November, 2014. He will be going to Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, to be held in Burma,” the President Tun Khin said. Tun Khin raised humanitarian crisis and healthcare issues for Rohingya community after MSF kicked out from Arakan and Burmese government imposed restrictions on education, healthcare, marriage and movement. The Burmese government forcefully pushing the Rohingya community to accept Bengali in the place of Rohin...

Early solution to refugee issue stressed  Bangladesh has reiterated its position over Myanmar refugee issue and mentioned that it considers the voluntary repatriation of the refugees to their homes in Rakhine State as the only durable solution to the protracted refugee situation in Cox's Bazar, reports UNB. Newly appointed ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations Offices in Geneva and Vienna M Shameem Ahsan said this while addressing the annual meeting of UNHCR's governing Executive Committee in Geneva Wednesday, said a foreign ministry media release in Dhaka Thursday. He alluded to the positive momentum generated by the recently concluded Foreign Office Consultations between Bangladesh and Myanmar in Dhaka. The envoy stressed the need for gearing up the momentum to resume voluntary repatriation of the Myanmar refugees from Bangladesh. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Bangladesh's attachment with the United N...

An elderly Rohingya Muslim woman sits outside her tent at a camp in Rakhine state. (FILE photo) By Dr. Habib Siddiqui October 03, 2014 The Rohingya people of Myanmar (formerly Burma) who mostly live in the western part – the Rakhine (formerly Arakan) state, bordering Bangladesh, are undoubtedly the most persecuted people on earth. Denied citizenship in the Buddhist majority country, the Rohingyas have simply become the most unwanted people in our planet. The nearby Bangladesh does not want the persecuted Rohingyas to settle there either. In desperate attempts to save their lives, many Rohingyas have become now the ‘boat people’ of our time! Who would have thought that in our time, some 68 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the world community to guide its behaviors and actions we would see so much of intolerance and persecution of peoples based on their race or ethnicity? There are 30 Articles of the UDHR, starting with...

People shop at a market in Maungdaw, northern Rakhine state June 6, 2014.CREDIT: REUTERS/SOE ZEYA TUN By Jared Ferrie  Reuters UK Human rights groups condemned on Friday a Myanmar government plan that could force thousands of minority Rohingya Muslims into detention camps indefinitely if they do not qualify for citizenship. The U.S. and some other embassies in Myanmar had raised their concern with the government about some aspects of the plan, a U.S. official told Reuters. Most of Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims live in apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine state on the west coast of the predominantly Buddhist country, and almost 140,000 are displaced after deadly clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in 2012. The government has refused to grant most Rohingya citizenship and refers to them as Bengali, which implies they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh despite having lived in Myanmar for generations. The Rakhine State Action Plan will requir...

Setting fire to Rohingya villages- an act that was carried out by Rakhine & Security forces. By C.R. Abrar The Daily Star October 2, 2014 QUITE predictably, the 2014 national census of Myanmar has come back to haunt the ethnic Rohingyas.  Media reports inform that the Myanmarese government has devised a new plan under which members of the Rohingya community would be given the thorny choice: accept ethnic reclassification and the prospect of citizenship or be detained.  Under the new arrangement the community members would be required to identify themselves as 'Bengalis' (and not as 'Rohingyas') or face detention. Plans are underway to “construct temporary camps in required numbers for those who refuse to be registered and those without adequate documents.” The new decree is being proposed at a time when most of Myanmar's 1.3 million Rohingya population, particularly those in western Arakan, has been living in what has been described as “apar...