Rohingya : 13 Year Old Rohingya Girl Being Raped By Nasaka, M...

Rohingya : 13 Year Old Rohingya Girl Being Raped By Nasaka, M...: A Rohingya girl was taken into the Nasaka camp of Zaw Matet village tract by Nasakas while she was coming back home after selling fire-wo...

BANGLADESH-MYANMAR: More Rohingya boat people likely

Photo: Maher Sattar/IRIN

Mohammad Johar wants to leave for Malaysia soon

BANGKOK, 6 November 2012 (IRIN) - Thousands of Rohingya - whether currently in Myanmar or Bangladesh - may take to the high seas and head to Malaysia after last month’s deadly sectarian violence in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, activists warn.

“The risk factor is certainly there,” Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, an advocacy organization for the Rohingya, told IRIN. “Many simply feel they have no other choice. Bangladesh has closed its borders so there is no other escape.” 

“More people are getting on boats to get to Malaysia,” Phil Robertson, the deputy director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch, said. “This year might be one of the largest sailing seasons [of Rohingya refugees going to Malaysia from the two countries].”

According to UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), there are more than 24,000 Rohingya refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia today.  

Letter to U.S Secretary Clinton. Pettition by Free Rohingya Campaign

The Honorable 

Hillary Rodham Clinton 

Secretary of State, 

U.S. Department of State 

2201 C Street NW 

Washington, DC 20520 

Dear Madam Secretary,                                                                Date: 11/1/2012 

We undersigned more than 2000 people writing to you in regard to recent violence in Arakan State Burma. It is not communal violence rather systematic aggression to words one of the most persecuted people on earth unilaterally by extremists. As a result, Hundreds of Rohingya have reportedly killed and more than hundred thousand displaced. What is happening now amounts to areas being ethnically cleansed of Rohingya people who are native people of the land. 

It is completely impossible for Burmese intelligence not knowing preplanned, well organized attack to one Muslim village by more than 20 Rakhine villages. Some attackers used various kinds of home made weapon with the help of some Political partly leaders and Military personnel. 

Britain urges Myanmar to resolve Rohingya issue

 VIENTIANE: Britain on Monday called on Myanmar to resolve the citizenship status of Rohingyas caught up in deadly sectarian violence.

"We would like the problems, the unresolved problems of the status of the Rohingya people to be addressed by the leaders in Burma across politics," British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters in Laos.

"That's an issue of major concern for us. I'll certainly raise that with the Burma leaders here when I have the opportunity to do so," he said ahead of a summit bringing together dozens of leaders from Asia and Europe, including Myanmar President Thein Sein, in the Laos capital Vientiane.

Dozens of people have been killed and more than 100,000 displaced since June by clashes between ethnic Rakhines and Rohingyas in the country, casting a shadow over a string of political reforms.

Myanmar's 800,000 stateless Rohingya are seen by the government and many in the country as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. They face severe discrimination that activists say has led to a deepening alienation.

The Rohingya, who make up the vast majority of those displaced in Rakhine state, are described by the UN as among the world's most persecuted minorities.

UN envoy 'disgusted' by discrimination against Burma's Rohingyas

A UN special envoy to Burma hopes the government's "policy of discrimination" against Muslim Rohingyas will be addressed at the Asia-Europe Meeting Summit (ASEM) in Laos.

It is estimated around 4,600 homes have been burnt and more than 100,000 people displaced since clashes broke out between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya in June.

There are an estimated 800,000 Rohingyas in Burma, but the government sees them as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

The UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana , has told Connect Asia he is "disgusted" by the way the Rohingya community has been treated.

"My assessment after five years holding this mandate...is that there is a pattern of endemic discrimination against the Rohingya," he said.

Rohingyas and Bangladesh

Mo Chaudhury

The bouts of ethnic violence in the Rakhine region of Myanmar since mid-2012 have once again triggered the attempted exodus of Rohingyas into Bangladesh. The purpose of this commentary is to explore key dimensions of the Rohingya tragedy and potential courses of action from the Bangladesh perspective.

First, the conflicting and growing strategic interests of the global power players in the land and sea area surrounding Myanmar (and Bangladesh) continue to prevent any strong independent action on the part of these players to bring about and enforce a mutually fair redress for the Rohingya tragedy. Such a redress would perhaps involve creating an autonomous Rohingya-majority territory in Myanmar carved out of north-western Rakhine with its political and governance structure similar to the territories of Canada and USA, for instance.

Second, the Government of Myanmar (GoM) continues to deny citizenship to the Rohingyas claiming that the Rohingya ancestors, originating from areas now part of Bangladesh, unlawfully trespassed into and settled in the Rakhine region. The Government of Bangladesh (GoB), on its part, argues that it is an internal problem of Myanmar, and a more accommodative GoB policy regarding the Rohingyas would simply encourage

MSF Blocked in Rakhine

The European aid organization says its workers cannot access those in need of medical care in the violence-hit western Burma state.

An aid group said Monday that staffers had been “threatened” and prevented from accessing parts of western Burma’s Rakhine state where tens of thousands of people are in need of urgent medical treatment following weeks of communal  violence.

The Paris-based Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)—also known as Doctors Without Borders—said in a statement that team members had faced “ongoing animosity,” making it difficult to support members of both the Muslim Rohingya and Buddhist Rakhine communities reeling from the recent unrest.

“That we are prevented from acting and threatened for wanting to deliver medical aid to those in need is shocking and leaves tens of thousands without the medical care they urgently need,” said MSF Operations Manager Joe Belliveau.