Rohingya not recorded as Myanmar citizens in census

Myanmarian minister says the next census does not mean that Rohingya will be recognized as citizens of Myanmar.

Feb 12-2014

World Bulletin / News Desk

The Myanmar census, which is scheduled to begin on March 30, will include the Rohingya but that does not mean that they will be recognized as an ethnic group or as citizens of Myanmar, the Union Minister for Immigration and Population U Khin Yi said. 

In Maungdaw Village, Residents Fret Over Missing Family Members

A woman from the Rohingya Muslim village of Du Chee Yar Tan, in Maungdaw Township, shows reporters a damaged house. (Photo: Sanay Lin / The Irrawaddy)

Feb 11-2014

DU CHEE YAR TAN, Maungdaw Township — Zuu Lar Har is living in deep distress as she has been waiting more than three weeks for her 18-year-old daughter Zuu Kai to turn up.

The 60-year-old Muslim resident of Du Chee Yar Tan village in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, said she feared for the life of Zuu Kai after she disappeared during the tumultuous events of Jan. 13, when, according to accounts of local villagers, an Arakanese Buddhist mob violently raided the village.

Rape Is a Weapon in Burma’s Kachin State, but the Women of Kachin Are Fighting Back

By breaking their silence, and documenting the outrages committed, local communities in Kachin are defending themselves against sexual violence from the Burmese military and police

Diana Markosian / Reportage by Getty Images

Galau Dau Yang, 35, stands outside her home in the northern Shan State village of Kut Khaing. Galau Dau Yang, who is ethnically Kachin, was gang-raped by police. Like in most conflict zones, human rights organizations report that rape is being used as a weapon by the military and police in Kachin State and neighboring Shan State, where many of the refugees have fled

Feb 11-2014

She had just finished describing how she had been raped by two men, dressed as policemen, when more police showed up. These police weren’t wearing uniforms, but everyone in the village in Burma’s northern Shan state knew who they were. And that’s when I stopped asking the questions and started being questioned myself.

Germany voices Rohingya concerns

YANGON - German President Joachim Gauck on Tuesday raised concerns over clashes between Myanmar's majority Buddhist and minority Muslim communities, especially the Rohingyas.

German President Joachim Gauck delivers a speech at Yangon University in Yangon on Tuesday. Mr Gauck is in Myanmar for a three-day visit where he is scheduled to meet Myanmar President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (AFP 

Feb 11-2014

There has been a surge in sectarian violence since 2012 when fighting broke out in Rakhine State, home to about 800,000 Rohingya Muslims who were made stateless by a law passed in 1982.

Rohingya Genocide in Burma: Covert Report w/Andrew Day

February 11-2014

Today’s guest is Andrew Day, an activist championing the plight of the Rohingya peoples of Burma, who are suffering genocidal policies, including straight up massacres and ethnic cleansing, by Burmese authorities. Day describes the tension between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma, such that the tiniest, most insignificant triggers like brushing in the street have sparked backlashes. Village purges and driving the Rohingya into the sea with spears are common events for these Burmese peoples. This heart-breaking story is mostly ignored by the MSM. Please help us break the silence barrier by listening to Andrew Day’s interview on The Covert Report. It will shock you.

Burma’s Ethnic Minorities Decry Census, Jostle for Advantage

February 11-2014

RANGOON — Members of Burma’s largest ethnic minority groups and smaller ethnic subgroups are voicing concerns over a census due to be conducted late next month, with the survey’s system of classification criticized as inaccurate by some, and unnecessarily divisive by others.

Cautious praise for Myanmar from German President Gauck

February 10-2014
German President Joachim Gauck says Myanmar's reform course must include more reconciliation for its ethnic minorities. In his presence, officials signed plans for 500 million euros in debt relief for Myanmar.

Former general-turned-president Thein Sein was told by visiting German President Joachim Gauck on Monday that Myanmar can count on Germany if the Asian nation continues on its route toward democracy.

Gauck later told Myanmar's longtime opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi that he knew of "many other nations that were slower in reaching democratic norms than this country."

Portraits of Much Persecuted, Oft-Ignored Rohingya

Greg Constantine’s unflinching yet sensitive look at the Rohingyas’ plight has made an impact. (JG Photos/Tunggul Wirajuda)

February 10-2014

 The elderly Rohingya man epitomized his people’s plight. One of more than 300,000 Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar, the former forced laborer fled his home state of Rakhine in the 1990s following years of oppression by the Myanmar authorities and the Rakhine ethnic group. The years of suffering and exile are etched in his face, while his shaded right eye symbolized his blindness in one eye after a beating by his Burmese overseers. Next to his photo, a snapshot of a Rohingya family contrasts with the photo of a woman fleeing persecution under it. The former aptly represents the families and lives shattered by the ethnic and sectarian conflict suffered by the Rohingya, while the latter’s blank, forward looking gaze seem to point towards an uncertain future.

Ruling Party MP Investigated for Defaming Police

USDP Lower House member Shwe Maung. (Photo: Twitter/Shwe Maung)

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.

Another Massacre of Rohingya - Another Failure to Act

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.

Burma’s Rohingya Are Now Being Forced to Live in Squalid Ghettos Watched by Guards

Increasingly, for most Rohingya, the only solution is to flee the country

Rohingya men look out from behind a barbed-wire fence used as a barrier to restrict travel on Nov. 25, 2012, on the outskirts of Sittwe in Burma
February 04-2014
The policeman manning the barbed-wire roadblock at the entrance to Bhumi quarter in Sittwe spells out the rules: if the Rohingya try to leave without a permit, they are apprehended and taken back to their homes. Asked if the Arakanese (Rakhine) are treated the same, he smiles, embarrassed, and shakes his head. This neighborhood, in the capital of western Burma’s Arakan (Rakhine) state, is one of several Muslim-majority areas of the town that have been transformed into de facto open-air prisons, with the movement of inhabitants tightly restricted by armed guards.

Myanmar's Buddhist-Rohingya ethnic divide

Displaced Rohingya Muslims struggle with persecution and Buddhist resentment.

February 04-2014

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.