UN warns of ‘profound crisis’ in Arakan state

Posted on October 23, 2013

BurmaTimes-By HANNA HINDSTROM-The Burmese government is responsible for fuelling a “profound crisis” in Arakan state, where several bouts of Muslim-Buddhist clashes have claimed hundreds of lives since last year, according to a damning UN report released on Wednesday.

The 23-page document, drafted by the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Burma, Tomas Quintana, accuses the government of failing to address local grievances behind the violence, while encouraging a culture of impunity among Buddhist perpetrators.

“There is little evidence that the government has taken steps to tackle the underlying causes of the communal violence or has put in place the policies that are necessary to forge a peaceful, harmonious and prosperous future for the state,” warned the report.

Aung San Suu Kyi's silence over persecution of Rohingya Muslims is 'deafening', says MEP

By Sajjad Karim - 24th October 2013

---

The long silence of Ms Sui Kyi on the plight of the Rohingya Muslims has cast a shadow on her political career. Many were dismayed by the iconic figure who chose to turn her back on the Rohingya - regarded by the UN as one of the most persecuted minorit

Sajjad Karim

Aung San Suu Kyi has collected her EU human rights prize, but made no mention of Rohingya persecution, writes Sajjad Karim.

Burmese pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, arrived in Strasbourg on Tuesday to finally collect the EU Sakharov prize which was awarded to her 23 years ago.

However, the mass persecution of the minority Rohingya Muslim community and her silence on the issue still casts a dark shadow over the Nobel peace prize winner.

Rohingya death blamed on medic's 'lunch'

An asylum-seeker collapsed and died after staff at a Japanese immigration centre failed to call for help, allegedly because the doctor was having lunch, a pressure group said Thursday.

• Published: 24/10/2013 at 04:11 PM
• Newspaper section: breakingnews

Anwar Hussin, a Rohingya man from Myanmar, fell ill shortly after he was detained on October 9, according to the People's Forum on Burma, a Japan-based NGO headed by a Japanese lawyer.

Citing the 57-year-old's cousin, the group said Hussin had been complaining of a headache all morning and fell unconscious as he began eating lunch in his cell.

Fellow detainees - seven people of different nationalities - called for help because he was vomiting and having spasms, the NGO said.

Displaced Rohingya Muslims seeking justice

Thu Oct 24, 2013 2:21AM

Amina Taylor, Press TV, London

Fact Corner

• Members of the displaced Rohingya community in Britain are urging Myanmar’s opposition leader, Aung San Suu Chi to speak for them in her meetings with European leaders. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate is accused of ignoring a human rights crisis in her own backyard.

Aung San Suu Kyi is lauded as an international champion of human rights, welcomed at the home of the British Prime minister but for Rohinghya campaigners, her attention to abuses being suffered closer to home has been absent. They say it’s not too late for the country’s most prominent opposition leader to speak up on their behalf.

Divas come to the aid of Rohingya children Read more: Divas come to the aid of Rohingya children

By PEGGY LOH | johor@nst.com.my

COMMUNITY WORK: Soroptimist International Club of Johor Baru holds glittering fundraiser for its projects to equip the children with education and life skills

JOHOR: THE Soroptimist International Club of Johor Baru (SIJB) hosted a "Diva Evening" recently.

The glittery affair had guests arriving dressed in glamorous gowns and tuxedoes for a good cause.

They came in support of SIJB's community projects, the main one being Project ABC, a school project that had its humble beginnings in 2007 at a surau in Kota Tinggi.

At that time, 61 Rohingya students between the ages of 6 and 15, attended classes sitting on the surau's concrete verandah floor for about 6 months.

The Dark Side of Transition: Violence Against Muslims in Myanmar

The Executive Summary is also available in Burmese.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Following the outbreak of deadly intercommunal clashes in Rakhine State in 2012, anti-Muslim violence has spread to other parts of Myanmar. The depth of anti-Muslim sentiment in the country, and the inadequate response of the security forces, mean that further clashes are likely. Unless there is an effective government response and change in societal attitudes, violence could spread, impacting on Myanmar’s transition as well as its standing in the region and beyond.

The violence has occurred in the context of rising Burman-Buddhist nationalism, and the growing influence of the monk-led “969” movement that preaches intolerance and urges a boycott of Muslim businesses. This is a dangerous combination: considerable pent-up frustration and anger under years of authoritarianism are now being directed towards Muslims by a populist political force that cloaks itself in religious respectability and moral authority.

Rohingya Muslims in hiding in Myanmar after outbreak of sectarian violence

• 

A man walks in a site where a building once stood before sectarian violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya in western Myanmar. Photo: AP 

 

Terrified Muslims hid in their homes in northwest Myanmar on Monday after armed police dispersed a Buddhist mob that torched houses and surrounded a mosque in the latest outbreak of sectarian tension.
Clashes between majority Buddhists and Muslims have killed at least 237 people and left more than 150,000 homeless since June last year.

UAE urges international community to find lasting solutions for Rohingya Muslim minority

The UAE has expressed concern over the acts of violence which target the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, and demanded the international community encourage the government of Myanmar to carry out its duty to put an end to these acts which contradict the basic principles of human rights, as well as to help the Rohingya restore their rights as a Muslim Minority in Myanmar.

The UAE also re-affirmed that it will continue to provide humanitarian aid to the victims of violence in Myanmar and to defend the legitimate rights of the Muslim minority in the country.

This came in the UAE’s statement at the meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Rohingya, held in New York, USA, under the chairmanship of Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Secretary General of OIC, on the margins of the 68th United Nations General Assembly.

The UAE’s statement at the OIC meeting in New York was read out by the Assistant Foreign Minister for International Organisations Affairs, Dr. Saeed Mohammed Al Shamsi.