Muslim Rohingya women are pictured at the Thae Chaung camp for internally displaced people in Sittwe, Myanmar, on April 22. The stateless Rohingya in western Myanmar have been confined to the camps since violence erupted with majority Buddhists in 2012. The camps rely on international aid agencies, but still lack adequate food and health care.

Minzayar/Reuters/Landov

Thirteen-year-old Zomir Hussein lives with his family in a simple wooden home in a village outside the city of Sittwe, the capital of western Myanmar's Rakhine state. Not long ago, he accidentally overdosed on medicine he was taking to treat his tuberculosis.

'The traffickers left us for dead': A Rohingya boy's quest for a better life

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) ? By the time Muslim rubber tappers came across the boy in a jungle in southern Thailand, he was so weak he couldn’t even wave away the flies and mosquitoes that covered his body.

The teenager, a stateless Rohingya Muslim from Myanmar, had become paralysed from the waist down after 10 weeks in a traffickers’ camp overseen by brutal guards, where he was forced to squat during the day and sleep in a foetal position at night.  

The rubber tappers rescued the boy, whose name has been withheld to protect his identity, along with 30 others who had also lost the use of their legs, and took them to a nearby mosque where they were given food and shelter and slowly recovered.

The boy had left his home in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State after two bouts of bloody riots in 2012. Barely 16, he hoped to find a job to help his struggling family but was incarcerated instead, first by Thai authorities and later by human traffickers.  

Rohingya Crisis: An Agenda for the Regional and International Communities

Dibya Shikha Research Intern, IReS, IPCS Email: dibyagolden20@gmail.com

During the 2014 ASEAN Summit in Naypyidaw, the first one to be held in Myanmar, the plight of the Rohingya Muslims was left off the agenda. The failure to discuss the issue and the deliberate attempts by Myanmar to not recognise the Rohingyas in the recently held Census has once again brought the uncertain fate of the Rohingyas to the forefront. Approximately 1,40,000 Rohingyas have moved away from Rakhine state due to large scale violence over the past two years. Although Rohingyas started fleeing way back in 1978, the Myanmarese government’s decision in March 2014 to expel humanitarian groups and prevent them from providing health care and aid has increased the number of ‘boat people’ moving to countries like Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia. In this scenario, what can the international community do for a durable solution of the current impasse? What can the region do to pressurise Myanmar to accept these de jure stateless people? What should Myanmar do to solve the Rohingya crisis? What can the International Community Do?

Reuters Wider Image: Sick and in crisis, religious violence in Myanmar

Attacks on NGO and U.N. offices by a Rakhine mob in March led to the withdrawal of groups giving healthcare and other essential help to many thousands of Rohingya displaced by Buddhist-Muslim violence since 2012 and now living in camps like the one pictured above.

Read Story

Sick and in crisis

Sittwe, Myanmar

Brunei Sultan HM arrives in Myanmar today for ASEAN Summit (May 10, 2014)

Saturday, May 10, 2014

HIS Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam is scheduled to arrive in Myanmar's new capital, Naypyitaw, today for the 24th ASEAN summit.

The meeting marks a watershed moment in Myanmar's political history as the one-time pariah takes on the chairmanship of the 10-member bloc for the first time in 17 years.

During the summit, the leaders are expected to adopt the Nay Pyi Taw Declaration on the realisation of the ASEAN Community by 2015, and terms of reference of the ASEAN Secretary-General as the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Coordinator.

His Majesty will also attend a series of sideline meetings with representatives of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), civil society organisations, ASEAN youth, and the 10th Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-the Philippines – East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).

Health and human rights in eastern Myanmar prior to political transition: a population-based assessment using multistaged household cluster sampling

BMC International Health and Human Rights 2014, 14:15 doi:10.1186/1472-698X-14-15

Published: 5 May 2014

Abstract (provisional)

Background
Myanmar/Burma has received increased development and humanitarian assistance since the election in November 2010. Monitoring the impact of foreign assistance and economic development on health and human rights requires knowledge of pre-election conditions.

Methods
From October 2008-January 2009, community-based organizations conducted household surveys using three-stage cluster sampling in Shan, Kayin, Bago, Kayah, Mon and Tanintharyi areas of Myanmar. Data was collected from 5,592 heads of household on household demographics, reproductive health, diarrhea, births, deaths, malaria, and acute malnutrition of children 6-59 months and women aged 15-49 years. A human rights focused survey module evaluated human rights violations (HRVs) experienced by household members during the previous year.

In Malaysia, Rohingya arrivals hope to end cycle of abuse, exploitation by smugglers

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 5 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency is increasingly worried about the terrible conditions and acute needs of Rohingya arrivals in Malaysia after long periods of abuse and deprivation in the hands of smugglers.

Since last November, some 120 Rohingya have approached UNHCR in Kuala Lumpur suffering from varying stages of paralysis possibly caused by poor diets and long-term confinement. Their poor physical condition hints at the long and arduous journey they've taken to escape the harsh situation in Myanmar.

ASEAN leaders meet under China cloud

YANGON: Southeast Asian leaders head into a historic summit in Myanmar this weekend dogged by a flare-up of high-seas tensions with China that will test the region’s ability to stand together against a mighty economic partner.Vietnam and the Philippines, both members of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), squared up to Beijing this week in the South China Sea, whose waters are scored by overlapping territorial claims.

“China’s actions on the eve of the ASEAN meeting in Myanmar will put South China Sea issues on the top of the agenda,” said Carl Thayer, an expert on the region at the University of New South Wales.
 

Here's where genocide is most likely to happen

These 9 countries are the world's most dangerous for minorities

 Myanmar

(SOE THAN WIN AFP/Getty Images)

(Minority communities at risk: Kachin, Karenni, Karen, Mons, Rakhine, Rohingyas, Chin, Wa)

Despite progress in dismantling Myanmar's authoritarian rule, little has been done to protect the rights and safety of the country's long-persecuted Muslims. The Rohingya Muslim minority in Rahkine state has suffered the worst, but violence has spread to other parts of the country as well. The United Nations says the roughly 1 million Rohingya are one of the world's "most persecuted" minorities. In 2012, Buddhists waged a series of attacks against the Rohingya in Rakhine. Tens of thousands fled the country, and at least 100,000 Rohingya are living in squalid refugee camps.

Kuala Perlis UPP detain 101 Myanmar illegal immigrants

KANGAR: One hundred and one illegal immigrants, who are believed to be Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, were detained by the Kuala Perlis Anti-Smuggling Unit (UPP) as they were landing at the Kurung Tengar beach in Kuala Perlis, near here early this morning. 

UPP Perlis deputy commander (II), Rosli Issak said the 41 female and 60 male Rohingya refugees, were aged between one and 40 years old.

"They came in a boat and were in a weak condition due to cold and hunger and some of them were not wearing any clothes when they landed on the beach.

"We then provided them with clothing out of humanitarian consideration," he said at a media conference at his office in Kuala Perlis, today.

Asean must act on Rohingya plight – GMM & Proham

May 09, 2014

Asean must give serious consideration to the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar, especially as Asean heads of state and leaders will gather at Naypyidaw on May 10 and 11 for the 24th Asean Summit.

It is also an appropriate time as Myanmar serves as the Asean Chair for 2014 and the theme is “Moving Forward in Unity to a Peaceful and Prosperous Community”.

Resolving inter-ethnic, inter-religious conflict especially being experienced by minorities across Asean requires some formal mechanism of reconciliation based on moderation. This must become a major task of the Asean body in order to build a people-centred Asean where all communities irrespective of majority or minority can experience peace and prosperity.  This must be the Asean way.

Roundtable discussion