March 18, 2025

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Announcement of New Website: Rohingya Today (RohingyaToday.Com) Dear Readers, From 1st January 2019 onward, the Rohingya News Portal 'Rohingya Blogger' will be renamed and upgraded as 'Rohingya Today'. Due to this transition to a new name, our website will be available at www.rohing...

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Maung Zarni, leader of the Free Rohingya Coalition, speaks at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo on Thursday. | CHISATO TANAKA By Chisato Tanaka, Published by The Japan Times on October 25, 2018 A leader of a global network of activists for Rohingya Mu...

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By Sena Güler | Published by Anadolu Agency on December 1, 2018 Maung Zarni says he will boycott Beijing-sponsored events until the country reverses its 'troubling path' ANKARA -- A human rights activist and intellectual said he withdrew from a Beijing-sponsored forum in London to pro...

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Oskar Butcher RB Article October 6, 2018 Every night in an unassuming shop space located in Mandalay’s 39thStreet, Lu Maw and Lu Zaw – the remaining members of the Burma’s most famous comedy trio, the Moustache Brothers – present their show: a curious combination of comedy, political sa...

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A demonstration over identity cards at a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh in April, 2018. Image: NurPhoto/SIPA USA/PA Images. By Natalie Brinham | Published by Open Democracy on October 21, 2018 Wary of the past, Rohingya have frustrated the UN’s attempts to provide them with documenta...

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By M.S. Anwar | Opinion & Analysis The Burmese (Myanmar) quasi-civilian government unleashed a large-scale violence against the minority Rohingya in the western Myanmar state of Arakan in 2012. The violence, which some wrongly frame as ‘Communal’, was carried out by the Burmese armed forces...

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By Maung Zarni, Natalie Brinham | Published by Middle East Institute on November 20, 2018 “It is an ongoing genocide (in Myanmar),” said Mr. Marzuki Darusman, the head of the UN Human Rights Council-mandated Independent International Fact-Finding Mission at the official briefing at ...

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Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar wait to be let through by Bangladeshi border guards after crossing the border in Palang Khali, Bangladesh October 9, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj MS Anwar RB Opinion November 12, 2018 Some may differ. But I believe the government of Bangladesh is ...

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Aman Ullah  RB History August 25, 2016 The ethnic Rohingya is one of the many nationalities of the union of Burma. And they are one of the two major communities of Arakan; the other is Rakhine and Buddhist. The Muslims (Rohingyas) and Buddhists (Rakhines) peacefully co-existed in the A...

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MYANMAR: UN ready to assist Rakhine displaced

Photo: Dsuniaga/FLickr


The United Nations is ready to assist thousands of people displaced by recent ethnic and sectarian violence in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State, and a UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights has visited the region to assess the situation.

“The government has indicated that food, shelter and medical assistance are urgently required,” UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Ashok Nigam told IRIN from Yangon, the former capital, on 15 June. “The UN and its humanitarian partners stand ready to support, as long as security to staff can be guaranteed during operations.”

The Rakhine State Minister said dozens of people had been killed, and close to 32,000 were now displaced and staying in 37 camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), the local Burmese media reported. However, aid workers say the situation remains volatile and it is difficult to verify those figures.

On 13 June, Myanmar’s Border Affairs Minister, Maj-Gen Thein Htay, accompanied by Tomás Ojea Quintana, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, visited Maungtaw, the capital of Rakhine State, where they met with residents whose homes had been destroyed.

More than 1,500 homes were reportedly burned in the violence after the alleged rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman by a group of Rohingya Muslim men on 28 May, followed by an attack on a bus on 3 June, in which 10 Muslims died.

In an effort to quell the violence, Burmese President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in Rakhine on 10 June.

“The underlying tensions that stem from discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities pose a threat to Myanmar’s democratic transition and stability. I urge all sides to exercise restraint, respect the law and refrain from violence,” Quintana said.

“It is critical that the government intensify its efforts to defuse tension and restore security to prevent the violence from spreading further,” he said, calling on the authorities to lift the state of emergency as soon as order was re-established.

Discrimination against the Muslim community, particularly the Rohingyas in Rakhine State, was the root cause of the violence, the Special Rapporteur noted, stressing the need for the authorities to take steps to address long-standing issues of deprivation of citizenship, freedom of movement, and other fundamental rights for the Rohingya.

Human Rights Watch has consistently described the treatment of the Rohingya in Myanmar as “deplorable”.

Under Burmese law, Rakhine’s 800,000 Rohingya are stateless and are not included in the country’s official list of 135 ethnic groups.

Hundreds of thousands have fled persecution to neighbouring Bangladesh over the past three decades, mostly in the 1990s.

“Policing action should be carried out impartially, in line with human rights standards, and with respect for the principles of legality, proportionality and non-discrimination,” Quintana said.

President Thein Sein called on various segments of Burmese society to jointly maintain peace and stability, and Quintana noted that this obligation also extended to all state security forces because they were responsible for restoring order.

Underscoring the sensitivity of the issue, some Burmese have taken to the internet to express their dissatisfaction with how the situation has been portrayed in the international media.

The Special Rapporteur emphasized that “Responsible media reporting is also imperative to prevent violence from escalating.”

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