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...

Rohingya News @ Int'l Media

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...

Myanmar News

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...

Article @ Int'l Media

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...

Analysis @ RB

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...

Analysis @ Int'l Media

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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By Maung Zarni | Published by Anadolu Agency on December 15, 2018 US will not intercede, and Myanmar's neighbors see it through economic lens, so international coalition for Rohingya needed LONDON -- The U.S. House of Representatives Thursday overwhelmingly passed a resolution ca...

History @ RB

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...

Rohingya History by Scholars

Dr. Maung Zarni's Remark: The best research on Rohingya history: British Orientalism which created the pseudo-scientific biological notion of "Taiyinthar" or "real natives" of #Myanmar caused that country's post-colonial cancer of official & popular genocidal Racism.  This co...

Report @ RB

(Photo: Soe Zeya Tun, Reuters) RB News  October 5, 2013  Thandwe, Arakan – Rakhinese mob in Thandwe started attacking Kaman Muslims on September 28, 2013. As a result, 5 Kaman Muslims were mercilessly killed and 1 was died in heart attack while escaping the attack. 781 Kaman Mus...

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Rohingya families arrive at a UNHCR transit centre near the village of Anjuman Para, Cox’s Bazar, south-east Bangladesh after spending four days stranded at the Myanmar border with some 6,800 refugees. (Photo: UNHCR/Roger Arnold) By UN News May 11, 2018 Late last year, as violent repressi...

Press Release

(Photo: Reuters) Joint Statement: Rohingya Groups Call on U.S. Government to Ensure International Accountability for Myanmar Military-Planned Genocide December 17, 2018  We, the undersigned Rohingya organizations worldwide, call for accountability for genocide and crimes against...

Rohingya Orgs Activities

RB News December 6, 2017 Tokyo, Japan -- Legislators from all parties, along with Human Rights Now, Human Rights Watch, and Save the Children, came together to host the emergency parliament in-house event “The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis and Japanese Diplomacy” on December 4th. The eve...

Petition

By Wyston Lawrence RB Petition October 15, 2017 There is one petition has been going on Change.org to remove Ven. Wira Thu from Facebook. He has been known as Buddhist Bin Laden. Time magazine published his image on their cover with the title of The Face of Buddhist Terror. The petitio...

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A human rights activist and genocide scholar from Burma Dr. Maung Zarni visits Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi Extermination Camp and calls on European governments - Britain, France, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Denmark, Hungary and Germany not to collaborate with the Evil - like they did with Hitler 75 ye...

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Editorial by Int'l Media

By Dhaka Tribune Editorial November 5, 2017 How can we answer to our conscience knowing full-well what the Myanmar military is doing to the innocent Rohingya minority -- not even sparing children or pregnant women? Despite the on-going humanitarian crisis involving Rohingya refugees ...

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Military nominee pledges to improve living standards in Arakan State

Maj-Gen Maung Maung Ohn, pictured at the Myanmar Peace Center meeting on Thursday, 26 June 2014. (Photo: Nyo Ohn Myint)

By Thike Zin
June 27, 2014

Maj-Gen Maung Maung Ohn, nominated by the President’s Office as the next chief minister of Arakan State, has pledged to improve the living standards of the local population and restore stability to the region.

Responding to a question by a DVB reporter at a meeting to discuss Arakanese issues, hosted by the Myanmar Peace Centre in Rangoon on Thursday, Maung Maung Ohn said, “I would like to prioritise improving the living standards of Rakhine [Arakanese] people while at the same time trying to reduce conflict.

“I can see that many Arakanese people are living in poverty and feel a strong sense of antipathy toward the other community,” he said. “What we have to do, first and foremost, is explore solutions to these issues.”

By “other community”, the senior military man was clearly referring to the Muslim Rohingya community, which makes up a majority in several parts of the region. Inter-communal tensions between Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims boiled over in 2012, and the subsequent mob violence resulted in at least 200 deaths and some 140,000 people displaced from their homes.

“I think it will be hard for us to resolve this sensitive issue, so perhaps all we can do for now is improve people’s livelihoods,” said Maung Maung Ohn, who was border affairs deputy minister until recently appointed member of parliament. “This is what I plan to do when I take office – if we can significantly improve people’s standard of living, we can steadily resolve the sectarian issues.”

Maung Maung Ohn was joined at the conference on Thursday by senior government officials and representatives from Arakan-based political parties and civic society groups, as well as United Nations’ Special Advisor to Myanmar Vijay Nambiar.

Also in attendance was the chairman of the Rakhine National Network, Tin Htoo Aung, who told DVBafterwards that the government had presented a plan of action to tackle the crisis in Arakan State.

“The government representatives spoke about an action plan – this was a significant part of the meeting – and so I think our responsibility is to wait and see if they can implement it or not, and how we can cooperate,” he said.

He said that President Thein Sein has allocated a 15 billion kyat (US$15 million) budget for developing Arakan State, which is the poorest region in Burma next to Chin State.

Maung Maung Ohn said he understood that he is not the most popular candidate for the position of chief minister among many Arakanese, but vowed that he would do the best he can, and would regard the locals as his own family members.

“There were objections against me in the meeting today, but I understand the emotions. I don’t blame anyone,” said the major-general.

Meanwhile, the influential Arakan National Party (ANP) – a recent merger of the two previous largest nationalist parties in Arakan State – has released a statement calling for appointment of an ethnic Arakanese as chief minister. Maung Maung Ohn is a Burman.

The regional parliament resumes on 30 June when it is expected that Maung Maung Ohn’s appointment as chief minister will be finalised.

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