March 16, 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...

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...

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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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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...

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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...

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...

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(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...

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(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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UN under fire over resident coordinator’s advisor on Rakhine

Mr Jacques Leider, an historian from Luxembourg, was hired in late January as a senior consultant to the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar. Photo: Youtube

By Tim McLaughlin
Mizzima
February 13, 2015

The appointment by the United Nations of a controversial academic as an advisor on Rakhine State has been slammed by Rohingya politicians, who allege he is biased in favour of Rakhine Buddhists. 

Jacques Leider, an historian from Luxembourg, was hired in late January as a senior consultant to the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Ms Renata Lok-Dessallien, the UN said in a statement on February 11. 

Dr Leider specialises in the history of the pre-colonial Rakhine kingdom of Mrauk-U, but his stand on Rohingya ethnicity has consistently put him at odds with members of the Rohingya community and some human rights groups. 

Dr Leider has argued that the term Rohingya is a political label, rather than one of ethnicity, that was not popularised until the late 1990s. 

“My answer is that Rohingya is not an ethnic concept,”Dr Leider told The Irrawaddy in a 2012 interview. 

“For me, Rohingya is the term, which is an old word that has been claimed as above all as a political label after the independence of Myanmar,”he told the magazine. 

His appointment as an advisor to Ms Lok-Dessallien comes as the UN has become increasingly drawn into the contentious debate over the term Rohingya, the group’s right to self identify and its citizenship status. The UN has recently tried to distance itself from the debate, with officials stating that the focus on terminology is inhibiting progress in resolving broader issues in Rakhine. 

But doing so has proved challenging. Last year the government launched a pilot citizenship verification program in Rakhine State under which some residents were granted a form of citizenship on condition that they identify as Bengali, rather than Rohingya. The government refers to the Rohingya as Bengalis because it believes they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. 

Dr Leider has also said that the Rakhine Buddhist community has been largely ignored in discussion over the situation in Rakhine State. In an interview with Maw Kun magazine he dismissed as “extreme” claims by groups such as Human Rights Watch that the Rohingya face ethnic cleansing. 

His writings and speeches have been cited by Rakhine groups and hardline monks as evidence to bolster their claims that the Rohingya do not exist in Myanmar and are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. 

Members of the Rohingya community have been sharply critical of Dr Leider’s work, saying that his position on the question of Rohingya ethnicity discredits their standing in Myanmar and allege that he is biased in favour of Rakhine nationalists. 

The decision to hire Dr Leider as an adviser to Ms Lok-Dessallien was roundly denounced by Rohingya politicians on February 12. 

U Khin Maung Myint, a leading member of the National Democratic Party for Development, a Rohingya political party, said the NDPD would consider boycotting the UN over its decision to hire Dr Leider.

“He is biased, he is a Rakhine sympathiser, he has been working hand in hand with Rakhine nationalists,”he said.

His claim that Dr Leider has a pro-Rakhine agenda was shared by other Rohingya politicians, who also expressed concern that his appointment would only increase tensions between the state’s Buddhist and Muslim communities.

U Kyaw Min, chairman of the Democracy and Human Rights Party, another Rohingya party, said that Dr Leider favoured Rakhine Buddhists and questioned why a historian had been hired for the job.

U Shwe Maung, a Rohingya MP who represents Rakhine’s Buthidaung constituency for the Union Solidarity and Development Party, accused the UN of failing to consult with both Rakhine and Rohingya groups before hiring Dr Leider.

“If the resident coordinator wants to hire an expert she should consult with both communities and find someone without a history of bias,”he said.

Dr Leider has previously worked at the Luxembourg embassy in Bangkok on issues related to political and economic affairs in Myanmar.

The scope of Dr Leider’s work with Ms Lok-Dessallien and the impact it will have on UN policy toward Rakhine remains unclear.

Rakhine Buddhist groups have regularly protested against the UN’s humanitarian work in the Western state since the outbreak of sectarian unrest there in 2012, alleging that it favours the Rohingya community.

“For the United Nations to continue to work effectively for all the peoples in the Rakhine State, it is necessary to gain a thorough understanding of the context in which it operates,”the UN statement said.

“The United Nations therefore works in consultation with all knowledgeable persons on Rakhine State in informing itself to this end. Dr Leider’s expertise has been sought by the Office of the Resident Coordinator in this regard.”

A UN spokesperson in Yangon referred further questions to Dr Leider, who said he was travelling to Rakhine and would be unavailable to comment on his position until the end of the month.

Since his appointment, Dr Leider has briefed diplomats in Yangon on the situation in Rakhine, including at the US embassy on February 2.

A US embassy spokesperson confirmed that the briefing was attended by ambassadors and diplomats from other embassies.

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