March 15, 2025

News @ RB

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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Article @ RB

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 ...

Opinion @ RB

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 ...

Opinion @ Int'l Media

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...

Report by Media/Org

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...

Campaign

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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A Month of US Human Rights Concerns in Southeast Asia

Image Credit: Flickr/European Commission DG ECHO

By Mong Palatino
The Diplomat
May 20, 2016

The issue has been in the spotlight this month in several Southeast Asian states.

The United States’ democracy and human rights concerns have long put Washington at odds with Southeast Asian governments. But during this month or so, these issues have really been in the spotlight in several countries at once.

In Myanmar, nationalist monks staged a protest after the U.S. embassy used the word ‘Rohingya’ in an official statement. In Thailand, some parliament leaders want the U.S. ambassador expelled for expressing concern about the country’s human rights record. And in the Philippines, President-elect Rodrigo Duterte threatened to sever ties with the United States after the U.S. envoy criticized him during the campaign period.

On April 19, Rohingya boat refugees perished in an accident. The tragedy prompted the U.S. embassy to issue a statement expressing condolences to the family of the victims. But nationalist monks condemned the embassy for using the term Rohingya. In Myanmar, the Rohingya are considered as illegal immigrants although global human rights groups describe them as a persecuted ethnic group. The majority of the Rohingya are Muslims while Myanmar has a predominantly Buddhist population.

The government didn’t authorize the holding of a protest in front of the U.S. embassy but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has asked the international community to stop using the word Rohingya.

When the chairman of the government’s legal review committee met with U.S. Ambassador Scot Marciel, the latter was reminded to be “careful” about using a term that “the Myanmar people can’t accept.” The ambassador reportedly concurred with the request.

In Thailand, Prime Minsiter Prayut Chan-o-cha is questioning the right of U.S. Ambassador Glyn T. Davies to criticize the policies of his government. He said the remarks of Davies about the country’s human rights record has angered many Thais.

“Is Thailand a U.S. colony? Have his opinions backfired on him? More Thai people hold a grudge against him and it’s me who has to calm them down,” Prayut said in a media interview.

Davies was defending the statement of the U.S. State Department which deplored the recent arrests of anti-junta activists. Several critics were also charged because of their ‘subversive’ posts on Facebook.

“These actions create a climate of intimidation and self-censorship,” Davies said in a press conference.

Aside from Prayut, several politicians also lambasted Davies for ‘interfering’ in Thailand’s affairs. Some wanted him to be declared persona non grata while others urged the government to send him back to the United States

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, one of the issues that trended during the presidential campaign was the threat made by then candidate Duterte to sever ties with the United States after its ambassador reacted to the rather crude gang rape joke made by the Davao City mayor.

Duterte joked in a campaign rally that during a hostage incident in a Davao jail where an Australian was gang raped by inmates, as mayor of the city he should be the first to rape the victim. The joke was widely condemned by women’s groups, church leaders, netizens, and Duterte’s political rivals.

U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg was one of those who publicly commented about the rape joke.

He said in a media interview that “statements by anyone, anywhere that either degrade women or trivialize issues so serious as rape or murder are not ones that we condone.”

Responding to the criticism, Duterte said: “You’re not Filipinos. Shut up. Do not interfere because it’s election time.” Then, he added that it’s fine with him if the United States will sever ties with the Philippines.

Duterte later clarified that he was only responding to a question from the media.

Although he is yet to be proclaimed as president, Duterte is the clear landslide winner in the elections. President Obama has already phoned Duterte to congratulate him and the Philippines’ ‘vibrant democracy.’

A week after the elections, Duterte faced the media for the first time and revealed what he intends to discuss this with Goldberg who is expected to visit the president-elect in the coming days.

“I would only ask the U.S. ambassador, are you with us?’” Duterte said, referring to the ongoing maritime dispute between the Philippines and China.

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