July 12, 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...

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...

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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...

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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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Myanmar’s Rohingya Crisis Is ASEAN’s Responsibility

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

By Termsak Chalermpalanupap
December 8, 2016

The regional organization cannot turn its back on this issue, and should be given the chance to help resolve it.

The reluctance of the Myanmar government to seek external assistance in dealing with the Rohingya crisis is reminiscent of the initial recalcitrance of the military dictatorship of Senior General Than Shwe in the aftermath of the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in May 2008. Although over 130,000 in Myanmar’s delta townships perished in that disaster, the Myanmar junta at first refused to accept most of the external offers of emergency humanitarian assistance.

The delays and inability of the Myanmar junta to provide timely emergency assistance caused additional deaths and sufferings. Some Western governments accused the Myanmar military leadership of failing in its government responsibility to protect citizens. Some even mentioned the possibility of doing unilateral “humanitarian intervention” by air dropping food and other aid supplies in the disaster areas. Some Myanmar military leaders were concerned that an influx of foreign aid workers could interfere in the national referendum of a new constitution on May 10, 2008.

The dire situation prompted the ASEAN foreign ministers to convene an emergency meeting in Singapore on May 19, 2008. At the meeting, in which the author was present as a special assistant to ASEAN Secretary-General Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, the ASEAN foreign ministers asked Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win to consider three options: coping with the humanitarian crisis alone and facing the intensifying wrath of the international community if delays persisted; opening up to working with the UN and the international community; or involving as well ASEAN in international concerted efforts to save lives in the disaster areas.

After reporting back to Nay Pyi Taw, the foreign minister of Myanmar soon returned to the meeting with a breakthrough good news: the Myanmar military government wanted to involve all, including ASEAN. Subsequently, ASEAN successfully teamed up with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Myanmar and the UN in organizing coordinated massive international humanitarian assistance for the cyclone survivors.

Now in the wake of the Rohingya crisis, the Myanmar government should refresh memories of lessons learned from Cyclone Nargis.

Hiding behind the obsolete narrow interpretation of non-interference is again not tenable. Over 10,000 Rohingya have fled to seek sanctuary in Bangladesh border areas in recent weeks of violence. More may follow suit. Others might risk their lives by fleeing on unsafe boats to Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia have raised vehement hues and cries against what they believe to be “ethnic cleansing” against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Last Sunday Malaysian Prime Minister Naijb Razak joined a gathering in Kuala Lumpur to call urgent international attention to the plight of the Rohingya. Like it or not, the Rohingya crisis is an international concern.

Unfortunately the Myanmar government considers the Rohingya as “Bengalis” and “illegal migrants.” It even objects to calling them “Rohingya”; no such ethnic minority group is recognized under the law or the constitution of the country. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, during her official visit to Singapore last week, wouldn’t say anything in public about the crisis. She also doesn’t like the name “Rohingya.”

Clearly the government under her NLD leadership is incapable of coping with the Rohingya crisis, partly because a majority of Buddhists in Myanmar don’t empathize with the Rohingya. Some senior Buddhist monks have even campaigned to expel the Rohingya out of the country — no compassion whatsoever from these Buddhist monks. A new commission set up to investigate the recent flare-ups of violence against the Rohingya may not be able to recommend any new solutions.

This is why the Myanmar government must look into new ideas and pragmatic solutions. Obviously, cooperation with the UN and the international community to at least stop the violence is a sensible option.

Better yet, the Myanmar government can involve ASEAN, just like in the case of Cyclone Nargis eight years ago. ASEAN has the organizational know-how, international connections, and resource mobilization experience. ASEAN can once again build a bridge for Myanmar and the international community to save lives in Myanmar.

In fact, all other ASEAN member governments are duty-bound to offer their assistance to the Myanmar government. This is what community-building in the spirit of caring and sharing is all about. A people-centered ASEAN Community must empathize with the plight of the Rohingya, regardless of whether they are illegal migrants or stateless people. For they are helpless human beings in distress in one corner of our regional community.

ASEAN’s credibility and centrality are directly at stake here should ASEAN member governments continue to shy from offering the assistance. They cannot pretend to be oblivious of the suffering of these human beings.

Offering assistance must not be mistaken as interfering in the domestic affairs of Myanmar. This is part of the collective responsibility in ASEAN to maintain and enhance regional peace, security, and prosperity, as well as promote the well-being of all peoples in the ASEAN Community.

The Myanmar government’s response to such an offer of ASEAN assistance will reveal its true attitude toward ASEAN membership and the ASEAN community spirit.

Dr. Termsak Chalermpalanupap is a fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute and lead researcher on ASEAN political and security affairs at the Institute’s ASEAN Studies Centre.

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