A state official in Burma’s troubled Arakan state has threatened to demolish Muslim schools, homes and mosques — claiming that the structures were built illegally — in a move that could further inflame tensions between Buddhist and Muslim communities in the country. The announcement appeared in a state government-affiliated online journal this week, according to …
Read the full post →“Muslim structures are being threatened with demolition in Burma’s Arakan State”
At least 86 people have been killed and 30,000 displaced as violence continues unabated in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar poured into neighbouring Bangladesh this week with some feared drowned after a boat sank in a river during a bid to flee escalating violence that has killed at least 86 people and displaced …
Read the full post →“Rohingya Muslims flee Myanmar amid deadly attacks”
Sexual violence has become an effective tool of oppression for the Myanmar security forces who continue to raid villages in the country’s Rakhine state in search of insurgents, allege locals and the Rohingyas who have taken refuge in Bangladesh. This correspondent spoke with several Rohingya women who claimed to have been picked up by the …
Read the full post →“Survivors claim Myanmar Army taking away young Rohingya women as sex slaves”
A Muslim gathering in a small Myanmar town has been canceled due to a protest from a Buddhist nationalist group — the second such disturbance in the country this month. The event due to be held in the town of Pyay in Bago region, around 440 kilometers northwest of Myanmar’s former capital Yangon, was canceled …
Read the full post →“Myanmar: Nationalists block another Muslim gathering”
Images have emerged of the body of a baby boy, reported to be a Rohingya Muslim child who drowned while fleeing violence in Burma’s Rakhine state. Non-state media are banned from entering the north of Burma – making it difficult to verify the the photograph – and the government has dismissed the image as “propaganda”. …
Read the full post →“Burmese government dismisses images of ‘Rohingya Alan Kurdi’ as propaganda”
A commission probing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state said on Wednesday that there was no evidence of genocide or religious persecution against Rohingya Muslims. The interim report of the commission came days after a video emerged showing police beating civilians from the Muslim minority. The size of, what the report calls, the ‘Bengali’ population, mosques …
Read the full post →“Myanmar commission denies genocide of Rohingya Muslims”
Myanmar is to investigate police officers who were filmed beating Rohingya villagers, an unusual admission that security forces may have carried out abuses against the Muslim minority. The office of Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s de facto leader, said action would be taken after the a user called Rohingya Blogger posted the video on …
Read the full post →“Myanmar to investigate video of police beating Rohingya villagers”
The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday decided to send “urgently” an independent international fact-finding mission to Myanmar to investigate alleged human rights violations in the country, against Rohingya Muslims in particular. The mission will establish “the facts and circumstances” of the alleged “violations by military and security forces, and abuses, in Myanmar, in …
Read the full post →“UN decides to send fact-finding mission to Myanmar”
The Burmese authorities may have killed more than 1,000 Rohingya Muslims during a recent crackdown on the minority group in the northeast Rakhine state, two unnamed UN officials have told the Reuters news agency. Authorities in Burma launched a military campaign against the Rohingya after militant elements of the group were accused of attacking police …
Read the full post →“Burmese government ‘kills more than 1,000 Rohingya Muslims’ in crackdown”
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has denied ethnic cleansing of the country’s Rohingya Muslims, despite the UN and human rights organizations saying that the army’s conduct may amount to war crimes. “I don’t think there is ethnic cleansing going on. I think ethnic cleansing is too strong an expression to use for what is …
Read the full post →“Myanmar leader Suu Kyi denies ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims”
