July 29, 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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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 ...

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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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West voices growing concern at Myanmar's handling of crisis - sources

Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi attends an event marking the 69th anniversary of Martyrs' Day at the Martyrs' Mausoleum dedicated to the fallen independence heroes in Yangon July 19, 2016. Picture taken July 19, 2016. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

By Antoni Slodkowski and Michelle Nichols 
November 24, 2016

YANGON/UNITED NATIONS -- Western nations are increasingly concerned at how Aung San Suu Kyi's government is dealing with violence in Myanmar's divided northwest, with the U.S. envoy to the United Nations privately warning fellow diplomats the country could not handle the crisis on its own.

Violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State has sent hundreds of Rohingya Muslims fleeing across the border to Bangladesh amid allegations of abuses by security forces, posing the biggest test yet for Suu Kyi's eight-month-old administration.

Samantha Power, Washington's ambassador to the UN, outlined the level of concern at a closed meeting of the United Nations Security Council, held at the United States' request at the body's headquarters in New York last Thursday, diplomats said.

"Initial enthusiasm of (the) international community to let Myanmar continue on this path of reform on its own seems to be dangerous at this stage," Power told the meeting, according to two diplomats briefed on the discussions.

Suu Kyi responded the next day by telling a gathering of diplomats in Myanmar's capital, Naypyitaw, that her country was being treated unfairly, sources said. They added, however, that Myanmar had also committed to restore aid access and launch a probe into allegations of rights abuses, the key points they had been pressing for.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi has for years been feted in the West for her role as a champion of democracy during years of military rule and house arrest, and her landslide election win last year on a platform of reform was widely hailed.

But the current crisis, the most serious bloodshed in Rakhine since hundreds were killed in communal clashes in 2012, has renewed international criticism that she has done too little to alleviate the plight of the Rohingya minority, who are denied citizenship and access to basic services.

Reuters spoke to about a dozen diplomats and aid workers, who described the previously unreported discussions in Myanmar and New York on condition of anonymity.

ABUSE ALLEGATIONS

Soldiers have poured into the area along Myanmar's frontier with Bangladesh, responding to coordinated attacks on three border posts on Oct. 9 that killed nine police officers.

Myanmar's military and the government have rejected allegations by residents and rights groups that soldiers have raped Rohingya women, burnt houses and killed civilians during the military operation in Rakhine.

Presidential spokesman Zaw Htay said Myanmar was "releasing correct news immediately" to prevent the spread of misinformation.

"The international community misunderstood us because of Rohingya lobbyists who distributed fabricated news," he said. "No one in the world would accept attacks on security forces, killings and looting of weapons."

At the New York meeting last week, Power renewed Washington's call for the opening of an office of the OHCHR, the UN's human rights body, in Myanmar.

She also warned that years of disenfranchisement might have triggered radicalisation of some elements of the Rohingya community, describing the Security Council meeting as a "classic prevention moment".

State Department spokeswoman Nicole Thompson declined to comment on what was said at the closed-door Nov. 17 meeting.

"We remain concerned by reports of ongoing violence and displacement in northern Rakhine State," Thompson said.

"We continue to urge the government to conduct a credible, independent investigation into the events in Rakhine State, and renew our request for open media access."

Britain also expressed its concerns at the meeting, diplomats said, as did Malaysia, which voiced worries the violence could prompt a renewed regional migration crisis.

Underscoring the diplomatic tensions, Muslim-majority Malaysia said on Wednesday it was considering pulling out of a regional soccer tournament co-hosted by Myanmar in protest over its handling of the crisis.

Egypt's representative said it too was concerned by reports of radicalisation among the Rohingya.

SUU KYI "UPSET"

Suu Kyi was "upset" at a gathering with top diplomats from the UN, United States, Britain, EU and Denmark in Naypyitaw on Friday, sources said, accusing the international community of an overt focus on one side of the conflict, without "having the real information".

Diplomats and aid workers said the meeting focused on the resumption of aid in northern Rakhine, where provision of food and medicines to 150,000 people has been suspended for more than 40 days as the military has locked down the area.

The UN has said aid is urgently needed for more than 3,000 severely malnourished children who may die without help.

Suu Kyi expressed "positive indications" towards helping people obtain food aid, the diplomats said, but as of Wednesday the aid had not been restored.

Diplomats in Myanmar say they have been quietly trying to persuade Suu Kyi to allow aid access for some time, with some voicing frustration that she has pressed ahead with a busy schedule of long overseas trips during the crisis.

But while she dominates the civilian government, Suu Kyi remains severely constrained by the still-powerful military, which controls the defence, home and border affairs ministries, and some diplomats acknowledged the limits of what she could do.

At the New York meeting, the UN Secretary General's Special Advisor on Myanmar, Vijay Nambiar, "painted a picture of a government in conflict between the civilian and the military", said a security council diplomat.

"A number of security council diplomats bought this line and felt the government needed more space," the diplomat said.

Diplomats were also assured that Myanmar was working to establish a commission to probe both the original attacks and allegations of abuses. A report in state media on Saturday referred only to the formation of a body to investigate "violent attacks" and did not specify whether it would include allegations against security forces.

Presidential spokesman Zaw Htay said the country was taking action in Rakhine, pointing to a citizen verification programme aimed at the mostly stateless Rohingya and a special government-level taskforce on Rakhine appointed by Suu Kyi after assuming power.

"Our government is working on solving the problem in Rakhine State," said Zaw Htay.

(Additional reporting by Yimou Lee in Yangon and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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