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By FRANCIS WADE ,Published: 20 June 2011
Burma a top source country for refugees thumbnail
A Karen man carriess his mother through the Thai town of Mae Sot in November 2010. Up to 20,000 refugees fled fighting in Karen state (Reuters)

Burma produces the world’s fifth highest number of refugees, above that of both war-torn Sudan and Colombia, according to a UN report released today to mark World Refugee Day.
It emphasised that developing countries are the ones who are shouldering the burden of those fleeing violence and persecution, a concern that will ring true for the hundreds of thousands who have escaped Burma to neighbouring Thailand and Bangladesh.

Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amh0Qn4y9MM&feature=youtu.be


Monday, 13 June 2011 14:25 Kaladan Press News - Kaladan Press
 
Chittagong, Bangladesh: The United States Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Eric P. Schwartz, said on June 9 that no forced repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Burma should occur, according to a press conference at the American Centre in Dhaka.


The entrance of Registered Kutupalong refugee camp

“Nobody should be forced to return against their will to a place where their lives and their freedom will be in danger.”
“Voluntary return of Rohingya in large numbers will only be possible when the basic rights of these people can be safeguarded. And, sadly, today that is not the case.”
“Until such change comes in Burma, the United States will continue to do what we can do to assist the government and the people of Bangladesh to assist the Rohingya.”
“The solution of the Rohingya refugee issue in Bangladesh lies in Burma, and the voluntary return of the refugees to the country is still not possible.”

Thomas Maung Shwe, Mizzima News


Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The office of the UN secretary-general says a new full-time UN envoy to Burma could be appointed ‘in due time’ as a result of what they say is a willingness of the new Burmese government to work more closely with the UN.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announces that he will stand for a second five-year term as secretary-general during a press conference at UN headquarters in New York on June 6. Ban has been secretary-general since January 1, 2007 and his term ends on December 31. Diplomats say that with no rival in sight, the UN Security Council should give its approval before the end of June.

By WAI MOE (Irrawady News)


High-ranking delegations from two key Southeast Asian nations visited Naypyidaw and met Burmese President ex-Gen Thein Sein and his key cabinet members this week, while Burma upgrades its relationship with the closest ally, China, to a “strategic partnership.”

Burmese state-run media reported on Thursday and Friday that Thailand’s military delegation and Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai, who came to Burma as a special envoy, held meetings with Thein Sein and the powerful vice president, ex-Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo, and other top officials of Burma.

WASHINGTON — The United States confirmed on Monday that it blocked a North Korean vessel in the South China Sea last month, on suspicions that the ship was carrying a cargo of illegal materials to Burma in contravention of UN Security Council resolutions aimed at preventing nuclear proliferation.

At a press briefing on Monday, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that the US Navy sought to board the ship, the M/V Light, for inspection, but was refused.

“The ship’s master refusing US permission to board it, as well as the fact that it turned around and headed back to North Korea, speaks to some of our concerns about its cargo,” he said.

GENEVA — Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Monday her nation yearns for justice and progress, and the international community must help lift its workers' grim conditions.

"Burma must not be allowed to fail and the world must not be allowed to fail Burma," the 65-year-old Nobel laureate told a UN labor conference by videolink, using the Southeast Asian country's former name.

The pro-democracy icon, freed last November after spending much of the past 20 years under house arrest, said her nation once seemed the most likely success story in Southeast Asia but "has fallen behind almost all the other nations in the region."

Suu Kyi won the 1991 Nobel Peace prize for her nonviolent struggle for democracy. She led her National League for Democracy to victory in 1990 elections, but the military junta that led the government refused to recognize the results.

The former junta changed the nation's name to Myanmar, but many democracy supporters and Suu Kyi still call it Burma.
Wednesday, 08 June 2011  
Maungdaw, Arakan State: The Rohingyas who are living in Maungdaw and Buthidaung are facing difficulty while attempting to travel on the Maungdaw-Buthidaung Road, Ahnno, a driver who regularly travels on the road, said.

“The Rohingya from Maungdaw who travel on this road must pay 1,000 kyats at the Burma border security force (Nasaka) gate at three miles, even when they have all of the required documents.”

“The Rohingya from Buthidaung must pay 2,000 kyats at the gate, and if they stay overnight, they must pay 2,000 kyats per day per person.”

June 11, 2011,

Charlie Hall
More than 700 Burmese have found refuge in the New Bern and Craven County area in recent years, escaping religious and political persecution.
They will be the highlight of this year’s local World Refugee Day June 18 at the New Bern Farmers Market. A community panel discussion about Burma is planned the evening before at the Christ Church Ministry Center on Middle Street.
The events are sponsored by the Interfaith Refugee Ministry.
“The panel discussion should be good because we are trying to get people from all over the community to come in and listen to some of these folks tell about their experiences,” said Chick Natella of the refugee ministry. “The name of it is Burma in the past, present and future, as far as our city is concerned.”
Bss, Dhaka              Saturday, June 11, 2011
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina requested the US government to take initiative after discussion with the Myanmar government to bring back the Rohingya refugees staying in Bangladesh through the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
The premier made call when the visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration Eric P Schwartz called on her at Gono Bhaban in the city on Thursday.
FE Report

The United States (US) Assistant Secretary for Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) Mr Eric P Schwartz Thursday said his country will continue providing humanitarian assistance for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

"The US will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Bangladesh as the poor and beleaguered Rohingya people have done nothing wrong and did not get their basic rights except persecution and torture by the Myanmar authorities," he told the media at a press briefing at the American Centre at Baridhara in the capital.

Razzque

Dhaka, June 8 (UNB) - Food and Disaster Management Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque Wednesday sought US support to permanent solution to the Rohinga issue, which has put burden on Bangladesh’s resources.  

“It’s (Rohingya issue) now turned into an international problem. It has a political perspective too. An international-level proactive role could help bring permanent solution to the issue,” Razzaque told reporters at his ministry after meeting with US Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration Eric Schwartz.

US Deputy Under-Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration Kelly Clements and US Ambassador in Bangladesh James F Moriarty were present at the meeting.

United States Assistant Secretary for Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration Eric P Schwartz on Thursday said the solution to the Rohingya refugees issue in Bangladesh lies in Myanmar and the voluntary return of the refugees to the country.
“Nobody should be forced to return against their will to a place where their lives and their freedom will be in danger,” he said at a press conference at the American Centre in the city.
“But, voluntary return of Rohingya in large numbers will only be possible when the basic rights of these people will be safeguarded. And sadly today that is not the case,” he said.
Tuesday, 07 June 2011 13:49
Maungdaw, Arakan State: The percentage of students who earn passing scores from Maungdaw matriculation examination center is very low compared to other examination centers, said a school teacher from Maungdaw.

“For the 2010–2011 year, there were around 1,300 students who tested at the matriculation examination center of Maungdaw. The percentage of students who passed the exam is only 16. This is a very low profile for Maungdaw.”

“Just over 200 students from Maungdaw passed the exams. Only one student received three subject distinctions. One student earned two subject distinctions, and six got one subject.”

ရခိုင္ျပည္နယ္၀န္ၾကီးခ်ဳပ္ဦးလွေမာင္တင္၏ ေမာင္ေတာျမိဳ႕ ခရီးစဥ္တြင္ ေဒသခံ မူဆလင္ ၅၃ ဦးက အခ်က္ (၅) ခ်က္ပါ ေတာင္းဆိုခ်က္ တစ္ခုကို ေတာင္းဆိုလိုက္ေၾကာင္္း အမည္မေဖၚလိုသူ တာ၀န္ရွိသူ အရာရွိ တစ္ဦးက ေျပာသည္။
အဆုိပါ ေတာင္းဆိုခ်က္(၅)ခ်က္ကိုယမန္ေန႕က ျမိဳ႕နယ္အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ေရးရံုးတြင္မြတ္ဆလင္လူၾကီး၁၀၀ ေက်ာ္ႏွင့္ ျပည္နယ္ ၀န္ၾကီးခ်ဳပ္ ေတြ႕ဆံုစဥ္ စာေရးသားျပီး ေတာင္းဆိုလိုက္ျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္။

" ေတာင္းဆိုတဲ့ အခ်က္ေတြကေတာ့ တိုင္းရင္းသားအျဖစ္ အသိမွတ္ျပဳေရး၊ အမ်ိဳးသားမွတ္ ပံုတင္ထုတ္ေပးေရး၊ မူဆလင္အမ်ိဳးသားေတြ လြတ္လပ္စြာ ခရီးသြားလာခြင့္၊ အမ်ိဳးသမီးေတြ အိမ္ေထာင္ျပဳတဲ့ေနရာမွာ အကန္႕အသတ္မထားဖို႕နဲ႕ ဗလီေတြကို ျပန္ေဆာက္ခြင့္ ျပဳေပးဖို႕ ေတာင္းဆိုၾကတာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္"ဟု သူက ေျပာသည္။

အဆိုပါ ေတာင္းဆိုခ်က္မ်ား အေပၚ ျပည္နယ္ ၀န္ၾကီးခ်ဳပ္ ဦးလွေမာင္တင္က ယခုကဲ့သို႕ တုန္႕ျပန္ ေျပာဆိုခဲ့ေၾကာင္း သူက ဆက္ေျပာသည္။


 By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 9 June 2011

Rohingya children eat in a refugee camp in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar (Reuters)
Dhaka says West fuelling Rohingya crisis thumbnail Bangladesh’s food minister, Abdur Razzaque, has accused Western nations of fuelling the problem of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya in the country’s east that over several decades have sought refuge from the Burmese regime.
Speaking to US Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, Eric P. Schwartz, in Dhaka recently, Razzaque said that external pressure on the Bangladeshi government to register the refugees was “keeping the problem alive.”

အေမရိကန္ ျပည္ေထာင္စုကလူဦးေရ၊ဒုကၡသည္နဲ႔အေျခခ်ေနထိုင္ေရးဆိုင္ရာလက္ေထာက္ ႏိုင္ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီး အဲရစ္ ရႊာ့ဇ္ (Eric Schwartz) ဟာ ဘဂၤလားေဒ့ရွ္နဲ႔ ေဒသတြင္းက ႐ိုဟင္ဂ်ာ ဒုကၡသည္မ်ား အေရးကို ေဆြးေႏြးဖို႔ ဒါကာၿမိဳ႕ေတာ္ကို သြားလိမ့္မယ္လို႔အေမရိကန္ ႏိုင္ငံျခားေရး၀န္ႀကီးဌာနက ေျပာပါတယ္။
ဘဂၤလားေဒ့ရွ္ ႏိုင္ငံထဲမွာ ရွိေနတဲ့ စာရင္းရွိေရာ စာရင္းမဲ့ ႐ိုဟင္ဂ်ာ ဒုကၡသည္ေတြနဲ႔ ပတ္သက္တဲ့ လူသားခ်င္း စာနာမႈဆိုင္ရာ ကာကြယ္ ေစာင့္ေရွာက္ေရး၊ အကူအညီ ေပးေရးေတြကို ဘဂၤလားေဒ့ရွ္ အစိုးရ တာဝန္ရွိသူေတြ၊ ႏိုင္ငံတကာနဲ႔ ျပည္တြင္း NGOအဖြဲ႕ေတြနဲ႔မစၥတာရႊာ့ဇ္ ေတြ႕ဆံု ေဆြးေႏြးသြားမွာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

June 8th, 2011 by Pei Palmgren

In his exposition on the human consequences of globalization, published at the turn of this millennium, sociologist Zygmunt Bauman describes the distinction between tourists and vagabonds — those enjoying increased mobility in the current era of globalization and those constrained by its boundaries, respectively.  He says, “The tourists move because they find the world within their (global) reach irresistibly attractive — the vagabonds move because they find the world within their (local) reach unbearably inhospitable.  The tourists travel because they want to; the vagabonds because they have no other bearable choice.”

Wed, Jun 8th, 2011 5:10 pm BdST
Dhaka, June 8 (bdnews24.com) — The food minister has accused the western countries of prolonging the Rohingya problem in Bangladesh.

"This is not possible for a poor country like Bangladesh to take care of huge Rohingya refugees for a long time. They (Westerners) are asking Bangladesh to increase support to the Rohingyas, keeping the problem alive," Abdur Razzaque told reporters on Wednesday.

He made the remarks after a meeting with US assistant secretary for population, refugee and migration Eric Schwartz and assistant deputy secretary Kelly Clements.

About Rohingyas' involvement in drug peddling and militancy, Razzaque said, "They (Rohingyas) are tainting Bangladesh's image abroad. The poverty level in Cox's Bazar and its adjoining areas has come down further due to their push-in."
Dhaka - Dhaka on Wednesday requested the US to intervene in its dispute with Myanmar over the repatriation of 300,000 Rohingya refugees, who have been languishing in Bangladesh for decades.
The United States should deal with Myanmar on this issue, 'as we are already burdened socially and economically, hosting these refugees on humanitarian grounds for so many years,' Bangladesh's minister for food and disaster management, Abdur Razzaque, told reporters after a meeting with a senior US official.
Graduating from primary school was just a dream for Rohingya teenager Ali Tofik, who, until 2010, lived in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State, where access to education, particularly secondary education, is limited.
clearpxl
In recent decades, this ethnic and religious minority has been stripped of its citizenship and property rights by Myanmar's military-dominated government, leading to human rights abuses and exploitation and resulting in mass exodus.
Some 200,000 fled to Bangladesh over the years, with smaller numbers to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and elsewhere in the region by boat.


The general meeting of RLDB took place in Jeddah. The attendees were advisory committee members, CEC members from local and abroad.

In the meeting, newly formed Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) was welcomed by all attendees which is recently formed at Jeddah convention held at OIC headquarter under joint-sponsorship of OIC and EBO.

Then all members congratulated to RLDB’s Joint-General Secretary U Ko Ko Linn who was recently selected as a member of ARU at Jeddah convention.

After that the Vice Chairmen of RLDB U Mohammed Haroon and U Mohammed Ibrahim shared their experiences in Jeddah convention.

The attendees discussed various issues and future activities of RLDB in local and abroad.

RLDB is base in Saudi Arabia and its members are residing in Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Australia, Germany and Norway.

Persecuted in their Burma homeland, many of the Rohingya people have fled across the border to Bangladesh. But even there, they can’t make a living.

Menara Begum hasn’t seen her husband since he was hauled off to prison by Burma's border guard force some 18 years ago. She now lives in the unofficial Kutupalong refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, where her children play alongside those of her brother, who has been jailed in Bangladesh.
Both men were taken into custody because they were outsiders, ‘nowhere people,’ as a disgruntled aid worker says of the Rohingya. They are, he says, caught up in a ‘protracted emergency…that has existed for 20 years.’
 
Salim Ullah, an activist with the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO), says the fact that neither men are considered citizens of Burma highlights the main problem facing the Rohingya, a problem central to making them what US-based Refugees International (RI) describes as ‘one of the most persecuted groups in the world.’

Ahmadiyya Release Offers Hope for Rohingya


By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Tuesday, June 7, 2011

A Pakistani refugee family wait to board a bus after being released from the immigration detention center in Bangkok, Thailand on June 6. (Photo; AP)

boarding a bus at Bangkok's Suan Plu Immigration Detention Center (IDC) on Monday morning after spending almost 7 months at a refugee prison in central Bangkok.

Sidique is one of 96 Ahmadiyya refugees from Pakistan who have been released from detention by Thai authorities, a landmark development in a country that does not formally recognize refugees despite the fact that it is currently coming to the end of its tenure as president of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The released Ahmadiyya are members of a  minority Muslim group that is oppressed in Pakistan, where they are not recognized as Muslims and are often victims of sectarian violence.
As women carried infants and ushered older children toward the waiting buses, males in the group thanked Thai officials and police at the IDC, all clearly relieved at being released. Watching as the group made their way from the jail across a heavily-policed courtyard, Dr Iftikhar Ahmad Ayaz, a U.K-based Ahmadiyya representative, reminded reporters of what he described as “intense and severe persecution” of Ahmadiyya in Pakistan, where he says they "are denied their basic civil and political rights.”

Some of the 96 Pakistani refugees show their joy after being released on bail yesterday from a detention centre in Bangkok with the help of the National Human Rights Commission. SOMCHAI POOMLARD

Human rights advocates said they hoped the newly launched Refugee Freedom Fund could be used to assist other illegal immigrants and stateless people such as that of the Rohingya groups, some of which have been locked up in detention centres for years.
The 96 Ahmadi Muslims walked out of Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Centre after the National Human Rights Commission and Thai Committee for Refugees (TCR) put up 5 million baht bail for them from the fund.
The refugees, including 34 children below the age of 12, smiled or shed tears of joy as they left the detention centre where they had languished for about six months.
Updated June 7, 2011 13:52:23
More than 90 members of the Ahmadiya Muslim minority have been freed from a Thai immigration centre in Bangkok under a bail arrangement being described as a breakthrough.

Thailand doesn't have a national refugee law, so any foreigners who enter the country without proper documents are subject to arrest, prosecution, detention and deportation under immigration laws, even if they are registered with the UN as asylum-seekers or refugees.

The 96 Ahmadiyas released on Monday are form Pakistan, home to several million Ahmadiyas. The group was held for six months and include 34 children under the age of 12 and an infant born during its mother's detention. Their release came thanks to the backing of a new refugee fund to assist with bail payments and the cooperation of several Thai civil society groups.

Presenter: Ron Corben
Speakers: Anoop Sukumaran a coordinator with Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network; Kitty McKinsey, regional spokesperson for the UN High Commission for Refugees; Iftikhar Ahmad Ayaz, a British based spokesman for the Ahmadiya community; Dr Amara Pongsapich chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission 
LInk: :http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia/stories/201106/s3237776.htm
Media Note,Office of the Spokesman,Washington, DC
June 6, 2011
Asistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration Eric P. Schwartz will visit Bangladesh June 7-9 to meet with government officials and international and non-governmental organizations to discuss humanitarian protection and assistance issues for the registered Rohingya refugees and undocumented Rohingya in Bangladesh.
There are over 29,000 registered Rohingya refugees living in two official camps in Cox’s Bazar district, Bangladesh. In addition, approximately 30,000 undocumented Rohingya reside in two unofficial sites near the camps and the Government of Bangladesh estimates 200,000 – 500,000 undocumented Rohingya are residing in various villages and towns outside the refugee camps.
Jeddah, KSA: The headquarters of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Jeddah hosted a convention of senior Rohingya leaders in order to form the Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) to bring peace, prosperity, and hope for the future to the Rohingya people, according to OIC’s website and the International Islamic News Agency (IINA
Participants at Rohingya convention in OIC headquarters, Jeddah
“The Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, called for unity among Rohingya and all Muslims. The call highlighted the importance of the Meeting of Senior Leaders of Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) and the Euro-Burma Office (EBO),
Dr. Wakar Uddin, Dr. Mohamed Younus with Mr. Harn Yawnghwe at the Rohingya convention
 which takes place in the OIC headquarters on 30 and 31 May 2011,” according to Talal Daaous, the Director of the Department of Muslim Minorities in OIC.

Fri, Jun 3rd, 2011 12:27 am BdST
 
Dhaka, June 2 (bdnews24.com) — BNP-led alliance government issued passports to Rohingya refugees under special arrangement, the foreign minister has told parliament.

Dipu Moni told parliament on Thursday that the government has 'specific evidence' supporting the allegation.

"Passports were issued to Myanmar Rohingyas from different missions. We did not issue any such passports during our term," she said, in reply to a question by MP Nurul Islam BSc.

"The alliance government had 'specific' reasons for doing that," she added.

In reply to the same question, home minister Sahara Khatun said the first condition for Bangladeshi passports was the seeker has to have Bangladeshi citizenship. "Rohingyas are not Bangladeshi citizens."

"But there are allegations that some Rohingyas are living in Saudi Arabia with Bangladeshi passports. If that is the case, their passports will be cancelled according to the law," she said.

bdnews24.com/sum/pd/sh/shk/2414h 
Link: http://bdnews24.com/details.php?id=197440&cid=2
By IINA– June 1, 2011Posted in: Articles
JEDDAH, 29 Jumada 2/June 1 (IINA)-The headquarters of the Organisationn of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Jeddah, hosted a convention of the Senior Rohingya Leaders in order to bring peace, prosperity, and hope for the future to the Rohingya people.
  • Based on resolution No. 4/37- MM, operative paragraph No.4, issued by the 37th CFM session, which urged the Rohingya parties to cooperate and unite their ranks under a united coordination council and calls on them to continue their efforts to reclaim their rights. “Commends the efforts of the Secretary General aimed at coordinating the work of the Rohingya Muslim organizations and uniting their ranks under a united coordination council and calls on him to continue these efforts to reclaim their rights;”
  • With reference to the MoU signed by the Senior Rohingya Leaders on June 8th-9th, 2010 under the patronage of H.E the Secretary General of OIC Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, an expanded Convention was jointly convened by OIC and EBO with the participation of Eminent Rohingya Leaders on 30th -31st May, 2011. The ARU appeals to the OIC Secretary General to recognize the ARU as an independent organization representing the Rohingya people.

    • Rohingya Exodus