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U.N. withdrawing staff from scene of unrest in western Myanmar
By the CNN Wire Staff
June 11, 2012 -- Updated 2337 GMT (0737 HKT)

(CNN) -- The United Nations said Monday that it has begun pulling staff out of a western state of Myanmar where the government has declared a state of emergency following clashes between Muslims and Buddhists.

The inter-ethnic violence in the state of Rakhine has killed at least 17 people in just over a week, according to official media.

President Thein Sein's office issued an order imposing a state of emergency in Rakhine on Sunday, saying "riots and disturbances" had spread, according to the New Light of Myanmar, a government-run newspaper.

The United Nations is temporarily relocating its staff from the area on a voluntary basis for safety reasons, said Ashok Nigam, the organization's resident and humanitarian coordinator in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city.
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He said news reports and information from U.N. workers suggested that the unrest was making it impossible to continue operating in the region.

Violence in the western coastal area of Myanmar, which borders Bangladesh, erupted after the police detained three Muslim men in relation to the rape and killing of a Buddhist woman late last month.

Anger over the case fueled an attack by about 300 local people on a bus in the Taungup area of Rakhine that killed 10 Muslim passengers on June 3, according to the New Light of Myanmar.

Clashes have multiplied since then, alarming the authorities.

Rakhine is home to the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority who say they have been persecuted by Myanmar's ruling military junta and have long sought refuge in other places.

Over the years, Rohingya have fled by sea in small boats to other countries like Thailand and Malaysia. The United Nations has estimated that more than 200,000 Rohingya live in legal limbo in Bangladesh.

"What is currently happening in the Rakhine state is about putting grievances, hatred, and desire for revenge at the forefront, based on racial and religious grounds, and that's why anarchic actions are becoming widespread," Thein Sein, the president and former military official, said in a televised address Sunday.

The unrest runs counter to the efforts of Thein Sein's administration to seek reconciliation with Myanmar's different ethnic groups and move the country toward more democratic governance. Western governments have rewarded progress in the country over the past year by easing economic sanctions.

Violence in Rakhine on Friday killed seven people and wounded 17, according to the New Light of Myanmar. It said that 494 houses, 19 shops and one guesthouse were destroyed.

The state of emergency means that defense forces will help maintain order in the state.

The authorities also appear to be clamping down on the flow of information from Rakhine.

The board of censors has told non-government publications in Myanmar that it will censor any articles on the situation in the western state that are not based on official reports, according to two people from different news media organizations who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals.

Attempts to reach the Myanmar authorities for comment on the matter on Monday were unsuccessful.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday that the United States is concerned about the reported violence, and "urges all parties to exercise restraint and immediately halt all attacks."

Praising recent reform efforts by the Myanmar's national government, Clinton said: "The situation in Rakhine State underscores the critical need for mutual respect among all ethnic and religious groups and for serious efforts to achieve national reconciliation."

U.N. withdrawing staff from scene of unrest in western Myanmar - CNN.com
 
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Rohingya: stateless and 'friendless' in Myanmar


BANGKOK, June 12 (AFP): Decades of discrimination have left the Muslim Rohingya stateless, scattered around the globe and viewed by the United Nations as among the most persecuted minorities on the planet.

About 800,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar, according to the UN, mostly in western Rakhine state, which has been swept by fierce sectarian violence in recent days.

Speaking a Bengali dialect similar to one in southeast Bangladesh, the Sunni Muslim Rohingya have long been treated as "foreign" by the government and many Burmese, a situation activists say has fostered rifts with Rakhine's Buddhists.

Unwanted both by Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh-where there are an estimated 300,000 Rohingya-many live in abject poverty with few if any rights or means to support themselves.

Images of squalid camps and reports of perilous attempts to flee to other countries in rickety boats have drawn international attention to their plight in recent years, but their living conditions have scarcely improved.

Myanmar has a multitude of ethnic groups, many of whom have conducted sporadic armed rebellions since independence from Britain in 1948.

But the Rohingya are not officially recognised, partly because of a 1982 law stipulating that minorities must prove they lived in Myanmar prior to 1823 -- before the first Anglo-Burmese war-to obtain nationality.

Representatives of the Rohingya say their people were in Myanmar long before then.

"As well as being stateless, Myanmar's Rohingyas are confronted with other forms of persecution, discrimination and exploitation," the United Nation's refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a report published in December.

Such measures included forced labour, restrictions on freedom of movement, lack of land rights, education and public services, it said.

"The Rohingya are virtually friendless amongst Myanmar's other ethnic, linguistic and religious communities," the UNHCR report said.

They are also subject to a rule, embedded in marriage licences, that they are only permitted to have two children, according to rights groups.

Two huge waves of refugees, of approximately 250,000 people each, flooded across the border into Bangladesh in 1978 and 1991-92. Large scale repatriations ensued, with the UN questioning the "voluntary" nature of the moves.

Bangladesh sees the Rohingya people as a major burden on its strained finances and the refugees are blamed for all sorts of crimes in the southeast of the country, ranging from petty theft to drug trafficking.

In recent years, Rohingya migrants have undertaken dangerous voyages by boat towards Malaysia or Thailand, whose navy has in the past been accused of towing them back out to sea.

Around one million Rohingya are now thought to live outside Myanmar, including communities in Pakistan and around 400,000 in Gulf states, according to the UNHCR.

In Rakhine state, they are concentrated mainly in three districts-Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung-and many view them with hostility as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, referring to them as "Bengali".
 
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BD won't accept refugees from Myanmar any more
UNHCR pleads for giving shelter to them


Nizam Ahmed

Authorities in Dhaka expressed Tuesday the hope that peace would soon be restored in the sectarian strife-torn western Myanmar while the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) urged Bangladesh on the day to provide shelter to Rohingyas fleeing mayhem in the Rakhine state.

The government has opted for a wait-and-see approach to the unfolding developments of the situation in the neighbouring state of Myanmar where several people have been killed and properties damaged as violence raged over the past week.

"We have requested the government of Bangladesh to give shelter, on humanitarian grounds, to the Myanmar refugees who are fleeing the Rakhine state to save their lives," UNHCR country representative Craig Sanders told The FE, on Tuesday.

On its part, Bangladesh has taken up the issue with Myanmar with a request to quell the violence as soon as possible so that the former does not have to take the brunt of the raging violence in Rakhine, the official said.

"It is not in the best of our interests that the refugees from Myanmar enter the country again," Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said Tuesday at a hurriedly called news briefing at the ministry.

Her remark came hours after the UNHCR made the call to the government to allow Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh.

"Our stand is clear; no more Myanmar refugees will be allowed to enter the country at the moment, as we are already hosting tens of thousands of Rohingyas who had entered Bangladesh over the past decades," said earlier a senior official of the ministry of foreign affairs (MoFA).

Some 10 boats with some 500 Rohingyas, including women, children and elderly people, some of whom also injured, were seen floating on the Naf river along Teknaf border town on Tuesday, according to witnesses.

The Naf river partly demarcates the two countries along a 320-kilometre-long border that runs through the forests, the river and the maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal.

"The fleeing people are not economic refugees; they are desperate only to save their lives as the violence is escalating alarmingly in Rakhine state of Myanmar," Mr. Sanders added.

"The refugees include hungry and injured people. Some of them are women and children. They should be given shelter and assistance immediately," said the UNHCR representative.

The refugees with their boats have been floating on the river from Monday after Border Guard of Bangladesh (BGB), Bangladesh Coast Guard and Police, in a concerted operation, did not allow them to dock their boats on the river bank in the Bangladesh territory.

Earlier on Sunday, the government tightened security along the border to prevent a possible influx of the Rohingya Muslims, following the spark of sectarian violence in Rakhine state.

"The government is yet to respond to our call. We hope the government will realise the gravity of the incident and appreciate the need for giving shelter to the distressed people" the UNHCR representative said.

Violence erupted again on Tuesday at Maungdaw town, near to Bangladesh border, as a group of Rakhine people, aided by police, set on fire the houses of Rohingyas at Bomu area, reports Kaladan Press Network, a news agency run by Rohingyas in exile.

"The town has become restive again on Tuesday with gun-shots heard sporadically, and smokes billowed up from different Muslim residential areas," the news agency, run by Rohingyas in exile, said in a despatch.

The violence continued despite the authorities declared a state of emergency in Rakhine state and deployed army there on Sunday.

The Bangladesh authorities deployed more security forces including BGB along the Myanmar border over the last two days, relevant officials said.

"We have maintained tight security along the border and are determined not to allow any Rohingyas to enter Bangladesh on any ground," a senior official of BGB told the FE.

He said a couple of injured Rohingyas who managed to enter the Bangladesh territory over the last two days have been hospitalized under police custody.

However, Bangladesh on Tuesday expressed its hope that Myanmar government would be able to deal with the violent situation in the best possible way and restore normalcy in the region in the shortest possible time, according to a statement issued by the MoFA.

The violence sparked early this month after a Buddhist women had allegedly been raped and murdered in Taungup of Rakhine state, also known as Arakan, which borders Bangladesh.

A mob of hundreds of people attacked a bus, believing the perpetrators were on board, and beat 10 Muslims to death, on June 3.

Later, the violence spilled to Maungdaw town when two Rohingya youths were shot dead by police while protesting against Taungup killing on Friday.

Frequent influx of Rohingya Muslims has been hurting Bangladesh economically for decades as the Rohingyas, labelled by officials as "economic refugees", destroyed vast areas of forest land during their temporary settlement.

According to unofficial estimates, nearly 400,000 unregistered Rohingya refugees are scattered in Bangladesh, especially in southeast Cox's Bazar and Bandarban districts, over the past several years

These unregistered Rohingyas are in addition to some 30,000 registered ones, who have been awaiting repatriation in two refugee camps at Kutupalong and Nayapara under Cox's Bazar district, run by the government of Bangladesh and the UNHCR.

The inmates of these two camps are the remnants of some 250,000 Rohingya refugees who had crossed into Bangladesh in late 1991, alleging persecution by Myanmar's military junta.

These Rohingyas declined to return home, fearing further persecution in Myanmar, although the others returned over the last two decades, following the intervention by Bangladesh and the UNHCR.
 
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UNCHOR should ask for a 50 km2 land in Arakan, build temporary shelters there and provide the Rohingyas shelter, food and medical help. A great friend of Myammar, M_Saint can be made Chief of all these operations on behalf of the government in Yangoon. Myanmar citizens must know how best to live in their own country. Bangladesh should remain off limit to them. They should try to wrestle for a homeland of their own in Arakan.
 
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Under BAL/Hasina, BD foreign policy and anything related to national security / warfare are to be vetted by GOI. However, a war will allow Hasina to dodge the coming elections which she is sure to loose.
 
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Shame shame on the Bangladeshi Muslims who prattle day in and day out about Ummah , Ummah and then when the crunch time comes refuse to take in their Rohingya Muslim ummah brothers who are undergoing persecution in Myanmar..

Lakh lanat on them....:angry:
 
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I thing deeply strike on my mind.Rohinga's Are Muslims,But are rakhains,Bengali dialect speaker , so many of us the Bangladeshis ,saying " They Are Our Muslim Brothers , Govt is doing very wrong,they've to be & must be given shelter by us ;By BD Govt ".In Social media they're trying to get supports for these rohinga's. But Onething still not clear to me.
SOME PPL OF THIS COUNTRY CAN SAY THIS FOR ROHINGA, COZ THEY'RE STATELESS,HOMELESS,FRIENDLESS; BUT WHY CAN'T IT B APPLICABLE FOR INNOCENT NEW GENERATIONS BIHARIS WHO ARE ALSO LIKE THE SAME . YES WE'VE GIVE THEM CITIZENSHIP . BUT DO THEIR CONDITION IMPROVE? YES BIHARI'S DID A MESSACARE TO US,INFCT NOT PAK ARMY OR RAZAKAR ETC BUT THEY DID MAIN MASSACARE WHICH IS STILL UN-KNOWN TO MANY PAKISTANIS & PAK SOLDIERS.BUT IT'S ALSO TRUE NOT ALL OF THEM WERE BAD & wAR CRIMINAL.
AND THE NEW GENERATION,INNOCENT WOMEN,CHILDS OF BIHARI'S WHO LIVES IN OUR COUNTRY , WHO EVEN DON'T TAKE PLACE IN WAR OR BORN DURING THAT PERIOD,WHAT'S THEIR CRIME THAT THEY EVEN CAN'T GET MEDICAL TREATMENT , BE ADDRESSED OR TREAT AS MUSLIM BROTHERS.
THOSE WHO DID CRIME,HAVE NO OBJECTION 2 PUNISH THEM,BUT WHY'D WE PUNISH THOSE WHO ARE INNOCENT ?
JUST A QUESTION :what:
 
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I thing deeply strike on my mind.Rohinga's Are Muslims,But are rakhains,Bengali dialect speaker , so many of us the Bangladeshis ,saying " They Are Our Muslim Brothers , Govt is doing very wrong,they've to be & must be given shelter by us ;By BD Govt ".In Social media they're trying to get supports for these rohinga's. But Onething still not clear to me.
SOME PPL OF THIS COUNTRY CAN SAY THIS FOR ROHINGA,NO COZ THEY'RE STATELESS,HOMELESS,FRIENDLESS; BUT WHY CAN'T IT B APPLICABLE FOR INNOCENT NEW GENERATIONS BIHARIS WHO ARE ALSO LIKE THE SAME . YES WE'VE GIVE THEM CITIZENSHIP . BUT DOES THEIR CONDITION IMPROVE. YES BIHARI'S DID A MESSACARE TO US,INFCT NOT PAK ARMY OR RAZAKAR ETC BUT THEY DID MAIN MASSACARE WHICH IS STILL UN-KNOWN TO MANY PAKISTANIS & PAK SOLDIERS.BUT IT'S ALSO TRUE NOT ALL OF THEM WERE BAD & wAR CRIMINAL.
AND THE NEW GENERATION,INNOCENT WOMEN,CHILDS OF BIHARI'S WHO LIVES IN OUR COUNTRY , WHO EVEN DON'T TAKE PLACE IN WAR OR BORN DURING THAT PERIOD,WHAT'S THEIR CRIME THAT THEY EVEN CAN'T GET MEDICAL TREATMENT , BE ADDRESSED OR TREAT AS MUSLIM BROTHERS.
THOSE WHO DID CRIME,HAVE NO OBJECTION 2 PUNISH THEM,BUT WHY'D WE PUNISH THOSE WHO ARE INNOCENT ?
Mr Bihari babu, I agree with you, beharis should be given equal rights and treated as equal in bangladesh.
 
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I thing deeply strike on my mind.Rohinga's Are Muslims,But are rakhains,Bengali dialect speaker , so many of us the Bangladeshis ,saying " They Are Our Muslim Brothers , Govt is doing very wrong,they've to be & must be given shelter by us ;By BD Govt ".In Social media they're trying to get supports for these rohinga's. But Onething still not clear to me.
SOME PPL OF THIS COUNTRY CAN SAY THIS FOR ROHINGA, COZ THEY'RE STATELESS,HOMELESS,FRIENDLESS; BUT WHY CAN'T IT B APPLICABLE FOR INNOCENT NEW GENERATIONS BIHARIS WHO ARE ALSO LIKE THE SAME . YES WE'VE GIVE THEM CITIZENSHIP . BUT DO THEIR CONDITION IMPROVE? YES BIHARI'S DID A MESSACARE TO US,INFCT NOT PAK ARMY OR RAZAKAR ETC BUT THEY DID MAIN MASSACARE WHICH IS STILL UN-KNOWN TO MANY PAKISTANIS & PAK SOLDIERS.BUT IT'S ALSO TRUE NOT ALL OF THEM WERE BAD & wAR CRIMINAL.
AND THE NEW GENERATION,INNOCENT WOMEN,CHILDS OF BIHARI'S WHO LIVES IN OUR COUNTRY , WHO EVEN DON'T TAKE PLACE IN WAR OR BORN DURING THAT PERIOD,WHAT'S THEIR CRIME THAT THEY EVEN CAN'T GET MEDICAL TREATMENT , BE ADDRESSED OR TREAT AS MUSLIM BROTHERS.
THOSE WHO DID CRIME,HAVE NO OBJECTION 2 PUNISH THEM,BUT WHY'D WE PUNISH THOSE WHO ARE INNOCENT ?
JUST A QUESTION :what:

Yes I support you, Bangladeshis should treat you better.
 
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MR.DADA BABU , I'M NOT A BIHARI,BUT YES I'M A SYED.MY POINT IS SIMPLE,IF THIS CAN APPLICABLE FOR ROHINGA'S WHY CAN'T BE APPLICABLE FOR BIHARI & OTHER MINORITIES.BTW WHAT YOUR BHARAT MATA SAYS,DADA BABU ab8 minors ;) :what:
 
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But your facebook profile says you are Naved Hritom. Hritom doesn't exactly sound like a middle eastern surname! :coffee:

I thing deeply strike on my mind.Rohinga's Are Muslims,But are rakhains,Bengali dialect speaker , so many of us the Bangladeshis ,saying " They Are Our Muslim Brothers , Govt is doing very wrong,they've to be & must be given shelter by us ;By BD Govt ".In Social media they're trying to get supports for these rohinga's. But Onething still not clear to me.
SOME PPL OF THIS COUNTRY CAN SAY THIS FOR ROHINGA, COZ THEY'RE STATELESS,HOMELESS,FRIENDLESS; BUT WHY CAN'T IT B APPLICABLE FOR INNOCENT NEW GENERATIONS BIHARIS WHO ARE ALSO LIKE THE SAME . YES WE'VE GIVE THEM CITIZENSHIP . BUT DO THEIR CONDITION IMPROVE? YES BIHARI'S DID A MESSACARE TO US,INFCT NOT PAK ARMY OR RAZAKAR ETC BUT THEY DID MAIN MASSACARE WHICH IS STILL UN-KNOWN TO MANY PAKISTANIS & PAK SOLDIERS.BUT IT'S ALSO TRUE NOT ALL OF THEM WERE BAD & wAR CRIMINAL.
AND THE NEW GENERATION,INNOCENT WOMEN,CHILDS OF BIHARI'S WHO LIVES IN OUR COUNTRY , WHO EVEN DON'T TAKE PLACE IN WAR OR BORN DURING THAT PERIOD,WHAT'S THEIR CRIME THAT THEY EVEN CAN'T GET MEDICAL TREATMENT , BE ADDRESSED OR TREAT AS MUSLIM BROTHERS.
THOSE WHO DID CRIME,HAVE NO OBJECTION 2 PUNISH THEM,BUT WHY'D WE PUNISH THOSE WHO ARE INNOCENT ?
JUST A QUESTION :what:

Since you will become a bangladeshi doctor, I pity the medical store guy who will have to decipher your prescriptions. As far the your future patients are concerned, they can always come to India when proverbial sh!t hits the fan!
 
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