FRC New Website!

Dear FRC Supporter,

We have moved to http://www.freerohingyacampaign.org

Answer on Rohingya (Daw Aung San Suu Kyi ~BBC Interview)

Another e-mail from Shaik Ubaid, New York, USA:

I am a physician and a human rights activist. I am greatly concerned about the persecution and ethnic cleansing of Rohingiya Muslims of Arakan. Does your vision include a pluralistic Burma with equal rights for all, including religious minorities?

Aung San Suu Kyi:
Democracy does mean pluralism and democracy means equal basic human rights for everybody. I am confident that we can build up a really strong and united Burma. The signs are all here.
In some ways, the sufferings we have undergone together have built up a tremendous feeling of trust among each other. Our sufferings have united us. I think the world has opened up in such a way that different cultures are able to reach across to each other.

We all live in the same country - we have lived in the same country for centuries and because we have lived together so closely, we have had our problems. You have more problems with your neighbours than with people who live very far away from you - that's only natural. But I think we can also learn to be very, very good neighbours in the same way because we all live in this country we can learn to be very good and loving towards each other. We can learn to trust each other, we can learn to work together, we can learn to live together and I think that learning process has already begun.

Please check it out : BBC Interview with DASSK ::: more>>>

Letter of Condolence (U Maung Sein Nyunt)

U Maung Sein Nyunt
President of ANLP & NUPA

Though we have a bit knowledge about our respected Arakanese leader U Maung Sein Nyunt, we are really shocked by his death on 21 March 2005, which gave us the chance to know he is moderate actions in his revolutionary activities.

He was the President and Patron of the National Unity Party of Arakan, being a President of Arakan National Lerbration Party.

As a join leader of our two sister communities, Rakhine & Rohingya, he had shown real unforgettable actions along Arakan history. So, we are regretting for our last leader whom we have to keep in our mind forever as a model leader without discrimination and with full unity and love.

Free Rohingya Campaign Team

Forgotten People: The Rohingyas of Burma

Why are the Rohingyas refugees in Bangladesh forgotten?

The human rights situation in Burma has led to thousands of people of various ethnic groups fleeing to neighboring countries.

The Rohingya Muslims from Arakan state are vulnerable as they have no legal status in Burma and are considered to be non-citizens. The plight of the Rohingya demonstrates how people without citizenship rights in their own country can be forced out and become refugees, leaving them still vulnerable and without citizenship in the country of asylum. more>>>

Lack of Protection Plagues Burma's Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh

The Muslim Rohingya people of Burma’s Arakan state are in an impossible situation. They are wanted neither in Burma nor in neighboring Bangladesh.

The flight of the Rohingya from Burma is the direct result of Burmese government policies, which deny them citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship Law, limit their religious practice, facilitate land confiscations for army camps or settlement by Buddhist settlers and prohibit them from leaving their villages to access markets, employment, education and medical care. Unlike the Buddhist Rakhine who also live in Arakan state, or the ethnically dominant Burmans, the Rohingya must pay a large fee in order for their daughters to be married and to register their newborns. more>>>

Fifty Years In Limbo: The Plight of the World’s Stateless People

The Plight of the World’s Stateless People 10/23/2003

Nine million people live in countries where they are not considered to be nationals. This status denies many of them access to legal protection or their rights to health care and education. Furthermore, just a single officer at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) carries out the UN’s mandate to protect the world’s stateless people. more>>>

Burmese Rohingya in Bangladesh Face an Uncertain Future

Burmese Rohingya in Bangladesh 05/22/2003

By June 30, 2003 the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is planning a dramatic change in its responsibilities towards the remaining 21,000 Rohingya refugees from Burma residing in two camps in Cox’s Bazaar district of Bangladesh. The proposed plan outlines an 18-month assistance program. The guiding principle of the program is self-sufficiency within local communities for refugees who do not opt for repatriation by the proposed July 1 deadline, when UNHCR plans to “disengage” from its role in normal care for refugees, as well as from repatriations. more>>>

The Plight of Burma's Stateless, Rohingya Muslims

by Chris Lewa

Today, about 21,500 Rohingya refugees are sheltering in two camps, Kutupalong (about 8,500) and Nayapara (about 13,000), located between Cox's Bazar and Teknaf in southern Bangladesh near the border with Burma.

This group remains from the mass exodus of 1991-92, when 250,000 Rohingya refugees had fled from Burma to escape brutal repression against the Muslim population in Northern Arakan State. A mass repatriation programme overseen by UNHCR took place in 1994/95, which was far from voluntary. Since then, and until September 2002, repatriation from the camps had mostly stalled. more>>>

The Rohingya Minority Fundamental Rights Denied

I. Introduction
The Muslim ethnic minority, generally known as the Rohingyas, who live in northern Rakhine State, western Myanmar, continue to suffer from several forms of restrictions and human rights violations. The Rohingyas’ freedom of movement is severely restricted and the vast majority of them have effectively been denied Myanmar citizenship. more>>>

Minorities At Risk Project by University of Maryland (USA

Assessment for Rohingya (Arakanese) in Burma

The Rohingyas have three of the six factors that increase the chances of future rebellion: current rebellion; territorial concentration; and recent government repression. Since the late 1980s, the military junta has negotiated ceasefire agreements with fifteen ethnic groups, including the Rohingya-supported All Burma Muslim Union. However, given the severe political, economic, and cultural discrimination against the Rohingyas, it is unlikely that low-level resistance will cease in the near future. more>>>

Burmese Rohingya Refugees In Bangladesh Statement by Department Spokesman Richard Boucher, Washington, DC

Washington, DC, December 24, 1992.

The US Government has received credible reports indicating that Bangladesh is coercing Rohingya refugees to return to Burma and that the Government of Bangladesh is denying UNHCR [UN High Commissioner for Refugees] staff free access to the Rohingya refugee camps, thereby preventing the UNHCR from fulfilling its international mandate to protect refugees.Over the past several months, we and UNHCR have repeatedly raised this problem with the Government of Bangladesh. more>>>

Burma [Myanmar]: Information on the Situation of Rohingyas, US (INS Resource Information Center)

From: INS Resource Information Center
Response to Information Request Number: MMR01001.ZCH
Date: March 28, 2001
Subject: Burma [Myanmar]: Information on the Situation of Rohingyas

Query:
Please provide information on the Rohingya of Burma. Are the Rohingya who have returned from Bangladesh to Burma under UNHCR auspices now citizens of Burma? Also, what information does the RIC have on the RSO? Do they engage in terrorist acts? more>>>