By Irrawaddy Government security forces have been entering the camps of displaced Rohingya Muslims in Sittwe Township, Arakan State, in order to confiscate laptops and smartphones, The Myanmar Times reports. A Rohingya activist in hiding in Sittwe claimed that more...

Derek Tonkin

The article on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar by Aijaz Zaka Syed was a thoughtful article. The problem of the Rohingyas is indeed historical, and the British are in large measure to blame for encouraging the uncontrolled migration of Indians — Hindus and Muslims — into Burma from the mid-1850s onward. I thought Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr got it right with his depressing comments his recent visit to Burma. There is a political dimension which is often overlooked. The British recognized that the Indian influx into Burma had created considerable problems, but it was too late to remedy these before the Japanese invaded in 1941. As James Baxter put it in 1940: “There was an Arakanese Muslim community settled so long in Akyab District that it had for all intents and purposes to be regarded as an indigenous race.” This was before the events of 1942 when the Muslims were forced to seek refuge in Northern Arakan.

Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

‘We used to allow Rohingya refugees to settle in Australia, but not anymore’

Australian High Commissioner to Dhaka Greg Wilcock said his country had ceased taking Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh under its third-country settlement programme.

“We used to allow Rohingya refugees to settle in Australia, but not anymore. The last time we accepted a 100 Rohingya refugees – was in 2009-2010,” Greg Wilcock told the Dhaka Tribune after a press briefing at his Dhaka residence yesterday.

Australia ceased accepting them, as the issue of Rohingya refugees going to Australia for a third-country settlement would portray a “negative signal” to the ongoing crisis in the Rakhine state of Myanmar, he said.

Jim Pollard

Nic Dunlop has spent two decades documenting the dictatorship in Myanmar. His latest book will test the country’s new “liberal” standards
Irish photographer and author Nic Dunlop – based in Thailand for more than 20 years – is set to launch a new book which gives a graphic insight into the ugly repression used by the Burmese military to maintain power for half a century.

“Brave New Burma” is a compelling and thoughtful expos? of the long-running dictatorship, with powerful images that linger in your mind. The images range from portraits of extraordinary ethnic mixes to dramatic scenes of troops parading under the giant statues of warrior kings in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw. Dunlop’s famous profile of Aung San Suu Kyi is here, amid shots of tribal troops in their trenches in the far north and displaced people on all sides of the country.

IRIN

BANGKOK, 26 July 2013 (IRIN) – Thousands of Rohingyas from Myanmar are fleeing persecution to countries elsewhere in the region, underscoring the need for a stronger regional solution, activists and experts say.

“A coordinated and immediate regional response will put pressure on the government to do more to ease the plight of the Rohingya people and prevent the situation from spiralling out of control,” Joey Dimaandal, a programme associate for the South East Asia Committee for Advocacy (SEACA), a capacity building network for community-based organizations in Southeast Asia, told IRIN.

More than 35,000 people have fled by boat over the past year, recent estimates suggest, while others believe the real number is much higher.

“The numbers are much more,” said Chris Lewa, head of the Arakan Project, a Rohingya advocacy group. “Many have fled overland. Many countries have been affected.”