By Francis Wade
Two stark choices now face the Muslim population in western Burma: the first is that they take to the high seas on over-packed boats bereft of navigational equipment and adequate supplies to last them the journey to Malaysia, or Australia, or wherever they hope to find refuge and respite. The voyage is perilous: the UN says that last year, 485 of around 13,000 Rohingya who fled Bangladesh and Burma on boats drowned, equivalent to one in 26 people. The chances of survival are not favourable.

UN rights envoy arrives in Rakhine
Authorities in Rakhine state have extended a night-time curfew in Muslim minority Rohingya areas, citing ongoing safety concerns after sectarian violence erupted in June and October last year.

Residents of Maungdaw, one of three predominantly Rohingya areas close to the Bangladesh border, said the announcement was made on Monday.

The area has stabilized after violence between Rohingyas and Buddhists led to the deaths of about 200 people and the displacement of 100,000 as homes were burned to the ground in tit-for-tat attacks last year.

(Reuters) – Myanmar nationals rescued from a sinking ship by the Sri Lankan Navy have told of throwing 98 people overboard after they died of starvation and dehydration, Sri Lanka’s police said on Monday.

Sailors rescued 31 adult males and a boy on February 16 when their damaged wooden ship began to sink about 250 nautical miles off Sri Lanka’s southeastern coast, Sri Lanka’s navy said on its website (www.navy.lk).

“They said they had carried food and water for only one month and they had been in the sea for two months after the ship engine stalled,” police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody told Reuters. “Their captain and 97 others have died due to dehydration and starvation. They also said they had thrown the dead bodies into the sea.”

By Chutima Sidasathian and Alan Morison
PHUKET: Two boys have absconded from a welfare centre for Rohingya women and children north of Phuket, bringing to four the number who have vanished without trace.

Four people at the centre are also being treated for malaria, although conditions at the Phang Nga Home for Family and Children in Khukkhak, a short drive from Phuket, are said to be good.

Bangkok – 14 February 2013 – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) this week began delivering footballs and other play and recreation supplies to eight Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS) shelters caring for Rohingya children in southern Thailand.

Approximately 270 Rohingya children, many of whom have been separated from their fathers or who came to Thailand unaccompanied by adults, are being cared for at nine MSDHS shelters in eight provinces across the South.

COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s navy on Saturday rescued 38 Myanmar nationals who were drifting off the island’s east coast, the second batch of Rohingya boat people to be saved in as many weeks, officials said.

Sri Lankan naval craft responding to a distress call plucked the 38 people from a rickety boat drifting about 400 kilometres off the east coast, a navy official said.

Four of the rescued passengers required treatment for dehydration and they were being brought to the southern port of Galle, he said.

The United States should play a key role in negotiating with Myanmar to take back thousands of Rohingya migrants who are being sheltered in several provinces of Thailand, a seminar was told yesterday.

Col Teeranan Nandhakwang, deputy director of the Strategic and Security Affairs Division at Royal Thai Armed Forces, said Thailand should ask the US to help negotiate with the Myanmar government to move Rohingya migrants back to the country.

Col Teeranan was speaking at the seminar titled “Rohingya: Testing for Asean” held by the Institute of Asean Studies of Chulalongkorn University.

COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s navy on Saturday rescued 38 Myanmar nationals who were drifting off the island’s east coast, the second batch of Rohingya boat people to be saved in as many weeks, officials said.

Sri Lankan naval craft responding to a distress call plucked the 38 people from a rickety boat drifting about 400 kilometres off the east coast, a navy official said.