By Francis Wade

Several minutes into President Obama’s speech at Rangoon University in early November, Burmese state television channels that were broadcasting the historic occasion – the first visit to Burma by a U.S. president – cut their simultaneous translations. Unbeknown to non-English speaking viewers, Obama had begun steering the speech into uncomfortable territory, touching on continued Burmese army offensives in Kachin state and the ethno-religious violence in Arakan state. In broaching the two topics, he knew he was taking on Burma’s rulers and a sizeable proportion of the country’s population. “For too long, the people of this state, including ethnic Rakhine [Arakanese], have faced crushing poverty and persecution,” he said of the latter. “But there is no excuse for violence against innocent people. And the Rohingya hold within themselves the same dignity as you do, and I do.”

Valerie Amos, the co-coordinator for United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, told the UN News Centre that conditions for thousands of displaced Rohingya IDPs camps in western Burma are “dire” and called on the government to do something about it. Amos released a statement after visiting camps in Arakan State on Dec.5.

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By Jonah Fisher BBC News, Rakhine state, Burma

Six months of sectarian violence has driven more than 100,000 people from their homes in western Burma.

Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya Muslim communities that have lived separately for generations are now forcibly segregated.

Barriers have been erected across roads in the state capital and thousands of Rakhine have had their homes destroyed.

But its the Rohingya who endure the worst conditions. Rejected as citizens by both Bangladesh and Burma, they continue to be victimised in the camps where they sought shelter.

Source: Refugees International
Country: Myanmar

Despite an abundance of natural resources, Rakhine State is the second-poorest state in Burma. The simmering tension that exists between the Rakhine and stateless Rohingya communities has been stoked by poverty for decades. However, in June 2012 that tension boiled over. What began as inter-communal violence was followed by a wave of state-sponsored persecution of the Rohingya, along with a refusal to allow humanitarian agencies access to the northern part of the state, where the majority of Rohingya live. In October, Rohingya and other Muslim communities were attacked again, resulting in the destruction of thousands of houses, the displacement of tens of thousands of people, and an unknown number of deaths. In the state capital, Sittwe, tens of thousands of displaced Rohingya are now living in segregated, squalid camps outside of town and cut off from their livelihoods. The conflict has brought much-deserved international attention to the long-neglected situation of Burma’s Rohingya. The fact that it is taking place during a period of dramatic change in the country’s governance presents the world with a chance to finally put an end to discrimination against the Rohingya and restore their citizenship.