Salem-News.com Burma articles Page 6

Hundreds of Rohingya University Students in Arakan State Barred from Higher Education

Students say government continues to ignore their requests.

(RANGOON) - Hundreds of Rohingya university students in Arakan State have been prevented from continuing higher education pursuits, with authorities saying their safety cannot be guaranteed more than a year after communal violence tore through the region.

Universities in several Arakan townships were shuttered to all students in the immediate aftermath of the 2012 violence, but while Rohingya Muslims say their education has been put on indefinite hold, their Buddhist counterparts have since been allowed to continue their studies and some have gone on to graduate.

A Rohingya Conference Held on `How the Bitterly Divided ARU will be Unified`

Through analysis conducted with great scrutiny, it is observed that Arakan Rohingya Union leader, Dr. Waker Uddin, absolutely ignored his promise to hold meetings with his counterparts and completely failed to fill responsibilities that his community expected from him.

(FRANKFURT) - A Rohingya conference was held in Bangladesh on how the bitterly divided ARU will be unified. The conference was held to amend the ARU due to misleading of the dictatorially elected ARU DG Waker.

The entire Rohingya community appeals to OIC to be alerted to refrain from being used by corrupted persons.

BURMA: Wirathu to Discuss Interfaith Marriage Restrictions at Monks` Conference

Last year, U Wirathu’s proposal sparked widespread criticism from different corners of Burmese society, with some raising questions about the monks’ interference in politics and lawmaking.

(RANGOON) - Nationalist Buddhist monk U Wirathu said he will hold another large conference for thousands of monks from across Burma next week.

He said the monks would gather in Mandalay and discuss his controversial proposal to restrict marriages between Buddhist women and Muslim men.

Malaysian Police Rescue 10 Burmese Hostages

State police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi said that a couple holding cards from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees were also detained in the operation.

(KUALA LAMPUR The Irrawaddy) - Police in Malaysia’s Penang State rescued 10 Burmese nationals, including two children, from a house where they were being held for ransom, the Malaysian news agency Bernama reported on Monday.

The hostages, aged eight to 22, are believed to be victims of a crime syndicate that smuggled them across the border from Thailand and demanded payment for their freedom from their families in Burma.

US, EU Criticize Burma for `Inhumane Environment` in Rohingya Camp

The EU and US said the government should address these concerns as soon as possible and allow camp residents to travel freely.

(GENEVA The Irrawaddy) - The European Union and the US government have criticized the Burma government for the “inhumane environment” in Taung Paw camp in Myebon Township, Arakan State, where some 750 Rohingya Muslims are residing.

In a joint statement the EU and US said the families living there faced “very poor living conditions, including lack of safe drinking water, limited healthcare services, malnutrition...

BURMA: UN Rights Boss Urges Thailand to Drop Charges Against Journalists

"Criminal prosecution for defamation has a chilling effect on freedom of the press" - Pillay’s spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani

(GENEVA The Irrawaddy) - The top UN human rights official urged Thailand on Thursday to drop criminal charges against two journalists accused of defamation for citing a Reuters investigation into the role of Thai naval security forces in smuggling Rohingya asylum seekers.

A Reuters investigation, based on interviews with people smugglers and more than two dozen survivors of boat voyages, revealed in July how some Thai naval security forces work systematically with smugglers to profit from the surge in Rohingya fleeing Myanmar to escape religious persecution.

Nelson Mandela - the World Leader and His Legacy

As South Africa buried her ‘greatest son’ and the mourning tears dry up, the world will watch this nation closely to see which of his legacies would last.

(PHILADELPHIA, PA) - Nelson Mandela, who is respected as the father of the nation in South Africa, died on December 5, 2013. He was the most popular world leader of our time and revered by many heads of states. Like many human rights activists, I have been a great admirer of him.

I remember that I participated in protests and demonstrations in the USA that were organized by the Third World Coalition and CISPES (Committee In Support for the People of El Salvador) as a student in the Apartheid Days demanding that the USA and the western world divest from the apartheid South Africa.

PRESS TV: Escalating Terror in Burma: Buddhist `969 Movement` Reignites Violence Against Minority Muslims

Hundreds of Rohingya people have been killed; tens of thousands suffer as refugees in camps where disease is rampant and food and shelter are scarce.

(SALEM) - "Terrorist" groups are frequently the banter of network news anchors and analysts; yet few in America devote time to the terrorists of Burma who have behaved treacherously toward the Muslim population for a year and a half now, due to old simmering hatreds and a desire among the majority population to live in a Buddhist only country.

The Buddhist answer toward their frustration with having to live with Muslims, is most vividly expressed in the "969" movement led by a Buddhist monk named U Wirathu.

BURMA: Extremist Monks Hold Talks Throughout Strife-Torn Arakan State

The government denies the roughly 800,000 Rohingyas citizenship and claims that the minority in northern Arakan are “Bengalis” who entered the country illegally from neighboring Bangladesh.

(RANGOON) - Leading Buddhist monks of the nationalist 969 movement said they have been holding sermons in several townships in northern Arakan State, which has been wracked by bloody violence between Arakanese Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslim minority.

The activities raise concerns that the monks, who have been accused of spreading hate speech against Islam, will inflame tensions and cause new outbreaks of anti-Muslim violence in the volatile state.

International Rohingya Conference in the USA Calls for Stopping Genocide in Myanmar

The Rohingya people, who mostly live in the western Rakhine state of Myanmar, are the most persecuted people in our time.

(MILWAUKEE) - The first international conference in the USA on the plight of the Rohingya people of Myanmar – “Stop Genocide and Restore Rohingya’s Citizenship Rights in Myanmar” - was held in the campus of University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee on December 14, 2013.

It was jointly hosted by the Burmese Rohingya American Friendship Association (BRAFA) and the Rohingya Concern International (RCI).