United Nations Expert Says There Are “Elements of Genocide” Against Myanmar’s Rohingya

The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, Tomás Ojéa Quintana has said “There are elements of genocide in Rakhine with respect to Rohingya.”[…]

Burma Campaign UK Welcomes Foreign Office Quarterly Human Rights Update

Burma Campaign UK welcomes the new quarterly human rights update on Burma published today by the British Foreign Office. The update summarises human rights developments in Burma for the months of January-March 2014 […]

DFID Should Conduct Inquiry Into Burma Census Funding

Burma Campaign UK is calling on Justine Greening, Secretary of State for International Development, to conduct an inquiry into the decision making process which led to the Department for International Development (DFID) giving the government of Burma £10m ($16m) of British aid money for Burma’s controversial census […]

Poorly Planned Census in Disarray as Calls for Postponement Grow Stronger

Enumerators arrived in Arakan State on Sunday, 30 March in the company of three hundred armed policemen who were brought into the area in several army trucks to conduct the nationwide survey. The first national census since 1983 should be vital in planning the nation’s needs in health, education and development. However, the census has triggered violence in Arakan State, as humanitarian aid offices were raided, aid workers fled, local aid workers threatened not to assist the Rohingya, and aid to the Rohingya communities living in internally displaced camps has halted.

So far three people – two under the age of five – have died as a result of the absence of medical care and food prices are soaring as water and food becomes scarce. The Burma government has rescinded their commitment to allow Rohingya’s to self-identify, folding under pressure from Arakanese Buddhists to boycott the census.  The tension in Arakan State is spreading throughout Burma as an anti-Muslim riot took place in a town on the outskirts of Rangoon, where an angry Buddhist mob pelted Muslim-owned properties with stones[…]

Joint FCO-DFID Call for Urgent Restoration Humanitarian Access to all Communities in Rakhine State. Mr Swire Summons Burmese Ambassador

We continue to be gravely concerned by the situation in Rakhine State, Burma. The already dire humanitarian situation has deteriorated following the expulsion of Médecins Sans Frontières in February, and violence against the offices and residences of humanitarian aid workers in March, leading to the forced cessation of critical humanitarian relief operations. As a result, hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people in Rakhine, mainly from the Rohingya community, are not receiving vital medical and humanitarian aid […]

Myanmar: UN expert raises alarm on Rakhine State

GENEVA – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana, today pressed the alarm bell on the further deterioration of the human rights situation in Rakhine State […]

Department of State: Statement by Marie Harf, Deputy Spokesperson: United States Concern Over Events in Rakhine State

The United States remains deeply concerned by the humanitarian crisis in Burma’s Rakhine State. Violent mob attacks on United Nations and nongovernmental organization offices worsened an already troubling situation stemming from restriction of the operations of a major humanitarian organization that provided health care services to 140,000 internally displaced persons and hundreds of thousands of additional individuals in need. Currently, large segments of the population do not have access to adequate medical services, water, sanitation, and food. The government has so far failed to provide adequate security and the travel authorizations necessary for the humanitarian aid workers to resume their life-saving services […]

UNFPA, DFID & Other Donors Should Withdraw Burma Census Support

Burma Campaign UK today called on the United Nations, the Department for International Development (DFID) and other donors to Burma’s census to withdraw their political, technical and financial support in order to avoid further endorsement of discriminatory policies against the Rohingya being applied in the census […]

Facilitating Hate from the Highest Levels of Power

The situation in Arakan State is deteriorating rapidly as extremist monks continue to spread hate speech and incite violence against the Muslim community with impunity. With the upcoming census set to inflame tensions over the issue of Rohingya, Arakanese nationalists have been exacerbating these tensions by campaigning for the census to be changed. Such protests descended into violence as United Nations (UN) and non-governmental organizations’ (NGO) offices were ransacked and aid workers forced to flee. Meanwhile, at the national level, highly discriminatory laws are being drafted by certain ministries to be presented to Parliament.

The leader of the extremist Buddhist 969 movement, Wirathu, has been whipping up anti-Muslim fervor among the local Arakanese Buddhist population, demanding that the UN-planned census be changed. The All Rakhine Committee for the Census (ARCC) had threatened a state-wide boycott of the census due to the option for Rohingya to identify themselves as Rohingya.  Adding to the tension has been the antagonism towards international relief and UN agencies for allegedly favouring Rohingya Muslims in their work. This is, of course, a preposterous claim given that such organizations engage in service provision for those who need it most, regardless of their ethnicity, religion or political affiliation, with the majority of such victims happening to be Rohingya. This fervor came to a head as mobs descended on UN and NGO offices in the state capital, Sittwe, late last week […]

Burmese Muslim Association Statement on Violence Against Aid Agencies in Arakan State and the Census

Burmese Muslim Association (BMA) is deeply concerned by the recent attacks on international aid agencies in Sittwe, Arakan State, on 26th and 27th March 2014. BMA condemns these attacks in the strongest possible terms […]