Burma’s Minister for Labour, Immigration and Population Thein Swe has denied an assertion made by one of his cabinet colleagues last week of plans to relax travel restrictions for holders of National Verification Cards, the vast majority of whom would be Rohingya Muslims.
The presence of suspected insurgents in the camps just across their shared border could further strain relations between Burma and Bangladesh.
Citizenship Lead Story News Rohingya
“It’s important to work on granting citizenship to the Muslim community, which has been deprived of citizenship for many years,” Grandi told reporters in Bangkok.
The group’s secretary said their aim is to assist and represent anyone – regardless of their religion – in connection with incidents or alleged crimes which may have religious pretexts.
Arakan Lead Story News Rohingya
A programme targeting displaced Rohingya communities in Arakan has been launched.
Arakan Citizenship Human Rights Lead Story News Refugees Rohingya
The government’s action plan for Arakan State, which was drafted under a shroud of secrecy and hasn’t yet been released to the public, was roundly criticised by Human Rights Watch on Friday.
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Ethnic issues Lead Story News Politics Rohingya Video
A programme to register stateless Muslim IDPs to determine whether they are eligible for citizenship is continuing at Myebon camp in Arakan State.
Communal Violence Conflict Lead Story News Politics
Burma’s nascent democracy faces immense challenges in coming years, some with the capacity to “jeopardise” progress made since the country’s transition from military dictatorship to quasi-civilian leadership in 2011, a UN official concluded.
The Burmese government denied on Friday that a Buddhist mob ripped through a town in an isolated strife-torn corner of the country this week, attacking Muslim women and children. Villagers and a rights group said more than a dozen people may have been killed, and that hundreds have fled.
Two Rohingya political parties issued a plea to the government last Friday not to be categorised as “other” in the upcoming census, claiming they are “bona fide citizens” and entitled to be recognised as an ethnic minority group in Burma.
Communal Violence Lead Story News
The UN General Assembly’s human rights committee passes a resolution urging Burma to give the stateless Rohingya minority equal access to citizenship and to crack down on Buddhist violence against them and other Muslims in the country.
Ethnic issues Lead Story News Politics
A bill put forward by RNDP leader Dr Aye Maung that proposes amending the Political Parties Law to prohibit non-citizens from contesting elections will be debated in the upper house.
Burma’s electoral commission has ordered a political party to expel six of its senior members for listing their ethnicity as “Rohingya” in their official biographies
