Press Releases

Arakan Magazine – Issue 9/2024
Arakan Magazine – Issue 9/2024

In This Issue: 

  • Forgotten Generation: How Global Inaction is Pushing Rohingya Youth into Darkness
  • In Conversation with Dr. Ronan Lee
  • Understanding the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar
  • Rohingya Organisations Joint Statement on Naf River Massacre
  • Landslide Tragedy Strikes Rohingya Refugee Camp: Three Family Members Killed in Camp 14
  • Yunus’s Global Influence Could Help Secure Western Support for Rohingya Refugees, Says Expert
  • Press Release: United Youth Movement Bangladesh Sovereignty, Humanity, and Justice.
Arakan Magazine – Issue 8/2024
Arakan Magazine – Issue 8/2024

In This Issue: 

  • The Rohingya Genocide : A prolonged Crisis Unaddressed by Regional and International Communities
  • Rohingya Genocide Victim Women and Children: Severely Traumatized and Facing Catastrophic Consequences
  • In Conversation with Dr. Melanie O’ Brien
  • Maung Ni Massacre: Arakan Army Drone and Mortar Strikes Kill 36 Rohingya Civilians
  • 150 Rohingya Dead in Myanmar: Arakan Army Held Responsible for Devastating Drone Strike
  • Rohingya Relocation Sparks Concerns: Arakan Army’s Role in Changing Rakhine’s Demographic Landscape
  • Press Release: ARNA Condemn Aerial Attacks on Rohingya Communities in Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State​​​
  • Press Release: ARNO condemns Aerial Assault on Rohingya by Arakan Army

Latest News

Actions against junta increasing, but enough to create change?

The Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) welcomes the recent actions taken against the military junta in Myanmar (Burma).  At the beginning of December, the Government of Canada imposed a new round of sanctions on Burma as a result of continued human rights...

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Gambia v. Myanmar Moves to the Next Phase

Date: July 22, 2022 ARNO welcomes the decision by the International Court of Justice evaluating and rejecting Myanmar’s arguments, specifically whether The Gambia can file a claim as a state party that has not been injured under the Genocide Convention. The Court...

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YES, IT IS AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN GENOCIDE

The Arakan Rohingya National Organisation welcomes the US decision to recognise the Rohingya genocide. ARNO has been advocating in its discussions with the US Government for the genocide declaration since 2014 given the significant actions that have been taken since...

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ARNO welcomes UK and Germany Intervention in ICJ Matter

The Governments of the United Kingdom and Germany have expressed their intention to intervene in the matter of The Gambia v. Myanmar proceedings at the International Court of Justice. Since August 2017, many governments around the world have expressed their support of...

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Sarajevo Declaration

Sarajevo Declaration at the Preparatory Workshop on The Rohingya Crisis: What Next? 7 May 2022 Preamble: This Conference unequivocally reiterates: That the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights of every human being and such rights...

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Burma continues to suffer as a result of February 1, 2021 coup

February 1, 2022 The Arakan Rohingya National Organisation condemns the Tatmadaw’s illegal takeover of Burma/Myanmar since February 1, 2021.  The international community is aware that one year ago, Tatmadaw, the military junta of Burma, perpetrated a coup against Daw...

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THE ROHINGYA GENOCIDE DAY WILL NOT AND CANNOT BE FORGOTTEN

(25 August 2022) The “Rohingya Genocide Day” of August 25 is a memorable day for our people and generations. For decades, the Myanmar brute forces and state-sponsored non-state actors have carefully pre-planned genocidal onslaughts against our innocent people....

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Condolences

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) extends its deepest sympathies and condolences to the immediate and extended family members of the late Dr. Waker Uddin. Prof. Wakar Uddin, Director-General of the Arakan Rohingya Union, passed away on Friday, April 29,...

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Reports

HRW Report Myanmar 2021

Rohingya Detention Camps Approximately 130,000 Rohingya have been confined to open-air detention camps in Myanmar’s central Rakhine State since being displaced by ethnic cleansing in 2012. For eight years, the Myanmar government has maintained the Rohingya’s...

Rohingya Library

All ABOUT ROHINGYA

Press  Release

JOINT STATEMENT ON THE ROHINGYA PLEDGING CONFERENCE

By the Rohingya community  [22 October 2020] Today governments met to alleviate the suffering of millions of Rohingya refugees and internally displaced persons. On behalf of our fellow Rohingya, we thank the international community for its generosity and...

Thanks to the Indonesians for help to distress Rohingyas at sea

Press Release: 26 June 2020Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) expresses its sincere gratitude to the people and government of Indonesia for their generous efforts to rescue about 100 Rohingya refugees, who were stranded and in distress at sea in Aceh, and...

UN MIMU mapping continues to fail the Rohingya

Press Release: 28 May 2020 Approximately one year ago ARNO wrote an open letter to Mr. Knut Osby, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar, to stop using the derogatory term “Ku Lar” to refer to Rohingya on maps produced by the Myanmar Information...

Justice for All – ICJ Verdict a Win for Rohingya

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) Press Release: 23 January 2020 Justice for All – ICJ Verdict a Win for Rohingya   ARNO welcomes the International Court of Justice “Order on Request for the Indication of Provisional Measures” announced today, January 23,...

Press Release: Myanmar launches report riddled with untruths

Press Release: 16 January 2020 On January 8, 2020 the Government of Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a report titled “Rakhine State: A Snapshot of Myanmar’s current efforts for peace and reconciliation.” The 15-page report makes blatantly false claims that...

UN to Myanmar: Stop the Violence

Press Release: 30 December 2019 ARNO welcomes the United Nations General Assembly Resolution condemning violence against the Rohingya.  On December 27, 2019 the United Nations General Assembly voted in favour of a Resolution which condemns Myanmar’s human rights...

IKO Statement on ICJ’s Prosecution of Myanmar Government

9-12-2019 On December 10, 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will start a hearing with regard to legal proceedings against the state of Myanmar/Burma for the case of genocide against Rohingya people. The International Karen Organisation (IKO) hopes that...

Experts Writing

Testimony by Chris Lewa Coordinator, on International Religious Freedom

December 3, 2007

Mr. Chair, Honorable Commissioners, ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to thank you for inviting me before this commission. Having worked with ethnic people from Burma and, more specifically with the Rohingya minority for the last 7 years, I am honored to offer a testimony today.
Arakan State of Burma is by far the most tense and explosive region of the country. The refugee outflows to Bangladesh in 1978 and again in 1991/92, each of about 250,000 Rohingya, did not result from counter-insurgency strategies as it is the case along the Thai-Burma border, but is the direct outcome of policies of discrimination, oppression and exclusion against the Rohingya population.
THOUGHTS ON MUSLIMS OF BURMA AND CURRENT EVENTS THERE


BY DR. HABIB SIDDIQUI

Burma is a country that has people of many races, ethnicities and religions. Because of lack of reliable census data the exact number of these various communities is not known. There is no question though that the Buddhist population makes up the vast majority in the country, followed by Muslims, Christians, Hindus and animists. According to non-official estimates by various agencies (including those of the US State Department), the Muslim population in Burma is somewhere between 10 to 20%, including the much-discriminated and suffering Rohingya population of Arakan (Rakhaing) state, whose nearly half the population is now living in Diaspora as refugees in many parts of our world as a result of Burma's inhuman, discriminatory Citizenship Law of 1982.

Rohingya: The forgotten people

Dr. Habib Siddiqui
An often-practised devious way to grab someone's land is to deny his right to that property. Nothing could be more horrific when a government itself gets into such a criminal practice. The most glaring example of such a crime can be seen in the practices of the regimes that have ruled Burma (now Myanmar) since its independence from Britain in 1948 (especially, since 1962 when Gen. Ne Win came to power). In our times, one can hardly find a regime that has been so atrocious, so inhuman and so barbarous in its denial of basic human rights to a people that trace their origin to the land for nearly a millennium. The victims are the Rohingya Muslims living in the Arakan (now Rakhine) state. They have become the forgotten people of our time.

Just Imagine This!

Dr. Habib Siddiqui

[Author’s note: This paper is based on author’s speech at the PENN HUMAN RIGHTS FORUM on “The Rohingyas of Burma and Bangladesh” on Friday, March 31, 2006 in the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. The material in this paper came from author’s personal contacts with the Rohingya Diaspora community and information that is available in the reports of various human rights groups, notably the Amnesty International, the Human Rights Watch and the Karen Human Rights Group.]  

Part 1: Nightmare, fiction or a living reality?

Imagine this. You are living in a country that does not recognize you as a citizen in spite of the fact that your forefathers lived there for centuries. If that were not enough of a traumatic experience, consider that other ethnic groups who are fighting the regime for self-determination and human rights consider you as outsiders. It must be your worst kind of nightmare when you realize that half of your people have been forced to take asylum or refuge outside, and you may be the next in line to seek a way out of this living hell.

Religious & Racial Riots due to Rumours

I am somewhat disappointed reading some accusatory notes in which they seemed to accept the alleged rape story of Buddhist girls/women by Muslims for a fact.

Divide & Rule

Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Let me say that the SPDC military regime did not come in the vacuum of history. It has learned the art of “divide and rule,” a policy that was patented in the history rather well. The SPDC has succeeded in gaining and holding power over Burma through a combination of skills, not the least of which include that “divide and rule” policy.

A movement for democracy, freedom and human rights
by Dr. Habib Siddiqui
Throughout history, we have seen the importance of personality in shaping the destiny of a nation. These personalities become larger than their lives. They gravitate people to overcome their local and ethnic/tribal/ regional inertia towards a common cause. Rarely did a social and national movement succeed that did not have that iconic unifying figure. That unique role has been provided by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for Myanmar, a country of many races, ethnicities, and religions.
Arakan bottled up in Pride and Prejudices

Abid Bahar

In Burma, majority of its people follow Buddhism as their faith. Buddhism is known as a religion of peace. The Buddhist samsara discourse in its subtle meaning is normally understood to work as an aid to pacify anger and promote peace. This is however is not the case in the north western corner of Burma’s Arakan province. Contrary to Buddhist precepts, in Arakan, Buddhism is used to promote antagonism and violence against its Rohingya citizens. In this type of use, the xenophobic Moghs have elevated their religion to the status of a political ideology. It has lately promoted the political conceptualization of Buddhism to fight its perceived enemy, the Rohingyas. In this endeavor they are using Buddhism to justify their political agenda of exclusivity and ethnic cleansing, similar to the former Yugoslavian Serb’s use of religious discourse to commit genocide against Muslims.

Rohingya People’s Legitimate Human Rights

For some people puzzled with the merchant history of Rohingers in the coastal Arakan “Wonder how many of these merchants landed in Arakan State of Burma to become a significant and distinct race of 1.2 millions speaking a Chittagonian language.”  

Burmese Invasion of Arakan and the Rise of Non-Bengali Settlements in Chittagong of Bangladesh- Arak

Dr.Abid Bahar, Canada
February 15 2006

In Burma, majority of its people follow Buddhism as their faith. Buddhism is known as a religion of peace. The Buddhist samsara discourse in its subtle meaning is normally understood to work as an aid to pacify anger and promote peace. This is however not the case is in the north western corner of Burma's Arakan province. Contrary to Buddhist precepts, in Arakan, Buddhism is used to promote antagonism and violence against its Rohingya citizens. In this type of use, the extremist Moghs have elevated their religion to the status of a political ideology.

Letter to Bo Aung Din of PDP on Arakan ultra-nationalist academics

Dear Bo Aung Din,
There is no denying that many of us are at odds with Aye Chan's version of history of Arakan. As an ultra-nationalist Rakhaing, his views on the minorities mimic those of the current hated SPDC regime, which is victimization of the minority so that such criminal actions would curry favor from amongst the majority, thus further fragmenting the already divided nation into opposing camps, while they hold onto power approvingly – the typical 19th century colonization policy, History 101.

What’s in a name – Discovering Leo in Arakan?
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui
Leo Strauss is an icon figure among American neoconservative ‘intellectuals’ that are believed to be the ‘brains’ behind launching two pre-emptive wars in the last six years that have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of unarmed civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq. Like his spiritual mentor, Machiavelli, Srauss thrusts his readers to consider whether ‘noble’ lies have any role at all to play in uniting and guiding the people. Are ‘myths’ required to provide people the raison detre for a stable society? Or should all men and women examine on their own those "deadly” truths? For a reader, it is not difficult to guess Strauss’s preferences.

Rohingya History

The Muslim “Rohingya” of Burma

Martin Smith

 

A preliminary point I want to highlight is that, while Burma has many complex ethnic problems, the plight of the Muslims of Arakan is by far the most tense and difficult of all the ethnic problems I have encountered in over a decade of writing on the political and ethnic situation in Burma. Firstly, there is a strong element of ethnic communalism, which has resulted in periodic but unpredictable outbreaks of social violence and upheaval; secondly, there are strong religious undercurrents which relate to the situation of all Muslims in Burma at large; and, thirdly, there is an intransigence on the part of many of the main protagonists, which has made the finding of lasting solutions so very difficult.

IMAGES ASIA: REPORT ON THE SITUATION FOR MUSLIMS IN BURMA
IMAGES ASIA: REPORT ON THE SITUATION FOR MUSLIMS IN BURMA
May 1997
From: sitthipong <sitthi@cm.ksc.co.th>    Content 
PART 1: REPORT ON THE SITUATION FOR MUSLIMS IN BURMA
"Burmese Citizens Beware!"
"… Malaysia and Indonesia were once Buddhist countries in history, but
unfortunately the Muslims used(their) methods (to expand their religion) so
successfully that they have become Muslim countries; Buddhism has
disappeared from these countries…. Bear in mind that the four social
causes of the SLORC must be accomplished…."
The Muslim massacre of 1942
By AFK Jilani
When British withdrew, the administration of Arakan division was entrusted to a Magh Buddhist extremist, U Kyaw Khine, with the power of commissioner of Arakan division. Many British soldiers left leaving behind a large number of arms, which easily reached the hand of Maghs.
            The barbaric Muslim massacre started on 28th March 1942 at the order of Thakin leaders of Arakan. The Magh fell upon the innocent Muslims of Chanbilli village of Minbya Township. The carnage was unbelievable and hundreds of Muslims including children and women met their fatal end. Many Muslims jumped into the river and hid in the forest. People in water were shot dead. With their long swords the Maghs butchered the half-dead men, women and children. Those still alive in the carnage were stabbed with the pointed spears and cut them into pieces. Rohingya girls and women after having been raped were murdered and the children were mercilessly slaughtered by throwing them upward and putting the sharp side of the long-dahs or swords under them. The breasts of the women were peeled.

Rohingya Culture

Rohingya Language has received ISO recognition

Rohingyas have already received ISO (International Standard Organization) recognition for their language that is Rohingya/Rohingya language. SIL.ORG has already released, as the final approval as of 18 July 2007, the code  (RHG) as the Language code for...

Scholarship from Awqaf Kuwait for higher Education

By HasanThere is an announcement for higher education scholarship from Al Awqaf of Kuwait in relevant field to endowment. If you are interested, please visit the following link (Written in Arabic)http://www.awqaf.org/portal.aspx?tabid=329  

Study in Sudan
By Hasan 

Education is the backbone of any nation. Without educated patriotic people our struggle toward regaining our rights and self determination shall remain at distance. At such we have from the very beginning of the leadership, tried to facilitate our people with whatever means to assist them in their plight for education.  Today we have initiated a new project of facilitating information and resources to our people to provide them with a guide to further their education. With the hope, one day they will lead the nation further and serve the community to their best.

Rohingya Books

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