Human rights icon Aung San Suu Kyi still refuses to champion Rohingya Muslims

Three cheers for Suu Kyi!

Eeeuwww!
Let me out of here!

Why do we care what is happening in Burma/Myanmar as it relates to the Rohingya/Bengali population?  Because once again we are seeing the worldwide media drumbeat badgering Burma and working up to demanding that western countries take in the so-called Muslim “refugees.”

Rohingya are already coming to America as we saw a couple of days ago in our story from New Hampshire, here.

Apparently, so far, Suu Kyi isn’t buying the demand that the violence-prone “stateless” Rohingya be given the right of citizenship in Burma.  Many believe they are basically illegal aliens from Bangladesh and Burma wants to keep Burma for primarily Burmese Buddhists which is anathema to the multi-culti crowd.

Here the Global Post builds the spin about the “cause célèbre” to the point where it can blast Aung San Suu Kyi (seven paragraphs into the story):

YANGON, Myanmar — From the depths of obscurity, Myanmar’s highly beleaguered Muslim Rohingya ethnicity has become something of a global cause célèbre.

The United Nations deems the roughly 1 million population group one of the world’s “most persecuted” minorities. In a report last week, Human Right Watch deployed some of the most potent language at its disposal in describing their mistreatment: “ethnic cleansing” and “crimes against humanity.” The online pro-Rohingya call to arms #RohingyaNOW was, for a brief blip in March, Twitter’s highest-trending phrase.

Even US President Barack Obama, in his first and only visit to Myanmar last November, urged the nation to accept that Rohingya “hold within themselves the same dignity as you do.”

But these are lofty expectations from a nation in which the government, much of the general public and even progressive activist circles contend that Rohingya is a contrived ethnicity that does not exist — at least not as the people who call themselves Rohingya and their foreign sympathizers believe they do.

This week, the government released its official account of Myanmar’s most explosive violence in recent years: a 2012 wave of killing, maiming and arson sprees waged in large part by Buddhists bent on ridding their native Rakhine State of the Rohingya. But nowhere in the official English translation does the word “Rohingya” appear. The minority is instead described as “Bengali,” the native people of neighboring Bangladesh.  [Readers, I haven't read the report but I followed the 2012 riots and they began because Rohingya were accused of raping and murdering a Buddhist girl!  Killing on both sides ensued---ed]

The report insists the stateless group largely descend from farmers led over during British occupation of Myanmar (then titled Burma) in the early 1800s. They are described as procreating heavily, failing to assimilate and inviting over their kin to the dismay of helpless local Buddhists living under colonial rule. Myanmar’s authorities have since reversed the British empire’s policy: The Rohingya are now considered non-citizens even though their alleged homeland, Bangladesh, does not accept them either.

Treating this native-born population as invaders is roundly condemned around the globe. The Rohingya, like many persecuted groups before them, have pleaded for support from Aung San Suu Kyi. The 67-year-old parliamentarian, beloved for challenging Myanmar’s despotic generals, is traditionally seen as a voice of Myanmar’s oppressed.

But in an interview with GlobalPost, the Nobel Peace Laureate’s spokesman and confidante, Nyan Win, confirmed that Aung San Suu Kyi has no plans to champion the Rohingya cause despite criticism swirling around her silence on the crisis.

Let me ask you, readers, why is it our problem when one country wants to expel illegal aliens?  Why are we expected to then bring them to America?  This is a similar situation to the Bhutanese/Nepalese people where we have taken over 60,000 to America because Bhutan expelled them and their original homeland, Nepal, refused to take them back!

I repeat, why is this our problem?

For new readers, this is our 145th post on the Rohingya spanning over 5 years.  See our whole category here.

“Stateless” Rohingya Muslim women in New Hampshire, move along nothing to see….

….we are harmless, we smile, we just make jewelry and hope to get a business loan via the federal taxpayer so we might help our people.

Rohingya women weaving a new life in New Hampshire. Photo SHAWNE WICKHAM/SUNDAY NEWS

Here is how the gushy story from Nashua, NH begins (hat tip: Jeannine):

NASHUA — They are stateless: persecuted in their own country, shunned in others. Most Americans have never heard of them.

But a small circle of refugee women has been quietly weaving a new life here for their families and, perhaps, their people.

“Stateless” is the buzzword these days for an easy ticket to refugee status.  Stories like this one (about women refugees) are meant to soften you up—after all, how threatening can a bunch of women be who weave jewelry in New Hampshire?

But, where are the men and when are they coming?  Surely these young women won’t be marrying into the local New Hampshire population.

Right now, their men are busy waging immigration Jihad in Australia and Indonesia.  PR articles like this one are meant to soften you up for the next wave.

To its credit, the US State Department resisted for years taking Rohingya Muslims from camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar and elsewhere in the region, but as we have reported here now on several occasions, we are resettling Rohingya.

Indeed, at last year’s State Department meeting, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops cited the Rohingya as a potential new source of “refugee” bodies to resettle (they are paid by the head for the refugees they bring to your towns).

For new and ambitious readers, we have 143 previous posts on Rohingya here.

Catholic Ireland welcomes Muslims

Update May 14th:  More sharia creep in Ireland, here.

Or, so we are told by the media.  For a quick departure from the news-rich Boston refugee terrorist story, here’s an article making the rounds over the last few days—republished here at CathNews New Zealand:

They even have their own magazine! Cool huh?

Muslim immigrants are finding a much more welcoming atmosphere in traditionally Catholic Ireland than in Europe or America, according to an article in The Atlantic magazine.

Muslims make up just 1.1 per cent of the 4.5 million people in Ireland, but their ranks are swelling due to immigration, births and, in some cases, conversion.

The 2011 census recorded 49,204 Muslims, nearly a quarter of them school-aged children, but the number is projected to reach 125,000 by 2030.

Read it all.

However, not everything is so peachy as the Irish Refugee Council just yesterday blasted the government for keeping ‘asylum seekers’ in temporary “institutionalized accommodation.”  (Watch the film!).   In the US we let most asylum seekers join their family members already here and they live among us.   Come to think of it, maybe Ireland has a better idea?

THE State could be left apologising for another national scandal if asylum seekers are kept institutionalised, it was claimed.

Retired Supreme Court judge Catherine McGuinness also warned Justice Minister Alan Shatter “could be chased through the courts” if the youngsters of immigrants are not treated as equals in line with the children’s referendum.

Up to 300 people marched through Dublin to his department as part of a national day of action to end Direct Provision, the hostel-style accommodation for asylum seekers.

Ms McGuinesss said the institutionalised accommodation was created as a “panic reaction” to the large number of asylum seekers who arrived in Ireland during the boom and has been allowed to drag on with no outside observation.

So-called “asylum seekers who arrived during the boom” were most likely ECONOMIC MIGRANTS and not true REFUGEES SEEKING PROTECTION.

See our entire archive on Ireland, here, and you will see there have been many problems with the mostly Muslim migrants going to Ireland.  They even took Rohingya Muslims!  Poor Ireland they thought their Catholic/Protestant “troubles” were bad.

Mark Steyn was right—America will be alone.

(Another) boatload of Muslims apprehended in Indonesia. Could the OIC be paying for the migration?

Levy:   Hijra is immigration designed to subvert and subdue non-Muslim societies and pave the way for eventual, total Islamization.

It occurred to me the other day, when we learned that a 26-year-old Rohingya Muslim who had been reportedly on the run for 11 years “scraped together $12,000″ to hire a trafficker to get him to Australia, to wonder where the heck does an indigent “refugee” get $12,000?   Most American 26-year-olds couldn’t “scrape” that amount of money together (except maybe as a drug dealer!).

Brave Monks oppose OIC in Burma. Do they know something we don’t know (or we won’t say!)?  Photo at Voice of America

Then I saw this story about one more illegal alien boatload of “refugees” being apprehended and it included Rohingya, Somalis and Iranians.  What might they have in common—they share the Religion of Peace!

What else might they have in common?  Perhaps a benefactor to gather them together, load them up and send them to Australia where they know they might get a “welcome” from a government (and a home with granny) in the process of destroying its demography and its sovereignty.

Could the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (based in Saudi Arabia) be funding al Hijra—the Islamic Doctrine of Immigration?  Just wondering!

Here is the story from Global Post late last week:

Indonesia’s navy detained 82 asylum seekers including scores of Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar when their boat ran aground as they headed to Australia, an immigration official said Friday.

The 51 Rohingya, 24 Iranians and seven Somalis had been heading from Sulawesi island, in the east of the country, to East Nusa Tenggara, one of the closest Indonesian provinces to Australia, he said.

An increasing number of Rohingya, described by the UN as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities, have been arriving in Indonesia as they flee Buddhist-Muslim violence which erupted in their home state of Rakhine last year.

“They were heading to Australia, as usual,” immigration official Muhammad Bakri told AFP.

The boat left from southwest Sulawesi but their boat ran aground nearby and they were picked up by a naval patrol, he said.

The migrants, including several children, were taken to the nearby city of Makassar where they were being registered and questioned by immigration officials.

Bakri said the Rohingya would be kept apart from other asylum seekers following an outbreak of violence at an immigration detention centre last week in which Rohingya killed eight Buddhists from Myanmar.

We told you about the killing of Buddhists here in four previous posts.

P.S.  I’ll be letting you know if US refugee contractors at this year’s State Department hearing aid the Hijra and ask for more Rohingya and Somalis to resettle in your cities as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and others did last year, here.

Rohingya Muslims: Australia’s next big problem (and our’s too!)

They say they are trying to get to Australia, the US or Canada, even New Zealand—where they believe they will be “welcomed.”   (Sounds like they have already learned the refugee industry lingo!)

Tell me, when you read this story, does this ring true—how does a poor and downtrodden 26-year-old man (who has been on the run for 11 years already) “scrape together $12,000″ to hire a people smuggler?   Something is fishy here—who is paying the advance guard?  Could it be the Saudi Arabia-based OIC? (See yesterday’s post).  

Buddhist monks stand up to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation last October. Want to keep it out of Burma! Reuters photo

Here is the story from The Australian:

TWO years ago the Indonesian office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees had fewer than 50 Rohingya asylum-seekers on its books. Today there are more than 800, and nearly all are trying to get to Australia.

“Some of my friends have gone to Australia already and after two or three years they get citizenship,” Feazel Ali tells The Australian. “Finally they can live in peace.”

Ali left Myanmar in 1994 and lived in Malaysia for 13 years before he, his wife and five children took a boat to Sumatra two months ago, hoping somehow to get a passage to Australia.

“Australians have pity for refugees, but actually anywhere that wants to accept us, I wouldn’t mind,” he says.

“I want to work. I want my children to have a high school education.”

Like many other asylum-seekers, he clings to the illusion that Australians would welcome his family, if only they knew his people’s plight. The reality is, as refugee officials say privately, no government wants the Rohingya, who are commonly described as among the most persecuted people in the world.   [The media doesn't tell you that it isn't because they are poor, it's because they have a history of violence and connections to Islamic terror groups, aside from the fact that many believe they are simply illegal aliens who went Burma from Bangladesh initially.---ed]

Most of the dark-skinned Shia Muslim asylum-seekers who have reached Indonesiaare in immigration detention at Belawan, North Sumatra, or under UNHCR care in the community in nearby Medan.

Elsewhere in Indonesia they barely attracted notice until March 5, when men in the Belawan centre turned on 11 Burmese Buddhist fishermen and murdered eight of them.

The victims had been arrested for fishing illegally off Aceh last July and were vastly outnumbered by more than 100 Rohingyas.  [This is not helping the Rohingya image being crafted by the NGOs!---ed]

Festering camps:

Refused citizenship in their western Burma homeland, Rohingyas have long posed a huge refugee challenge to Bangladesh and Thailand, where more than 400,000 people live in festering border camps.

[.....]

At least 130 Rohingyas have been detained in the past eight days trying to get to Australia – 95 of them in two boats that were also carrying Bangladeshis, Iranians and Iraqis.

Refugee officials say almost all the Rohingyas interviewed in Indonesia are trying to get to Australia, though most would be happy with a visa for Canada, the US or New Zealand – other countries they believe would be welcoming.

Mark my words!  Rohingya will be the next Somalis coming to a town near you!

For more, visit our Rohingya Reports category where we have been archiving stories on the growing Rohingya problem for the last five years.  We have 140 previous posts on the festering issue and the media campaign to soften-up the West to “welcome” Rohingya.

Syrian Islamist: Kill Buddhists in Burma!

The Religion of Peace directs us to this story at NOW News:

Jihadists don’t much like monks because monks are willing to stand-up for their religion. Note the “no OIC” on this banner—brave, very brave!
AP Photo/Khin Maung Win

Syrian Islamist have been attempting to smuggle Muslim extremists into Myanmar, a Syrian Islamist source told NOW.

According to the source, “many attempts have been made to send Jihadists to Myanmar for the sake of our brothers.”

“Contacts with Islamist groups in Pakistan, India and other surrounding countries are being made in order to facilitate their entry into Myanmar.”

The source, however, added that “these attempts have failed.” [so they say---ed]

Speaking to NOW, Salafist Sheikh Bilal al-Masri called on Muslims to attack Buddhists and their interests.

“I decree that every person who can get to a Buddhist should kill him because they are killing our people and the Muslims cannot be blamed for their reaction.”

So why do we care?  We care because your local friendly Catholic Charities would like nothing better than to add more Rohingya Muslims from Burma (aka Myanmar) to their diversity-is-beautiful collection of refugees for your multi-culty edification.  And, we need to be informed about who we are “welcoming” in the next batch of poor and downtrodden Burmese just yearning for a better life.

See our Rohingya Reports category with our 139 previous posts on this topic.

Related update:   Here is a report on those eight Buddhist fishermen beaten to death by Rohingya in a detention center in Indonesia.

Update: 18 Rohingya to stand trial in wake of killings in Indonesia

This is the latest on the story we posted earlier today.  Now reports are that there was no conflict over religion just over a female refugee which very likely had a religious basis anyway.  Infidels don’t dare mess with Muslim women!

From the Jakarta Post:

The North Sumatra Police have named 18 Rohingya refugees suspects for a fight, which left eight Myanmar fishermen dead and 21 others with injuries, at the Belawan Immigration Detention Center in North Sumatra, a police official said.

“They are accused of conducting collective assault and torturing. They face a maximum sentence of 12 years if proven guilty,” local police spokesman Sr. Comr. Heru Prakoso said Saturday.

According to police investigations Rohingnya refugees were angered when a female refugee was sexually harassed by the fishermen.

“We found no other motive. Thus, speculation that the brawl was because of religious differences wasn’t true,” he said referring to reports that the incident followed a heated debate between a Muslim cleric and the Buddhist fishermen regarding conflict in Myanmar.

The refugees came to Indonesia in search of asylum, while the fishermen were detained over alleged illegal fishing activities.

Look for a new wave of violence back home in Burma.  And, let’s be sure these charming fellows stay in Asia and not in Atlanta!

Eight Buddhist fishermen killed by Rohingya Muslim asylum seekers in Indonesia

Update:  18 Rohingya to stand trial in killing of Buddhists, here.

But from most news accounts you would never know that the Buddhists were hit the hardest when clashes broke out in a detention center in Indonesia.  And, get this!  there were 100 Rohingya to 11 Buddhists!  Wait till that news gets back to Burma!

In fact, this is the Reuters story that only indicates that eight were killed, but leaves the impression that the long-suffering Muslims (always the victims!) took the brunt of the attack.  You would have to read carefully to know that the Buddhists were the illegal aliens, and the Rohingya are the more acceptably-labeled “asylum seekers” although in fact they are also illegal aliens arriving in Indonesia (see the photo).

Here is a portion of the deceptive caption on this Reuters’ photo: “Eight illegal migrants were killed after a brawl between Buddhist and Muslim asylum seekers from Myanmar, a police official said on Friday.”

Buddhists and Muslims have been clashing in Burma (Myanmar) and the mainstream media has been trying exceptionally hard to make the Rohingya the underdogs.  See our Rohingya Reports category (137 posts!) and you will see what I mean.

However, AP spells out in more detail what happened when the two factions clashed in a detention center where they had been housed together.  The out-numbered Buddhist fishermen were in detention for illegally fishing in Indonesian waters, the Rohingya are there looking for asylum.

From AP at Yahoo News (hat tip: Janet):

BELAWAN, Indonesia (AP) — Sectarian and ethnic tensions running high in Myanmar boiled over far outside the country’s borders Friday, when Buddhist fishermen and Muslim asylum seekers from the country brawled with knives and rocks at an Indonesian immigration detention center, leaving eight dead and another 15 injured.

The melee broke out in North Sumatra province, where more than 100 Rohingya migrants — most intercepted off Indonesia’s coast after fleeing their homeland in rickety boats — and 11 Buddhists accused of illegal fishing were being housed together, said local police chief Endro Kiswanto.

He said witnesses told police the clash started early Friday after a Rohingya Muslim cleric [how convenient that they have their own cleric in the detention facility!--ed] and a fisherman got into a heated debate about sectarian violence that erupted last month in central Myanmar when mobs of armed Buddhists torched Muslim-owned homes and shops, killing dozens and forcing thousands to flee.

The argument apparently started after the Rohingya migrants saw photos showing destruction caused by the recent violence, said Yusuf Umardani, detention center chief. Insults were traded, and the cleric was allegedly attacked by a fisherman. When the cleric screamed, his friends jumped in to help. From there, the rumble broke out so quickly, security guards were too late to stop it.

“The violence took place so fast, and it was completely unexpected because they had been living peacefully here so far,” Umardani said. “Most of the dead victims suffered severe head injuries. Eight Buddhists were killed, and 15 Rohingya were injured. Three other Buddhists escaped unharmed, Kiswanto said.

Local police spokesman Col. Raden Heru Prakoso said 18 Rohingya detainees have been named as suspects.

Read it all.

For new readers:

Last May the US Conference of Catholic Bishops called for the US to take in more Rohingya “refugees” here.  Some have already gone to New Hampshire, here.  Earlier the IRC (a federal contractor) began resettling Rohingya in Atlanta.  That is where DeKalb County officials recently told the State Department—enough already!

Union Leader article demonstrates secrecy federal contractors employ to “seed” your communities with more refugees

Update April 4th:  A reader directed us to the comment section at this Union Leader story (I admit I hadn’t previously read them), but here is just one of many great comments.  This one is from Jeannine Richardson and sums up the feelings of many:

Rick D’Alarcao [another commenter] – I think you and Ginger should offer to take in a few of these refugees if you think we need more of them. Put your money where your alleged “do-gooder” mouth is. Liberals are always do-gooders with other peoples’ money. That should be the motto of the Democrat Party.

Just a reminder, Ms. Richardson sent testimony to the US State Department hearing last May.  We published it here.  So please all of you send a statement to the State Department this year!

Update:  Follow-up story here.

They are turning red states blue!  And, Heaven help Nashua if they are getting more Rohingya Muslims.

This story is a few days old now and I held it up because I have so much to say about this latest flare up in New Hampshire between a federal refugee resettlement contractor and the elected officials in Manchester and Nashua.

Unfortunately, this is going to have to be Part I of what I plan to say because I am out of time for my ‘charitable work’ this morning of bringing you the news about LEGAL immigration programs and problems.

Before I give you a portion of this news story, keep a couple of things in mind.  These contractors have to operate in secrecy (some agencies are worse than others) because they know that once citizens fully get wind of what is happening, citizens usually object.

And, the other point that you should know is that once a resettlement agency gets a foothold in your city, they get PAID BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT to process in the earlier refugees’ family members.  That’s why I call this seeding!  It’s also known as chain migration!

Resettlement contractors have a huge financial incentive to keep the family reunification applications flowing, and they will sucker poor residents of a city with a guilt trip about keeping the families together.  Most Americans are a soft touch and they know it.

By the way, there is no federal law that says they have to place the extended family within 50 miles of their other family members, maybe the State Department tells them that, but Congress never did.  And, besides as this article points out, refugees will move anyway within a few months because they want to be with their own ethnic group.

Note location of Nashua directly south of  Manchester. Concord has them too.

Here is the story from the Union Leader (Ready or Not, the refugees are coming).  Emphasis below is mine:

The state’s refugee resettlement program is expected to spread from Manchester to Nashua in the coming weeks, with 50 refugees headed toward the Gate City. Officials in both cities are expressing concern over the plans.

“I was talking about my concerns with the head of the International Institute*, and the next communication I have from them is to say that they (the refugees) are coming, and we’ve found housing for them,” said Nashua Mayor Donnalee Lozeau. “I asked, ‘Where? When? Who’s coming? Are there any children?’ No one has any answers. The concerns I raised were real ones, and I feel like they weren’t addressed at all.”

The International Institute of New Hampshire (IINH) has been working for months to resettle another 200 refugees in Manchester, despite a sometimes frosty relationship with city officials. Mayor Ted Gatsas wrote a letter in 2011 to the U.S. State Department, which oversees the refugee program, faulting its “complete and utter lack of consideration for the local resettlement community.”

Citing the challenges the thousands of refugees already in the city face in terms of housing, education and employment, Gatsas later sought a moratorium on new arrivals, asking the Executive Council to withhold federal contracts to IINH and other resettlement agencies. The contracts were eventually approved.

Manchester Ward 3 alderman Pat Long, who headed a commission to study the refugee problems in Manchester, said he approached IINH officials months ago about the possibility of spreading out the 200 incoming refugees to other communities around the Queen City.

“There is a stipulation that resettlement take place within 50 miles of the local state office,” said Long. “The IINH office is located in Manchester, so we were asking that they look at other communities within 50 miles of the city as well. Nashua was one of them, and when I heard there were 50 refugees headed there, I thought at first they were part of the group of 200, but that’s not the case. The IINH has applied for and been approved to receive 50 additional refugees.”

[....]

“When we’ve questioned them in the past, the IINH always points out that these are families they are trying to keep together, that the refugees have family members here they are coming to be with,” said Long. “So my concern with this is, when the institute money runs out, and this group leaves Nashua, they likely have family here in Manchester. So it’s likely they will head here as well.”

[.....]

…. Lozeau said she has many concerns.

“It’s not enough to bring them just because you have federal money and the OK to do so,” she said. “Without doing the proper due diligence work, you are setting them up to fail, and that doesn’t benefit anyone.  [including the citizens and taxpayers of the resettlement city---ed]

* The International Institute of New Hampshire is a subcontractor of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, here.  USCRI is headed by Lavinia Limon, here, who ran the whole federal Office of Refugee Resettlement for Clinton.  She revolved out of the government door and into the government contractor door!

For more information, type ‘New Hampshire’ into our search function for dozens and dozens of posts on problems there.

Watch for Part II about what you can do in your towns and cities!

Media and Muslims: It’s always about the poor maligned Muslim Rohingya

I’ve been writing about the Rohingya (Bengalis) for years and have watched the Muslim grievance lobby, human rights agitators, and government contractors sucker the media into believing that everything evil in Burma has nothing to do with Rohingya (they are only, and always! the poor victims) and has everything to do with Buddhist racism toward Muslims.

It is infuriating, but fascinating too, to watch the Leftists/open borders/human rights cabal and their media lapdogs build the case that the Rohingya Muslims are never the aggressor and will surely, and soon, renew their push to get them to the West as refugees.  I think they just got momentarily distracted by the hordes of Syrians and they need to work those drums—save the Syrians and send us money—before properly renewing the push for bringing Rohingya to your neighborhoods.

To make my case against the media….

Ethnic conflicts stirred again recently in Burma (aka Myanmar) between the Rohingya Muslims and the majority Buddhists.  Here is the headline of a story at The Nation earlier this week—“10 dead, mosques destroyed in Myanmar unrest.”

The casual reader might conclude that once again the bad evil Buddhists have killed ten Muslims and are busy burning down their mosques.  But, read the story and see that it is unclear who exactly is to blame and who is dead.  A tip-off might be in the seventh paragraph:

Police said several mosques were destroyed and a Buddhist monk was among two killed on Wednesday, but they did not give an updated toll for Thursday.

So, at least one Buddhist was killed—a monk!  Did that start the riots?  I don’t know, but the headline of the story was clearly written to make it look like once again the long-suffering Rohingya were being persecuted.

Fire in a refugee camp in Thailand

Then just across the border in Thailand there are huge refugee camps and unfortunately a wind-whipped fire killed dozens last week.

Here is the story from the Bangkok Post (titled: 35 die in fire at Karen refugee camp)

The Karen are Christians from Burma.

Karen refugees take shelter on the road near the Ban Mae Surin refugee camp on Friday night after fire burned down their thatch huts. (AP Photo)

MAE HONG SON: Rescue workers picked through the ashes of hundreds of shelters on Saturday after a ferocious blaze swept through a camp for Karen refugees in Mae Hong Son, killing 35 people.

Around 100 people were injured in the fire that broke out Friday night at the Mae Surin camp, provincial governor Narumol Paravat told AFP by telephone, giving a reduced toll from the 45 dead previously stated.

[....]

Security sources said the blaze was not an act of sabotage.

However, investigators are trying to determine if the blaze was caused by an accidental cooking fire, or by sparks blown from forest fires that have been burning in the area.

[....]

“We have been able to get into the camp with food supplies and plastic sheets for shelters,” said Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR.

The camp, located about 90 kilometres west of Mae Hong Son, town houses about 3,300 Karen refugees, she said.

It is one of nine refugee camps on the Thai-Myanmar border set up more than two decades ago to offer asylum for ethnic Karen fleeing the fighting between the Myanmar army and rebel troops.

Same unrest in Burma, same camp in Thailand, same fire, but Muslim publication!

Incredibly here is the story about both incidents in a Muslim news agency report (titled: Fire at Rohingya camp in Thailand kills 42).

Sub-heading:

A blaze at a refugee camp for Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar in northern Thailand leaves at least 42 people dead and dozens injured, the provincial governor says.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – “The latest death toll we can confirm through military walkie-talkies is 42,” Mae Hong Son provincial governor Narumol Paravat told AFP on Saturday.

The official added that the death toll from Friday’s fire was likely to increase further as rescue workers are searching the area.    [Fascinating!  No mention of Rohingya dead here, but yet the title leaves the reader assuming the dead are Rohingya!---ed]

Hundreds of Myanmar’s Muslim residents have fled their homes following the eruption of fresh clashes between extremist Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Meiktila, located some 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of the capital city of Naypyidaw.

At least 20 people have lost their lives in clashes late on Wednesday after extremist Buddhists set fire to several mosques in the city.  [No mention here that a Buddhist monk died---ed]

Following three days of deadly unrest, Myanmar President Thein Sein on Friday announced a state of emergency in the town of Meiktila.

Myanmar’s government refuses to recognize Rohingya Muslims as citizens and labels the minority of about 800,000 as “illegal” immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

Readers, I’ve been following this biased news on the Rohingya for five years now (135 posts)—it is so frustrating to watch!  And, based on this type of reporting, your US federal refugee contractors will surely be telling the State Department we need to bring more Rohingya to America in 2014 to add to our collection of thousands and thousands of other Burmese ethnic group members already here.

Update March 26th:  Hackers involved with “Anonymous” have created a twitter storm to help fuel the one-sided story of evil racist Nazi Buddhist monks vs. the good pure poor and maligned Rohingya Muslims.  Here is just one report on what is happening.