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Myanmar Update: Plight of the Rohingya Continues
Myanmar’s shame
Poverty, politics and despair are forcing thousands of Rohingyas to flee Myanmar. The authorities remain woefully indifferent to their plight
The Economist
23 May 2015
SITTWE — The Rohingyas have often been called the most persecuted people in the world—with good reason. Most have lived in Rakhine state in western Myanmar for generations, yet have always been denied citizenship by the government. Indeed, they are not even recognised as one of the country’s 135 official ethnic groups. Over the decades these Muslim non-people, without legal or any other sort of protection, have been the victims of wanton discrimination and violence by both the virulently anti-Muslim Rakhines, a Buddhist ethnic group, and agents of the central government. One of the few things Rakhines and members of the ethnic Burmese majority have in common is a shared hatred of the “Bengalis”, a label they both apply to Rohingyas with contempt.
After two bouts of vicious ethnic cleansing by Rakhine nationalists in 2012, about 140,000 of an estimated 1.1m Rohingyas fled into refugee camps. They have not been allowed to leave. Growing numbers have been trying to escape by sea to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. An unprecedented 25,000 of them, including Rohingyas from neighbouring Bangladesh, got on boats during the first quarter of this year, desperate to get out before the start of the tropical monsoon season renders travelling all but impossible. And unprecedented numbers are dying in the attempt: about 300 between January and March, and more since…
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