Genocide by any other name -- New Internationalist

Genocide by any other name -- New Internationalist



 Genocide by any other name

The migrant emergency surrounding the plight of the Rohingya refugees, thousands of whom remain stranded in the Andaman Sea, has made headlines over the past week. The attention their attempts at escaping Burma via boat has received comes as no surprise, given the part that it plays in the larger narrative of the migrant crisis faced by our generation. However, a vital aspect of the Rohingya story, largely unspoken by the media, is the genocide of their people, of which there have been repeated warning signs that have been consistently ignored.

The Rohingya community, an ethnic minority made up of around 1.3 million people in Burma, face systematic oppression at the hands of Burma’s government. They are denied citizenship and basic human rights by the authorities, and the treatment they face threatens the entire existence of their people. They have no choice but to live under conditions of apartheid in Burma, and their oppression can be understood within a broader context surrounding the conflict between the Rakhine community, a Buddhist ethnic majority, and the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority. 

The world needs to recognize the reasons for the current 'plight of the Rohingya' (as this photo is called).
AK Rockefeller under a Creative Commons Licence