“With each passing day, the current government is starting to look more and more like the pre-2010 government”Rico says he'd been told they were always such a peaceful people...
A curtain fell on western Burma on 9 October 2016, the moment after police said Islamic militants attacked three security outposts along the border with Bangladesh, killing nine officers. Since that announcement six weeks ago, more than a hundred people have been killed, hundreds have been detained by the military, more than a hundred and fifty thosuand aid-reliant people have been left without food and medical care, dozens of women claim to have been sexually assaulted, more than twelve hundred buildings appear to have been razed, and at least thirty thousand people have fled for their lives.
Humanitarian workers and independent journalists have been banned from affected areas as the Burmese army, known locally as the Tatmadaw, carries out what it calls “clearance operations”. The government, which is headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, said that those killed were jihadists, information that was gleaned, it said, through interrogations. The government said the rape allegations were false. It said that Muslim terrorists burned down the buildings themselves in an attempt to frame the army for abuse and claim international assistance.
Counterterrorism operations are still under way in Maungdaw, the northernmost township of Arakan state, also known as Rakhine. The township is mostly populated by Rohingya Muslims, a minority that is denied citizenship and is viewed as one of the world’s most persecuted peoples. Elsewhere in the state, as in much of Burma, Buddhists are the majority. There are an estimated one million Rohingya in Burma. They are systematically denied political representation and demonized in the national media. They are so geographically and economically isolated that tens of thousands have fled on dangerous boat voyages, attempting to reach Malaysia.
Suu Kyi, whose party secured a landslide win in elections in November of 2015, has made few public remarks on the conflict simmering along the country’s western coast. While human-rights advocates have criticized her silence, some political analysts say the issue has exposed the limits of her power, as the military still controls the key Ministries of Home Affairs, Border Affairs, and Defense.
As Burmese continue to suffer politically and economically, many head to Thailand and find things can get worse
Events since 9 October have been bleak. It is difficult to envision a positive outcome for the Rohingya, who have been subjected to what Human Rights Watch has called ethnic cleansing. Others have claimed that the Burmese government has laid the groundwork for genocide. There are also allegations that some among this marginalized community may have turned to violent extremism. This unknown number of suspected militants, armed with sticks, spears, slingshots, and a few hundred stolen firearms, has summoned the force of one of Asia’s most formidable national armies against an entire community of poor and disenfranchised villagers.
This is how the events in Arakan unfolded:9 October: Police said three border-guard posts were attacked by hundreds of Islamic militants, killing nine policemen. Eight assailants were reportedly killed by security personnel immediately following the attacks. Police initially claimed the attackers had links to a group called the Rohingya Solidarity Organization, a militant group that is largely believed to have been defunct for decades. The area was put on military lockdown and declared a counterterrorism “operation zone.”Within days of the lockdown, more than eight hundred Arakanese Buddhists arrived in the state capital of Sittwe. More than twelve hundred Muslims fled their villages and sought shelter in Buthidaung town. State media reported that Buddhists were being evacuated by helicopter, citing safety concerns; Buddhists reportedly feared that their villages would be ambushed by mobs of armed Muslims.
Read More: The Military Continues to Search for Suspected Jihadists in Western Burma
10 October: Humanitarian aid was completely suspended. Troops were deployed to the areas surrounding Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and Rathedaung towns in northern Arakan state. An estimated two hundred thousand people in the area normally receive life-saving assistance from the World Food Program and other UN agencies.
The New York Times reported that a dozen people may have been extrajudicially killed since the initial attacks.
21 November 2016
Something shocking Is happening to Burma’s Rohingya.
From Time, an article by Feliz Solomon about trouble in Burma:
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