The April 28 forced closure of two madrassas in downtown Yangon by a mob of ultra-nationalist protestors backed by Buddhist monks was the latest indication that anti-Muslim vehemence is still a virulent undercurrent of instability in Myanmar’s unconsolidated democratic transition. Two Islamic schools in the former capital’s Thaketa township were padlocked by protestors who alleged…
The plight of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority from Myanmar, mirrors the struggle of the Palestinians, the Sahrawi and other oppressed Muslim groups which have suffered from decades of relentless state-backed persecution Farouk’s restrained manner contrasted unsettlingly with the slow creep of tears along the fringes of his cheeks. A fine-featured, skeletal middle-aged man, (his…
Since Rohingya militant attacks on Myanmar border police last October and the a retaliatory security force crackdown, an uneasy lull has descended over northern Rakhine State. Major military-led “area clearance operations” have given way to occasional arrests of suspected militants. On February 9, an earlier 11 hour evening to early morning curfew was reduced to…
Myanmar’s security forces have committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned down villages since October in a campaign that likely amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing, according to the United Nations. “The ‘area clearance operations’ have likely resulted in hundreds of deaths,” a report from the UN’s human…
The Southeast Asian state of Myanmar has recently become the epicentre of an expanding humanitarian crisis. But because the current government of Myanmar is headed by a regime favoured by American and European interests, little attention and even less action has been given to the conflict. A January 10, 2017 Guardian article titled, “65,000 Rohingya…
The Rohingyas are a people struck by tragedy. Persecuted in their home country, Myanmar, over 65,000 of them have fled to Bangladesh between October 9, 2016, and January 5, 2017, according to a report from the United Nations Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs. Every day, as reported by The Daily Star, scores of Rohingya…
