Rohingya flee military assaults in Myanmar

Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Fleeing attacks from Myanmar’s military, over 300,000 Rohingya, a Muslim nationality, have crossed the border into Bangladesh since Aug. 25. Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands are trapped without food or medicine. Soldiers have set hundreds of buildings on fire, leveling entire villages. The new refugees join some 500,000 Rohingyas in Bangladesh, where they face a hostile government and difficult living conditions.

Bangladeshi authorities have revived plans to relocate tens of thousands of Rohingya to Thengar Char, an uninhabited island in the Bay of Bengal, in the path of monsoons and flooding. There are no roads or buildings on Thengar Char, which only emerged from the sea 11 years ago.

Some 1 million Rohingya, who had been living in Myanmar’s majority-Muslim Rakhine state in a country that is 90 percent Buddhist, have long faced government persecution. Since 1982 they’ve been denied citizenship. Hundreds of thousands are restricted to tented camps and prevented from moving freely.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader and a Nobel Peace Prize winner for protesting military rule for which she spent 15 years under house arrest, has commended the army on its operations against the Rohingya.

The government blames the murders, arson and expulsion push on “terrorists,” referring to a small Rohingya guerrilla force that has attacked a few police posts and an army base. Protests against the treatment of the Rohingya have taken place in several countries, including Turkey, Indonesia, India and Iran.

— BRIAN WILLIAMS