Entire villages have been burned to the ground. Women have been raped. Rohingya refugees report that soldiers shot at them as they fled. Along the border with Bangladesh, there are reports that the military has laid land mines to ensure those fleeing won’t return. Though independent observers have no access to the region, the Myanmar government now says 175 villages in the region — 30 percent of all Rohingya villages — are empty. [...]
Meanwhile, in a Facebook post on Sunday, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of Myanmar’s military, was dismissive: “They have demanded recognition as Rohingya, which has never been an ethnic group in Myanmar.” [...]
The world has turned to Aung San Suu Kyi — a dissident turned political leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and was often likened to Nelson Mandela — for answers. Now that she has become Myanmar’s de facto top civilian leader, she’s being widely criticized for failing to speak out against the violence. She abruptly canceled a planned trip to New York for next week’s United Nations General Assembly as her critics grew louder. On Sunday, UN Secretary General António Guterres told the BBC, “She will have a chance to reverse the situation, if she does not reverse the situation now, the tragedy will be absolutely horrible.” He was referring to a speech she is expected to deliver on Tuesday. [...]
In Myanmar, even the word “Rohingya” itself is taboo: The country’s leaders do not use it, and some asked the international community not to use the name. Buddhist leaders instead refer to Rohingya as “Bengali” — in essence labeling them immigrants and foreigners from Bangladesh. They are not included among the 135 ethnic minorities officially recognized by the state. State leaders consider them foreign interlopers with no real ties to the country.
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