Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Myanmar’s persecuted ethnic Muslim minority, the Rohingyas, have fled mass violence since late August. Though the government has dismissed their mass exodus as the fallout of a crackdown on terrorism, the survivors who have escaped the country report that both the state and the militant Buddhist majority have gone on a rampage of genocidal violence, military impunity, and vicious displacement. The aggression, say human-rights observers, is rooted in a systemic pattern of ethnic cleansing that has deep historical roots. So far the government, headed by the de facto civilian leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi, has framed the conflict as a clash between two militant factions.
We speak to London-based human rights activist Maung Zarni, observing the horror unfolding in his homeland from afar, about what’s really happening in Rakhine state.
