A Rohingya Muslim from Myanmar who tried to cross the Naf river into Bangladesh to escape sectarian violence, cries near his family in a Bangladeshi Coast guard station in Teknaf before being sent back to Myanmar on June 19, 2012.
Many of the foot soldiers during the long push for democracy in Burma were Buddhist monks, who proved virtually fearless in the face of repression by the country’s former junta. Now that the worst of those days are over—and the rule of the generals have given way to the presidency of Thein Sein, a reformist from their midst—the monks have come out again to give voice to another sentiment popular in the land: the expulsion of the Rohingya. Thein Sein, a former military man, has said that he wants the Muslim migrants, who hail from neighboring Bangladesh, forced out of the country—and the monks agree. Unfortunately, that has led to the deaths of nearly 100 Rohingya, the flight to an unwelcoming Bangladesh by thousands of others and nearly 800,000 living in limbo and fearful of their lives and future. The U.N. has criticized the Burmese government’s declarations but the country—itself divided among several bellicose ethnic groups—seems united in its animosity toward the Rohingya. Even acclaimed Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has issued only ambiguous statements on the subject. Democracy and human rights are fine demands for the Burmese; but don’t ask them to hand out the same to the Rohingya.
