Newly arrived and long-term Rohingya refugees close to the Kutupalong makeshift refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar District, Southeastern Bangladesh, Nov 21, 2016. Source: Amnesty International
BY AUSTIN BODETTI
Myanmar has suffered sectarian conflict between its Buddhist majority and its Muslim minorities, in particular the Rohingya, for decades. The backlash against the Islamic-inspired terrorism of recent years, however, has provided Myanmar’s government a convenient excuse to expand its anti-Muslim pogrom and purge the Rohingya from the country under the guise of counterterrorism.
On October 9, 2016, what appears to have been a paramilitary of machete-wielding Rohingya insurgents ambushed a police station in Rakhine State in the west of the country, killing nine Buddhist policemen and wounding another five. The government, which confines thousands of Rohingya in segregated camps that been likened to concentration camps, responded by blaming the attacks on a group of religious extremists, allegedly led by a Rohingya expatriate trained by the Pakistani Taliban. The link to a transnational terrorist group allowed Myanmar to portray itself as the newest victim in the global “war on terror.” Read more
