Over the past two years, ethnic clashes have displaced more than two hundred thousand people in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, creating a humanitarian disaster that is fast turning into ethnic cleansing. I visited the region in 2013 to meet Arakanese Buddhist extremists in the state capital of Sittwe: a once-multicultural seaside town that has now been purged of all its Rohingya Muslim residents. The Arakanese claim that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants intent on conquering their peaceful ancestral homeland. Rohingya neighbourhoods and villages have thus been torched, and their residents have been herded into abysmal IDP camps. Having lived in Rakhine state for generations, the Rohingya have absolutely nowhere to run…
I wrote about the humanitarian disaster in Rakhine State for the Toronto Star‘s ‘World Weekly’ section. For a closer look at the roots of Arakanese extremism, see the cover story of the June 2013 Southeast Asia Globe.
“A FLOOD OF HATE”
Toronto Star – World Weekly
May 18, 2013
WEB or PDF
“WE ARE THE MIDDLE EAST”
Southeast Asia Globe
June 2013
WEB or PDF
(& box 1, box 2, box 3)
Daniel Otis 