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U.N. seeks massive help for Rohingya fleeing Myanmar 'ethnic cleansing'

9 Comments
By Serajul Quadir and Wa Lone

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9 Comments
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The Rohingya are not Burmese and are not recognized as such.

What other countries would tolerate illegal settling of sovereign land like this?

2 ( +6 / -4 )

The question which has never been clearly answered by NGOs and aid agencies is who exactly are the Rohingya and what definitive criteria can be used to determine whether someone is or is not part of this ethnic group.

Are the Rohingya limited to the relatively small number of Burmese Muslims who most people acknowledge have been in Burma for decades or even centuries (and who are eligible for naturalised citizenship under Burmese law if their ancestors were in Burma prior to 1948), or does the definition of Rohingya now include the hundreds of thousands of Bengalis who fled to Burma to escape the violence in Bangladesh during the 1980s and 90s? The latter group makes up the vast majority of people caught up in this crisis. Needless to say, burning villages and forcing illegal immigrants out of the country through fear and violence is unacceptable.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

The biggest fear of some experts on the issue is the fraying of relations with Bangladesh. Some are saying this could lead to an armed conflict between the 2 nations as Bangladesh is already straining under rohingha already there.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

One thing we can all agree on, Rohingya refugees can't be accused of being 'economic migrants'.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

One thing we can all agree on, Rohingya refugees can't be accused of being 'economic migrants'.

I completely agree. It's hugely unfortunate that the world is suffering from 'refugee fatigue' at the precise moment that it should be mobilising to help these people who are genuinely being targeted and persecuted by their own state.

However, it's also a bit ironic. At the height of the European migrant crisis, I (and many others) were warning the 'open borders' advocates that if we allowed hundreds of thousands of dubious asylum seekers to make a mockery of the international refugee protection system by letting them cut through border fences, assault police, and pass through multiple safe countries to reach their preffered destinations, it would be genuine refugees who would eventually pay the price once the general public lost confidence in the system and became cynical about all asylum seekers. I hate to say 'I told you so', but we now see that happening at the worst possible time.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Rohingya are denied Myanmar citizenship as they are Muslim, they are discriminated against in Myanmar because they are Muslim, Myanmar is ethnically cleaning Muslims in Rakhine. Despite all this people are excusing the actions of the Myanmar government and blaming the victims.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

As Donald Trump would say, there are two sides to blame here.

First off, no one likes to see innocent Kids being mutilated by landmines. That, regardless whoever planted them is completely out of order, and a War Crime. Period.

Secondly, we look towards the President of Myanmar as being the top of the Blame chain here. Though there appears to be another side to this story, one which could be, a more subtle way of achieving a long term goal to remove the Military grip upon power within the country through an absence of action against them... (which some have also said would have reverted to the old ways of a total Military state otherwise), so perhaps the Rohingya are sadly a Pawn in a long term struggle for Freedom for the Country as a whole ?

We should have a more unbiased review of the situation in order to draw proper conclusions ourselves over this situation.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Strange non of the oil rich Muslim nations don't lift a finger. Hardly Islamic.

Compare that to the much maligned Jewish state.

Hard to believe we're seeing this stuff in 2017. There is something wrong with our race.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

UlsterBoyToday  12:03 am JST

As Donald Trump would say, there are two sides to blame here.

You are right. There are. One side is the Myanmar military. The other is a very small group of terrorists who happen to also be Rohingya. The problem is that since Rohingya are usually Muslim, far too many commentators on this problem are just assuming that all Rohingya deserve the punitive actions of the Myanmar military, because in their twisted, tiny little hateful minds, all Muslims are automatically terrorists. And the Myanmar military is exploiting that mental defect in order to commit ethnic cleansing.

The end result is people then come in and feel justified making a "two sides" argument that balances a few Rohingya committing violence against a few innocent Burmese, versus many Burmese committing violence against many innocent Rohingya. See, it's "two sides". Never mind that one side involves far more innocent victims having their lives destroyed by far more people with far more power, if the violence is not 100% one-directional we can feel comfortable convincing ourselves that on some level the victims probably deserved it and move on to more important things, like who is directing the next Star Wars movie.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

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