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By Syed Zain Al-Mahmood
September 29, 2017

Witnesses describe military’s massacre of Rohingya Muslims, sparking a humanitarian crisis

TEKNAF, Bangladesh— Twelve-year-old Sukhutara said she watched her family’s final moments from a hiding place in the bushes.

She had just finished taking the cows to pasture that morning when soldiers in olive-green uniform stormed her village in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. She said her absence saved her life.

“The military shot my father, and then as he lay on the ground a soldier cut his throat,” she said.

In a refugee camp on the border, Sukhutara, who goes by one name, sobbed as she described how troops dragged her mother and several other women into a hut. She heard screams from inside. Then the soldiers came out and set the hut ablaze.

Sukhutara, a 12-year-old Rohingya girl, inside a makeshift camp in Teknaf, Bangladesh. She said the Myanmar army killed eight members of her family in an assault on their village in Rakhine on Aug. 30. PHOTO: SYED ZAIN AL-MAHMOOD FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

In recent weeks, Myanmar’s army has launched a counterinsurgency in Rakhine, clearing villages inhabited by the Rohingya Muslim minority and prompting at least 500,000 people to flee into Bangladesh, the United Nations said Thursday. The military and army-backed militias have killed about 3,000 people, according to Bangladesh’s government and rights groups. 

The U.N. Security Council met Thursday to debate the crisis as a bipartisan group of senators in Washington urged the Trump administration to help resolve it. “Despite international condemnation, the Burmese authorities incredibly continue to deny the atrocities,” they said in a letter.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who leads the government of Buddhist-majority Myanmar, says troops have been hunting militants of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army who attacked police posts and an army base Aug. 25.

Myanmar rejects survivors’ accounts that the military committed rape, murder, and torched villages. “We did not do any kind of their accusations,” Col. Phone Tint, Myanmar’s border affairs minister, said in an interview.

Reports of atrocities have pressured Ms. Suu Kyi, who in a speech last week defended Myanmar’s treatment of Rohingya.

Ms. Suu Kyi serves as state counselor but the military controls certain ministries, including defense.

A spokesman for Ms. Suu Kyi said the military had conducted “clearance operations” in accordance with its code of conduct and rules of engagement. Anyone who wished to file a case against the military could do so and it would be investigated in accordance with the law, he said.

Sukhutara’s account was verified by other survivors from her village who spoke to The Wall Street Journal. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say there is evidence of such atrocities. The United Nations’ human-rights chief of has described the army’s clearances as “ethnic cleansing.”

Close observers of Myanmar say the army’s operation was modeled on the “Four Cuts” strategy former dictator Gen. Ne Win employed against rebels in the 1970s: targeting civilian areas to deny insurgents food, funds, recruits and information.

“The army didn’t want to be bogged down in a counterinsurgency in Rakhine, taking casualties over a number of years,” said Richard Horsey, an independent political analyst in Myanmar. “They were perfectly willing to destroy entire villages to deny safe haven to the fighters of ARSA.”

Tulatoli, the village where Sukhutara lived, was home to between 4,000 and 5,000 people before the massacre. It was victim to among the worst violence in the military’s campaign, with witnesses saying that at least several hundred people were killed. 

Sukhutara said she lost eight close relatives: her parents, grandparents and four brothers. Her uncle, Jahur Alam, with whom she now lives in the refugee camp, said there were no militants in Tulatoli when the army swept in on Aug. 30.

“If there were militants in the village, we would have fled as soon as the troops approached,” he said at a camp in Bangladesh, his arm in a sling after he was shot. “The military killed the men, raped the women, they threw little children into the water.”

The numbers of Rohingya pouring into Bangladesh have overwhelmed aid services. 

Bangladesh says the refugees won’t be allowed to integrate into the community and that Myanmar must take them back. Bangladesh police chief Shahidul Haque said any Rohingya trying to leave the camps would be detained.

Security forces and allied militias have burned down thousands of Rohingya homes in Rakhine, Myannar. Above, a house smolders in Gawdu Zara village in September. PHOTO: /ASSOCIATED PRESS

Political analysts and human-rights activists say the Rohingya face a bleak future in the overcrowded camps where there will be little prospect for employment or education.

“Desperate Rohingya men could fall prey to recruiters from transnational jihadist organizations,” said Shafqat Munir, a security analyst in Dhaka. “They could be exploited by criminal gangs.”

Many Rohingya have paid smugglers to take them to Muslim-majority countries like Malaysia over the years—a perilous voyage across the Bay of Bengal. With so many Rohingya languishing in camps, the boats are likely to sail for Malaysia again when the weather improves in a couple of months.

A 45-year-old boat owner in Teknaf said his men had stopped fishing and were ferrying Rohingya out of Rakhine into Bangladesh—for a price.

“Rohingya in Malaysia are sending money through informal channels to get their family members out of Rakhine,” he said, adding that the journey to Bangladesh cost $100 to $300 a head.

The boat owner said he is looking forward to the winter months when his boats will sail under cover of darkness to Thailand and Malaysia.

“What can these people do?” he said. “We will offer them a way out.”

Yusuf Ali, a 30-year-old Rohingya man in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh, said he had been sneaking out to work as a laborer in a nearby village to earn some cash for his family. He said he gets paid about $1.20 a day, a third of what local laborers earn. He wants to join his elder brother and two cousins in Malaysia once they send money to pay agents.

“There is no future for us here,” he said.

PHOTO: PAULA BRONSTEIN/GETTY IMAGES

Top, boats of Rohingya refugees arrived from Myanmar along the shores of the Naf River in Bangladesh in late September. Above, rescue workers carried the bodies of Rohingya children who died after their boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal during such a journey. PHOTO: DAR YASIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Malaysia’s coast guard recently said it was ramping up patrols in preparation for an influx of Rohingya refugees.

“We will try to find a diplomatic solution for them to stay in Bangladesh or go back to Myanmar first,” Nur Jazlan Mohamed, Malaysia’s deputy home minister, said in an interview.

Rohingya families arriving in Bangladesh this week told of continuing military attacks.

Rizwana, 20 years old, said her village, Hasurata, was attacked by the army and Rakhine militia on Sept. 16. She said only a handful of villagers made it out. Her husband was among the dead.

“They seized him by the beard and cut his throat,” she said.

Rizwana said she crawled into the bushes with two of her children. After the soldiers left, they joined other villagers on a six-day trek to Bangladesh. Her youngest child, 6 years old, died on the way, she said.

—Myo Myo in Yangon and Yantoultra Ngui in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this article.

The Unchiprang Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. PHOTO: ALLISON JOYCE/GETTY IMAGES
Rohingya migrants scramble for food supplies dropped by Thai army helicopters in the Andaman Sea near Thailand. PHOTO: AFP/GETTY IMAGES


By Surin Pitsuwan
December 8, 2016

Being denied their basic human rights has left them stateless and suffering—and prone to radicalization.

Four years ago, violence between Muslim and Buddhist communities in Burma’s Rakhine state left scores dead and entire villages smoldering in ash. Some 140,000 people, mostly ethnic Rohingya, were internally displaced, and tens of thousands more fled by land and sea to countries stretching from India to Malaysia. 

As secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations at the time, I called for a regional response to provide humanitarian assistance to the displaced and alleviate the suffering of the Rohingya. They have lived in Burma for generations but are excluded from citizenship by virtue of their ethnicity. 

Neglecting their plight, I feared, would entrench the segregation of Rakhine state along ethnic and religious lines, breed conflict, and potentially radicalize a desperate minority. And it would not be Burma’s problem alone; security concerns and an outflow of refugees would implicate the entire region.

I wish I was wrong. Two months ago, a small group of alleged Rohingya militants stormed a Burmese border post in the town of Maungdaw, near Bangladesh. They staged several more attacks in the following days and weeks, killing a number of security personnel and looting weapons. This is the first time in decades that any Rohingya are suspected of taking up arms.

The Burmese military responded in force, killing dozens of suspected militants. In some cases, it burned homes in a security-clearance operation. Human-rights groups and some of the thousands of Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh in recent weeks have said that the military response is indiscriminate and excessive, with disturbing reports of mass killings and rape.

The security operation also prevented the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies from providing lifesaving aid to tens of thousands of Rohingya. They depend on that aid because, being stateless, they have no regular access to livelihoods. 

In recent weeks, peaceful demonstrations have sprung up across the region protesting Burma’s treatment of the Rohingya. But as I implored four years ago, this is not Burma’s problem alone. It is time all of us in the region accept some measure of responsibility for the Rohingya and begin working together to solve the problem. 

Naysayers may point to the Asean principle of noninterference, but there is a precedent for this kind of regional cooperation. In 2008, I helped mobilize an Asean-led humanitarian response inside Burma after Cyclone Nargis tore through large swaths of the country. If that was possible when the country was still closed to the world, surely it is possible now in a newly democratic Burma.

The effort must begin inside Burma. Humanitarian and human-rights organizations should be granted unfettered access so that they can resume aid and independently investigate whether abuses have been perpetrated by the military and the militants. Basic human rights, especially the freedom of movement, should be restored to Rohingya in Rakhine state so that they can find work and go to school. Other countries can help: Malaysia and Thailand, which have done a remarkable job regularizing large groups of stateless persons, could provide guidance on how to replicate that experience for the Rohingya in Burma.

Enfranchising Rohingya is only the first bulwark against radicalization. Equal opportunity must follow. To ease intercommunal tension and build trust, the whole of Rakhine state should be integrated into Burma’s ambitious development plans, but also into the Asean Economic Community.

Helping the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in the region is also part of South and Southeast Asia’s responsibility. Almost none have a legal right to work. Malaysia has just announced a pilot work program for 300 Rohingya; other countries should follow suit so that refugees can find gainful employment, contribute to their host communities and support relatives still in Burma.

Paradoxically, the countries that have seen the largest demonstrations in support of the Rohingya—Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand—are the same ones that pushed boats carrying Rohingya refugees back out to sea in May 2015. Thousands of Rohingya languish in immigration detention in these countries because they couldn’t obtain a passport in Burma. They had no choice, therefore, but to enter these countries illegally. We need to stop punishing them for simply exercising their right to seek asylum from persecution.

That right is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly 68 years ago this Saturday. It was the same year that the Union of Burma became an independent country. On Dec. 10, 1948, in one of its inaugural roll calls at the General Assembly, Burma was drawn by lot to cast the first vote on the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It voted in favor.

Burma can lead the way forward again, but only if the countries of South and Southeast Asia stand behind it. Inside the country and out, the Rohingya are our neighbors. They live in all our communities. At a time when so much of the world seems to be turning inward, ours can be one region that reaches out and embraces our diversity. Only then will the troubled history of the Rohingya stop repeating itself.

Mr. Surin is a former secretary-general of Asean and a former foreign minister of Thailand.

Foreign Minister and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi in Naypyitaw, Burma, June 28. PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

By Shirin Ebadi
The Wall Street Journal
July 1, 2016

Why won’t my fellow Nobelist Aung San Suu Kyi help a Muslim minority?

In advance of a United Nations envoy’s visit to the country, Burmese officials in June instructed U.N. officials to refer to Burma’s Muslim minority as “people who believe in Islam in Rakhine state.” This is the latest chapter in what has become a tragic campaign to reassure Buddhist nationalists that the government will continue to oppress the Rohingya—even to the point of denying them their name and citizenship in Burma.

Sadly, this campaign is being led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

After decades of defiant activism, house arrest and unimaginable personal sacrifice, Ms. Suu Kyi is finally in a position to bring democracy to her country. Ms. Suu Kyi’s party won Burma’s national elections in November 2015, and this spring, in addition to being named foreign minister, she was appointed state counselor, the de facto prime minister. The new title effectively gives her the power to run Burma.

I’m sure it is a responsibility that my fellow Nobel peace laureate—a woman who was under house arrest off and on for more than two decades—takes very seriously. Yet those of us who spoke up for Aung San Suu Kyi those many years when her human rights were being violated—including His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu—are deeply pained that she won’t extend the same respect for human rights to Burma’s more than one million Rohingya.

Like thousands of human-rights defenders around the world, we have also called upon Burma to respect the rights of other political prisoners and minorities in Burma—including the Karen, the Shan and the Chin. Global human-rights organizations, along with courageous grass roots organizations in Burma, have documented how the Burmese military and state have suppressed these minorities through religious persecution, killings, rape, disappearances, torture and other crimes against humanity.

After at least 100 Rohingya were killed during 2012 riots and clashes with Buddhists in Rakhine state, we spoke out publicly to help Burma’s Muslim minority.

As a Muslim woman, I feel it is my particular responsibility to ring the alarm bells about the Burmese government’s campaign against the Rohingya. Burma has long denied the Rohingya the recognition and basic rights, like access to education and freedom of movement, that citizenship would afford. Since the riots, more than 140,000 Rohingya have been forced into refugee camps, and many of them now live in conditions much resembling concentration camps. Tens of thousands have risked losing their lives to make the dangerous journey by sea in overcrowded boats to leave Rakhine state.

The Buddhist majority in Burma—even many seasoned democracy activists—seem to see no contradiction in their call for democracy and the cruel and inhumane treatment of the Rohingya. This includes Aung San Suu Kyi.

This is grimly ironic, given that her supporters—including me—have for many years defiantly rejected the word Myanmar, the name assigned to the country by the autocratic military that ran the country since 1962. We respected the fact that Ms. Suu Kyi and her followers called themselves Burmese, and the country Burma.

So how can Ms. Suu Kyi now turn her back on the Rohingya?

I have paid a high price in my life advocating for freedom, including defending the rights of the Bah’ai, a religious minority, in Iran. Since 2009, I have been forced to live outside of Iran—and have lost not only my home but also my marriage and many friends. But I strongly believe there is no other way to live. Up until recently, I thought that Ms. Suu Kyi and I shared this conviction.

In May, Ms. Suu Kyi’s party announced that she will head up a committee dedicated to promoting peace and development in Rakhine state. The announcement said the committee—which reportedly will include 27 members of the new cabinet—will “coordinate” the activities of U.N. agencies and international nongovernmental organizations in that state.

This looks suspiciously more like an effort to further tighten her government’s authoritarian control over the region than a response to a human-rights crisis. Let’s hope not. I’ll be the first to applaud if my sister Nobel peace laureate bravely ignores the internal pressure to dehumanize the Rohingya and instead stands up for their rights.

Ms. Ebadi, the author of “Until We Are Free: My Fight for Human Rights in Iran” (Random House, 2016) and a co-founder of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003.

Buddhist monks outside the U.S. Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar, on April 28, protesting its use of “Rohingya” to describe Myanmar's stateless Muslims. Photo: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

By Shibani Mahtani and Myo Myo

Myanmar advises embassies not to call country’s stateless Muslim minority ‘Rohingya’

YANGON, Myanmar — The foreign ministry here, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, has advised embassies to stop using the term “Rohingya” to describe the country’s stateless Muslim minority, acceding to a demand by hard-line Buddhists. 

Nationalist groups, who view Rohingya as an Islamist threat to Myanmar’s Buddhist majority, insist they be called “Bengalis,” implying they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Many Rohingya say they have lived in Myanmar for generations and are a distinct ethnic group. 

Kyaw Zay Ya, a deputy director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed that the advisory was sent to diplomats this week. “We have never accepted this term,” he said.

Boys stand among debris after fire at a camp for Rohingya destroyed many shelters. Photo: soe zeya tun/Reuters

The previous, military-linked government similarly rejected the use of Rohingya in favor of Bengali. 

In an interview, Mr. Kyaw Zay Ya noted that “it is not possible to enforce” the directive, but said it would be up to foreign governments whether to comply. 

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Gabrielle Price wouldn’t confirm whether the U.S. Embassy in Yangon had received the directive. She said the U.S. believes groups should call themselves what they wish. 

“If members of a population identify as ‘Rohingya,’ we respect their ability to self-identify by using this term. This is not a political decision,” she said. 

Myanmar excludes the Rohingya from a list of more than 100 official ethnic groups in the country, and the use of Bengali distances the government from their claim to citizenship. The previous government also issued directives and pamphlets to the media and the United Nations during international summits held in the country. 

Ms. Suu Kyi herself has never used the word Rohingya publicly, and has been widely criticized for not speaking out clearly in defense of the group. 

Many human rights groups and Rohingya themselves want the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner and her new democratically elected government to improve their plight, including extending basic rights like the freedom of movement and allowing them to return to their homes, rather than living in camps. 

Human Rights Watch, in an open letter Thursday to President Htin Kyaw, said improving human rights and humanitarian conditions for Rohingya Muslims was a “major challenge” and that “long-standing restrictions on the basic rights of the Rohingya…should be speedily removed.” 

Some 120,000 Rohingya are living in squalid camps following sectarian riots between Buddhists and Muslims in 2012 in Rakhine state, which forced them from their villages and left more than 100 dead. They reside in western Myanmar near the Bangladesh border, unable to return to their villages for fear of further violence, and relying on foreign aid for support. 

Underlining their situation, a fire in a camp for displaced Rohingya on Tuesday destroyed 44 longhouses where at least 2,000 people lived, the United Nations reported.

The ministry’s advisory follows protests at the U.S. Embassy over a statement of condolence issued for an accidental boat sinking on April 19 in which at least 22 people died. The embassy referred to the victims as Rohingyas, and hard-line Buddhist groups responded angrily. 

Hundreds of protesters gathered at the embassy last week to call on the U.S. and other countries to drop the term or be labeled as enemies of Myanmar. 

By reaffirming the previous government’s directive, the ruling National League for Democracy party, which is headed by Ms. Suu Kyi, has now weighed in on the Buddhists’ side. Ms. Suu Kyi also holds a de facto prime ministerial role of state counselor. 

Write to Shibani Mahtani at shibani.mahtani@wsj.com


Muslims Lose Out in Myanmar Elections
All Muslim Candidates Were Defeated in Myanmar While Most Rohingya Weren’t Allowed to VoteVideo Credit: WSJ
Posted by Rohingya Blogger on Thursday, November 12, 2015


All Muslim Candidates Were Defeated in Myanmar While Most Rohingya Weren’t Allowed to Vote 
By Shibani Mahtani And Warangkana Chomchuen
The Wall Street Journal
November 12, 2015

YANGON—Muslims are turning out to be among the biggest losers in Myanmar’s historic elections, with many not allowed to vote and no Muslim representation in parliament.

Several Muslims have been serving in the current nominally civilian parliament, which took over from the military in 2011.

But ahead of Sunday’s balloting, the election commission disqualified more than dozen Muslims seeking a chance to run, citing questions about whether their parents were born in Myanmar, a requirement for candidates. And of those able to compete, all lost.

Left with no Muslim in parliament to advocate for them in this Buddhist-majority country, some Muslims say they are pinning their hopes on democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy is almost certain to have won a landslide victory.

Muslims say life in Myanmar is increasingly difficult because of the rise of Buddhist nationalism, led by hard-line monks.
Rohingya Muslim children look outside from a clinic at a displaced persons camp near Sittwe of Rakhine State in western Myanmar on Nov. 5, 2015. Most Rohingya weren't allowed to vote in the country's historic elections. Photo: European Pressphoto Agency 
Muslims officially make up 4% of the country’s population, but some experts say the number is higher, up to a 10th of the country’s population of 51 million. Some have full citizenship, but not the stateless Rohingya, who despite having lived in Myanmar for generations are considered by the government to be foreigners from neighboring Bangladesh.

More than 140,000 Rohingya live in squalid camps in western Myanmar, after being driven out from their homes in violent riots three years ago.

Some have felt so hopeless they fled Myanmar on human trafficking boats.

Unlike other Muslims, few Rohingya were allowed to vote on Sunday.

However, they voted in the 2010 general election and the 2012 by-elections. This time, the government said they aren’t full citizens and deemed it unconstitutional for them to vote. A very small number of Rohingya, who accepted the government’s term for them “Bengali” and were granted citizenship, were allowed to vote Sunday. Polling booths were set up in camps, where those Rohingya left disenfranchised looked on.

“Now you can’t contest. You can’t vote. This is the big tsunami in our history,” said Kyaw Min, president of the Democracy and Human Rights Party, a Muslim party that tried to run 18 candidates in this election, but saw 15 of them disqualified. Those rejected disputed the election commission’s claims that their parents weren’t citizens.

Hard-line Buddhist monks, who have increasingly organized under the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, or Ma Ba Tha, have become a powerful force. Ahead of the election, they argued Buddhism should be placed front and center in the new-look Myanmar and fill the vacuum left by the old military order since it formally ceded power five years ago—even if that means sidelining minorities.

Like the Democracy and Human Rights Party, the United National Congress also saw its Muslim candidates lose their races.

“You see, we’re already flattened on the ground. We’re at ground zero now,” Mr. Kyaw Min added.

Aung Win, a Rohingya living in a ghettoized district in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state, said his community “is very sad, because we are denied the right to vote in this election. We have been hearing the celebrations, but we cannot participate. We are completely excluded.”

Western governments have heaped praise on Myanmar for Sunday’s election, widely seen as peaceful and well-run, though with caveats. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement this week that the elections, while historic, were “far from perfect” for reasons including the disenfranchisement of the Rohingya and “the disqualification of candidates based on arbitrary application of citizenship and residency requirements.”

Amid the growing power of hard-line monks, Ms. Suu Kyi’s party avoided fielding even a single Muslim candidate in the election, though senior members from her party said many qualified ones had applied.

“We had to explain to them that now was not the time, and they agreed,” said Win Htein, a senior member of the NLD. “But once we form the government, we will curb [hard-line monk] influence.”

Many Muslims say they hope Ms. Suu Kyi’s new government will quash the power of the nationalist Ma Ba Tha group, which pushed through laws restricting interfaith marriage and religious conversion. These laws, passed by the old, military-linked parliament, also allow for population control measures, which Muslims fear will be used against them.

Ms. Suu Kyi has been cautious in speaking up specifically for the Rohingya. This week, she told the BBC that an NLD government would protect Muslims and that those who inflame hatred should face prosecution.

“Prejudice is not removed easily and hatred is not going to be removed easily,” Ms. Suu Kyi said. “I’m confident the great majority of the people want peace…they do not want to live on a diet of hate and fear.”

— Myo Myo contributed to this article.
Hard-line nationalist Buddhist monks and supporters celebrated in Yangon on Oct. 4 the passage of laws restricting conversions and interfaith marriages, which rights groups charge discriminate against Myanmar's Muslims and other minority religions. PHOTO: REUTERS

By James Hookway & Shibani Mahtani
October 14, 2015

Nationalist campaign against minority Muslims raises questions about democratic transition

MANDALAY, Myanmar—Buddhism is normally associated with meditation and withdrawing from the material world. But some monks here are playing a more temporal role, pressing a hard-line nationalist agenda ahead of next month’s elections that threatens the country’s nascent shift to democracy after decades of military rule.

Ashin Wirathu, the 47-year-old abbot of the Ma Soe Yein monastery in Mandalay, is among the most influential. His head shaved smooth, he frequently tugs a pair of battered reading glasses from the folds of his orange robes to check his buzzing cellphone or read notes passed to him by bowing aides. He is quick to smile and chats companionably with visitors.

He also has a long track record of advocating a hard-line, Buddhism-infused nationalism that mines a deep seam of anti-Muslim sentiment in Myanmar, much of it directed against ethnic Rohingya.

Ashin Wirathu at a Sept. 21 celebration in Mandalay of the Ma Ba Tha group he helped found ‘for the protection of race and religion.’PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2003 for inciting attacks on Muslims. After his release in 2010 as a part of a broader amnesty, Mr. Wirathu has used social media and a network of DVD distributors to broadcast his sermons nationwide.

In an interview, he denied urging attacks on Muslims. He has, however, appeared at the scenes of some of the worst violence, usually visiting a monastery or delivering a sermon.

“They buy land and properties everywhere. They use the power of money to attract to women,” he said in a sermon before anti-Muslim riots in Meiktila in central Myanmar in 2013. He also habitually refers to Muslims as “kalar,” a derogatory term.

Mr. Wirathu helped create the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, which this year persuaded parliament to enact laws restricting conversions and interfaith marriages—measures the group says are designed to stop the spread of Islam in a country that is about 90% Buddhist.

The group, known by its local acronym Ma Ba Tha, now focuses on providing legal help to Buddhists caught up in legal disputes with followers of other faiths and providing education and welfare services.

On Oct. 4, thousands of monks and their supporters rallied at a sports arena in the main city, Yangon, to celebrate their gains. “We’ve achieved a lot in a short time,” Mr. Wirathu said in the interview at his monastery.

He isn’t finished yet. After lunch, the abbot retreated from the 100-degree heat to rehearse video clips to be uploaded to YouTube, to help supporters decide whom to vote for on Nov. 8. It doesn’t matter which party the candidate represents, Mr. Wirathu said in front of a three-man camera team. What matters, he said, is if they are “the right kind of people.”

“We’ll be watching them to make sure they do what they say,” said Mr. Wirathu, who, like other Buddhist monks, is prohibited from voting.

The election pits the party of President Thein Sein, a former general, against opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, with a host of smaller parties also competing.

Whoever wins, the nationalist monks argue that Buddhism should be placed front and center in the new-look Myanmar and fill the vacuum left by the old military order since it formally ceded power five years ago—even if that means sidelining minorities.

Buddhism has acquired a political edge in other parts of Asia as well.

Monks in Sri Lanka made a push into political life after the end of a decadeslong civil war. In Thailand, monks have played a prominent role in the mass street protests that helped lead to two military coups in the past decade.

Myanmar’s monks played a significant role in the campaign for independence from Britain and led antigovernment revolts in 1988 and 2007.

They appear to be having an impact.

President Thein Sein, in campaign videos for the Union Solidarity and Development Party, touts the passage of pro-Buddhist laws as a high point of his administration.

In a recent campaign speech, Ms. Suu Kyi had to deflect suggestions from the audience that she would turn Myanmar into a Muslim nation if her party were to form the next government. “Using this issue to campaign isn’t in line with the law and is twisting the political campaign,” she said. “People should not be worried about this.”

Her party has complained to Myanmar’s election commission about what is says is the monks’ intervention in the campaign, but says the commission hasn’t responded. The commission says it oversees only registered political parties, not lobby groups.

Win Htein, an executive with her party, said it chose not to have any Muslim candidates because that would have provided opponents with easy ammunition.

Some prominent voices have expressed concern about the nationalist creed promulgated by Mr. Wirathu and his supporters.

Tom Malinowski, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, said that “clearly there are forces that remain opposed to the democratic transition” who are “using race and religion to change the subject of the election.”

Yangon’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Charles Maung Bo has called the way unelected fringe groups like Ma Ba Tha were influencing parliament “a dangerous portent.”

A founding member of Ms. Suu Kyi’s party, 88-year-old Tin Oo, visited Mr. Wirathu in Mandalay on Sept. 30 in an effort to ease tensions. After the octogenarian prostrated himself before the monk in a customary gesture of respect, Mr. Wirathu said in a video uploaded to his Facebook page that Ma Ba Tha would ease off its attacks—if the party distanced itself from criticism of the nationalists.

(Photo: AFP)

September 13, 2015

Myanmar is holding its first general election under the country’s reformist government on Nov. 8, expected to be the freest and fairest vote the country has seen in decades.

The closely watched election–campaigning for which begins Tuesday–will be a crucial marker in the country’s transition away from harsh military rule to a more democratic system led by a civilian government. Here are five things to know about the elections.

#1: The elections will be imperfect

Myanmar’s constitution reserves a quarter of parliament seats for military generals, hand-picked by the commander-in-chief, so only 75% of representatives will be democratically elected by the people. Further, the Rohingya and other Muslim minorities will be disenfranchised for the first time in the country’s electoral history, after the government canceled their identification documents and revoked their right to vote earlier this year.

#2: The vote will be competitive

More than 90 parties with more than 6,000 candidates are competing. The current dominance of the military-linked Union Solidarity and Development Party, which is now the largest party in the legislature and forms the government, will be challenged — particularly by Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition National League for Democracy. This is the first general election the NLD will be competing in since 1990. In by-elections in 2012, Ms. Suu Kyi’s party won 43 out of 44 contested seats, but analysts say the results now might not be as conclusive.

#3: It's not a presidential election

The elections will determine the shape of Myanmar’s 660-person legislature but not the president. According to the country’s political system, the president isn’t directly elected by the people but will be selected by the parliamentarians voted in after November. The new president doesn’t have to be selected until next March.

#4: Suu Kyi won't become president

Though the NLD is widely expected to pick up more seats in these election, Ms. Suu Kyi can’t become president because Myanmar’s constitution bars anyone with close foreign family members from assuming the top post. Ms. Suu Kyi was married to a Briton and has two sons with foreign nationalities. There is no clear frontrunner for the presidency, and Myanmar will likely enter a long period of horse-trading after the November vote.

#5: Campaigning, which starts Tuesday, will be robust

Ms. Suu Kyi has already started holding large rallies around the country, and the USDP’s ousted chairman, Shwe Mann, has also been campaigning in his hometown. Religion is expected to play a big role in this election, as ultra-nationalist, anti-Muslim monks become a more powerful political force in Myanmar.

A Muslim woman and her child in the Aung Mingalar Quarter of Sittwe, Rakhine state, Myanmar. PHOTO: KAUNG HTET FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By Shibani Mahtani
July 2, 2015

The Rohingya minority has become a political tinderbox for democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi

SITTWE, Myanmar — As opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi makes her way across Myanmar, campaigning for her party ahead of this fall’s national election, she is noticeably skipping at least one state: Rakhine, home to the Rohingya Muslims at the center of Southeast Asia’s refugee crisis.

The Rohingya have become a political tinderbox for Ms. Suu Kyi. Outside Myanmar, the Nobel Peace Prize winner has been denounced for not condemning the conditions that drove thousands of Rohingya to flee on human-trafficking boats.

But inside Buddhist-majority Myanmar—which is preparing to hold its freest elections in decades—Ms. Suu Kyi risks losing voter support if she appears too sympathetic to the Rohingya. That could deny her National League for Democracy party enough seats in parliament to shape Myanmar’s democratic future.

Already, some Buddhists here think she has shown too much support for the minority group.

“We in Rakhine state hate Aung San Suu Kyi,” said San Thar Aung, a Buddhist driver in Sittwe, the state’s capital. “She has spoken out too strongly for the Muslims, and blamed us unfairly.”

Such sentiments are echoed by some nationalist monks in other parts of Myanmar, who say Ms. Suu Kyi’s party would favor Muslims and other minorities at a time when explosive religious divisions are at a high.

San Shwe Tun, chairman for the NLD in Rakhine state, says Ms. Suu Kyi “has no plans” to visit the state, and the party is keeping local campaign activities to a minimum. “We are not strong here, because of [Ms. Suu Kyi’s] words on the conflict. She has said that the majority should not discriminate against the minority, and that has upset people,” Mr. San Shwe Tun said.

San Shwe Tun, chairman for the NLD in Rakhine state. PHOTO: KAUNG HTET FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The stakes are high for Ms. Suu Kyi, who at age 70 is an icon for democratic reform but who is barred from seeking the presidency in her home country. Last week, Myanmar’s parliament voted against a measure that would remove that constitutional restriction—a ban on anyone with foreign family members from becoming president. Ms. Suu Kyi has two foreign-born sons from her British husband, who died in 1999.

The NLD must win a majority of seats in parliament to form a government without resistance from military generals who, under the constitution, control a quarter of the parliamentary seats.

A big victory for her party could catapult Ms. Suu Kyi into other powerful positions besides the presidency, such as speaker of the House of Parliament, which carries huge sway over the legislature. And her party would be in a stronger position to force constitutional changes for a possible Suu Kyi presidency down the road.

Muslims pray at a shop in Sittwe. The religious minority has been pushed into squalid camps in Rakhine state since religious riots broke out between Buddhists and Muslims three years ago. PHOTO: KAUNG HTET FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Richard Horsey, a Yangon-based analyst, said Ms. Suu Kyi would bring further scrutiny to her views on the Rohingya if she even visited Rahkine.

But neither Ms. Suu Kyi nor her party have called for better treatment of the Rohingya—a subject Ms. Suu Kyi carefully avoids discussing at all on the campaign trail.

For the past three years, about 140,000 Muslims here have lived in squalid camps after deadly clashes broke out with Buddhists. Ms. Suu Kyi has declined to visit the camps, even as the Rohingya plight gained international attention with visits from philanthropist George Soros and actor Matt Dillon.

In fact, she isn’t known to have publicly used the word “Rohingya”—a controversial term in Myanmar, where many call the group “Bengalis” to cast them as foreigners from neighboring Bangladesh. In the rare instances she has addressed the subject, she speaks guardedly, saying she wouldn’t want to “aggravate the situation” by blaming one community, for example, or that “both sides”—Buddhists and Muslims—have been victims and victimizers.

She has also said that the clashes highlight the need for rule of law in Myanmar, something she has continued to push for as a politician.

The NLD hasn’t advocated for citizenship for the Rohingya, nor has it gone into specifics about what rights they should be entitled to.

But even couched remarks on the Rohingya, or simply the symbol of the NLD as defenders of human rights, are enough to anger Buddhists in Rakhine, said Mr. San Shwe Tun, the regional party head. People here “think the NLD represents the Muslims,” and party members have faced threats and harassment from local Buddhists, he said.

Myanmar’s government has been widely criticized for doing little to improve conditions for Muslims in Rakhine state.

Maung Maung Ohn, the chief minister of Rakhine state, said officials have started resettling Muslims displaced in Rakhine to better homes. But these new homes are temporary, he says, since Buddhist communities won’t accept Muslims being reintegrated into their communities. He encouraged Rohingya to adopt the government term “Bengali” as part of a program aimed at upgrading their citizenship status.

In the muddy camps and other Muslim areas across the state, however, few Muslims know the NLD or see Ms. Suu Kyi as a defender of their rights. Most voted for the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which took control after general elections in 2010, because government officials promised them a clear path to citizenship. This year, the government revoked their voting rights amid rising anti-Muslim sentiment.

Violence and government policies have left the Rohingya without identification documents, freedom of movement, access to education or health care. As monsoon season approaches, the ghettoized districts and camps they live in are filling with knee-high water and mud. Muslims there who once were on track to getting college degrees are now left isolated, without the prospect of jobs.

“We don’t trust anyone in Myanmar to help us, not the government or the NLD,” said Sadek Hussain, 20. “Only the international community gives us hope.”

MEASURED RESPONSE

Public statements by Aung San Suu Kyi on the Rohingya issue

June and October 2012 Riots in Rakhine state leave nearly 100 dead and more than 140,000 displaced. When asked about the violence, Ms. Suu Kyi says it highlights the need for rule of law in the Myanmar
June 2013 Ms. Suu Kyi criticizes a proposed policy by local leaders in Rakhine to impose a two-child policy on Muslims. Buddhists in Sittwe, Rakhine’s capital, try to destroy the NLD party’s sign at its office there, party officials say.

October 2013 In a BBC interview, she says ‘both sides’ have been targeted by the violence, and that both Buddhists and Muslims are responsible.

June 2015 Thousands of Rohingya are abandoned by smugglers after fleeing Myanmar. The NLD releases a rare statement saying that the safety of migrants should be guaranteed and the problem of human trafficking addressed.


A Rohingya woman outside her family's shelter in the Myebon displaced-persons camp in Myanmar's Rakhine state in November. LAUREN DECICCA FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By Shibani Mahtani
December 31, 2014

Pilot Program Grants Identification Cards, But Fears of Violence Keep People Trapped in Camps

MYEBON, Myanmar — Sitting in a small rattan shack, Aye Khaing holds out her most-valued new possession: a pink identification card, indicating she is a full citizen of this country after years of statelessness.

Ms. Aye Khaing is one of 40 ethnic Rohingya in the area who now—in theory—have the ability to move freely around Myanmar, attend university, hold political office and enjoy other rights that were once a distant dream for the country’s long-suffering Muslim minority.

Yet more than two months since receiving her citizenship, Ms. Aye Khaing and others in the pilot program haven’t been allowed to leave the squalid displaced-persons camp they have called home since religious violence broke out in Myanmar two years ago.

Border guards and police, perched on watchtowers above, say that it is too dangerous for them to exit, and that they must keep the Rohingya Muslims in camps to maintain the area’s security.

“It is like I am under house arrest,” said Ms. Aye Khaing.

A makeshift school for Rohingya children in the Myebon displaced-persons camp in Rakhine state in November. Authorities say it is too dangerous for Rohingyas to leave the camp. LAUREN DECICCA FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Myanmar’s government is experimenting with an unprecedented program to grant citizenship to some Rohingya, among the world’s most-oppressed minority groups. The effort is designed to resolve bitter divisions over the more than one million Rohingya—deeply unpopular among Myanmar’s Buddhist majority—that have threatened to destabilize Myanmar in recent years and poisoned its relations with Western governments.

But the process is already running aground as local opposition spreads. A 15-minute motorcycle ride from the camp where Ms. Aye Khaing resides, members of the Arakan Women’s Network, a Buddhist-rights group, has held protests with placards warning “No Rohingya in Our Land.”

Many Buddhists also refused to leave their homes in protest on the day the first Rohingya got their citizenship cards in September, shutting schools and businesses.

“We cannot accept [them] as citizens,” said Khin Thein, founder of the Arakan Women’s group, which formed in the wake of the 2012 riots that pitted Buddhists against Muslims.

A friend of hers, chiming in, said he would kill any Muslim he sees on the street—then, with a laugh, added that he was “just kidding.”

The impasse has forced the government to suspend the project—introduced so far only in the Myebon camp—until security improves.

Some critics are questioning the government’s sincerity—and whether it has the capacity to protect Rohingya if the program expands. Some Rohingya are losing hope entirely, with record numbers fleeing the country by boat in hopes of finding better conditions elsewhere.

Win Myaing, a spokesman in Rakhine state, where most Rohingya live, said officials were increasing security in the area but added that it is “difficult to say” when so-called citizenship verification will restart.

The question over what to do with Myanmar’s Rohingya has simmered for years since large numbers migrated to the country from South Asia during British colonial rule.

Many Buddhists consider Rohingya Muslims as illegal immigrants who get a disproportionate share of goodwill and aid from the international community. Rohingya say they have been living there for generations and deserve better treatment.

Divisions exploded into the open with the end of Myanmar’s military regime several years ago. Anti-Rohingya violence left at least 160 dead and displaced more than 140,000 Rohingya from their homes, leaving them dependent on international aid in camps like the one where Ms. Aye Khaing lives.

Their growing desperation has prompted stern warnings from Western officials, including President Barack Obama during a visit to Myanmar in November.

The Myanmar government’s “failure to take adequate, let alone decisive, action has led to continued underdevelopment for the Rakhine people, a deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation for Muslim populations. and insecurity for all,” a senior Western diplomat said recently.

Myanmar’s plan offered citizenship to Rohingya who could prove three generations of residence in Myanmar. The residents also had to agree to be called “Bengali” rather than “Rohingya”—a provision many Rohingya object to as implying they are from neighboring Bangladesh, which they fear could be used against them later.

The plan said those who refuse the Bengali classification would be relocated to another country, and asked for United Nations assistance to do so.

International groups have criticized the deportation goals. Still, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees called the residency-verification exercise a “positive step towards addressing the issue of citizenship,” while calling on officials to follow through with more freedom of movement for those who qualify.

Myanmar leaders have said they would refine the plan to ensure it conforms to international humanitarian standards, but haven’t said whether the deportation aspect would be changed.

The program in Myebon, a town of just 8,000 people a two-hour speedboat ride away from the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe, was designed to test the plan’s workability.

State officials say 1,218 people applied for citizenship, or 93% of the camp’s eligible adult population. A verification committee granted 40 people full citizenship. Some 169 others were classified as naturalized citizens, also an upgrade from their former status as foreign residents.

Myebon was expected to be a relatively easy place to implement the plan because Muslims there face unusually tough living conditions, making them more likely to go along with the government’s insistence they classify themselves as Bengali.

In Sittwe, by contrast, dozens of Muslims interviewed who described themselves as Rohingya said they would not accept any government-imposed name change.

“The government has tried to convince us that if we accept the term Bengali, we will not be persecuted, but we don’t believe them,” said Armin, a 20-year old student there who only goes by one name. “They are trying to trick us.”

The government says that accepting the Bengali classification is the only way to ensure better treatment and rights.

Back in the Myebon camp, Rohingya who cooperated with the government are getting impatient.

Aung Lwin, a Rohingya, said Rakhine state’s chief minister and other senior officials have visited several times in the past six months, each time stressing they will prioritize citizenship claims.

But he said the new documents are meaningless until the government can assure their safety and let them leave their camp.

“They have lied to us,” he said, surrounded by dozens of Rohingya, nodding in agreement.

—Myo Myo in Yangon contributed to this article.

Displaced Muslims wait outside a humanitarian center for aid at a camp on the outskirts of Sittwe, Rakhine state, in western Myanmar on Feb. 26. (Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

By Shibani Mahtani
March 26, 2014

SITTWE, Myanmar – Names in Myanmar have always been a point of contention. After years of rule by a military junta that changed the country’s name from Burma, many still can’t even agree on what it should be called.

But a new naming conundrum raised by an upcoming census is threatening to further destabilize the country’s troubled Rakhine state, home to the bulk of Myanmar’s much-maligned Rohingya Muslim minority.

When enumerators begin collecting census data later this month, they will ask responders to pick from a list of 135 ethnic groups, or opt for code number 914 for “others,” which will allow them to write in their own.

Rohingya will not be among the choices, so many say they will self-identify.

“I will use Code 914 to fill out that I am Rohingya, because that is my ethnicity,” said Saw Naing, a Muslim man in Buthidaung township in northern Rakhine state.

Think tanks and others have warned, however, that the survey’s questions on ethnicity will only deepen tensions in already fractured states like Rakhine, where ethnicity and religion are exceptionally sensitive.

The census, an ambitious $75 million undertaking, is Myanmar’s first in more than three decades. Officials say the data collected from the survey, which is being overseen by the United Nations Population Fund and the government, will help in planning aid programs and setting budget allocations.

U.N. and government officials say they aim to count every single person within the country’s borders. That includes the Muslim Rohingya, a group the government has not officially recognized as native to Myanmar, and, as such, is denied most rights offered to citizens, such as access to healthcare and land ownership.

Because the Rohingya are not included in Myanmar’s 1982 citizenship law, they are considered stateless, lacking the rights afforded to citizens either in Bangladesh, where the Myanmar government claims they are from, or Myanmar, which they claim as their homeland.

Buddhists in that state say the Rohingya should be called “Bengali,” a term favored by most in Myanmar, including the government. The majority of Burmese consider the Rohingya illegal foreigners, and they say the term Bengali accurately identifies them as immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh. This term also will not be among the list of available ethnicities on the census.

On March 16, according to local media reports, Buddhist monks and residents in 13 towns across Rakhine state held protests opposing the use of the word Rohingya anywhere in the census since they say including it as an option will legitimize the Rohingya’s existence in the country. A similar protest is being planned in Yangon later Wednesday.

Last week, the Venerable Wirathu – a monk and leader of the “969 movement” that has been credit for the rise of anti-Muslim sentiment across the country – toured Rakhine state passing out pamphlets that urged Buddhists there to demonstrate against the census.

Meanwhile, Myanmar’s Minister of Immigration, Khin Yi, has said repeatedly that the census will be used primarily to target aid programs. He says Rohingya will not be offered as an option because it is not identified as an official ethnicity by law and has warned that Rohingya who identify themselves as such by write-in could face arrest for providing false information.



By Matthew Smith
March 14, 2014

Official abuse threatens both the Rohingya Muslims and the country's opening to the West.

Burma has enjoyed a remarkable several years of economic and political opening, but it is now also suffering a far darker development—serious ethnic violence. Coordinated arson attacks and periodic massacres in the remote Rakhine State have flattened entire villages and left hundreds of Rohingya men, women and children dead since June 2012. More than 140,000 are relegated to miserable displacement camps and tens of thousands have fled by sea.

Western governments have spent the past two years trying to reconcile a brimming optimism about political reforms with harsh realities on the ground. Can the central government in Naypyidaw really be blamed for unrest in far-flung Rakhine State? The latest developments suggest the answer is yes and paint a dark picture of state-sponsored persecution.

My organization, Fortify Rights, recently published leaked government documents revealing abusive "population control" measures against Rohingya Muslims. This and other evidence demonstrates that state and central government authorities are responsible for denying Rohingya fundamental human rights by limiting their freedom of movement, marriage and childbirth, among other aspects of daily life, in northern Rakhine State. 

These findings support an already sizable body of evidence implicating Burmese government officials. A 2005 order from local Rakhine State authorities, for example, requires Rohingya "who have permission to marry" to "limit the number of children, in order to control the birth rate so that there is enough food and shelter." This order is imposed as a strict two-child limit that also prohibits Rohingya from having children out of wedlock. As a result, fearful Rohingya women have fled the country and undergone illegal abortions that have resulted in severe injury and even death.

The government's implementation is as bad as its policies. An undated confidential enforcement guideline on "Population-Control Record Keeping," which was circulated as recently as 2008, urges authorities to force Rohingya women to breastfeed infants in their presence "if there is suspicion of someone being substituted" in the family registries.

Rohingya couples in northern Rakhine State cannot live together unless they are married, nor can they marry without permission, which can be difficult to obtain. 

For decades, as a matter of state policy, menacing security forces in northern Rakhine State have restricted freedom of movement between village tracts, townships and beyond. This limits the Rohingya ability to work, access health care and enjoy other basic rights. If Rohingya attempt to violate such policies, they risk years in prison, fines or both.

These abuses are supported and implemented by the highest levels of Burmese officialdom—by the same reformers that Western governments and investors are lauding as the hope for a better Burma. The minister of home affairs in July 2012 told parliament that authorities were tightening regulations against Rohingya "in order to handle travelling, birth, death, immigration, migration, marriage, construction of new religious buildings, repairing and land ownership and right to construct building[s]." 

Other military and civilian officials are on record discussing restrictions against Rohingya as recently as last year. State-level policies (dating from 1993 to 2008) are signed by various officials and copied to departments that fall under state and central government jurisdictions. All of the policies remain in force today.

Meantime the government refuses to respond credibly to these revelations. Recently it expelled Doctors Without Borders (known by its French acronym, MSF) from Rakhine State. The Nobel Prize-winning organization provides life-saving health aid to tens of thousands of people in Rakhine, and the neediest recipients are Rohingya Muslims. The government claims that MSF wasn't transparent in its work. It also faults the organization for hiring "Bengalis"—a pejorative reference to Rohingya that implies that they are foreigners from Bangladesh. 

The expulsion of MSF can only be interpreted as the latest act of state persecution against the embattled Rohingya. For some it will be a death sentence, and it has removed hundreds of humanitarian eyes from remote corners of Rakhine State—a truly frightening notion.

At the root of this tragedy is Rohingya statelessness. Of the more than 1.33 million Rohingya in Burma, all but 40,000 are stateless because of the country's 1982 Citizenship Law, which provides full citizenship only to certain groups that can demonstrate that they lived in Burma before the beginning of British colonial rule in 1823. All levels of government routinely refer to Rohingya as "illegal" intruders from Bangladesh, even though they have lived in Burma for hundreds of years. 

If the international community and the government of Burma want to stabilize Rakhine State and prevent future outbursts of ethno-religious violence, they must end abusive state practices against Rohingya. The government of Burma should provide unfettered humanitarian access in Rakhine State, and foreign governments should press for an independent investigation into human rights abuses there.

These abuses pose an existential threat both to the Rohingya and to the delicate democratic transition now underway in Burma. 

Mr. Smith is executive director of Fortify Rights and author of the organization's report "Policies of Persecution: Ending Abusive State Policies Against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar." He is on Twitter @matthewfsmith.


    • Rohingya Exodus