Who are the Rohingya Muslims and what’s going on in Burma?
This is what’s been going on in Burma over the last few weeks.
According to the United Nations, 270,000 Rohingya people have entered Bangladesh after fleeing Burma since August 25.
And Burmese leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has been fiercely criticised over the crisis.
But who are the Rohingya people, and why have they been forced to leave their homes?
Who are the Rohingya?
The state is one of the poorest in the country, and Muslims in particular face barriers to education and freedom of movement.
In Burma they are referred to as Bengali, with many locals contending that they migrated illegally from Bangladesh.
Even though many have lived in Burma for generations, they are heavily discriminated against and over the years violence has erupted – the last major incident being riots in 2012.
How did this start?
Thousands of Muslims then tried to cross into Bangladesh, according to the Associated Press.
What has happened to the Rohingya people since?
Just a week after the initial clashes, the UN said 73,000 Rohingya people had crossed into Bangladesh, some of whom described bomb attacks on their villages by the Burmese military and attacks by Buddhist mobs in Rakhine.
A hospital in Bangladesh near the Burmese border reported that refugees were arriving with bullet wounds, and the country plans to open another refugee camp to ease pressure on one that already has 50,000 inhabitants.
Journalists who visited Rakhine state found villages abandoned by Rohingya people were still smouldering from fires the military said were started by the Muslims themselves.
What’s the situation like in Burma?
In 1978 one of these leaders led an operation that caused an estimated 250,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.
Over the years, peaceful protesters from all religions were arrested, and the country held captive many political prisoners and was accused of torturing them.
She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and finally created a civilian government in 2015.
Throughout this political turmoil, persecution and violence against Rohingya Muslims has been consistent.
What has the world’s response been?
Fellow Nobel Prize winners Malala Yousafzai and Desmond Tutu have urged her to intervene, as has the Pope and the Turkish government.
And UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has told Suu Kyi to use “all her remarkable qualities” to stop the violence.
