The COVID-19 pandemic is a truly global crisis, challenging even the most advanced health systems and economies in the world. But more devastation looms as the novel coronavirus has not yet reached many of the world’s most vulnerable populations. Among them are more than 900,000 Rohingya...
Bangladesh and the UN must continue to work together to improve the conditions for nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees. The year 2018 was a dire and desperate year for the Rohingya minority from western Myanmar. Two-thirds of the population that had been living in western Rakhine State before the...
Myanmar is witnessing an ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya. As the world’s attention is focused on the tragedy of Aleppo, a small pocket of western Myanmar is witnessing a genocide of its own in the making. In response to recent attacks against the police by Rohingya militants, the...
The State Department’s minimization of the plight of the Rohingya is sending dangerous, mixed messages to Myanmar and its neighbors. The US State Department’s recent declaration of the Islamic State (IS) being responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including...
The ongoing religious tension fueled by extremism may become a substantial threat to Myanmar's democracy. With a new parliament sworn in and the date for selecting a new president fast approaching, Myanmar’s National League for Democracy (NLD) is now tasked with laying the foundation...
With claims of genocide in Myanmar, the international community has failed to usher the country through its democratic transition. Al Jazeera English recently broadcast a documentary, which was supported by a Yale Law School report, that accused the Myanmar government of an orchestrated campaign...
Genocide is the most serious charge that can be levied in international law and should not be taken lightly. The existence of persecution, severe human rights abuses and a high risk of mass atrocities has long been recognized in Myanmar. But now a newly released assessment finds “strong...
The Rohingya refugee crisis has become a test for Malaysia’s foreign policy commitment to ASEAN. The Rohingya refugee crisis presents a test of Malaysia’s chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The most recent agreement by Malaysia and Indonesia to provide...
The realities that over 150,000 Rohingya refugees face are filled with risk, fear and uncertainty. Imagine the choice between throwing your fate into the hands of notoriously abusive human traffickers or staying in a place facing the highest risk of genocide in the world. This is the choice...
The migrant crisis in Southeast Asia speaks volumes about the region’s limited scope of moral responsibility. The joint announcement that Indonesia and Malaysia would “take in” approximately 7,000 migrants adrift on the high seas implies that they have taken some measure of legal...
Why is Myanmar silent over the plight of Rohingyas? A United Nations (UN) statement in January demanding an impartial probe into the killings of Muslims by Buddhists in Myanmar, has once again brought the issue of Rohingyas — widely accepted as the most persecuted minority group — to...
Rohingya Muslims need to be incorporated into Myanmar as citizens with equal rights. Internally displaced in a country that officially demotes them to the status of undesired immigrants, the Rohingya Muslims of Rakhine state have faced a long and recently publicized history of...
Myanmar's new government has been quick to welcome Western leaders while hastily distancing themselves from China. The move is potentially dangerous due to the country's domestic situation. Myanmar has recently become the center of attention in the growing competition between China and the...
The suffering of the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine state is putting pressure on ASEAN to intervene. Coming just before the current 21st Summit, the wisdom and stewardship of ASEAN leaders will be tested once again. The plight of the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar – whom some label as...
