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Showing posts from March 16, 2014

Rohingyas in apartheid Burma

Displaced Muslims wait outside a humanitarian centre for aid at a camp on the outskirt of Sittwe, Rakhine state, western Myanmar on February 26. (Photo: AFP/Soe Than Win) By  CR Abrar New Age BD March 16, 2014 IF PRESS reports are anything to go by, then it may be reasonably construed that the recent efforts of the Bangladesh prime minister to engage the Burmese authorities on Rohingya refugees in this country have fallen on deaf ears. The Burmese reaction has been consistent with the regime’s general approach to the Rohingya issue.  There has been little change in the overall situation in the Arakan state. The communities remain largely segregated, the internally displaced Rohingyas are housed in atrocious camp conditions with a plethora of restrictions on movement of people and goods in and out of such camps, anti-Muslim feelings are rife with Buddhist monks whipping up such sentiments, the administrative and judicial structures of the state do not even pretend t