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Burma's Rohingya people: a story of segregation and desperation

Rohingya children play on a tent at Bawdupah camp for internally displaced people on the outskirts of Sittwe. Photograph: Soe Than Win/AFP/Getty Images The Guardian: June 3, 2013 The international community must put pressure on Burma to protect Rohingya Muslims and end segregation in Rakhine state How desperate and distrustful of your government do you have to be to refuse an  offer  of relocation when a cyclone is about to hit your home? That many of the displaced Rohingya people in  Burma 's Rakhine state took this decision demonstrates how difficult their lives have become. For months now, the Rohingya Muslim people have been targeted in a campaign that a  Human Rights Watch report  (pdf) has described as "ethnic cleansing". Rohingya Muslims in Burma have been forced into segregated  settlements  and camps, and – in many cases – cut off from lifesaving aid. I visited displacement camps in Rakhine in May with  Refuge...