The World This Week: Myanmar’s Ethnic Cleansing; Duterte Takes On the Church

Inside Story: Will Aung San Suu Kyi Do Something to Halt the Violence in Myanmar?

Global pressure is mounting on Myanmar and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi to end the killing and displacement of Muslim Rohingya.

The United Nations has urged the government to take "immediate steps" to stop the violence. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the killings "Catastrophic" and "completely unacceptable".

He says the Myanmar military should suspend its operation in the western Rakhine state and allow Rohingya to return to their villages.

At least 400,000 people have fled to Bangladesh since the violence escalated late last month. So, as more Rohingya flee to Bangladesh, what will it take to stop this violence?

Presenter: Jane Dutton | Guests: Phil Robertson - Deputy Asia Director, Human Rights Watch; Maung Zarni - Visiting Fellow on Myanmar at the London School of Economics and founder of the Free Burma Coalition; Abdul Rasheed - Founder and Chairman at the Rohingya Foundation Community

THE DEBATE - Burma and the Rohingyas: UN Body Accuses Authorities of Ethnic Cleansing

A textbook case of ethnic cleansing says the UN's top human rights official. Nearly 400,000 Rohingyas have fled Burma in the past fortnight for neighboring Bangladesh after skirmishes between local militants and authorities triggered a fierce backlash. The plight of the Rohingyas has stirred indignation across the Muslim world in places like Indonesia and Turkey's First Lady dispatched to Bangladesh to support relief efforts. So what should the wider international community do?

The World This Week - Storm of the Century, Pope Francis in Colombia, Rohingyas, Syria

Aung San Suu Kyi's Fall from Grace? – BBC Newsnight

What is Aung San Suu Kyi's responsibility for the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar? Mark Urban reports.

Burma's 'Great Terror' Moves a Step Closer as Taliban Urges Rohingya to 'Take Up the Sword'

The oppressed minority has been told only violent jihad will make a difference
THE INDEPENDENT: Burma’s worst nightmare came a step closer to reality when a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban’s most hardline faction called on the oppressed Rohingya to “take up the sword and kill in the path of God”.

Other attempts to improve the desperate position of Burma’s Muslim minority were futile, he said last week. “Protest demonstrations, marches [and] condemnation resolutions” were useless. Only violent jihad would make the difference.

This is the great terror of which Burma’s populist Buddhist preachers have for years been warning their congregations, with dire predictions. The hostile climate they have whipped up has led the government to treat the largely stateless Muslim minority in Arakan state ever more inhumanely; and as a result, those predictions could prove self-fulfilling. » | Peter Popham | Sunday, June 14, 2015

Telegraph View: Suu Kyi Lets Us Down

Aung San Suu Kyi

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Aung San Suu Kyi's equivocal attitude towards the violence against Burma’s Muslim minority threatens to tarnish her reputation

The hardships endured by Aung San Suu Kyi during her long struggle against Burma’s dictators and her 15 years of house arrest almost defy comprehension. After all that suffering, it would be tragic if her reputation were to be tarnished just as she stands on the verge of becoming her country’s president in the 2015 election. Sadly, Miss Suu Kyi’s equivocal attitude towards the violence against Burma’s Muslim minority threatens to do exactly that. Read on and comment » | Telegraph View | Thursday, October 24, 2013

Myanmar Faces Call for Religious Segregation
Buddhist leaders in Rakhine state say integration with minority Muslim Rohingyas is unacceptable and problematic.

Muslims Fleeing Sectarian Violence in Burma Drown as Crisis Deepens
THE OBSERVER: Many Rohingya people are attempting dangerous voyages to Bangladesh and Thailand, but most are sent back on arrival

First one body appeared, floating in the waters of the Bay of Bengal, then another, and another, until those on board the little fishing boat that had gone to their rescue began to lose count.

Those bobbing lifeless among the waves had set out the night before, so desperate to escape the growing sectarian violence in Burma that they were prepared to risk boarding the dangerously overcrowded boat.

At least 130 had clambered aboard, but the boat foundered – whether it capsized because of the weight of bodies or because it struck rocks remains unclear.

The sinking last week was the worst reported incident resulting from the outbreak of violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in western Burma. The death toll is continuing to rise amid reports of a deepening humanitarian crisis.

"The situation is dire. The UN is doing its best, but it is trying to find more funding to help them," said Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, an NGO working with the Rohingya. » | Gethin Chamberlain | Sunday, November 04, 2012