The Rohingya Muslim minority is an inconvenient ethnic group
for the new government of Myanmar.
Burma (Myanmar) has a long history of conflict among its ethnic
minorities propagated by an oppressive military junta. While
many of the country's 135 ethnic minorities have been
subjected to discrimination and human rights violations, only
the Rohingya, the Muslim population of Burma's western
Rakhine state that borders Bangladesh, have been stripped of all
rights including citizenship (1982). They are stateless refugees,
now living in IDP camps at the mercy of intolerant Buddhists.
While the country's historic turn towards democracy should be
encouraging, the plight of the Rohingya is far from over and on
the ground the prospects for this traumatized minority look
rather grim.
