Rohingya woman and her child
This blog has spoken about the situation with the Myanmar minority group, the Rohingya before. Colby Pacheco has a more detailed piece at OpinionAsia.com on the not oft spoke about conflict on the 200 mile long eastern Burmese (Myanmar) border with Bangladesh. In the last several months, Bangladesh and the Burmese junta, also known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), have been at odds over a fence being constructed by the Burmese regime and the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya refugees from the Rakhine state, which is causing a refugee problem as far away as Indonesia. Bangladesh has been accused of treating these refugees quite harshly and forcefully repatriating them to Mayanmar where they are victimized all over again. This is a case of human ping-ponog. Still, there are thought to be over 200,000 Rohingya in Bangladesh. The junta refuses to recognize Rohingya as citizens of Myanmar and it appears that Bangladesh is tied of extending legitimate refugee status to them.
Pacheco also spends some time speaking about the relationship between India and Myanmar. Due to India’s look East Policy, it turned a blind eye to Myanmar human rights concerns in an attempt to gain access to natural resource markets in Myanmar. At the same time, India also wishes to counter China’s growing grip on the nation’s economy. So far India has not been very successful. It has drawn some ire from the West and been largely frozen out by China in Myanmar.
