Seven years ago, tens of thousands of Rohingyas, a Muslim minority, fled Myanmar to escape religious cleansing by Buddhist extremists. Since then, they’ve been stuck in a “sprawling refugee camp” in neighboring Bangladesh. And yes, comparisons with the Japanese-Americans who endured three years of internment in the United States are apt.
The Rohingyas rallied in an open field yesterday to mark their seventh year in exile. They are demanding a safe return to Myanmar. But that’s as fraught with danger as displaced Palestinians demanding a return to Jewish-occupied settlements in the West Bank.
Of course, the Rohingyas are acutely aware of their exiled fate. That’s why they’ve rebuffed several attempts by Bangladesh to repatriate them en masse.
The UN declared the Rohingyas the most persecuted minority in the world in 2013. This means the supposedly religious Buddhists treated them more inhumanely than the non-religious Chinese treat the Uyghurs. Unfortunately, Myanmar’s Buddhists couldn’t care less about this damning irony.
That’s why I fear these Rohingyas will be marking their fourteenth anniversary under similar stateless duress. Because, with all due respect to the Darfurians, the Rohingyas are not only the most persecuted minority but the most forgotten to boot.
