The Civil War Inside Buddhism Caused Ethnic Cleansing of Muslims

If Myanmar is to emerge from military rule and become a modern democratic state then it must save its Buddhism from descending into extremism.

Paul Fuller
By Paul Fuller
In this Nov. 12, 2016 photo, Wirathu, a high-profile leader of the Myanmar Buddhist organization known as Ma Ba Tha, is interviewed at his monastery in Mandalay, Myanmar. The nationalist monk is blamed for whipping up bloody anti-Muslim fervor, and said he feels vindicated by the election of Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Aung Naing Soe)

Opinion -- There is a desperate humanitarian crisis underway in Myanmar, centering around the Rohingya Muslims. There is what has been described as a “textbook case of ethnic cleansing” against the approximately one million Rohingya who live in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine. As well as retaliation from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army –

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After Hearing Accounts of Sexual Violence, UN Official to Bring Rohingya Case to ICC

Survivors who fled Myanmar told UN representative Pramila Patten about their experiences with “gang-rape by multiple soldiers, forced public nudity and humiliation, and sexual slavery in military captivity.”

Jessica Corbett
By Jessica Corbett
A Rohingya Muslim woman, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, lies unconscious on the shore of the Bay of Bangal after the boat she was traveling in capsized at Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. Nearly three weeks into a mass exodus of Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar, thousands were still flooding across the border Thursday in search of help and safety in teeming refugee settlements in Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

After hearing personal accounts of torture and sexual violence from survivors, a senior United Nations official on Sunday vowed to raise the issue of persecution of the Rohingya people in Myanmar with the International Criminal Court (ICC). "Sexual violence is being commanded, orchestrated, and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar," said

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US May Finally Acknowledge Myanmar’s Ethnic Cleansing Of Rohingya

Calls for a U.S. determination of “ethnic cleansing” have intensified, as the United Nations and leading Western governments have already used the term.

Matthew Pennington
By Matthew Pennington
A Rohingya child, newly arrived from Myanmmar to the Bangladesh side of the border, stands by a wooden fence at Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia, Sept. 5, 2017. Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest countries, was already sheltering some 100,000 Rohingya refugees before another 123,000 flooded in after Aug. 25, according to the U.N. refugee agency's latest estimate on Tuesday. (AP/Bernat Armangue)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials are preparing a recommendation for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to declare that "ethnic cleansing" is occurring against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims. That assessment would raise pressure on the Trump administration and U.S. lawmakers to consider new sanctions on a country that had been lauded for its democratic

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Burma: Military Massacres Dozens In Rohingya Village

Witnesses said that Burmese soldiers had beaten, sexually assaulted, stabbed, and shot villagers who had gathered for safety in a residential compound.

Human Rights Watch
By Human Rights Watch
Alishaan, a Rohingya Muslim man, walks towards a hospital carrying his sick mother Aishya Khatoon at Taiy Khali refugee camp, Bangladesh, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017. More than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25. (AP/Dar Yasin)

The Burmese military summarily executed several dozen Rohingya Muslims in Maung Nu village in Burma’s Rakhine State on August 27, 2017, Human Rights Watch said today. Witnesses said that Burmese soldiers had beaten, sexually assaulted, stabbed, and shot villagers who had gathered for safety in a residential compound, two days after Rohingya

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Amid Ongoing ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ Israeli Court Refuses To End Arm Sales To Myanmar

“Weapons used against the Palestinians are being sold as ‘field-tested’ to some of the worst regimes on the planet.”

teleSUR
By teleSUR
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Myanmar's Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in Jerusalem. (Photo: Facebook/General Min Aung Hlaing)

The Israeli High Court ruled on the petition Wednesday, however the judges hearing the case had issued a gag order a day earlier. Israel has refused to stop selling arms to Myanmar even though the state has been accused by the United Nations of "textbook ethnic cleansing" of the minority Muslim Rohingya population. A group of activists in

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Oil, Gas, Geopolitics Guide US Hand In Playing The Rohingya Crisis

Internal conflict, appropriately located, spells geopolitical opportunity. With U.S. ally Saudi Arabia funding and stoking Rohingya insurgencies, the U.S. creates a chance to blockade China’s oil supply and provide Aung San Suu Kyi the military cooperation needed to wrest Myanmar back from Chinese influence.

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb
A woman wears a mask of Myanmar's Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi during a rally against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims, outside the Embassy of Myanmar in Jakarta, Indonesia, Nov. 25, 2016. (AP/Dita Alangkara)

YANGON, MYANMAR – (Analysis) In recent years, Myanmar (formerly Burma) has only rarely been in the news. The quiet treatment owed much to the assumption that the country’s fledgling democracy was in “good hands” once the U.S-backed 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi gained renewed political prominence after the 2015 elections and

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