There’s a fair amount of demoralized rubbish being published these days about the hopeless situation of Rohingya refugees which accepts their expulsion from Burma as a permanent fait accompli. With 1.5 million Rohingya living stateless in camps just in Bangladesh, they are obviously in an unbearable & untenable situation but it is only politically hopeless if they stop fighting against genocide or if we turn our backs on them.
Most of our countries are involved in Burma’s neoliberal investment binge. Some are providing military equipment or training. Earlier this year, the Free Rohingya Coalition called for a total boycott of Burma & a UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar recently called for cutting off all financial & other support to Burma’s military. Rohingya activists & their supporters continue to tour the world campaigning for Rohingya rights & demanding that the Burmese generals & the Suu Kyi regime be held accountable. If we simply accept the Rohingya genocide as a fait accompli rather than add our voices to the campaign against it, we set a political precedent where tyranny prevails by brute force while we act like whipped puppies at the expense of the Rohingya people. If the avalanche of demoralized articles are getting you down, it’s wiser to follow the work of Rohingya activists & organizations.
(Photo is Rohingya refugees working at a kiln outside Kutupalong refugee camp by James Nachtwey for TIME)