The Schoolteacher and the Genocide

The New York Times Magazine

By Sarah A. Topol

Aug. 8, 2019

He dreamed of educating the children in his village. But soon he learned that it was dangerous for the Rohingya to dream.

Futhu in the Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camps near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. He covered his face for fear of being targeted by the authorities in Myanmar.Credit...Adam Dean for The New York Times

When he was in primary school, Futhu read a story about a girl who named her flowers. She wrote their names in a diary, logged when she planted and watered them and charted how they grew. The story was in a book Futhu’s uncle brought to their village in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State from across the border in Bangladesh — the words in English and in Bengali. Futhu was the first in his extended family to attend school — the first of 22 uncles, countless aunts and cousins — and though he excelled at Burmese and English class, he could not really understand the book on his own. His father was himself illiterate, as were most people in their community. So Futhu asked a village trader who often visited their home to read him the stories in the book, one by one.

Malaysia Could Send Rohingya Detainees Back Out to Sea: Sources

Continue reading the main story

The New York Times

By Reuters 

June 18, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR/BANGKOK — Malaysia is considering a plan to send nearly 300 Rohingya Muslim refugees detained after arriving on a damaged boat back out to sea once the ship has been fixed, two security sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Muslim-majority Malaysia has been a favoured destination for ethnic Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar and more recently, refugee camps in Bangladesh, in search of better prospects.

But Malaysia has said it will no longer accept Rohingya refugees after tightening border controls to rein in the spread of the novel coronavirus.

After Weeks at Sea, 277 Rohingya Land in Bangladesh

The New Yprk Times
By The Associated Press

May 8, 2020

DHAKA, Bangladesh — More than 250 Rohingya Muslim refugees who had been floating for weeks on a fishing boat in the Bay of Bengal arrived Friday on an island in southern Bangladesh, officials said.

The 277 refugees were taken to Bhasan Char island after they reached Bangladesh’s coast, said Mohammed Alamgir Hossain, police superintendent in Noakhali district where the island is located. He said the navy took them there after their boat was spotted.

‘None of Us Have a Fear of Corona’: The Faithful at an Outbreak’s Center

The New York Times

By Hannah Beech
March 20, 2020

A gathering of 16,000 at a Malaysian mosque became the pandemic’s largest known vector in Southeast Asia, spreading the coronavirus to half a dozen countries. 

A mosque in the Philippines run by Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic missionary movement. A Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Malaysia has been linked to hundreds of coronavirus infections.Credit...Jes Aznar for The New York Times

 

BANGKOK — The faithful prayed by the thousands, hands and faces washed at communal taps to signify their purity. They crowded around platters on the floor, scooping up coconut rice with their right hands in the traditional way. And they slept in the mosque or in tents set up in the religious compound, rows of pilgrims from nearly 30 countries, gathered in Malaysia for spiritual renewal.

Trump Administration Adds Six More Countries to Travel Ban Trump Administration Adds Six More Countries to Travel Ban

The New York Times  
Zolan Kanno-Young
31st Jan 2020

President Trump adds Africa’s biggest country, Nigeria, as well as Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and Tanzania, to his restricted travel list.

Passengers at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Nigeria.Credit...Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times

 

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Friday added six countries to the nations facing stringent travel restrictions, virtually blocking immigration from Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria, and from Myanmar, where refugees are fleeing genocide.

Beside Nigeria, varying degrees of restrictions will hit three other African countries, Eritrea, Sudan and Tanzania, and one former Soviet state, Kyrgyzstan. Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya could also be caught in the crossfire. The total number of countries on the restricted travel list now stands at 13.

‘The Gate of Justice Is Opened’: Rohingya Cheer as World Court Orders Myanmar to Protect Them

The New York Times

By Reuters

Jan. 23, 2020

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh/YANGON — Rohingya Muslims celebrated a decision by the International Court of Justice to order Myanmar to protect them, hovering over mobile phones in refugee camps to watch the first legal victory since a military-led crackdown drove them from their homes.

The Hague-based court ordered Myanmar to take urgent measures to protect the minority against further atrocities and preserve evidence of alleged crimes, after mostly Muslim Gambia launched a lawsuit in November accusing Myanmar of genocide.

Myanmar Unrolls a Welcome Mat for China, but Not All the Way

The New York Times
By Hannah Beech and Saw Nang
Jan. 16, 2020

As Xi Jinping visits Myanmar, fighting in ethnic borderlands threatens China’s ambitious investment plans.

President Xi Jinping of China and his counterpart in Myanmar, Win Myint, during a welcome ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, on Friday.Credit...Ann Wang/Reuters

BANGKOK — As the leader of China, Xi Jinping, touched down in Myanmar on Friday, his two-day visit is designed to celebrate Beijing’s expanding presence in the region, both as an economic and political role model.

But relations between the two neighbors have never been so simple.

China is by far the largest foreign investor in Myanmar, which boasts a trove of natural resources. And China also provides a road map for how one of Asia’s poorest nations might lift its citizens out of hand-to-mouth existences.

Myanmar, China Ink Deals to Accelerate Belt and Road as Xi Courts an Isolated Suu Kyi

The New York Times

Reuters

Jan. 18, 2020

NAYPYITAW — China and Myanmar inked dozens of deals on Saturday to speed up infrastructure projects in the Southeast Asian nation, as Beijing seeks to cement its hold over a neighbour increasingly isolated by the West.

But no major new projects were agreed during the two-day visit by President Xi Jinping, the first of any Chinese leader in 19 years. Analysts said Myanmar was generally cautious of investments by Beijing and was also being careful ahead of elections later this year.

Still, Xi and Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi signed 33 agreements shoring up key projects that are part of the flagship Belt and Road Initiative, China’s vision of new trade routes described as a “21st century silk road”.

As Myanmar Genocide Hearing Closes, Focus Is on Trapped Rohingya

The New York Times

By Hannah Beech and Saw Nang
Dec. 12, 2019

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi testified that members of the Muslim ethnic group still in Myanmar were being helped, but many are desperate.

A Rohingya woman and child at a camp near Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in western Myanmar, in May. Credit...Adam Dean for The New York Times

BANGKOK — Half a world away from the elegant confines of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where Myanmar is being accused of genocide in a landmark case that opened this week, a Rohingya Muslim man was preparing to die.

It was, he said by phone on Thursday, going to be a slow demise. His village in Rakhine State in far western Myanmar had been attacked in recent weeks. The rice had been ready to harvest, but Buddhists had stolen the crop. Aid from international groups had ceased. People were hungry, sick and desperate.

Rebels Dressed as Soccer Players Abduct Bus Passengers in Myanmar

The New York Times
By Saw Nang and Richard C. Paddock
Oct. 13, 2019

Gunmen stopped the vehicle on a highway outside the town of Mrauk U and seized 31 people, most of them firefighters, the authorities said.

MANDALAY, Myanmar — Gunmen dressed in soccer uniforms halted an express bus on a main highway in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine State and kidnapped 31 people, most of them firefighters, the authorities said on Sunday.

Priyanka Chopra Came to Talk About Beauty. It Got Political.

The New York Times
By Arit John
Aug. 13, 2019

At Beautycon, the actress was confronted about her endorsement of the Indian Armed Forces on Twitter.

During a talk that was billed as a conversation about beauty standards, the actress Priyanka Chopra faced criticism for a tweet about India that she had posted in February.CreditCreditAraya Diaz/Getty Images For Beautycon

When the actress Priyanka Chopra stepped onstage this weekend to speak in Los Angeles at Beautycon, the cosmetic industry’s traveling more-than-a-trade-show event, she might have been prepared to answer questions about her self-care regimens, her husband (the pop star Nick Jonas), the unreasonable standards to which women’s bodies are held or her humanitarian work with UNICEF.

‘Our Duty to Fight’: The Rise of Militant Buddhism

The New York Times
By Hannah Beech
Article
July 8, 2019

A call to arms for Sri Lankan monks. Ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in Myanmar. A Buddhist faith known for pacifism is taking its place in a new age of nationalism.

Thousands of Buddhists listening to Sitagu Sayadaw, one of Myanmar’s most revered Buddhist leaders, also known by his monastic name Ashin Nyanissara, in Paleik, Myanmar, in November 2017.CreditCreditMinzayar Oo for The New York Times

GINTOTA, Sri Lanka — The Buddhist abbot was sitting cross-legged in his monastery, fulminating against the evils of Islam, when the petrol bomb exploded within earshot.

But the abbot, the Venerable Ambalangoda Sumedhananda Thero, barely registered the blast. Waving away the mosquitoes swarming the night air in the southern Sri Lankan town of Gintota, he continued his tirade: Muslims were violent, he said, Muslims were rapacious.

Religious Minorities Across Asia Suffer Amid Surge in Sectarian Politics

The New York Times

By Hannah Beech, Dharisha Bastians and Kai Schultz
April 21, 2019

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The deadly attacks in Sri Lanka on Sunday highlighted how easily religious coexistence can be ripped apart in a region where secularism is weakening amid the growing appeal of a politics based on ethnic and sectarian identity.

In India, the country’s governing right-wing Hindu party is exploiting faith for votes, pushing an us-versus-them philosophy that has left Muslims fearing they will be lynched if they walk alone.

The Truth Is Worth It: Resolve | The New York Times

( 22.11.2016 ) Myanmar’s War on the Rohingya ( New York Times )

The New York Times  
The Opinion Pages
By THE EDITORIAL BOARDNOV. 21, 2016

A family outside a market destroyed by fire, in a Rohingya village in Myanmar, in October. Credit Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

Myanmar has long persecuted the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority, denying it basic rights to citizenship, to marry, to worship and to an education. After violence unleashed in 2012 by Buddhist extremists drove tens of thousands of Rohingya out of their homes, many risked their lives to escape in smugglers’ boats; more than 100,000 others are living in squalid internment camps. Now, a counterinsurgency operation by Myanmar’s military is again forcing thousands of Rohingya to abandon their villages.