Burma

[urban genie]

After years of Thr Burmese Junta fucking over the Kachin, Arakan, Shan and Karen and basically treating ethnic minorities like shite, they have stepped up to a new scale, with whats going on at present with the Rohingya.

Yes it's being reported on, but that seems to be, much like Yemen and Congo, we seem less arsed to get involved.

Now the place has been in several perpetual civil wars since we left, but do we have to take responsibility for leaving it in such a state.

Having been along the border and across the golden triangle the place is a beautiful country and it's a shame that it's is such a fucking mess.

 

[vonkeynotvenky]

Balochistan is having a similar problem but rarely gets commented on.

From what I can make out it's a shit situation where radicals from the minority Muslim population have been attacking and killing Buddhists and burning their villages this has resulted in a pushback by the authorities which has unsettled the population. It's hard to get impartial news on the situation although the BBC seem to have set their own brand of impartiality on it already.

We shouldn't get involved neither should the useless UN because getting involved means taking sides and recently we have been accused of imperialism for doing so.

 

[urban genie]

Balochistan is having a similar problem but rarely gets commented on.

From what I can make out it's a shit situation where radicals from the minority Muslim population have been attacking and killing Buddhists and burning their villages this has resulted in a pushback by the authorities which has unsettled the population. It's hard to get impartial news on the situation although the BBC seem to have set their own brand of impartiality on it already.

We shouldn't get involved neither should the useless UN because getting involved means taking sides and recently we have been accused of imperialism for doing so.

It's not that simple though, yes the Rohinjya are muslims and have been in a conflict with the regeim for decades, and have recently attacked police stations, but the Burmese are not pushing back in reatliation they have been wiping out villages as they have with the christian shan before and the ethnic cleansing of the Karen people.

I have known a couple of Burmese Karen when I lived in Thailand and they said that if they hadn't left they would have been dead.

This isn't new and has been happening to different minority groups in Burma since the 50's (if not before).

 

[vonkeynotvenky]

It's not that simple though, yes the Rohinjya are muslims and have been in a conflict with the regeim for decades, and have recently attacked police stations, but the Burmese are not pushing back in reatliation they have been wiping out villages as they have with the christian shan before and the ethnic cleansing of the Karen people.

I have known a couple of Burmese Karen when I lived in Thailand and they said that if they hadn't left they would have been dead.

This isn't new and has been happening to different minority groups in Burma since the 50's (if not before).

Nothing is ever simple when religious lunacy is involved there will never be an answer that will be a common sense realistic one when old books are used as a moral code for life.

 

[Ska Blue]

Thanks to the OP for bringing this up. I don't have enough privileges to post or I would have done so earlier.

I'm doing some research in Burma at the moment and a couple of guys from Europe joined us last week from that region and said it's definitely ethnic cleansing.

They also had words of caution insofar as there are insurgents that are using the Rohingya as a 'Trojan Horse' to cross the border into Bangladesh where they will push on and get easy access into Pakistan. If India also expelled their Rohingya, which allegedly is made up of more insurgents, the fear is that they will regroup & strike back against India from Pakistan.

SE Asia used to be a wonderful place to work and visit but as a westerner, I have never felt as vulnerable as I do now and have vowed not to come back when this project ends.

Insurgents are increasing their presence in Southern Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia & the Philippines. As a wise man once said to me many moons ago, "There is no one as blind as someone that can see but refuses to look."