As Aung San Suu Kyi is vilified internationally for denying genocide against the Rohingya, her opponents in Sunday's Myanmar election are ramping up the rhetoric against the Muslim minority.There was global revulsion at military-backed operations in 2017 that saw hundreds of thousands of people flee burning villages into the squalor of refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.The horrifying violence - including widespread reports of murder and rape - has left Suu Kyi's international

Booted from Aung San Suu Kyi's "chaotic and autocratic" party, one female MP is now taking on Myanmar's national heroine in the upcoming election, claiming the country needs to work with, not against, a military accused of genocide.Voters are expected to return Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party to power at the 8 November polls - only the second since the country emerged from decades of outright military rule - but Thet Thet Khine is still hoping to make h

The plight of the “boat people” has come to the attention of the international community for a long time now. The world thus far has reacted to this cataclysmic humanitarian crisis that is even said to be tantamount to genocide.

When hundreds of Rohingya refugees paid traffickers to escape their squalid camp in Bangladesh, they were promised a new life in Malaysia after just one week at sea.Instead, the group of mostly women and children suffered more than 200 days of terror on the high seas, until they landed this week on Indonesia's northern coast, where they are now back in refugee tents.Beaten by the traffickers, they battled hunger and thirst as storms lashed their wooden vessel, and watched in horror as th

Myanmar's military has sought to undermine the confessions of two soldiers who said they were ordered to "exterminate" Rohingya Muslims before taking part in the massacre of scores of men, women and children.Non-governmental organisation (NGO) Fortify Rights and the New York Times on Tuesday released details of the filmed interviews - seen by AFP - of Private Myo Win Tun, 33, and Private Zaw Naing Tun, 30, in which they described "wiping out" entire villages.The soldi

Nearly 300 Rohingya migrants reached Indonesia on Monday claiming to have been at sea for seven months, the United Nations (UN) refugee agency said, in one of the biggest such landings by the persecuted Myanmar minority in years.The migrants - including more than a dozen children - were spotted on a wooden boat by locals who helped them land near Lhokseumawe city on Sumatra's northern coast, officials said.But as many as 30 may have died during the perilous high-seas voyage, the UN said,

Myanmar has returned dozens of Rohingya to camps in conflict-wracked Rakhine state, officials said Thursday, after arresting them at sea as they tried to flee what rights groups brand as "apartheid" conditions.A group of 42 Rohingya Muslims - including two children - was detained last Thursday offshore of Bogale in Ayeyarwady region, said local police.The long-persecuted Rohingya are widely regarded as illegal immigrants in Myanmar, refused citizenship and unable to travel freely.On

A lockdown in Myanmar's conflict-stricken Rakhine was expanded late Wednesday to the entire state, halting the movement of more than three million people as the number of coronavirus cases steadily climbs.More than 100 new infections were confirmed across Myanmar in 36 hours - the largest jump so far - bringing the total to 580, with most new cases in the northwestern state.Rakhine is one of the poorest states in the country, with substandard healthcare facilities and a lack of access to

Almost a million Rohingya refugees stuck in Bangladesh marked three years since escaping from Myanmar on Tuesday, with coronavirus forcing them to hold a day-long "silent protest" inside their flimsy, leaky huts.An August 2017 military operation that has triggered genocide charges at the United Nation's (UN) top court drove 750,000 Rohingya out of Myanmar's Rakhine state into neighbouring Bangladesh, to join 200,000 who fled earlier.Three years later, and with no work or d

Rohingya in Myanmar's conflict-wracked Rakhine state expressed fears Sunday of a coronavirus outbreak reaching their overcrowded camps, after a spate of infections sent the state capital into lockdown.Nearly 130,000 Rohingya Muslims live in what Amnesty International describes as "apartheid" conditions in camps around Sittwe.The city has recorded 48 cases in the past week, making up more than 10 percent of the about 400 cases so far registered in Myanmar."We are extremely