Rohingya crisis

The United Nations said that 370,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled violence in Myanmar since Aug. 25 by crossing into Bangladesh, and thousands more are arriving daily.

Who are the Rohingya? 

The Rohingya are a minority living in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, where they are not recognized by the government as an official group and are denied citizenship. An estimated 1 million Rohingya are stateless Muslims in an overwhelmingly Buddhist country that has long been hostile to their presence.

Why did the Rohingya exodus from Myanmar begin?

The mass evacuation from Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state began Aug. 25 after a group of Rohingya militants attacked police outposts and a military base, killing a dozen officers. The military responded with what it deemed “clearance operations” to root out fighters it said might be hiding in villages. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have escaped the military crackdown and vigilante attacks that have burned villages and killed hundreds.

What is the U.S. saying? 

The United States said it is “deeply troubled” by the Myanmar crisis. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Trump administration continues to condemn the violence between Rohingya Muslims and Myanmar security forces.

What is Iran saying?

Iran’s Supreme Leader strongly denounced the killing of Muslims in Myanmar. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the deaths of Rohingya Muslims is a political disaster for Myanmar because it is being carried out by a government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. He called her a “brutal woman.”

Why is Aung San Suu Kyi under siege? 

Suu Kyi faces criticism worldwide from those who say the pro-democracy Peace Prize winner is guilty of the very repression she spent decades combating.

The de facto leader of Myanmar fought back last week by calling reports of genocide against her country's Rohingya minority “fake news” and the “tip of a huge iceberg of misinformation.”

Her comments were in a readout of a call she had with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that was posted on the Facebook page of Myanmar's state counselor, Suu Kyi's official title. She said "fake" news and photographs of the crisis were being used to promote the interest of “terrorists.”

She also claimed during the call that her government was working to protect the rights of the Rohingya.

"We know very well, more than most, what it means to be deprived of human rights and democratic protection," Suu Kyi said. "So we make sure that all the people in our country are entitled to protection of their rights as well as, the right to, and not just political but social and humanitarian defense."