General Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar's top general, made a statement that the Rohingya "were never an ethnic group" and are extremists trying to build a stronghold in the northern part of Rakhine State in Myanmar. He claims that he is responding to militant attacks on his army, but his campaign has been far more brutal than necessary for that sort of fight. The Myanmar army has launched attacks on civilian targets, burning entire villages to the ground and forcing the inhabitants to flee.
The UN has issued a warning that if the offensive against the Rohingya – almost all of whom are Muslim, while Myanmar is majority Buddhist – could be considered ethnic cleansing and genocide. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned Myanmar's nominal leader Aung San Suu Kyi that she had a "last chance" to stop the military before the situation became "absolutely horrible." She has faced growing criticism over the Rohingya situation recently, as the army has become more and more violent. She responded that news has been distorted by "a huge iceberg of misinformation" and that the flames of dispute were being fanned by "fake news promoting the interests of terrorists."
Meanwhile, the government of Bangladesh is allowing limited numbers of Rohingya refugees across their border, and will build a camp to house up to 400,000 of them while the crisis is being resolved.
Information is from this BBC article: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41300247
Steven Grant Weber
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