The fact is this:
My country's governments - all military and/or military-controlled like Aung San Suu Kyi's has been engaged in the state policy and practice of rape, arson, slaughter, and purge of the Rohingyas since Feb 1978 - all with blanket impunity.
If you steal a cow from a neighbor in Burma you are likely to punished within the existing domestic justice mechanism.
Rape as many Rohingya women or slaughter as many Rohingya men you are granted blanket impunity.
All this has been going on for nearly 40 years, since I was 13. Now I am 53. The same shit keeps happening - thousands have done. In the 1978 exodus, nearly 10,000 died of diseases and starvations, as well as stampede at border crossings.
Bangladesh gov. pushes back, makes threats including arming the Rohingyas, the Burmese side backs down, Rohingyas repatriated, under duress and without any guarantee of safety once repatriated. International community, so-called cries foul. Western governments throw some humanitarian dollars at the problem. UN Agencies expand, INGOs move in.
Rohingyas keep dying, keep being raped, keep being slaughtered.
Burma's official justificatory narratives keep changing: illegal immigration, concern for Muslim population growth, Buddhist-Muslim "sectarian violence', and now 'jihadists/militants" concern, all a threat to sovereignty and national security and existence.
Just hit the "Repeat" button. Change the byline of any Rohingya news report, copy, cut and paste the text.
Nothing really has changed. Rohingyas are being destroyed, with spikes of violence and plateau of slow but routine regime of daily oppression.
Here is a few clippings from my pile.
