The violent expulsion of the Rohingya from Rakhine has been condemned as ethnic cleansing by the United States and the United Nations. The comrades named their militia the Burma Independence Army and gave command to their leader, Aung San, who is regarded as the father of the country (and was the father of Myanmar’s current civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi). Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the opposition and received the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, spent 15 years under house arrest. Ethnic groups say the military has seized land for agribusiness and for hydroelectric dams, which produce electricity sold to neighboring China. “The army doesn’t want peace,” said U Win Htein, a longtime adviser to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi who served 18 years in the army and spent 20 years in prison for opposing the government.

Source: New York Times January 27, 2018 10:02 UTC