Hundreds of villages have been razed to the ground, with more than 600,000 Rohingya -- a stateless group in mainly Buddhist Myanmar -- fleeing across the border for sanctuary in Bangladesh. On Saturday state media announced the government would begin harvesting 71,000 acres of rice paddy in Maungdaw -- the Rohingya-majority area hardest-hit by the violence. But media, rights groups and the UN have documented consistent accounts of atrocities at the hands of Myanmar security officers. But fear abounds that the rehabilitation will sideline the Rohingya -- a group that has suffered under decades of state-backed discrimination. Myanmar refuses to recognise the Rohingya as a distinct minority, rendering the 1.1-million strong group stateless.

Source: The Nation Bangkok October 28, 2017 06:56 UTC