The Silenced Genocide

In Myanmar, tensions between the Buddhist majority and the Muslim minority aren’t new. The tension residing between these populations that started as a few incidents has blown into a full-scale massacre of the Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar army. These rising tensions have brought more attention to the topic from the news. Today, more than 400 civilians have been murdered, their only crime being following a different religion. Another quarter million have fled the country in fear of being tortured and killed.

The leader of Myanmar, Aung Sang Suu Kyi, is, ironically, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. However, she has yet to utter a word condemning the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims. When she finally spoke about it, she cheered on her government and basically supported the cold blooded murder of innocent civilians. In an online petition, almost half a million people supported the stripping of Aung from her Nobel Peace Prize. The committee responded by stating that, once bestowed on a person, Nobel Peace Prizes cannot be revoked.

While the UN has called the actions of Myanmar’s army ethnic cleansing, they do not seem to be making an effort to stop it. Houses have been burned down, hundreds murdered, and places of worship have been completely ravaged. Yet the world remains silent. This genocide seems to be silenced and hidden. Only recently have newspapers started talking about what is happening, even though it’s been going on for years. Muslims aren’t the only victim of this violence. Ethnic Buddhists who have lived alongside Muslims have also been targeted. Hundreds of them have fled as well.

Myanmar and its leaders should be held accountable for this savagery and should be pressured with sanctions. Ethnic cleansing is ethnic cleansing, no matter who it is committed against. There should be more efforts to end this violence and protect the Muslim minority of Myanmar.