The Rohingyas

Since August 2017, more than 400,000 Rohingyas have fled Myanmar, and thousands have been killed in a military crackdown and sectarian violence. The world has started to pay attention to what is being called the worst case of ethnic cleansing in recent history. But the Rohingya tragedy is far older, reaching back to 1948, when Myanmar became independent.

Azeem Ibrahim's carefully researched book follows the history of the Rohingya people to explain how they came to be among the most persecuted minorities in the world. They are Muslims who live in Rakhine province in western Myanmar. The country is mostly Buddhist, and it refuses to count them among its recognised 'national races' and has denied them citizenship in the land where they were born. They are cut off from health care, education, work and legal protection. There are credible reports of armed attacks, torture and rape by government forces, and whole villages have been burned.

The book documents what it calls a slow-motion genocide. It also points to the part played by the Buddhist clergy in stirring up religious cleansing, and to the responsibility of successive governments, including the current one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.