Word: burma
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When I recall reporting Burma's doomed pro-democracy uprising for TIME in September 2007, one image stands out. Amid cheering crowds, a monk holds aloft an upturned alms bowl to indicate his brethren's refusal to accept offerings from the military. It's a powerful gesture in a devout Buddhist country, but what strikes me is not the monk but the ordinary Burmese holding aloft cell phones and cameras to record his protest. Images like these were then transmitted out of Burma via the Internet, where they were picked up by major broadcasters and shown to the world...
These refugees were subjected to such treatment partly because few will defend them. Muzaffar, whose full name is being withheld by the Arakan Project, is a member of the Rohingya community, a Muslim ethnic group living in abysmal conditions on the margins of Burma and Bangladesh. Some 800,000 Rohingya, who look South Asian, remain in western Burma, where they are denied citizenship and most rights by the military-run government; about 200,000 eke out an existence in squalid refugee camps across the border in Bangladesh. A scattered, quiet diaspora scratches at the fringe of society in countries...
...rescued Rohingya in India and Indonesia are likely to be "repatriated" to Bangladesh - a return to Burma would spell arrest and far worse. The Rohingya's lot in Burma is dire, says Sean Garcia, a consultant for the Washington-based Refugees International. "They are not allowed to survive," he says. Denied state documents, the Rohingya have to apply for permission to move from village to village, to repair a mosque, even to get married. Rohingya frequently fall victim to forced-labor drives by the military. The Burmese government, say Rohingya rights-groups, sees them as interlopers in the predominantly Buddhist...
...consequence of their downtrodden condition, the Rohingya don't have the kind of diaspora-based support groups that provide publicity and aid to some of Burma's other oppressed minorities. Their plight, though, may be a central issue at the next regional ASEAN Summit, which will take place at the end of February in Thailand. By then, observers hope the Thai government will employ different methods in tackling the problem. "Governments in the region need to put together a proactive plan to meet the needs of the Rohingya," says Garcia. "You can't literally make these people go away...
...Catastrophic Miss I viewed with interest "Pictures That Mattered" [Dec. 29]. On May 2, 2008, an enormous cyclone named Nargis hit the delta region of southern Burma. It left over 80,000 dead, nearly 60,000 missing and 20,000 injured. The extent of its destruction is devastating - to the tune of some $4 billion. Despite this, there was not even one small picture of this sorrowful event to be found in TIME's year-end issue. Did the victims not deserve recognition? K.N. Thein, Rangoon