Time to Break Old Habits: From Complicity to Protection of the Rohingya in Myanmar

Liam Mahony, Director of Fieldview Solutions, has just released a groundbreaking study outlining the need for the international community in Myanmar to dramatically change gears in their approach if they are to break out of a cycle of passive complicity with ethnic cleansing and make a more lasting contribution to protecting the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar. The article analyzes years of self-censorship and silent compliance with a government implementing policies of apartheid. It calls on all actors to engage in more forthright reporting and advocacy, confronting government harassment more boldly. It further urges donors and agencies to stop all support to ethnic detention centres and to strictly condition all their contributions and programming in Myanmar – linking such support to the granting of freedom of movement and other rights to the Rohingya.