The Rohingya people of Myanmar are regarded as some of the most persecuted people in the world. They are Muslims who live in a remote part of the northwest of the country and they are seen by many Burmese people as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, though they have lived in the country for generations.
With the accession to power of Nobel prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, revered in the West for her steadfast struggle against the regime for which she spent years under house arrest, there were hopes that their situation might find some relief. However, the new ambassador of the United States to Myanmar was asked last week to refrain from even using the term. The official Myanmar position is that the Rohingya are not among the officially recognised ethnic minorities. Scot Marciel was told that using the term was not "supportive of Myanmar's national reconciliation process".
To his credit, Marciel flatly refused. "Our position globally and our international practice is to recognise that communities anywhere have the ability to choose what they should be called... and we respect that," said Marciel, in response to a question on whether he intended to continue using the term Rohingya. (Courtesy of christiantoday.com)
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