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Monsoon Rains Threaten Rohingya Refugees
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Photo:
Allison Joyce/Getty Images
As monsoon season
bears down on Southeast Asia, U.S. officials say up to a
100,000 Rohingya refugees sheltering in the hills of Bangladesh face a
potential humanitarian catastrophe.
More than 860,000
ethnic Rohingya Muslims were driven out of Myanmar by a
violent crackdown by the government that the U.S. has called a campaign
of ethnic cleansing, but the plan to return them home is slated to take
two years – and they don’t want to go, nor do their former Buddhist
neighbors in Myanmar’s Rakhine State want them.
- Oppression
of the ethnic Rohingya by the people and government of Myanmar is
deeply rooted in the belief that Rohingyas are illegal immigrants from the
Indian state of Bengal, with no place in mostly Buddhist Myanmar.
The country’s nascent transition to democracy has not improved the
Rohingyas’ lot as they remain without citizenship or basic legal
rights.
- The
international community continues to press Myanmar to end its oppression of
the Rohingya people, but the government has so far failed to change
course, protesting that it is rightfully defending itself against a
violent Rohingya rebellion.
- The
emergence of the militant group ARSA, which says it fights to
end the oppression of the Rohingya people, stokes concern that
large-scale radicalization could occur within the population,
undergirded by bleak prospects for a resolution to the conflict and
deep mistrust of the Myanmar government.
Read today’s brief,
featuring expert commentary by:
- Alasdair Gordon, former senior
Australian national security official
- Amb. Derek Mitchell,
former U.S. Ambassador to Burma
- Josh Kurlantzick,
Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia, Council on Foreign Relations
- Jonah Blank, Senior
Political Scientist, RAND Corporation
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Domestic Terrorism: The Threat in Our Backyard
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The Austin bombing
attacks – carried out by a 24-year-old white male with no
reported ties to foreign terrorist groups – highlights the rising threat
of domestic terrorism, with all of the lethal
attacks in the U.S. since 9/11 carried out by a U.S. citizens or legal
residents, writes former DEA Agent Mike Vigil.
- “These
attacks against soft targets do not require planning, extensive training, or
coordination, but they can still be lethal. Although the attacks may
not be as large as the one of 9/11, a steady pattern of smaller ones
will create chaos and uncertainty.”
Yet domestic law
enforcement doesn’t have access to the same intelligence, resources
and arrest powers of their foreign-terrorist-hunting brethren.
- “Definitions
of domestic terrorism used by federal agencies are confusing and
inconsistent….Congress
could help by passing a law to make domestic terrorism a crime,
which would allow the federal government to use its vast resources
to conduct court authorized wire intercepts, searches and seizures,
surveillance, serve subpoenas, obtain documents and records, and
conduct arrests – and help make America safer.”
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