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Project August 10, 2018

Myanmar's Rohingya: Anatomy of a Genocide

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Image by Patrick Brown.

In August 2017, Myanmar security launched a pogrom of mass murder, rape, and arson against Rohingya Muslims that left untold thousands dead and drove more than 700,000 out of the country. Government officials have tried to frame it as a crackdown against Islamist terrorists, but it was the final purge of a stateless minority that has been called the "world's most persecuted."

Anatomy investigates a state-orchestrated genocide—and the West's failure to stop it–through the prism of a single, devastating attack. Reconstructing events before, during, and after the Tula Toli village massacre, we give a holistic account of the Rohingyas' systematic eradication and the resulting refugee crisis. Along the way, we examine the roots of Buddhist radicalism in Myanmar and the complicity of foreign governments that put political expediency ahead of protecting human rights. 

Western diplomats have called the attacks on Rohingya a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" but none dare label it genocide, which mandates an intervention under international law. In a groundbreaking half-hour film and long-form article, we unpack the "elements of preparation" carried out by Myanmar authorities ahead of their decisive pogrom, leaving no doubt the crime of genocide was committed. 

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