Tueday 14th November

I have just watched the report on Sky news.  The first independent reporter to have actually seen first-hand the terrible fate of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.  I don’t know how anyone can watch this suffering and not be moved.  How can this be happening in the Twenty-First Century?  The female reporter, and I cannot recall her name, set out in a fishing boat from a beach in Bangladesh which is close to Myanmar.  They landed a few hours later on a beach in Myanmar.  It was absolutely crowded with barely clothed and starving people.  Babies were being born in these appalling conditions.  I have never seen such an appalling sight.

The army (which is still partially in control and practically untouchable) is conducting a policy of ethnic cleansing, burning villages, killing and raping: driving, so far, an estimated six hundred thousand people into neighbouring Bangladesh, itself one of the poorest countries in the world.

Aung Suu Kyi, the (almost) leader of the country is still denying that this is happening.  And there is growing pressure on her to intervene.  We do not know the internal power struggle in Myanmar, but her reactions so far do seem incredible.  Bloody Religion again.

But what can the world do?  Myanmar is a closed world.  But surely we must do something to at least help the Bangladeshis to deal with this huge influx of desperate people.  And we must share their plight and try to bring some change.

This is the link to watch the report.

https://news.sky.com/video/starvation-and-death-on-the-beaches-11124030