However horrified we may be about the Rohingya's present situation, we should never forget why this has arisen. There is as usual no single reason, but the clearest of them all has to be British colonial rule! The British East India Company annexed the Arakan region in Rakhine State and imported a large number of Muslim workers from present day Bangladesh. When the British took over rule in India and Burma, waves of immigration continued as they were needed to work on the land, in the same way that Indians were imported from colonial India into colonial Malaya.

Finding a solution will be a huge problem. Aung San Suu Kyi now has to face it after the British at the very least east exacerbated it and the generals did nothing about it. The world, led by the Americans, wanted the generals out and democracy restored - because they always come across as viewing democracy as the solution to everything. Was there in fact much on-going official concern expressed by the USA about all the Burmese minorities when the generals were in charge?

Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Prize "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights." So she is not living up to the terms of that citation.