Rohingya crisis: Exiled blogger describes Myanmar violence
September 21, 2017
Long before the suffering inflicted on Myanmar's prompted global outcry, Nay San Lwin's website, Rohingya Blogger, provided daily updates on the Muslim minority's everday plight.
Working with a group of bloggers and face-checkers on the ground in the cities of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung, San Lwin's blog covers all corners of Myanmar's affected areas. That work was become increasingly substantial — and dangerous — since late August, when the Myanmar military launched its brutal crackdown against the Rohingya in the western state of Rakhine.
Read more: Myanmar's Rohingya: A history of forced exoduses
The crackdown has led to the exodus of over 400,000 people to neighboring Bangladesh in less than a month. Myanmar's government, led by under fire Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has blamed the crisis on Rohingya insurgents who attacked a number military posts. However, the international community has condemned the deadly nature of the military's response. The United Nations has described the crackdown as "ethnic cleansing."
Nay San Lwin has helped run Rohingya Blogger since his father launched the website in 2005. However, the activist was forced to flee his native Myanmar and arrived in Germany as a refugee in 2011.