Rohingya activist and blogger Nay San Lwin has been documenting torture and subjugation faced by his people in Myanmar. His blog has become one of the most reliable sources on the brutal crackdown against the Rohingya.
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.
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.
The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh
Rohingya Muslims fleeing from fighting in Myanmar face attempts by Bangladesh authorities to send them home despite a UN appeal that they be allowed to stay. The Rohingya are classed as illegal immigrants in Myanmar.
Seeking refuge
A series of coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar security forces in the north of Myanmar's Rakhine State triggered a crackdown by Myanmar forces that has sent a stream of Rohingya villagers fleeing to Bangladesh. About 400 people have been killed in the clashes in Buddist-majority Myanmar.
Mass evacuation
A Rohingya man passes a child though a barbed wire border fence on the border with Bangladesh. Myanmar accused the Rohingya insurgents of torching seven villages, one outpost, and two parts of Maungdaw town.
Image: Getty Images/R.Asad
Buddhist refugees on their way south
The crackdown by Myanmar forces also sparked a mass evacuation of thousands of Buddhist residents of the area. Tension has long been high between the Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists, leading to bloody rioting in 2012. Rakhine Buddhists, feeling unsafe after the upsurge in fighting, are moving south to the state's capital, Sittwe, where Buddhists are a majority and have greater security.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
No entry
Bangladeshi border guards block people from crossing. Thousands of Rohingyas have sought to flee the fighting to Bangladesh, with nearly 30,000 crossing over. Bangladesh, which is already host to more than 400,000 Rohingya said it will not accept any more refugees, despite an appeal by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for Dhaka to allow Rohingya to seek safety.
Image: Reuters/M. Ponir Hossain
Humanitarian crisis
An aid worker with an international agency in Bangladesh reports: "What we're seeing is that many Rohingya people are sick. This is because they got stuck in the border before they could enter. It's mostly women and children." The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and classified as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M.Alam
Not welcome in Bangladesh
A group of Rohingya refugees takes shelter at the Kutuupalang makeshift refugee camp in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. Bangladesh's unwillingness to host more refugees became apparent in the government's plan to relocate Rohingyas to a remote island that is mostly flooded during the monsoon season.
Image: Reuters/M. P. Hossain
Stranded in no man's land
Rohingya children make their way through water as they try to come to the Bangladesh side from no man's land. Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees are believed to be stuck at the border to Bangladesh.
