YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Rohingya in Yangon say the Myanmar government is increasingly linking members of the Muslim minority across the country with what officials call a terrorist threat.
Rohingya in Yangon describe a sense of rising persecution and hatred. They say Buddhist neighbors and friends are suddenly more willing to publicly express sympathies with the military’s destruction of Rohingya villages in Rakhine state.
Bloody military operations that followed Rohingya militant attacks in August have driven nearly 700,000 Rohingya into refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Rohingya in Yangon say the government and media have increasingly played up their claim that they’re not citizens but “illegal Bengali interlopers.”