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Oscar-nominated actor: Rohingya camps like "Polish ghetto under the Nazis"

Oscar-nominated actor: Rohingya camps like "Polish ghetto under the Nazis"
Oscar-nominated actor: Rohingya camps like "Polish ghetto under the Nazis"
WASHINGTON, June 11 (KUNA) -- Hollywood actor Matt Dillon has lent his name to the cause of the Rohingya Muslims in Southeast Asia, after becoming the first Western celebrity and human rights advocate to visit the refugee camps in Myanmar's western Rakhine state.
The Oscar-nominated actor told reporters at the National Press Club on Thursday that conditions for the stateless Rohingya in Myanmar - particularly close to the border with Bangladesh - are akin to "a Polish ghetto under the Nazis." "The first impression when you visit these camps right away is that nobody would live there if they had the choice," he said, adding that "young men's spirits were broken. You could see it in their eyes." "There were signs of malnutrition among the children. We met people who tried to escape unsuccessfully and spent several months at sea, starved and beaten, only to return for ransom - they had to pay a ransom," he said. Thousands of Rohingya migrants who fled Rakhine state by boat this year - and many who were forced onto the overcrowded vessels by Buddhist gunmen and traffickers - were left stranded at sea for up to two months before Malaysian and Indonesian officials agreed to accept some of them as refugees late last month.
Dillon stressed this has "taken heat off the Myanmar government," as the issue is framed by the media as a crisis of refugees at sea, rather than as a crisis of long-term violent persecution of a stateless people.
Only in recent weeks has the issue received mainstream media attention in the US. The Rohingya have had their homes torched, endured beatings, and died at the hands of extremist Buddhist monks since ethnic and religious tensions in Myanmar flared in 2012.
The government there has prohibited the use of the term Rohingya, forcing the Muslims to identify themselves as Bengali, because their "distant ancestors" were originally from Bangladesh, Dillon said.
Bangladesh, however, does not recognize them.
Michel Gabaudan, the President of Refugees International, said the Myanmar government has done nothing to counter the "anti-Muslim hysteria" perpetrated by "radical Buddhist monks" well beyond Rakhine state.
"I think it is the problem of Myanmar ... they won't be helped if they don't change," he said in response to a question about responsibility for the Rohingya's plight.
The US Department of State's "diplomatic messaging has had no effect," Gabaudan added, but did not specify what action - if any - the Obama Administration can take to step up the pressure on Myanmar to recognize, accept, and treat the Muslim minority equally.
"Things are getting worse," he warned.
Dillon said he did not encounter any non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Rakhine state during his visit last month. (end) ys.ibi