Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
over amid fears that non-Asean countries would boycott meetings in a nation run by a
military junta that brutally suppressed its people.
Thein Sein's reforms since the elections of 2010 blew away such concerns. By-elec-
tions in April 2012 saw a landslide victory for National League for Democracy (NLD)
candidates including Aung San Suu Kyi, who is now a member of the national parlia-
ment and de facto leader of the opposition. The economy is developing rapidly as foreign
investors rush to gain a foothold in a market largely cut off from the world for nearly half
a century. The easing of censorship has witnessed an explosion in new media, largely un-
afraid to document the country's multiple failings as well as its successes.
Plight of the Rohingya
Of particular international concern has been treatment of the Rohingya. During 2012 this
minority Muslim group living in Rakhine State found themselves under attack from the
majority Rakhine Buddhist population. Arson sprees reduced entire Muslim quarters to
smoldering ash. Government estimates put deaths on both sides at fewer than 100. But
Human Rights Watch uncovered evidence of four mass grave sites in the state and la-
belled the attacks as 'ethnic cleansing'.
It's reckoned that, following the violence, around 125,000 Rohingya were effectively
ousted from cities and pushed into squalid, makeshift camps guarded by troops. Local
media outlets, seizing new-found press freedoms, have covered the events in detail and
global rights organisations have rallied to the Rohingya defense. Even US President
Barack Obama, in his first visit to Myanmar in 2012, implored Myanmar's citizens to ac-
knowledge that the Rohingya 'hold within themselves the same dignity as you do.'
Best Travel Literature
TThe T
ple (Andrew Marshall; 2012) The new edition includes Marshall's
eye-witness account of the 2007 Saffron Revolution.
Golde
e Trouuser P
r People
n Eartth (Norman Lewis; 1952) What's amazing about Lewis's vivid account
of travelling in the turbulent Burma of 1951 is how little some things have
changed.
Fiindin
olden E
ell in Buurma (Emma Larkin; 2004) Perceptive account con-
trasting Orwell's time in Burma as a colonial policeman with Larkin's own travels
in the modern era.
ding G
g George O
e Orwell in B
