How Burma's Muslim Rohingya still suffer

Have you ever heard about the Rohingya, a Muslim minority living in Burma? 

Although the Rohingya are, according to the UN, the most persecuted minority worldwide, too many people haven't. 

Already in June 2012, mobs torched houses and attacked Rohingya families with swords and other weapons. Both the police and the military just stood by or even participated in the mass slaughter. 

Human Rights Watch described the state-sponsored attacks against the Rohingya as ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

But nobody was ever held accountable. 

Last October, the Rohingya faced another wave of attacks. While UN agencies and international humanitarian organizations were not allowed to work and media and human rights monitors were prevented from observing, the Burmese army enforced a "clearance operation" in territories that are mainly inhabited by the Rohingya. 

According to an analysis of satellite imagery by Human Rights Watch, at least 1,500 houses were burned to the ground by the security forces. Interviews with some of those Rohingya who fled to neighboring Bangladesh revealed that many women and children were brutally tortured, raped and murdered.

According to witnesses, women were raped in front of other family members.

Other people have been burned alive in their homes.

According to the UN, the abuses have been widespread and systematic.

The Burmese government has responded with waves of denials which makes clear that a credible, independent, international investigation is needed now more than ever.