The fate of the Rohingyas from Arakan, or Rakhine, state in Myanmar is painful to read.
Born poor - not given citizenship by the arrogant government, which opens the way to abuse - and forced to run to another country.
Many of them ended up in Bangladesh beside the Myanmar border.
Others took chances at getting into Thailand and Malaysia - where there are jobs - via rickety boats. Get beaten up, robbed, towed to sea to die.
And they are not the only minorities bullied and murdered in Myanmar.
I met with several Myanmar community leaders in Malaysia some years ago to do a story on this hidden community - some of them lived in Cheras.
I also met one of them while in Mecca some years back. He saw me as a Malaysian and we spoke in Bahasa Melayu because he worked in Malaysia before.
Malaysia, the land of plenty, is a magnet for foreigners (myself included!).
Anyway, in Jakarta a few months ago for a seminar, I met the executive editor of Kaladan Press Network, Mohamed Taher, whose online news report sad, sad news out of this country that abuse human beings openly. Kaladan is based in Chittagong, Bangladesh.
Read the news here - www.kaladanpress.org.
Or alternatively, go to Irrawaddy Online - www.irrawaddy.org.
Only the heartless won't cry, at least a bit, for the plight of the Rohingyas, Chins, Karens, Shans, Mons, etc.
About a third of the 50 million population of Myanmar are not of the majority race, Burmans.
My Bangkok-based colleague, Nirmal Ghosh, went to Teknaf near the Myanmar border to report on what he saw of the refugees. See here.
Myanmar is blessed with gas and oil, the best red-ruby diamonds and jade are from there. They sell timber and buy weapons. They sell rice and award road projects.
So naturally enough, the governments of India, China and even Asean, dance with this wolf.
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