Witness to Genocide: Chasing Southeast Asia’s Rohingya crisis

Link to the program recording here.

In western Myanmar, formerly Burma, the Rohingya Muslim population has faced more than 60 years of segregation and persecution at the hands of successive military regimes that seem determined to eliminate them by any means possible from the country.

In 2009, Canadian photojournalist Steve Sandford and Thai producer Am Sandford, his partner and wife, started an expansive effort for many different news agencies and organizations, documenting the ill-treatment and exploitation inflicted upon the Rohingya. This began after photographs were published showing Thai security forces detaining a boatload of Asian migrants in Western Thailand.

Their newly published book, “Witness to genocide: Chasing the Rohingya crisis in Southeast Asia,” takes readers back to key events. The Sandfords’ coverage includes the carnage and aftermath of deadly ethnic cleansing in 2012 in Rakhine state, encounters with human traffickers in Thailand’s deep south, and the massive 2015 boat crisis where desperate Rohingya were stranded on boats at sea, floating off into murderous oblivion.

These desperate people have faced severe abuse on both land and water. Thousands ended up being held for ransom in jungle prisons controlled by traffickers along the Thai-Malaysian border.  

The coverage spanning four countries leads up to the deadly August 2017 Burmese army clearance operation in Rakhine state that resulted in some 700,000 Rohingya fleeing into Bangladesh, where they remain to this day. “Witness to Genocide” provides in vivid detail the overwhelming evidence of atrocities that resulted in Myanmar facing charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Steve and Am will discuss their experiences tracking this ongoing crisis, and their efforts to bring the story to global newsrooms. It is a remarkable story of courage and persistence, exposing an often inaccessible story that demands urgent global attention.  

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Speakers:

Steve and Am Sandford.

Moderator: Phil Robertson, FCCT board member.