“What people need to understand is that at the heart of it, this isn’t a new story. The recent conflict in Rakhine isn’t something that just started in the summer of 2012. There is a historical legacy of persecution against the Rohingya community in Rakhine that dates back decades. Framing this as a religious issue of Buddhism vs. Islam belies its complexity. Instead we see ethnic Rakhine staking a claim for political space and natural resources and ‘protecting’ and ‘defending’ their identity. Add strong elements of racism, discrimination, the complete failure of anyone inside Burma to seek realistic solutions, the interests of self-serving politicians looking at elections in 2015, and the self-serving interests of the international community into the mix, and you have what is happening right now – an entire community consisting of hundreds of thousands of people, namely the Rohingya, being treated as if they are not even human.”
GREG CONSTANTINE
is an award-winning photographer from the United States. In 2005, he moved to Asia and began work on his long-term project, Nowhere People, which documents the struggles and plight of stateless
communities around the world.
Constantine has spent the past eight years documenting stateless communities from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Dominican Republic, Ukraine, Kuwait Lebanon, Iraq and Serbia. He began his work on the Rohingya in early 2006. Exiled To Nowhere: Burma’s Rohingya was produced from 8 trips to southern Bangladesh from 2006 to Feb. 2012 and three trips inside Burma since ethnic violence broke out in June 2012. His book, Exiled To Nowhere: Burma’s Rohingya was named a 2012 Notable Photo Book of the Year by the Independent on Sunday in the UK and PDN Magazine in the US and was named a finalist for the 2013 IPA Photo Book Asia Award.
His work can be seen at: http://www.featureshoot.com/