Actor Matt Dillon puts rare celebrity spotlight on Rohingya

[webfact]

Actor Matt Dillon puts rare celebrity spotlight on Rohingya
ROBIN McDOWELL, Associated Press

SITTWE, Myanmar (AP) — American actor Matt Dillon put a rare star-powered spotlight on Myanmar's long-persecuted Rohingya Muslims, visiting a hot, squalid camp for tens of thousands displaced by violence and a port that has been one of the main launching pads for their exodus by sea.

It was "heartbreaking," he said after meeting a young man with a raw, open leg wound from a road accident and no means to treat it.

Mothers carrying babies with clear signs of malnutrition stood listlessly outside row after row of identical bamboo huts, toddlers playing nearby in the chalky white dust.

"No one should have to live like this, people are really suffering," said Dillon, one of the first celebrities to get a first-hand look at what life is like for Rohingya in the western state of Rakhine. "They are being strangled slowly, they have no hope for the future and nowhere to go."

Though Rohingya have been victims of state-sponsored discrimination for decades, conditions started deteriorating three years ago after the predominantly Buddhist country of 50 million began its bumpy transition from a half-century of dictatorship to democracy.

Taking advantage of newfound freedoms of expression, radical monks started fanning deep-seated societal hatred for the religious minority. Hundreds have been killed by machete-wielding mobs and a quarter million others now live under apartheid-like conditions in camps or have fled by boat -hundreds of dehydrated, hungry Rohingya washing onto Southeast Asian shores in recent weeks.

Denied citizenship, they are effectively stateless with almost no basic rights. As they become increasingly marginalized, several groups are warning that the building blocks of genocide are in place.

"I know that's a very touchy word to use," said Dillon, wearing his trademark black T-shirt and jeans. "But there's a very ominous feeling here."

"I've been to some places where the threats of violence seemed more imminent," said Dillon, who has also visited refugee camps in Sudan, the Congo and elsewhere. "Here it's something else. It feels more like people are going to be left to wither away and die."

Dillon said he decided to come to Myanmar following a desperate, urgent appeal by Rohingya activist Thun Khin at a Refugees International fundraiser in Washington, just over a month ago. In Japan to promote his new television series, "Wayward Pines," he decided it was a good time to make the trip.

"There are people working here, people who know a hell of a lot more about it than I do," Dillon said after hearing grumbling from some aid workers about what he hoped to achieve. "But listen, if I can use my voice to draw attention to something, where I see people suffering, I'll do that any day of the week. I'm happy to do that."

He spoke to two teenage boys who tried to flee by boat, only to find themselves in the hands of human traffickers, and was chased away by armed security guards when trying to snap pictures of the last standing Rohingya neighborhood in the state capital - a ghetto surrounded by tall walls topped by rolls of heavy barbed wire.

But what really choked him up were the camps: "It affected me more than I thought it would."

While there were clear signs humanitarian agencies are active — new latrines, well-placed hand pumps, concrete open sewers — he noted in contrast to camps he's visited in Sudan and the Congo, he didn't run into a single Western aid worker during his two-day visit.

Nor were NGO trucks rumbling through with medical equipment, food or other supplies — due primarily to severe restrictions placed on aid agencies by the government following pressure from Buddhist extremists.

"A lot of people are suffering," he said. "I'm really glad I had a chance to come, to see for myself what's happening here."


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-06-01

[phuketandsee]

Good for him. Let's hope some others join him and ratchet up the pressure. Who knows maybe Aung San Suu Kyi will grow a pair.

[uksomchai]

Good for him. Let's hope some others join him and ratchet up the pressure. Who knows maybe Aung San Suu Kyi will grow a pair.

And do what exactly ? Just what do these Luvvies actually do apart from promote themselves ? How much has matt given of his own cash ?

Remember when the 200 school girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram. they all jumped on the band wagon right up to Obama's missus and what happened ?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING !

They are to this day still missing and the luvvies that were all over the media demanding their return are back to what they do best. keep their profiles and faces in the papers and TV

No difference here sadly for the Royhinga

[lungbing]

If the Rohingya had made any attempt to integrate themselves over the 'hundreds' of years they are supposed to have been in Burma, there wouldn't be this problem. But, as with Muslims everywhere, they won't integrate. The host country is supposed to change to accomodate them. And then they start to outbreed the locals and start to attack them to assert their dominance. Good for Burma, I say, for not putting up with this nonsense that is starting to plague so many countries.

[dexterm]

Good for him. Let's hope some others join him and ratchet up the pressure. Who knows maybe Aung San Suu Kyi will grow a pair.

And do what exactly ? Just what do these Luvvies actually do apart from promote themselves ? How much has matt given of his own cash ?

Remember when the 200 school girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram. they all jumped on the band wagon right up to Obama's missus and what happened ?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING !

They are to this day still missing and the luvvies that were all over the media demanding their return are back to what they do best. keep their profiles and faces in the papers and TV

No difference here sadly for the Royhinga

You are sad for the Rohingya. I am happy that someone with Matt Dillon celebrity status is at least trying to do something about it by bringing it to the world's attention.

One tree can make a forest.

[scorecard]

My gripe is with the UN.

Surely one of the founding reasons that established the UN is causes / situations like this.

To put it in simple words the UN mandate was / is to build and maintain a civil world for all mankind / a civil world where all people have at least basic human rights.

On day 1 of the formation of the UN there were thousands of stateless people, now after 90 years or whatever nothing / zero has been done and it's now a lot worse.

I refuse to believe that the UN cannot do anything. They could have at least negotiated land somewhere in the world, even paid for it from the overall wealth of the world and at least created some form of citizenship for the stateless people.

Surely a UN passport which provides something similar to a world citizenship could have been created.

Surely it is grossly against all principles of human rights that in 2015 we still have hundreds of millions of people who are not even recognized as human beings.

Instead the UN spends it's time and vast sums of money on talkfests which produce close to nothing and just support silly unproductive political games.

Edited June 1, 2015 by scorecard

[abitmiffed]

Actor Matt Dillon puts rare celebrity spotlight on Rohingya

ROBIN McDOWELL, Associated Press

SITTWE, Myanmar (AP) American actor Matt Dillon put a rare star-powered spotlight on Myanmar's long-persecuted Rohingya Muslims, visiting a hot, squalid camp for tens of thousands displaced by violence and a port that has been one of the main launching pads for their exodus by sea.

It was "heartbreaking," he said after meeting a young man with a raw, open leg wound from a road accident and no means to treat it.

Mothers carrying babies with clear signs of malnutrition stood listlessly outside row after row of identical bamboo huts, toddlers playing nearby in the chalky white dust.

"No one should have to live like this, people are really suffering," said Dillon, one of the first celebrities to get a first-hand look at what life is like for Rohingya in the western state of Rakhine. "They are being strangled slowly, they have no hope for the future and nowhere to go."

Though Rohingya have been victims of state-sponsored discrimination for decades, conditions started deteriorating three years ago after the predominantly Buddhist country of 50 million began its bumpy transition from a half-century of dictatorship to democracy.

Taking advantage of newfound freedoms of expression, radical monks started fanning deep-seated societal hatred for the religious minority. Hundreds have been killed by machete-wielding mobs and a quarter million others now live under apartheid-like conditions in camps or have fled by boat -hundreds of dehydrated, hungry Rohingya washing onto Southeast Asian shores in recent weeks.

Denied citizenship, they are effectively stateless with almost no basic rights. As they become increasingly marginalized, several groups are warning that the building blocks of genocide are in place.

"I know that's a very touchy word to use," said Dillon, wearing his trademark black T-shirt and jeans. "But there's a very ominous feeling here."

"I've been to some places where the threats of violence seemed more imminent," said Dillon, who has also visited refugee camps in Sudan, the Congo and elsewhere. "Here it's something else. It feels more like people are going to be left to wither away and die."

Dillon said he decided to come to Myanmar following a desperate, urgent appeal by Rohingya activist Thun Khin at a Refugees International fundraiser in Washington, just over a month ago. In Japan to promote his new television series, "Wayward Pines," he decided it was a good time to make the trip.

"There are people working here, people who know a hell of a lot more about it than I do," Dillon said after hearing grumbling from some aid workers about what he hoped to achieve. "But listen, if I can use my voice to draw attention to something, where I see people suffering, I'll do that any day of the week. I'm happy to do that."

He spoke to two teenage boys who tried to flee by boat, only to find themselves in the hands of human traffickers, and was chased away by armed security guards when trying to snap pictures of the last standing Rohingya neighborhood in the state capital - a ghetto surrounded by tall walls topped by rolls of heavy barbed wire.

But what really choked him up were the camps: "It affected me more than I thought it would."

While there were clear signs humanitarian agencies are active new latrines, well-placed hand pumps, concrete open sewers he noted in contrast to camps he's visited in Sudan and the Congo, he didn't run into a single Western aid worker during his two-day visit.

Nor were NGO trucks rumbling through with medical equipment, food or other supplies due primarily to severe restrictions placed on aid agencies by the government following pressure from Buddhist extremists.

"A lot of people are suffering," he said. "I'm really glad I had a chance to come, to see for myself what's happening here."

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-06-01

And BREAKING NEWS just in .. Failing actor matt Dillon just been offered a Hollywood mega buster deal.... What no selfie Matt?

Your welcome to take them all to Hollywood with you, put them up in your home.

[Usernames]

How many Rohingya is Matt Dillon taking into his home?

[billd766]

Good for him. Let's hope some others join him and ratchet up the pressure. Who knows maybe Aung San Suu Kyi will grow a pair.

And do what exactly ? Just what do these Luvvies actually do apart from promote themselves ? How much has matt given of his own cash ?

Remember when the 200 school girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram. they all jumped on the band wagon right up to Obama's missus and what happened ?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING !

They are to this day still missing and the luvvies that were all over the media demanding their return are back to what they do best. keep their profiles and faces in the papers and TV

No difference here sadly for the Royhinga

You are sad for the Rohingya. I am happy that someone with Matt Dillon celebrity status is at least trying to do something about it by bringing it to the world's attention.

One tree can make a forest.

I am sure that the world or at least the part that cares knew about it long before Matt Dillon and all the other "Luvvies" jumped onto the bandwagon. After all it has been known about in the region for decades.

[dcpo]

If the Rohingya had made any attempt to integrate themselves over the 'hundreds' of years they are supposed to have been in Burma, there wouldn't be this problem. But, as with Muslims everywhere, they won't integrate. The host country is supposed to change to accomodate them. And then they start to outbreed the locals and start to attack them to assert their dominance. Good for Burma, I say, for not putting up with this nonsense that is starting to plague so many countries.

You and the people who like this comment are confused, ignorant <deleted>.

[Rykbanlor]

In the past I have often held the celebrity philanthropists slightly in contempt as others have voiced, but sometimes they do it froma genuine wish to do what they can. I think celebrity ambassadors is a stupid idea, when more qualified people can represent a given cause more with more result, but in this case he was being quite straight up when he said if he can use his celebrity to draw more peoples attention then it's a good thing.

Be a hater if you will, but not many people know about this issue outside of the locale and while some people might ask whether Mat Dillon is giving money or providing shelter to these people, well, are YOU?

[uksomchai]

In the past I have often held the celebrity philanthropists slightly in contempt as others have voiced, but sometimes they do it froma genuine wish to do what they can. I think celebrity ambassadors is a stupid idea, when more qualified people can represent a given cause more with more result, but in this case he was being quite straight up when he said if he can use his celebrity to draw more peoples attention then it's a good thing.

Be a hater if you will, but not many people know about this issue outside of the locale and while some people might ask whether Mat Dillon is giving money or providing shelter to these people, well, are YOU?

To answer your question NO I'm not giving money or providing shelter for these people but then I am in no position to do so whereas Mr Dillon most certainly is in a position to help. I remember reading about an elephant that was chained up and there was a petition to help save it launched. I remember Paul McCartney being all over the news and papers saying how cruel and unjust etc it was and yet here was a man who could have saved this animal without it having any real consequence on his fortune and yet he didn't. The fact he had an album or tour coming soon had nothing to do with his concern of course

As said already where are all the luvvies that were in uproar over the kidnapping of the schoolgirls now ?

All forgotten about and it is on with the next NEWSWORTHY cause celebre

[Srikcir]

The UN is not a world government nor the world's policeman. Only when its Security Counsil allows, it can impose itself on a nation. And even then UN armed forces are contributed from member nations; the UN has no standing army itself. Unlike Gen. Prayut, the UN does not have an Article 44 to quickly resolve issues.

The UN's primary mission otherwise is to act as a diplomatic catalyst to get nations to work together for the common welfare of world citizens. So it must work primarily through the sovereignty of nations. It is otherwise the responsibility of nations to act responsibly in handling humantarian crisises. So when one asks why isn't the UN doing more to resolve a crisis, one should be asking why the nations directly involved in the crisis are not doing more.

[Guy360]

Hollywood liberals, as with most liberals, must have a "Victim du Jour" to defend. It is Mothers Milk to them. They bring attention to their cause of the day, accomplish almost nothing, and then move on to their next "victim". It always appears that they leave with an air of mendacity that lingers for quite some time.

[ddavidovsky]

Solution for the Rohingya problem: Burma to transfer a strip of its territory along the border to Bangladesh - say 50 square km (a pinprick to a big country like Burma). The Rohingya in Rakhine to move to that area and establish new towns for themselves under the jurisdiction of Muslim Bangladesh. Some ethnic Rakhine will have to relocate out of that strip of land, but the land vacated by the Rohingya elsewhere in Rakhine will create room for them. Some upheaval of course, but better than the upheaval of war or permanent conflict. Everyone wins: Burma gets rid of this thorny political conflict. Bangladesh gets some extra territory. The Rohingya get status, rights, and proper governance under an ethnically related government. It could be done if the political will was there.

Don't like that solution? Alright, carry on as you were.

[fred Kubasa]

Another of those damned Americans sticking their nose in where not wanted ! Checks yes, aircraft carriers - yes

EMS aid - yes .....but noses - NO !

[bendejo]

I'm disappointed Myanmar's resident Nobel Peace Prize laureate has not spoken up, but I think I can figure out why.

The UN is a toothless organization, I think most people realize that. Except, of course, for some tinfoil hat types in the US who see it as a threat to US sovereignty.

Shining a light on this stuff helps, even if it is part of show biz vanity. There is no downside. How many Americans have even heard of Myanmar?

[Scott]

An off-topic post has been removed.

[abitmiffed]

How many Rohingya is Matt Dillon taking into his home?

Exactly, be the 1st to take a dozen or so to your penthouses and maybe the rest of the world will jump on your bandwagon.

[dexterm]

In the past I have often held the celebrity philanthropists slightly in contempt as others have voiced, but sometimes they do it froma genuine wish to do what they can. I think celebrity ambassadors is a stupid idea, when more qualified people can represent a given cause more with more result, but in this case he was being quite straight up when he said if he can use his celebrity to draw more peoples attention then it's a good thing.

Be a hater if you will, but not many people know about this issue outside of the locale and while some people might ask whether Mat Dillon is giving money or providing shelter to these people, well, are YOU?

To answer your question NO I'm not giving money or providing shelter for these people but then I am in no position to do so whereas Mr Dillon most certainly is in a position to help. I remember reading about an elephant that was chained up and there was a petition to help save it launched. I remember Paul McCartney being all over the news and papers saying how cruel and unjust etc it was and yet here was a man who could have saved this animal without it having any real consequence on his fortune and yet he didn't. The fact he had an album or tour coming soon had nothing to do with his concern of course

As said already where are all the luvvies that were in uproar over the kidnapping of the schoolgirls now ?

All forgotten about and it is on with the next NEWSWORTHY cause celebre

How do you know he hasn't given any money? Straw man fallacy.

He has gone out of his way and given his time (and maybe his money...I dont know; neither do you) to highlight the problems of the most unwanted and cruelly treated refugees in the world. I think that's admirable. I wish there were more caring people like him in this world. It would be a better place.

Especially at a time when hate campaigns against Muslims in Texas and Arizona are becoming popular sport. Matt Dillon is not winning any popularity stakes by trying to help the Rohingya who are Muslim.

He is simply standing up for the human rights of a persecuted group of people..because he is the same species.....a human being.

There have been many other instances in history where the most outrageous atrocities have been committed, and people's excuse later was "We didn't know".

Well, thanks to Matt Dillion. A few more people now know.

[Thongkorn]

If the Rohingya had made any attempt to integrate themselves over the 'hundreds' of years they are supposed to have been in Burma, there wouldn't be this problem. But, as with Muslims everywhere, they won't integrate. The host country is supposed to change to accomodate them. And then they start to outbreed the locals and start to attack them to assert their dominance. Good for Burma, I say, for not putting up with this nonsense that is starting to plague so many countries.

We have this in The UK , its called the life in the UK test, Its to make certain you integrate into British society. ha

[samran]

If the Rohingya had made any attempt to integrate themselves over the 'hundreds' of years they are supposed to have been in Burma, there wouldn't be this problem. But, as with Muslims everywhere, they won't integrate. The host country is supposed to change to accomodate them. And then they start to outbreed the locals and start to attack them to assert their dominance. Good for Burma, I say, for not putting up with this nonsense that is starting to plague so many countries.

Integrate themselves with what?

The country has a dozen different minorities speaking different languages and half of them still at war with the central government.

Yet they are all considered citizens.

These poor sods have done nothing of the sort, often the victims of government brutality.

The governments behaviour wreaks of bigotry. As does your post.

[Credo]

You cannot integrate unless the dominant culture allows you to integrate.

In the case of the Rohingyas, they have been actively excluded from anything having to do with the nation, including citizenship. Whether they would have been better integrated is difficult to ascertain. They never had the opportunity.