The Shadows of Myanmar

Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while under house arrest. Eloquent, educated in the West and clothed in white, there was worldwide adulation and celebration in 2015 when Kyi became the president of Myanmar as the military junta surprisingly stepped aside. But the real story was just beginning. While the international community focused on her appearances on the world-stage, framed as an icon of democracy and human rights, the persecution of the Rohingya – a minority Islamic community of many millions in Myanmar – began to worsen. In 2017, as journalist Poppy McPherson travelled through the West of the country, she began to document an unprecedented increase in violence, extra-judicial killings and deportations. The UN have now declared the situation to be a genocide. The true story - of villages burnt to the ground, torture and the murder of Rohingya people - is only now coming to light. Featuring harrowing frontline reporting from the Bangladesh border and Rakhine State - where most of the violence has taken place - this is a moving and powerful book about horror, devastation and the displacement of hope.