This time three years ago we were barely getting information about what was unfolding in Rakhine State. When we did start to get information via Rohingya sources, some media were reluctant to report it. In previous years some diplomats and analysts had systematically...

...set about trying to discredit Rohingya activists as exaggerating, joining the Burmese government and most of the Burmese media. The inconvenient truth of what was happening to the Rohingya didn't fit with the narrative of reform and transition they were promoting.

What was remarkable during August and September was the accuracy of what Rohingya activists were reporting. When they first reported the stunning scale of what was going on there was again skepticism, and they were again proved right.

Today in the Yangon bubble among some diplomats and others there is revisionism and denial about what took place in 2017. Some of the same people attacking Rohingya activists credibility in the past do the same for the Fact-Finding Mission today.

Doing so facilitates the continuation of violations of international law against the Rohingya and other ethnic groups in Burma.