MYANMAR CARTOONISTS

Keyboard warriors trade blows with pro-Rohingya groups

YANGON

MASSOUD BARZANI, Iraqi Kurdish leader skewering the former junta, have taken aim at the Rohingya.

One widely-shared sketch called “crocodile tears” shows the reptiles swimming away from a bank of mutilated animals towards an eager Western cameraman.

“I had to flee my motherland,” a crying crocodile says into the microphone, a swipe at the testimonies of Rohingya refugees who have arrived in Bangladesh with accounts of atrocities by Myanmar’s army.

“There is something untrue about what they (the Rohingya) are saying,” Win Naing, one of Myanmar’s most famous cartoonists, said.

The 58-year-old, whose pen name is Aw Pi Kyeh, said he wanted to provoke thought in a highlycharged situation.

“We draw cartoons with a spirit that loves the country.”

Anti-Rohingya diatribes are being “liked”, shared and retweeted, reinforcing long-held religious hatreds against the minority.

Since late last month, around 430,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, escaping an army crackdown in Rakhine State that the United Nations has called “ethnic cleansing”.

The global condemnation has triggered a defensive instinct in

Myanmar where the Rohingya are not citizens and are reviled.

Armed with crass humour, Internet fame and riding a wave of public opinion, cartoonists have