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Ye Lwin, minister-counselor at the Myanmar Embassy in Washington, said by email that the Myanmar government has given priority to maintenance of law and order in Rakhine State, and is working closely with U.S. ambassador to Myanmar, Derek Mitchell, on the issue. It has also hosted many foreign delegations there. "It is not appropriate that the Holocaust Museum should conduct such an exhibition depicting the situation in Myanmar as the Rohingya issue is not related to genocide," Ye Lwin said. Constantine's images will also be shown at the European Parliament building in Brussels at the end of November. Constantine, who is from Carmel, Ind., but is based in Thailand, has traveled to Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Kuwait and the Dominican Republic to document stateless people. He regards the situation of the Rohingya, who have faced persecution for decades, as the most extreme case of all. He began photographing them in Bangladesh in 2006, but only last year was he able to visit them in Myanmar, traveling to the western city of Sittwe. He said he saw a "complete helplessness" among Rohingya in displacement camps: people who wanted to return their homes but had no idea there's little left there but rubble. "It was disturbing to see and feel the complete and total absence of any Muslim presence in Sittwe," Constantine said, who last visited in March. "There was no call to prayer going on. All the mosques were empty or destroyed or Burmese troops were living in them. Every single Muslim shop was boarded up." Facing criticism from the West and the Islamic world, Myanmar's government has vowed to prevent further violence, but the Rohingyas' plight draws little sympathy among the wider population there.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, a senior investigator on human rights in Myanmar for the U.N., said last month the government is showing greater willingness to address the crisis in Rakhine state but has failed to investigate allegations of widespread human rights violations, including by security forces. Constantine, for one, says the stone facade of Holocaust museum is an appropriate canvas for his photographs. "The fact is this is a museum that's there to elevate discussion of atrocities against humanity," he said. "I believe that's what happening against the Rohingya right now." ___
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