Ashin Wirathu, a leading monk in the ongoing persecution of Muslims in Rakhine State, was this week issued an arrest warrant by a Myanmar court, on the basis of “exciting or attempting to excite disaffection towards the government.” The warrant is significant not for the charge itself, but more as a development that could potentially disrupt the ongoing persecution of Rohingya Muslims by the military junta.

Wirathu’s Ma Ba Tha ultranationalist Buddhist sect is a prominent player in the racial crackdown that has targeted more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims, creating a veritable human rights emergency that has spilled over into the ill-equipped neighbouring state of Bangladesh.

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