Myanmar’s generals have united the country—against themselves

ZIN HTET AUNG had always loathed the Rohingyas, a Muslim ethnic group from Rakhine, a state in western Myanmar. When the Burmese army led mobs on a rampage through Rohingya villages in 2017, burning, raping and killing and prompting some 700,000 Rohingyas to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, he believed the military campaign was justified. He regarded the minority as “terrorists” and “illegal immigrants”. Most Bamars, the ethnic majority, to which he belongs, felt the same way.