An Islamic ethnic minority is under mass exodus from the Asian country of Myanmar under the threat of genocide from a Buddhist majority.

More than half a million Rohingya have fled the country, spreading out to surrounding nations off of the coast to Bangladesh and Australia. With women and children being shot from behind as they flee the beaches, children being trampled and women being raped, the two thousand casualties is just the start.

Immigrating as laborers from India and Bangladesh, these people have faced persecution due to the circumstances of their heritage and birth. Under the military government of the Burmese, the Rohingya held and continue to hold no voice in the government and are not considered citizens.

State counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been awarded a Nobel Prize, has faced difficulty in transition from a 50-year-old military government since she took office last year. Worldwide criticism has come to her on the grounds that she has not fulfilled her task of being a source of justice, punishing law abusers, and protecting the persecuted. Western nations imposed sanctions on Myanmar to support Suu Kyi’s campaign for democracy, to which Myanmar responded by forging closer ties with China.

Kyi and her supporters have stated that the genocide is not connected to them, and that the acts are being committed not by the police, but instead the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army insurgent group, a small minority of Rohingya terrorists that were accused of attacking the police and the army, killing civilians, and torching villages. This has justified to the Buddhist majority that the Rohingya population does not belong.

“Accusations without any strong evidence are dangerous. It makes it difficult for the government to handle things,” Government Spokesperson Zaw Htay said, according to CBC.ca News.

Myanmar has rejected the UN’s accusations that its military and police are ethnically cleansing Rohingya Muslims in response to coordinated attacks by Rohingya terrorists on the security forces on Aug. 25.