Hollywood actor Matt Dillon has visited a displaced persons camp in Rakhine State according to a report in the Scotsman on 1 June.
The visit was “heartbreaking,” he said after meeting a young man with a raw, open leg wound from a road accident and no means to treat it.
“No one should have to live like this, people are really suffering,” said Dillon, one of the first celebrities to get a first-hand look at what life is like for Rohingya in the western state of Rakhine.
“They are being strangled slowly, they have no hope for the future and nowhere to go.”
Though Rohingya have been victims of discrimination for decades, conditions started deteriorating three years ago after the predominantly Buddhist country of 50 million began its transition from a half-century of dictatorship to democracy.
“I know that’s a very touchy word to use,” said Dillon, wearing his trademark black T-shirt and jeans. “But there’s a very ominous feeling here.”
“I’ve been to some places where the threats of violence seemed more imminent,” said Dillon, who has also visited refugee camps in Sudan, the Congo and elsewhere.
“Here it’s something else. It feels more like people are going to be left to wither away and die.”
Dillon said he decided to come to Myanmar following a desperate, urgent appeal by Rohingya activist Thun Khin at a Refugees International fundraiser in Washington, just over a month ago. In Japan to promote his new television series, Wayward Pines, he decided it was a good time to make the trip.