Rohingya violence called 'genocide'

Bangkok Post:

April, 11, 2013

Muslims and Rohingya in Thailand have called on the United Nations and the United States to intervene to stop violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

About 30 Rohingya and Muslims from Bangkok and the deep South travelled separately to the capital to submit letters to embassy officials from Myanmar and the US, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

They appealed to the Myanmar government to stop supporting what they called "genocide".

They also asked the UN and US to intervene to protect the lives of Muslim people in Myanmar.

At the embassies and the UN office, the protesters laid down plastic, cloth and paper banners depicting the recent killings inside Myanmar.

Torchings, ambushes and deadly attacks have spread from Rakhine state to other places including Bago and Yangon.

Currently, about 30,000 Muslim and Rohingya people are said to live in temporary shelters in the central Myanmar town Meikhtila and around Nay Pyi Taw.

Abdul Kalam, 57, one of the three coordinators of the protest, said violence has taken place repeatedly without any sign of resolution.

"Our civilian governments and Aung San Suu Kyi have been neglecting the plight of the people born in the same land as them," Mr Karam said.

Bang Noo, 44, a Rohingya who has lived in Bangkok for 25 years, said he was unhappy to see further injustice in his native country, where Muslim Rohingya are still not recognised.

Maung Kyaw Nu, another protest coordinator, said he feared the situation could worsen.

The violence stems from decades of indoctrination under Buddhist socialism since the period of former Myanmar prime minister Ne Win, he said, referring to the political ideology that advocates that socialism contains elements of Buddhism.

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