Anadolu Agency
July 13, 2013
Burmese politician
Suu Kyi can solve the problems of the Rohingya people if she came to power,
Ambassador of Bangladesh Zulfiqur Rahman said
ANKARA - Neslihan
Dogan
Ambassador of
Bangladesh in Ankara Zulfiqur Rahman on Friday said that Aung San Suu Kyi,
Burmese opposition politician and chairperson of the National League for
Democracy (NLD) in Burma can solve the problems of the Rohingya people if she
came to power.
The Ambassador of
Bangladesh to Turkey Rahman, who has been serving for the past three years in
Ankara, talked to the Anadolu Agency (AA) about the situation of Rohingya
Muslims.
Rahman said that Bangladesh had been hosting
the Rohingya Muslims for the last 35 years and that they started coming to
Bangladesh in 1978. "The government accepted 30,000 registered refugees
who are still in the camps. There are another 400,000 people who have never
been registered as refugees," Rahman noted.
He said that these people put a lot of
pressure on Bangladesh and that it was not a rich country. Rahman mentioned
that the Rohingya people worked at cheap rate, and so the local people were not
happy about it.
"Now it's the
responsibility of the international community to come and take care of this
people. But the root of the problem is in Myanmar, in Burma not in
Bangladesh," Rahman underlined.
Rahman reminded
that the government of Myanmar did not give citizenship to this people, and
that they don't have the right for citizenship and need a permission even for
marriage or having children.
"They are
slaves in their own country. You have to ensure that this people can live in
Myanmar with respect and dignity. To send them to Bangladesh is not a solution.
The Western governments should use pressure on the Myanmar government to
recognize the Rohingya people," Rahman highlighted.
Suu Kyi can solve the problems if she wants
Rahman reminded
that Aung San Suu Kyi fought always for the people's right and travelled last
year to the UK, when everybody asked her about the situation of the Rohingya
people and she did not make any comments on the issue. "Until today, she
only said this problem should be resolved and who are the citizens of Myanmar
and who are not," Rahman said regarding Suu Kyi's position on the issue.
He noted that she
said the same things like the military and that she will run in the election
next year. "She wants to go to power and will not want to make the
military angry. She won't lose this chance," Rahman pointed out.
Rahman said that
the problem can't be solved unless the international community put pressure on
Myanmar and added, "If she goes to power, maybe or we hope that she change
things. She had to do something about it. If she come to power, she can change
things, if she wants."
Rahman reminded
that Rohingya people were ministers in the 1960's government in Myanmar and
that they were saying that they are not citizens of Myanmar.
"The problem
started in 1982, when they adopted a new citizenship act where they called the
ethnic minorities. We can't ignore them and still hosting them. 430,000
Rohingya people were still in Bangladesh," Rahman underlined.
The Ambassador of
Bangladesh criticized that it's not the right way to help the Rohingya people
with charity and reminded that Turkey did this with charity and food help.
"But this don't solve the problem. This is very temporary. We can feed this
people, because we are feeding them for nearly 40 years. This is not the
problem, our problem is to find a political solution," Rahman noted and
proposed that Turkey should talk with the government in Myanmar to agree to
this solution.
As part of his job
he visited the refugee camps in Bangladesh twice, Rahman noted and said that it
made him cry to see the situation of this people. He said that the Americans
and the Europeans don't care about this people, only make big speeches and that
the military was Buddhist and that they see Muslims as their enemies.
Religious pressure
against Muslims in Myanmar has persisted since 1960. Rohingya Muslims are not
recognized as citizens in the country that is ruled by the Buddhist majority.
Muslims' rights to education, travel and marriage are limited. Hundreds were killed
by Buddhist monks in attacks that began in July 2012. After the public
supported the monks, thousands of Muslims have been forced to leave their homes
and take refuge in Bangladesh. The ethnic violence and cleansing in Myanmar
against Rohingya Muslims have been going on for the past one year.
United Nations High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Spokesman Adrian Edwards announced in June that
140 thousand people have been displaced in the ethnic violence in the Muslim
Arakan region of Myanmar.
The United Nations
Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar Ojea Quintana said
Rohingya Muslims had been facing systematic violation of human rights.
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