Joint Statement on
Aung San Suu Kyi’s outrageous remarks on Muslims
October 26, 2013
Burmese Rohingya
Organisation UK (BROUK) and Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)
strongly condemn Burmese opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for her
outrageous comments on Muslims in an interview with BBC on Thursday, 24 October
2013.
Her remarks on
Burma’s peaceful living Muslim minority communities are full of prejudice based
on fanatical patriotism and islamophobia. In a situation of injustice, ethnic
cleansing and genocide against Rohingya and other Muslims in Burma, she tried
to defend Buddhist extremism saying that Buddhists in Burma are terrified by
“global Muslim power” where there is no such threat from Burma’s numerically
very small and insignificant Muslim population. This is a pretext or a
fictitious reason, where Burma is a predominantly Buddhist country,
particularly when the Rohingya are rendered stateless with no basic freedoms,
in order to conceal the real reason.
Despite repeated
requests, Suu Kyi refused to visit the Rohingya areas where credible
organization like Human Rights Watch (HRW) had found evidences of mass graves
in Arakan. Experts in international law, after examining all evidences,
conclude that ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity have been
perpetrated against the Rohingya population. Yet she rejects to accept and
condemn these international crimes.
She remains
indifferent to ongoing ‘Rohingya or Muslim extermination’, the great
humanitarian disaster being faced by the Rohingyas in their squalid
displacement camps and villages under siege in segregated and apartheid like
situation and continued plight and dilemma of an estimated 1.5 million Rohingya
diaspora and boat people around the world. She tries to befool the
international community saying “A number of Buddhists had left the country
during the era of dictatorship”. This remark is completely irrelevant.
It is very worrying
that notorious anti-Muslim hate preachers have taken great encouragement from
her words. She is not only pushing humanity towards interfaith antagonism but
also reducing the possibilities of peace, tolerance and mutual coexistence
amongst the country’s different societies, ethnic and religious groups.
However, her behaviour does not reflect the position of the majority people as
history testifies that Burma’s Buddhists and Muslims lived hand in hand,
peacefully, for centuries.
It is unfortunate
that Thein Sein’s government rejects and persecutes the Rohingya and other
Muslims while some political parties and influential opposition leaders are
apathetic audience applauding the oppressors.
Under the
circumstance, we urge upon the United Nations to use its opportunity to include
in its General Assembly resolutions on Burma, which they are currently
drafting, the establishment of UN Commission of Inquiry into these crimes. This
could establish the truth and make recommendations for action in the interest
of international peace and security.
Meanwhile, it is
worth mentioning that Islam advocates peace, love and harmony and decries all
unjust violence; and we invite the attention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all
Burmese leaders to the positive and constructive aspects of Islam, its peaceful
teachings and philanthropic philosophy and orientation.
For more
information please contact
Habibur Rahman
+88(0) 1817012919
Tun Khin +44 (0)
7888714866
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