Rohingya Muslims stage a protest outside the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand on Monday, July 23, 2012 to call for support from international community to pressure the government of Myanmar for better treatment of Rohingya ethic minority following communal violence in western Myanmar, in which Muslim Rohingyas were killed, rape and physically abused. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
IN regards of a few posters who underline that Rohingya are Muslims – I think to all – please see them first as humans who are terribly mistreated (and that since a very long time) and then second in regards to their religious affiliation.
I tried to read myself into the actual cause for the problem on hand and it seems that Rohingyas as a ethnic group have seen since a very long time a string of abuse and human rights violations – it is NOT an issue which just started in the very recent past. Basically it seems that for the region between Myanmar and Bangladesh which the Rohingyas called their home there is basically no place for them as they had been originally “imported” for (slave) labor. The U.S. had it with African-Americans, Indonesia with the Chinese…ahh, what a miserable world we are living in.
I hope with all my heart that this violence stops but seemingly neither Myanmar (as not really expected) nor Bangladesh care all to much for them.
Muslim drawing conflicts? What a nonsense. They live peacefully as the minority (South Thailand, South Philippines, Assam, South China, etc) and very tolerant as the majority (Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, etc). We Westerners are only looking for their fault because we Westerners are retarded and immoral.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nation is seeking an explanation from member state Myanmar about recent ethnic violence targeting minority Rohingya group.
The ongoing violence has driven the Rohingyas from their homes in Myanmar’s northern and western states, and seen them turn up in waves as asylum seekers and refugees in neighboring Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia.
“There will be a full explanation from Myanmar because this is an important and critical issue for Asean as a community,” Asean Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said on Wednesday.
The explanation, he said, would be given at the United Nations headquarters in New York in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Surin said the Asean Secretariat had conducted talks with Myanmar Foreign Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin but added “we haven’t heard anything specific or concrete on the matter.”
Predominantly Buddhist Myanmar does not recognize the Muslim Rohingyas as citizens, arguing that they migrated from Bangladesh during British colonial rule. Bangladesh has also disavowed the group, calling it Myanmar’s problem.
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday called for laws to protect the rights of the country’s ethnic minorities in her inaugural address to the fledgling parliament.
Additional reporting from AFP
