Malaysian PM leads protest against ‘genocide’ of Rohingya

Myanmar’s de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has asked Annan to help find ways to resolve the ethnic and religious tensions between the Rohingya and the country’s Buddhist majority.

Since winning a historic election past year, Aung San Suu Kyi has hardly spoken out on the issue.

“Political boundaries do not prevent us from uniting to defend human rights”, he said.

The state has been under military lockdown since an attack on the country’s border guards left nine police officers dead on October 9.

Myanmar ethnic Rohingya Muslims shout slogans during a protest against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016.

Rohingya have fled Myanmar in droves for decades, with a new wave of migrations occurring since mid-2012 after communal violence broke out in Rakhine between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya – described by the United Nations as among the most persecuted minority groups worldwide.

Numerous estimated 1 million Rohingya, who face widespread discrimination and are excluded from Myanmar citizenship, have lived in Rakhine for generations but are treated as illegal settlers from Bangladesh. Worldwide observers, journalists and aid agencies face severe restrictions of movement while trying to verify the claims in the area.

But in November, a senior United Nations official John McKissick said Burmese security forces are striving towards the “ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority in Myanmar”.

But during a trip to Singapore this week she gave a rare interview in which she hit out at worldwide criticism.

On Saturday, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman insisted that the Rohingya crisis was “no longer” an internal affair of Myanmar but an worldwide matter given the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who had fled to Malaysia and other neighboring countries.

The 1.1 million Rohingyas are seen as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh by numerous country’s majority Buddhists.

Adama Dieng, UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide, said this week that if reports of excessive use of force in Rakhine were true, “the lives of thousands of people are at risk”.

“We really need help”, Hussain said, “including from the global community and the United Nations to immediately stop these mass killings and arbitrary arrests”. Hundreds also protested outside the Myanmar Embassy last week. Over the past several years, the treatment of the Rohingya has become a major issue across the Islamic world.

Yesterday Wisma Putra rebutted the Myanmar government, which was reported warning Malaysia to stay out of its affairs, by saying the rally would proceed as the issue also affects the security of the region.