Joint Statement on Aung San Suu Kyi’s Outrageous Remarks on Muslims

By Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK and Arakan Rohingya National Organisation • 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

Tags: Arakan Rohingya National Organisation, Arakan State, Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Muslims, Rohingya, Violence

This post is in: Press Release

Joint Statement on Aung San Suu Kyi’s Outrageous Remarks on Muslims

About Burma Partnership

Spotlight

Campaigns