At long last, for the first time on 2nd November the State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had visited crisis-hit Northern Arakan/Rakhine State amidst international pressure and criticism apparently to whitewash the gravest situation of the defenceless Rohingya that the UN has called a “textbook case of ethnic cleansing” and “the world fasted growing refugee crisis and a major humanitarian emergency” while experts in international law have called it “genocide”.

Despite this, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was callous to advise the local people not to “quarrel” as if  the problem in Rakhine State is a communal disturbance between  Muslim Rohingya and Buddhist Rakhine, thus defending the military, Buddhist extremists and vigilante mobs who have committed widespread and systematic attacks on Rohingya population, including mass murder, torture and rape, arson and wholesale destruction of villages and forcible expulsion from their hearth and home in the most inhuman manner with full impunity.

The violence in Rakhine State have been one sided affair where the Rohingya alone are the victimized group, the military and non-state actors or Buddhist vigilantes are the perpetrators getting silence approval of the government. Yet Aung San Suu Kyi did not give a hint of those perpetrators of genocide that forced more than 623,000 Rohingya to leave their home and killed many thousands since August 25 while thousands still are crossing the border and taking refuge in Bangladesh on a daily basis.

The Suu Kyi led NLD government and Myanmar military have violated the fundamental principle of international humanitarian law that has never permitted to target civilians, other non-combatants, or civilian properties for attack. It has been codified in the Geneva Conventions, which Burmese/Myanmar junta ratified in 1992.

Instead of trying for rapprochement the Myanmar authorities are responsible for deliberate and intentional triggering in order to put the two sister communities at loggerheads under ‘divide and rule’ policy, who had otherwise peacefully co-existed in Arakan now called Rakhine State for centuries. As visiting Canadian Special envoy Bob Rae said Suu Kyi’s “pretence” will not help to resolve the ongoing crisis.

The solution to the problem is in the hand of the Myanmar government.  However, it is time now to throw the book at the perpetrators.

For more details, please contact:
Australia: Dr. Hla Myint + 61-423381904
Bangladesh: Ko Ko Linn: + 880-1726068413
Canada: Nur Hasim +1-519-5725359
Japan: Zaw Min Htut + 81-8030835327
U.K. Ronnie: +44-7783118354
U.S.A: Dr. Habibullah: +1-4438158609

Email: [email protected]
www.rohingya.org