Wake up and stop Rohingya abuses
Nobel laureates ask Suu Kyi
AFP
Three Nobel Peace Prize winners yesterday urged fellow laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to speak out about violence against the Rohingya minority, warning she otherwise risks prosecution for genocide, report agencies from Coxs Bazar. The trio -- Tawakkol Karman, Shirin Ebadi and Mairead Maguire -- implored the embattled Myanmar leader to wake up to the atrocities after visiting squalid camps in Bangladesh home to nearly one million Rohingya refugees. The three women Nobel Laureates will visit the no mans land along the Bangladesh Myanmar border this morning where as many as 6,000 people were stranded last week.
Thousands remain without food, water or sanitation and they have no access to help in the no mans land between the two countries, threatened with repatriation. This is clearly, clearly, clearly genocide that is going on by the Burmese government and military against the Rohingya people, Maguire said Monday, using another name for Myanmar. We refuse this genocide policy of the Burmese government. They will be taken to the ICC (International Criminal Court) and those who are committing genocide will be held responsible.
The UN has described the systematic violence by Myanmar against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state as possible genocide and ethnic cleansing, but has stopped short of outright accusing the army of war crimes. Suu Kyi, once a global rights icon, has witnessed her reputation among the international community crumble over her handling of the Rohingya crisis. Critics have called for the Nobel prize she won under house arrest in 1991 to be revoked.
Her fellow three female laureates issued a personal appeal to the beleaguered leader as they toured the overcrowded camps in Coxs Bazar district on Sunday and Monday, hearing firsthand stories of rape and murder against the Muslim minority. Karman, a Yemeni rights activist, warned Suu Kyi that she risked being hauled to the ICC if she did not intervene. If she will continue her silence, she will be one of them, said Karman, fighting back tears, after meeting Rohingya refugees.
Its an appeal to our sister Aung San Suu Kyi to wake up, otherwise she will be betrayed (as) one of the perpetrators of this crime, she said. Shirin Ebadi, speaking after meeting officials at the Refugee Relief Repatriation Commission in Coxs Bazar yesterday, explained that her visit with fellow women Nobel Laureates, Tawakkol Karman and Mairead Maguire, to the Rohingya refugee camps in the area is to gather information that could lead to an official International Criminal Court investigation.
They are here to make a strong statement of support and solidarity with Rohingya women, bearing witness to their plight in what is now said to have become the worlds biggest refugee camp.
The Nobel Womens Initiative in collaboration with its partner in Bangladesh, Naripokkho, is leading the delegation to Bangladesh to better understand the situation of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
Myanmar has staunchly denied the charges and blocked UN investigators from the conflict zone in Rakhine state, souring relations with a host of western allies.
Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have sought sanctuary in Coxs Bazar after fleeing a Myanmar army crackdown launched last August, sparking a humanitarian emergency in the Bangladesh border district. Critics have accused Suu Kyi of adopting a siege mentality as global condemnation has mounted.
