Rohingya are grieved and disappointed over the statement of U Tin Oo which indicates good sense does not prevail yet in the mind of the former general even after he has held the office of highest public trust as a Vice-President of National League for Democracy (NLD) headed by democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on whom the Rohingya people, nay, the whole people of Burma repose faith, the press release stated.

“U Tin Oo is following the footstep of his former boss Gen. Ne Win, while endorsing xenophobic and anti-Muslim policy of the new government of U Thein Sein towards Rohingya people. His prejudiced statement is against the NLD’s commitments for democracy and universalism of human rights causing dismay among the Rohingyas and right minded people of the country.”

“The question naturally arises here is whether U Tin Oo’s statement has been sanctioned by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.”

Abul Faiz (AFK Jilani), a founder member of the Arakan State NLD (together with U Oo Saw and U Ba Daung) and a NLD candidate contested in 1990 general election and as an author of a book "Aung San Suu Kyi - The Lady of Destiny," strongly protest the baseless, bias and racist statement of U Tin Oo in an interview with RFA on 2 October 2011, regarding the (Rohingya) Muslims of Arakan, according to a letter to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, dated October 5, 2011.

“We (Rohingya) are outraged, shocked and dismayed for his blunt statement where he is forgetting the real history of Arakan.”

“U Tin Oo should also carefully read the report of the NLD [acting] Secretary General U Chit Khine at grand Gandhi Hall NLD Conference in 1988 where it is clearly declared that the NLD had recognized Rohingyas as an indigenous ethnic group of Burma.”

“Hate language and bigoted activities against Rohingya people by the so-called democracy activist and vice-chairman of NLD (National League for Democracy in Burma), U Tin Oo, a former army commander with history of serious human right violations in Rakhine State during Gen. Ne Win reign”, according to a press release of the Burmese Rohingya Association of North America (BRANA), dated October 10, 2011.

It may be mentioned that while Gen. Tin Oo was the Commander of Western Command in Akyab, he completely destroyed 32 Rohingya villages – 24 in northern Maungdaw and 8 from northern Buthidaung -- killing many people and driving the innocent villagers across the border to the then East Pakistan. It was he who first institutionalized the most debilitating Four Cuts Strategy of the Burma Army against the ethnic peoples as a Commander in Chief.

“At the age of 30s U Tin Oo had thrown 32 Rohingya villagers to the then East Pakistan, now at the age of 88 U Tin Oo is trying to make 3 million Rohingyas stateless and hopeless,” according to Abul Fayas’ letter to Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Burmese Parliament, for the first time since independence, tag a label of illegal Bangladeshis to the Rohingya people and this wicked act was vehemently opposed by worldwide Rohingyas with Burma’s ethnic nationalities and international community. The oppressed and persecuted Rohingya people are not surprised at the false accusation of U Khin Yi who had given the statement on Parliament on 24 September 2011, according to ARNO press release.