Rohingya leaders are condemning recent comments by opposition leader Daw Aung Suu Kyi during her trip to India.
“There's a lot of illegal crossing of the border still going on that they have got to put a stop this," Suu Kyi said in interview with the Indian NDTV television network.
Nurul Islam, president of Arakan Rohingya National Organization (ARNO), said the comments Suu Kyi made about Rohingyas in Arakan State is unacceptable.
“Her silence or so-called neutrality cannot be justified because such standpoint encourages Rakhine extremists and the elements in the governments to carry on their campaigns of systematic racism, racial extermination and campaigns of genocide against the Rohingyas and Kamans.”
The ARNO President said Suu Kyi's comments belie the truth, either by choice or ignorance, when she stated that there is still illegal immigration of people from Bangladesh into Arakan State. On the contrary, expulsion of Muslim Rohingyas from Arakan into Bangladesh and other countries is a regular phenomenon. If Suu Kyi needed to be convinced she could have visited thousands of Rohingya refugees from Burma within the vicinity of Delhi. There are also thousands of Rakhines and Mramas from Bangladesh who have entered and settled down in Arakan under a state administered program, said Nurul Islam.
He also said that the international community is well aware that the government has forced most of the Muslim population in the state to live in deplorable conditions for decades where they have been subjected to crimes against humanity on a daily basis. It is unthinkable that nationals from the democratic country of Bangladesh would choose to live in such sub-human like conditions that currently exist in the anarchic Arakan. Daw Suu Kyi should make an international enquiry on the Rohingya Diasporas, respecting and ensuring their rights of return to their homeland in Arakan State.
The government has been conducting anti-Muslim campaigns since 1962, purporting they were introduced to the country during British colonial times, and ignoring their contributions for the country since 788 AD, according to ARNO Vice-Chairman Habibur Rahman.
