Myanmar army urges unity on Rohingya ‘issue’
YANGON: Myanmar’s army chief has urged the country to unite over the “issue” of the Rohingya, a Muslim group he says has no roots in the country, and which his troops are accused of systematically purging.
The military says its “clearance operations” in Rakhine state are aimed at taking out Rohingya militants who attacked police posts on August 25.
But the violence has engulfed the border region and triggered an exodus of more than 400,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh.
Many in Buddhist-majority Mynamar view the group as foreign interlopers from Bangladesh and deny the existence of a Rohingya ethnicity, insisting they be called “Bengalis”.
Gen Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar’s army chief, trumpeted that view in comments posted on his Facebook page on Saturday.
“They have demanded recognition as Rohingya, which has never been an ethnic group in Myanmar. (The) Bengali issue is a national cause and we need to be united in establishing the truth,” the post said.
The defence of his army’s operations comes amid strident global condemnation of the violence.
Myanmar’s civilian leader, former democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, has no power to control the army.
But she has been castigated for failing to voice sympathy for the Rohingya — a group she has asked her government to refer to only as “Muslims of Rakhine state”.