‘ROHINGYA WANT TO STOP GENOCIDE’
Community leaders here call for deployment of UN peacekeepers in their homeland
THE Rohingya community in Malaysia is determined to return to Myanmar and help their brethren stop the genocide there.
However, they are pleading for international support and help to do so.
Myanmar Rohingya Ethnic Human Rights Organisation Malaysia (Mehrom) president Zafar Abdul Ghani said his people had no means of protecting themselves, let alone fight against those who persecute them.
“If it’s possible, we are willing to return home tomorrow and help defend our people.
“But it would be suicidal to do so as we don’t have the means to defend ourselves. We need the international community’s help.
“We hope United Nations peacekeepers will be sent there... Others like members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Asean, our neighbouring countries, should also rally behind us.”
Zafar said thousands of Rohingya back home had been contacting relatives and friends in Malaysia, asking for help to escape the violence.
“I receive hundreds of messages and calls daily seeking assistance. My people think it is better to run to another country.
“However, I tell them not to rush into anything as they will also face danger when fleeing. I have seen people raped, tortured, killed and thrown overboard from ships by human smugglers,” he said.
Mohd Nor Abu Bakar, another Rohingya community leader based in Kedah, said he, too, supported any move to rope in UN peacekeepers to stop the violence in Rakhine state.
He said if peacekeepers were sent there, Rohingya refugees who fled to Malaysia and other places like the Middle East, Thailand and Indonesia, would return to their homeland.
“We want to return and rebuild our country,” he said, adding that he personally would return home even if it took 20 years of waiting for peace to be achieved.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had, on Sunday, echoed a call by United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres for calm and restraint to prevail in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, where unrest had displaced thousands of Rohingya.
Najib said the Malaysian government was urging Myanmar’s security forces to seek a holistic approach towards addressing the crisis.
Guterres had also issued a similar warning, stating that unless checked, the crisis could lead to a “humanitarian catastrophe”.
He also expressed deep concern over the reported systematic violence committed on Rohingya villagers in the state following the Aug 25 attacks on police posts across the state.