‘Buddha would have helped Muslims’
> Dalai Lama speaks out about Rohingya refugee crisis
NEW DELHI: The Dalai Lama has spoken out for the first time about the Rohingya refugee crisis, saying Buddha would have helped Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar.
He is the latest Nobel peace laureate to speak out against the violence, which the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar says may have killed more than 1,000 people, most of them Rohingyas.
“Those people who are sort of harassing some Muslims, they should remember Buddha,” the Dalai Lama told journalists who asked him about the crisis.
“He would definitely give help to those poor Muslims. So still I feel that. So very sad.”
The top Buddhist leader wrote to Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi shortly after new violence erupted in the state of Rakhine last month.
“I appeal to you and your fellow leaders to reach out to all sections of society to try to restore friendly relations throughout the population in a spirit of peace and reconciliation,” he wrote in the letter.
The Dalai Lama said he had spoken to Suu Kyi in the past about religious tensions in Myanmar and was urging her again to curb the violence. “I am appealing to you and your colleagues once more to find a lasting and humane solution to this festering problem.”
Suu Kyi has been condemned for her refusal to intervene in support of the Rohingyas, including by fellow Nobel laureates Malala Yousafzai and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Tutu, who became the moral voice of South Africa after helping dismantle apartheid there, last week urged her to speak out.
“If the political price of your ascension to the highest office in Myanmar is your silence, the price is surely too steep,” Tutu said.
Meanwhile, 405,000 people are calling for Suu Kyi to be stripped of her Nobel Peace Prize over her response to the Rohingya crisis.
The leader of Myanmar’s National League for Democracy party was given the prestigious award in 1991 for campaigning for her country to hold full and free elections.
But 405,000 people have now signed a petition on Change.org demanding the Nobel Committee withdraw the award from Suu Kyi.
“Until this second, Suu Kyi has done virtually nothing to stop this crime against humanity in her country,” the petition reads.
The Norwegian Nobel committee has said it will not rescind the award, saying only work led to the prize was taken into account. – The Independent/AFP
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