Fellow laureate slams Suu Kyi’s silence
MYANMAR: Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani Nobel peace laureate, and Muslim leaders across Asia have led a global outcry over the Myanmar army’s brutal crackdown on the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority and the failure of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to stop it.
Nearly 90,000 Rohingya have poured into Bangladesh over the past 10 days after a military operation in the restive western Rakhine state, which has led to security forces being accused of widespread arson and the indiscriminate killing of civilians, including beheading and drowning children.
While the official death toll is 400, human rights activists claim there are at least 1000 casualties among the Rohingya people - described by some as the world’s most persecuted minority.
The United Nations says the army may have committed ethnic cleansing.
Suu Kyi, formerly a feted political prisoner of the junta that ruled Myanmar, has come under increasing criticism for her perceived reluctance to condemn the military’s harsh treatment of Rohingya civilians.
She has made no comment since the latest fighting broke out, a silence that Yousafzai, who survived being shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban when she was just 15, has urged Suu Kyi to break.
‘‘Stop the violence. Today we have seen pictures of small children killed by Burma’s security forces,’’ Yousafzai said in a statement on Twitter.
‘‘Over the last several years, I have repeatedly condemned this tragic and shameful treatment. I am still waiting for my fellow Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to do the same. The world is waiting and the Rohingya Muslims are waiting.’’
Human rights activists on the Burma-Bangladesh border have described horrific conditions as Rohingya refugees flee in fear of their lives.
Muslim countries are incensed at the mounting reports of atrocities. The Maldives said yesterday it would sever all trade ties with Myanmar, while Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, called for international action to ‘‘prevent further ethnic cleansing’’. Indonesian President Joko Widodo said ‘‘this humanitarian crisis has to stop immediately’’.
- Telegraph Group
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