Burma accused of ‘ethnic cleansing’ on treatment of Muslims

The treatment of Burma’s Muslim Rohingya people following violence that has left hundreds dead is a “campaign of ethnic cleansing”, a Labour MP has warned.

Asking an urgent question in the Commons on recent violence in Rakhine, Burma, Labour’s Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) argued the situation required urgent intervention.

Burmese security officials and insurgents from the Rohingya are accusing each other of burning down villages and committing atrocities in Rakhine state in the west of the country.

Over a number of years there had been “systematic” rape, murder, burning and beheading of people in the Rohingya community, Ms Qureshi said.

She said: “Will the minister actually condemn this campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims?”

She added: “This is one of the worst outbreaks of violence in decades, yet the international community is effectively remaining silent as we watch another Srebrenica and Rwanda unfold before our eyes.”

Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister Mark Field responded: “Our Government will do all it can to condemn where condemnation is the right way forward but she is well aware the politics of Burma are incredibly tense and incredibly difficult.”

Ms Qureshi said she was “disappointed” by the minister’s response “suggesting as if somehow the Rohingya Muslims and these people had caused this to occur”.

His comments also drew criticism from the Tory former chairman of the Foreign Affairs select committee Crispin Blunt.

Mr Blunt said he was disappointed he was “with the tone of the minister which sounded pretty close to dumping the blame on the victim community”.