Five of the Nobel peace laureates of the Nobel Women’s Initiative are calling on Aung San Suu Kyi to break her silence on the violence against the Rohingya, the Muslim minority in Burma.
The laureates today sent a letter to Aung San Suu Kyi asking her to take all measures possible to end the persecution of the Rohingya population. The letter reminds Aung San Suu Kyi that she has a personal responsibility to uphold and defend the rights of all Burmese citizens. The laureates state that “[this is] what the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calls ‘a textbook example of ethnic cleansing’. This is an assault on our humanity as a whole.”
Nearly all of the Rohingya live in the Burmese western coastal state of Rakhine and have been denied citizenship since 1982. Close to one million Rohingya have fled Burma since the late 1970’s due to widespread persecution and arbitrary violence against civilians. More recently, there has been increasing reports of extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearance and rape. Nearly 270,000 Rohingya have sought refuge in Bangladesh since the Burmese military launched an operation ‘against insurgents’ on August 25. While fleeing the violence, the Rohingya are facing an additional risk due to landmines planted along the Burmese border.
Read the full letter here.
LEARN MORE
“Myanmar: Who are the Rohingya?” Al Jazeera, 10 August, 2017.
“Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar is ‘Ethnic Cleansing,’ UN Rights Chief says.” New York Times, 11 September, 2017.
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