ARU-DG calls on Myanmar Government to be the facilitator of peace, not a party to violence; and dialogue is the key

Arakan Rohingya Union Director General, Professor Dr. Wakar Uddin, urged the international community, including Malaysia, to be persistent in exerting pressure on the Myanmar government to permanently cease hostility toward the Rohingya ethnic minority in Myanmar and reinstate their citizenship with ethnic rights.

Dr. Uddin cautioned that there are significant numbers of ultra-nationalist hardliners in Myanmar Government; thus it is not likely to respond to scattered messages coming from individual countries or a few organizations. "Countries need to come together and put concerted pressure on the Myanmar government to stop their systematic and persistent genocide of the Rohingya people in the Rakhine state of Myanmar”.

 

"We need a multi-track approach. Not only from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) speaking up, but the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the United Nations (UN) should come forward with stronger message on one theme – give Rohingya all their ethnic rights and cease all the human right abuses permanently, and condemn the violence towards the Rohingya Muslims," Dr. Uddin urged at the international conference "Plight of the Rohingya: Solutions?" in Kuala Lumpur. He urged for a concerted international intervention effort to save the Rohingya people and that it should be continued and sustained until the problem is solved.

He called for a probe by United Nations to the massacre of Rohingya, and long term deployment of international monitoring teams and media in Rohingya regions in Arakan State. Dr. Uddin warned that the single most serious threat to security of Rohingya people in Arakan at this moment is the Rakhine Police force that is arresting hundreds of Rohingya arbitrarily and committing harsh treatments, torture, and cold blooded murders of Rohingya. He also deplored the rapes and violence against Rohingya women committed by Rakhine forces.

Dr. Uddin’s message to Myanmar government was “resolve the issues through dialogue between Rohingya leadership and the Burmese government, and other entities in Myanmar such as other political parties and ethnic minorities - even with Rakhine elements if they are interested in peaceful coexistence with Rohingya in Arakan”.