US Voices Concerns Over Proposed Two-Child Limit For Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims
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| (Photo: Phuket Wan) |
June 12, 2013
The United States on has expressed concern over reports that the Myanmar (formerly Burma) government is planning to implement a population control regulation that restricts ethnic Rohingya Muslims in the country's west to having a maximum of two children.
The U.S. reaction came after Myanmar's Immigration Minister Khin Yi publicly supported the controversial two-child limit on the Rohingya Muslim minority group. Notably, Myanmar's opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Kyi and the United Nations have already denounced the planned regulation as "discriminatory."
U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said at a news briefing on Tuesday that Washington was "deeply concerned about reports that some officials in Burma plan to enforce or have said they plan to enforce a two-child limit for Rohingya Muslims."
"The United States, of course, opposes coercive and discriminatory birth limitation policies, and we have pressed senior Burmese Government officials to abolish this local order. We urge the Government of Burma to eliminate all such policies without delay and we will continue to express our concerns," she added.
Earlier, the U.N. had urged Myanmar "to remove such policies or practices" after local authorities confirmed plans to impose the two-child limit for Rohingya Muslims under a 2005 regulation late last month.
Separately, Suu Kyi said the two-child regulation imposed on ethnic Rohingya was illegal, adding: "It is not good to have such discrimination. And it is not in line with human rights."
Meanwhile, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted that implementation of the policy was consistent with the wider persecution of the largely stateless Rohingya, violating international human rights protections, and endangering women's physical and mental health.
"Implementation of this callous and cruel two-child policy against the Rohingya is another example of the systematic and wide ranging persecution of this group, who have recently been the target of an ethnic cleansing campaign," said Brad Adams, Asia Director at HRW.
The rights watchdog noted that some 800,000 to one million Rohingyas in Myanmar are particularly vulnerable to government abuse because most are denied citizenship under the country's discriminatory 1982 citizenship law.
Notably, the recent pro-democracy developments in Myanmar have been overshadowed to an extent by the ongoing ethnic violence between Buddhist and Rohingya Muslim communities. Continued violence had left dozens dead and thousands displaced, mainly Rohingya Muslims.
Thousands of majority Buddhists, led by monks, had participated in crimes against humanity during a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingyas and other Muslims in June and October 2012. To date, no one has been held accountable for these crimes.
