‘Obama, Kyi endorse Rohingya cleansing’

By Press TV

January 2, 2014

A US congressional advisor has slammed Nobel Peace laureates American President Barack Obama and Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi for endorsing the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar through their silence, Press TV reports.

“Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and President Obama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, both are ignoring or endorsing, aiding and abetting one of the worst most racist brutal regimes on the face of the Earth,” said Congressional Defense Policy Advisor Frederick Peterson in a Monday interview.

Peterson described the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims as “a major world atrocity” and said, “It is an outrage that the world community is not rising up to say no.”

The US congressional official also pointed out that the majority of the world countries, particularly in the West, have turned a blind eye to the tragedy due to their “economic interests” in Myanmar.

The United Nations recognizes the Rohingya Muslims living in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine as one of the world’s most persecuted communities.

Dozens of Muslims have been killed in attacks by extremists in Myanmar over the past few months as a new wave of ethnic and sectarian violence targeted Rohingya Muslims in the troubled state.

Last year, Rakhine saw a wave of violence against the Muslim community that left hundreds of people dead.

Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar account for about five percent of the country’s population of nearly 60 million. They have been persecuted and faced torture, neglect, and repression since the country’s independence in 1948.

US president Barack Obama meets opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his historic Burma trip (Photo: Reuters)