Myanmar president sued in US over human rights abuses

American Muslim activists have filed a lawsuit in the United States against Myanmar President Thein Sein over the genocide and human rights abuses of minority Rohingya Muslims.

The lawsuit was filed on Thursday at the US federal court in New York City by a group of 19 Muslim organizations collectively known as the Burma Task Force.

The complaint accuses Thein Sein and several of his ministers of planning and instigating "hate crimes and discrimination amounting to genocide."

Rohingya Muslims are "subjected to genocide, torture, arbitrary detention, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" by Myanmar officials, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs seek compensatory and punitive damages for the rights violations under a US law known as the Alien Tort Statute.

However, the US Supreme Court made it harder to pursue such lawsuits in 2013. The high court said claims must "touch and concern” American territory "with sufficient force."

The United Nations says nearly half a million members of the persecuted Rohingya community in Myanmar are in need of humanitarian aid as the plight of Muslim minorities in the Asian state continues unabated.

The Rohingya are subjected to extensive discrimination and restrictions in Myanmar despite living there for centuries.

Myanmar does not consider the Rohingya to be citizens, leaving them virtually stateless.

Many of them now live in displacement camps following the deadly violence by extremist Buddhists in 2012.

The violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar has triggered an influx of refugees into neighboring countries, namely Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

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