Intl. pressure on Myanmar over Rohingyas necessary: Activist

Press TV has conducted an interview with Massoud Shadjareh, Head of Islamic Human Rights Commission from London, about concerns expressed by the United Nations over Buddhists attacks on followers of other religions especially the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The Rohingya Muslims continue to suffer institutionalized racism and are discriminated against even under Myanmar's new civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, which prides itself on being democratic and which for being supposedly democratic has had a number of sanctions removed by Washington. Your thoughts on some of the hypocrisy taking place in that country.

Shadjareh: And the hypocrisy is really unbelievable and the fact of the matter is that Rohingya Muslims have been identified as one of the most oppressed people around the world and being systematically abused for very long time first under the military junta and now under so-called democratic government. And Aung San Suu Kyi herself has come across the behaving extremely Islamophobic. In one of for her visits to London she actually was interviewed by a BBC Muslim journalist and she actually made a complaint “Why this Muslim is interviewing me?”

And that really shows the systematic abuse that is being addressed against Rohingya Muslims and indeed nothing being done neither by the international community, definitely nothing has been done by United Nations and US has actually played lip service. And the reality is that the all sanctions are being removed.

There is a celebration that democracy is flourishing in Myanmar and the reality is that Muslim Rohingyas are being sacrificed and being destroyed systematically and really there's no way for them to turn. They haven't been able to go to neighboring countries, they've been abused in camps in Bangladesh and elsewhere in the region and really have got nowhere to turn to. And the crisis really is reaching an unbelievable stage and something has to be done.

Press TV: Right and you mentioned that they are the one of the world's most persecuted minorities and they continue to be in the light of supposedly new civilian government in the country. Now this all gets very little coverage in mainstream Western media, I'm sure you're aware of. Is there any hope for the Rohingyas to one day get their rights and get treated equally in Myanmar? And one more thing, why is it that when Aung San Suu Kyi is asked about the Rohyingyas, she's always sidestepping this question?

Shadjareh: Well, she definitely is Islamophobe. There is a lot of evidence, as I presented one, but the fact of the matter is that Rohingyas are being denied their own citizenship. They've been living in that land for extremely long time a long before the new sort of set-up of ... and indeed the reality is that and something needs to be done systematically. There should be pressure on Myanmar government and on the so-called democratic government that unless they recognize their own citizens and give them their rights as a citizen; then, there should be sanctions and there should be exclusion from the international community.

And unless such a step is taken, I really don't see any elements within Myanmar will actually give the right of Rohingya Muslims to them. And as regard as the international media and it concerned, we have been the campaigning for Rohingya Muslim right for very long time. And we really find it very sort of distasteful and that they are not even considered as human-being and their humanity has been sacrificed by the international media. And in some ways, I have to thank Press TV for being pioneer in actually highlighting their plight.

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