Petition urges UN to prevent Myanmar coup from worsening Rohingyas plight
A prominent London-based Islamic human rights group has launched a petition urging the United Nations to prevent the plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, already the world’s most persecuted minority, from worsening as a result of a fledgling coup in the Southeast Asian country.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) published the petition addressed to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet Jeria, on its website on Thursday.
It highlighted the Muslim community’s decades-long bloody persecution at the hands of Myanmar’s forces and Buddhist extremists, warning about escalation of their plight now that the military has ousted de facto ruler Aung San Suu Kyi in a February 1 coup.
“It is estimated that more than 20,000 people were killed, with thousands of Rohingya internally displaced, accompanied by rapes, looting, torture, and beatings,” the body said.
It was referring to the high point of the persecution, namely a brutal crackdown by Myanmar's army and Buddhist mobs against Rohingyas in the country’s Rakhine State many years ago. The campaign that the UN has termed as “genocide” also displaced hundreds of thousands of the Muslims.
Suu Kyi, a hugely Western-supported and promoted political figure, did not intervene at all to prevent the ethnic cleansing. During a hearing at the International Court of Justice in 2019, she even defended the military against the reports of bloodshed and suppression.
Underlining the dire situation that faced the Muslims in their homeland, the IHRC said that Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh were “refusing early repatriation due to fear for their lives.” Bangladesh had, meanwhile, “forcefully moved around 1,600 Rohingyas” to the Bhasan Char island in the Bay of Bengal, the organization added.
“The Bhasan Char Island is 36 miles (57 kilometers) from the mainland and known to be a low-lying island; vulnerable to cyclones and flooding. Therefore, it is not suitable for hosting vulnerable Rohingya refugees,” the body wrote.
“The United Nations should take necessary measures to alleviate the Rohingya refugees’ sufferings due to the coup and be vigilant about the future deterioration of the Rohingya refugees’ situation,” it concluded.
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