The Queensland Rohingya community gathered in front of King George Square in Brisbane, Australia on 15th November to remind the world leaders attending the G-20 summit of the plight faced by the Rohingya in Burma said Noor Zaman, the President of Queensland Rohingya Community Inc.
He said: “We - Queensland Rohingya community Inc have gathered here to appeal to the world leaders of the G-20 Summit in Brisbane, Australia about the Rohingyas who are living in northern Arakan and suffering from serious human rights violations. These include lack of access to education and healthcare, rape, genocide, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrest, restriction of movement, land confiscation, being used as forced labour and not being free to marry."
Kefayet Ullah, the Secretary of Queensland Rohingya Community Inc. said "The political reforms today in Burma have yielded little for the Rohingya. Under the Burmese Citizenship Law of 1982, our people are not recognised as one of the 135 national races of Burma. We are stateless people in our own country. President Thein Sein openly stated in July 2012 there are two options for the Rohingya people. One option is to resettle them in a third country; and the other option is for the UNHCR to build a refugee camp in the country, our motherland."
The Queensland Rohingya Community Inc called on the G-20 world leaders and their guest, the Burmese President Thein Sein, to stop the Burmese Government's policies of persecuting the Rohingya people before letting the Burmese take part in the G-20 summit as a model developing country according to their press statement.
The statement urged the world leaders to: save the Rohingya people from atrocities committed by the Burmese Government; stop ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya; to intervene in Burma now to find a permanent solution; to impose new sanctions against the Burmese Government; to send in UN peacekeeping forces to protect the Rohingya; and to unconditionally rebuild the Rohingya villages.
Kyaw Zwar Minn, Myanmar’s Ambassador to the UK, France, Scandinavia and Ireland, acknowledged that the long-persecuted Muslim minority Rohingya “are people” on 13th November, in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. But, he said that the Burmese Government does not accept the term Rohingya. When Amanpour highlighted that even the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon had urged Myanmar to let the ethnic group be called whatever they want, the Ambassador said, “Of course, it will take time for the Myanmar Government and its people to accept the term Rohingya.”
Edited for BNI by Mark Inkey
