Malala calls for end to violence against Rohingya Muslims

Pakistani Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has condemned the violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar that had forced nearly 90,000 Rohingya to fled to Bangladesh.

The Nobel Laureate in her statement on Rohingya Muslims crisis called for an end to the violence that is aimed at forcing the Myanmar’s Muslim minority out of the country.

Malala said, “Every time I see the news, my heart breaks at the suffering of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.”

I call for the following: “Stop the violence. Today we have seen pictures of small children killed by Myanmar’s security forces. These children attacked no one, but still their homes were burned to the ground.”

“If their home is not Myanmar, where they have lived for generations, then where is it? Rohingya people should be given citizenship in Myanmar, the country where they were born.”

“Other countries, including my own country Pakistan, should follow Bangladesh’s example and give food, shelter and access to education to Rohingya families fleeing violence and terror.”

“Over the last several years, I have repeatedly condemned this tragic and shameful treatment. I am still waiting for my fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu kyi to do the same. The world is waiting and the Ronhingya Muslims are waiting.”

 

My statement on the #Rohingya crisis in Myanmar: pic.twitter.com/1Pj5U3VdDK

— Malala (@Malala) September 3, 2017

The treatment of Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s roughly 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the minority that has long complained of persecution.

The number of those crossing the border – 87,000 – surpassed the total of Rohingya who escaped Myanmar after a much smaller insurgent attack in October that set off a military operation beset by accusations of serious human rights abuses.

The newest estimate, based on the calculations of United Nations’ aid workers in the Bangladeshi border district of Cox’s Bazar, takes to nearly 150,000 the total number of Rohingya who have sought refuge in Bangladesh since October.