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Rohingya crisis is govt’s responsibility: Suu Kyi

YANGON — Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is continuing her reticence on the humanitarian crisis involving her country’s minority Rohingya community that is confronting South-east Asia.

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Photo: AP

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Photo: AP

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YANGON — Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is continuing her reticence on the humanitarian crisis involving her country’s minority Rohingya community that is confronting South-east Asia.

Many Western countries and the United Nations are calling for a solution, claiming the government’s persecution of the Rohingya people is at the root of the crisis.

However, public opinion within Myanmar towards the plight of the Rohingyas has been largely indifferent, with some members of the country’s Buddhist majority being openly hostile toward them.

Ahead of Myanmar’s general election at the end of this year, even Ms Suu Kyi, chairwoman of the National League for Democracy (NLD), appears unable to ignore public sentiment towards the minority, which is denied citizenship by law.

South-east Asia is facing one of its worst humanitarian crises as thousands of Bangladeshis and ethnic Rohingya asylum seekers are believed to have been set adrift at sea after the Thai authorities began cracking down on human trafficking syndicates.

Thailand has long been a favoured transit point for those fleeing poverty and religious persecution in Bangladesh and Myanmar. They often end up being exploited by human trafficking syndicates, paying thousands of dollars for passage, but are instead held for weeks or months while traffickers extort more money from families back at home. Since May 10, more than 3,600 Rohingyas and Bangladeshi migrants have landed in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Thousands more are believed to be trapped at sea in abandoned boats.

When asked last week by local media about the migrant issue, Ms Suu Kyi responded: “They are the issues to be solved by the government. It is better to ask the government about it.”

Her NLD has also declined to issue an official view on the matter.

Myanmar has refused to discuss the Rohingya issue during Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) meetings, and given the grouping’s preference for consensus decision-making and non-interference in domestic issues among members, little progress has been made on addressing the humanitarian issue over the years. The Myanmar government regards the Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, and even opposes use of the word “Rohingya”, preferring to refer to them as Bengalis.

Among the Myanmar public, some feel the government’s discriminatory policies toward the Rohingyas are justified by the threat that a large influx of Rohingyas poses to the majority Buddhist society. Among human rights groups and refugee camps in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State where about one million Rohingyas live, there is a growing chorus of disappointment. “Suu Kyi receiving the Nobel Peace Prize is a thing of the past. Now, she’s a politician,” said one male community leader at a camp.

More than 140,000 Rohingyas have been displaced and are living under apartheid-like conditions in crowded camps, while more than 100,000 others have fled by sea. AGEncies

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