January 27, 2017
A major Rohingya organisation has trashed claims by the government that they are committed to end the Rohingya crisis given ‘time and space’. Instead it has been alleged that the Myanmar government would instead utilise this ‘time and space’ to kill more innocent Rohingyas.
Nurul Islam, president of the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) said, “It is not believable that the Myanmar government wants to end the Rohingya crisis. Myanmar wants time and space to kill more innocent Rohingyas.”
Islam was speaking to the international media as the Myanmar government asked for more time and space to solve the Rohingya crisis in the days following the OIC summit in Kuala Lampur.
Earlier this week, Myanmar’s deputy defence chief urged the world to give his government ‘time and space’ to solve the Rohingya crisis. Rear admiral Myint Nwe told a security forum in Singapore his government is ‘fully aware of the growing concern about the widespread reports on (the) situation in Rakhine state’ where the Rohingya live, and was committed to address the issue and punish wrongdoers. The stance is seen by some as a shift by the civilian government which has hitherto been steadfast in refuting allegations of atrocities committed by the Tatmadaw led security forces, in spite of clear evidence.
However the president of ARNO sees this move by the deputy chief as a means to gather ‘more time and space’ not to solve the crisis, but to kill more Rohingya civilians in the long run. He pointed out that had the government of Aung San Suu Kyi been sincere in solving the Rohingya crisis, they would have let an international monitoring team to the affected areas.
The Rohingya leader requested immediate international intervention to end the Rohingya crisis.
The government has long pledged to resolve long standing communal issues in Arakan state, but the situation has rapidly gotten worse in the last five years as the Muslim population diminishes fast with hundreds of thousands leaving the country
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