No justice for Rohingyas

No justice for Rohingyas
Source www.bangkokpost.com

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations said it would send hundreds of Rohingya boat people back to military-ruled Burma. At its 14th annual summit, the 10-member bloc agreed to compile and pool information and interviews on the Rohingyas who washed up on the shores of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, having fled oppression in Burma.

At the same time, quoting Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win, Thailand's Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said Burma was ready to take back the Rohingya migrants if they could prove they are of Bengali descent, which is a recognised ethnic minority in Burma.

Truly, there can be no appropriate word in the vocabulary to denounce such a farcical statement from the Burmese FM. The fact is, the Burmese military regime has snatched away the Rohingyas' right to Burmese citizenship simply by branding them descendants of Bengalis and thereby denying them their ethnic status.

It is also true that even though the Rohingyas have always been mistreated by the junta because of their Muslim religion, their religious identity has failed to draw the sympathy of other Muslim countries.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim-majority nation in the world. Thailand and Brunei have large Muslim populations. But these and other members of Asean, by deciding to send the Rohingya boat people back to Burma, are readily consigning these suffering human beings to their deaths.

That is why one Rohingya boat tragedy survivor, Mamoud Hussain, pleaded to the Thai court: ''Have pity on us. They

[the Burmese army] will kill me and my family if I go back.

AHMEDUR RAHMAN FAROOQ