Myanmar president on Rohingya
Photo: AFP
Myanmar President Thein Sein is reported to have said to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, "We will take responsibilities for our ethnic people but it is impossible to accept the illegally entered Rohingyas who are not our ethnicity." He also expressed to the UNHCR chief that the only solution to the Rohingya issue was deporting them to a third country. Myanmar President's comments and views are most unexpected and disappointing. The Rohingyas have been living in Rakhine state of Myanmar for centuries -- generation after generation. They are very much the sons of the soil. It is their birth right to get citizenship of Myanmar. But the sad story is that the Myanmar authorities have all along been refusing to accept them as the citizens of the country. The stateless and friendless Rohingyas, a small minority in Myanmar, are now fleeing their own motherland to escape injustice and torture by their own countrymen! What a tragedy! Myanmar President's idea of deporting an entire minority community to a third country is regrettable. Is there any other instance like this? We still hope the government and the people of Myanmar will see reason and change their stand and attitude towards the Rohingyas.
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