ID :
46134
Tue, 02/17/2009 - 18:59
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https://oananews.org//node/46134
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News Focus: ASEAN LEADERS EXPECTED TO DISCUSS ROHINGYA REFUGEE PROBLEM
By Eliswan Azly
Jakarta, Feb 17 (ANTARA) - With the fate of the stranded Muslim Rohingya boat people in Aceh increasingly coming into the international spotlight, the isssue is expected to be raised at an ASEAN leaders' meeting to be held in Thailand late this month.
Many Rohingya Muslims, oppressed by the Myanmar regime, had fled to other countries, including Indonesia, Dr. Hazmi, coordinator of Citizen International Malaysia, said in Medan on Monday.
The United Nations (UN) and ASEAN should pay due attention to the fate of the Rohingya people, and not only focus on democratization in Myanmar, Hazmi told the press in the company of members of Indonesia's Ukhuwah Jama'ah Muslimin (Hizbullah).
Hazmi, who is also head of the secretariat of the Asian Ulema (Islamic Scholars) Association, praised the Indonesian government for treating some 391 Rohingya refugees well in Sabang and Idi Rayeuk, Aceh Province.
After meeting and talking directly with Rohingya refugees in Aceh, he said, he had concluded that the refugees were victims of a regime intent on wiping out a minority group.
The Rohingya boat people did not want to return to their country, he said.
Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims had initially arrived in Thailand from Myanmar, but the Thai authorities put them in nine wooden boats measuring 14x3 meters and released them into the middle of the ocean.
After floating for 21 days in the sea with only a few kilograms of rice and one gallon of water, only two boats arrived in Aceh Province, while the wherebaouts of the seven others were not known.
Over the past one month, Aceh Province has received nearly 400 Rohingya refugees. Some 193 Rohingya boat people got stranded in Sabang, Aceh on January 7, 2008, and another 198 Rohingyas reached the coast of East Aceh on February 3,2008 , after 21 days at sea, with some of them in critical condition.
A similar call was also made by Dr Djoko Wiyono, the head of the Ukhuwah Jama'ah Muslimin (Hizbullah), who said that the foreign affairs minister should not categorize them as economic migrants as they wanted peace and safety in their life.
The government should also immediately submit the problem of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in Aceh to an ASEAN forum because as a member of ASEAN, Myanmar should also be responsible for the fate of the hundreds of boat people in Aceh believed to be Myanmarese, he said.
Therefore, Hizbullah had sent a letter to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to ask that the Muslim boat people not be deported as several Islamic boarding schools and local residents in Indonesia were willing to accommodate them.
The Myanmar military junta should be held responsible for oppressing, intimidating and discriminating against the Rohingyas as minority group in that country.
"By putting the plight of Rohingya issue on the agenda of an ASEAN fori,, at least Myanmarese government would abide by whatever decision is issued during the ASEAN meeting," he said.
If Myanmar does not improve the ways in which it treats the Rohingya minority group, the leaders of military junta can be brought to an international court of justice on the charges of having committed a crime against humanity, Wiyono said.
In the meantime, the People's Crisis Center (PCC), a non-governmental organization (NGO), called on the government to involve the UNHCR in solving the boat people's problem in Aceh.
"The government should act quickly to overcome their problems, among other things, by giving UNHCR access to them," PCC director for Aceh, Andi Rizal, said.
Earlier, the AIPMC, an organization whose members are representing ASEAN countries, also hoped that the government could cooperate with the UNHCR in finding the best solution to the problem facing the Rohingyas who are living in border regions between Myanmar and Bangladesh.
The AIPMC also questioned the decision of the Thai government to deport the Rohingya ethnic group to an unknown destination, an AIPMC release said on Tuesday.
Sharing the NGO's view, Said Nizar, an expert on international law at the Hassanudin state university on Wednesday said he warmly welcomed the government's call for cooperation with the UNHCR in addition to raising the issue at an ASEAN meeting late this month in an effort to overcome the boat people's case, as those refugees were denied of their Myanmarese citizenship by the military junta.
According to him, the government should consider the Rohingya case as a serious problem. They should not be deported because it would mean disaster to them.
Therefore, the plan to deport them must be scrapped because their safety would then be at stake, Nizar said, adding the best way to solve the problem was raising the issue at international and ASEAN fora as a wayout to seek solution to their plight.
The Muslim Rohingyas have for generations been denied Myanmar citizenship and they were also being often tortured and facing religious persecution and forced labor by the Myanmarese ruling junta.
ASEAN's influence to remind Myanmar's bad treatment to its minority group like Rohingya will be able to make that country introspect themselves over the criminal acts they have done against their minority citizens.
If after forcing Myanmar to treat their Rohingya minority group, ASEAN send a monitoring team to that country to see the progress made by that country?s military junta, Nizar said.
However, the Rohingyas, totaling around 800,000 people in Myanmar are not recognized by the Myanmarese military junta regime as Myanmarese citizens, thus making them stateless. The military junta regime has brutally repressed them, and millions have risked their lives fleeing their country.
The Rohingyas, who are believed to be 7th century Arab settlers whose state was conquered by Burma in 1784, faced religious persecution because they were Muslims in a Buddhist majority country. The Human Rights Watch said in its latest annual report they faced forced relocation, land seizures, and denial of citizenship and identity papers. ***
Jakarta, Feb 17 (ANTARA) - With the fate of the stranded Muslim Rohingya boat people in Aceh increasingly coming into the international spotlight, the isssue is expected to be raised at an ASEAN leaders' meeting to be held in Thailand late this month.
Many Rohingya Muslims, oppressed by the Myanmar regime, had fled to other countries, including Indonesia, Dr. Hazmi, coordinator of Citizen International Malaysia, said in Medan on Monday.
The United Nations (UN) and ASEAN should pay due attention to the fate of the Rohingya people, and not only focus on democratization in Myanmar, Hazmi told the press in the company of members of Indonesia's Ukhuwah Jama'ah Muslimin (Hizbullah).
Hazmi, who is also head of the secretariat of the Asian Ulema (Islamic Scholars) Association, praised the Indonesian government for treating some 391 Rohingya refugees well in Sabang and Idi Rayeuk, Aceh Province.
After meeting and talking directly with Rohingya refugees in Aceh, he said, he had concluded that the refugees were victims of a regime intent on wiping out a minority group.
The Rohingya boat people did not want to return to their country, he said.
Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims had initially arrived in Thailand from Myanmar, but the Thai authorities put them in nine wooden boats measuring 14x3 meters and released them into the middle of the ocean.
After floating for 21 days in the sea with only a few kilograms of rice and one gallon of water, only two boats arrived in Aceh Province, while the wherebaouts of the seven others were not known.
Over the past one month, Aceh Province has received nearly 400 Rohingya refugees. Some 193 Rohingya boat people got stranded in Sabang, Aceh on January 7, 2008, and another 198 Rohingyas reached the coast of East Aceh on February 3,2008 , after 21 days at sea, with some of them in critical condition.
A similar call was also made by Dr Djoko Wiyono, the head of the Ukhuwah Jama'ah Muslimin (Hizbullah), who said that the foreign affairs minister should not categorize them as economic migrants as they wanted peace and safety in their life.
The government should also immediately submit the problem of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in Aceh to an ASEAN forum because as a member of ASEAN, Myanmar should also be responsible for the fate of the hundreds of boat people in Aceh believed to be Myanmarese, he said.
Therefore, Hizbullah had sent a letter to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to ask that the Muslim boat people not be deported as several Islamic boarding schools and local residents in Indonesia were willing to accommodate them.
The Myanmar military junta should be held responsible for oppressing, intimidating and discriminating against the Rohingyas as minority group in that country.
"By putting the plight of Rohingya issue on the agenda of an ASEAN fori,, at least Myanmarese government would abide by whatever decision is issued during the ASEAN meeting," he said.
If Myanmar does not improve the ways in which it treats the Rohingya minority group, the leaders of military junta can be brought to an international court of justice on the charges of having committed a crime against humanity, Wiyono said.
In the meantime, the People's Crisis Center (PCC), a non-governmental organization (NGO), called on the government to involve the UNHCR in solving the boat people's problem in Aceh.
"The government should act quickly to overcome their problems, among other things, by giving UNHCR access to them," PCC director for Aceh, Andi Rizal, said.
Earlier, the AIPMC, an organization whose members are representing ASEAN countries, also hoped that the government could cooperate with the UNHCR in finding the best solution to the problem facing the Rohingyas who are living in border regions between Myanmar and Bangladesh.
The AIPMC also questioned the decision of the Thai government to deport the Rohingya ethnic group to an unknown destination, an AIPMC release said on Tuesday.
Sharing the NGO's view, Said Nizar, an expert on international law at the Hassanudin state university on Wednesday said he warmly welcomed the government's call for cooperation with the UNHCR in addition to raising the issue at an ASEAN meeting late this month in an effort to overcome the boat people's case, as those refugees were denied of their Myanmarese citizenship by the military junta.
According to him, the government should consider the Rohingya case as a serious problem. They should not be deported because it would mean disaster to them.
Therefore, the plan to deport them must be scrapped because their safety would then be at stake, Nizar said, adding the best way to solve the problem was raising the issue at international and ASEAN fora as a wayout to seek solution to their plight.
The Muslim Rohingyas have for generations been denied Myanmar citizenship and they were also being often tortured and facing religious persecution and forced labor by the Myanmarese ruling junta.
ASEAN's influence to remind Myanmar's bad treatment to its minority group like Rohingya will be able to make that country introspect themselves over the criminal acts they have done against their minority citizens.
If after forcing Myanmar to treat their Rohingya minority group, ASEAN send a monitoring team to that country to see the progress made by that country?s military junta, Nizar said.
However, the Rohingyas, totaling around 800,000 people in Myanmar are not recognized by the Myanmarese military junta regime as Myanmarese citizens, thus making them stateless. The military junta regime has brutally repressed them, and millions have risked their lives fleeing their country.
The Rohingyas, who are believed to be 7th century Arab settlers whose state was conquered by Burma in 1784, faced religious persecution because they were Muslims in a Buddhist majority country. The Human Rights Watch said in its latest annual report they faced forced relocation, land seizures, and denial of citizenship and identity papers. ***
