Kuala Lumpur: A top Malaysian official said here on Monday that the security of Rohingya Muslim refugees, who have fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar's Muslim-majority Rakhine State, should be guaranteed before returning their country.
Talking to IRNA, President of Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization Malaysia (MERHROM) Zafar Ahmad bin Abdul Ghani described the ongoing negotiations between Myanmar and Bangladesh for returning Rohingya refugees as 'wrong measure'. He added that the security of Rohingya refugees should be guaranteed.
Touching upon the continuation of violence in Rohingya, Abdul Ghani stressed,' We do not exactly know who could help us with halting genocide in Myanmar.'
Although the US has called the massacre of Muslims in Myanmar as 'ethnic cleansing, he added, what is going on in this Southeast Asian nation should be considered as 'genocide'. The MERHROM president said since 2012 thousands of Rohingya Muslims, children and women in particular, have been killed by extremist Buddhists.
He added that even the Myanmar army has supported the butchery of Muslims and surprisingly has not taken a practical step to stop genocide of Rohingya Muslims.
Pointing to the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit which was recently held in the Philippines, he expressed regret that no practical step has been taken for stopping the plight of the minority Muslims in Myanmar.
Criticizing the performance of Islamic countries in the framework of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), he underscored that this body has not taken any measure to put an immediate end to the ongoing brutal violence against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
More than 6200,000 desperate Rohingya Muslims have fled the violence in Myanmar and crossed into neighboring Bangladesh, as Dhaka pleads for global help to cope with the humanitarian crisis.
The exodus from the violence-wracked Rakhine state makes it one of the fastest growing refugee crises in recent years.
The volatile Rakhine, located in the northwest of Myanmar, has been the scene of communal violence since 2012. Many of the Muslims have lost their lives while tens of thousands have been displaced as a result of attacks by Buddhists. The refugees largely live in camps in dire conditions.
