Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi
These three women are on a tour to Bangladesh to visit the refugee camps housing Rohingya Muslim refugees. Addressing the media persons at Dhaka they said that Suu Kyi, who is also a noble laureate, cannot escape her responsibility towards these refugees.
The three included Yemen’s Tawakkol Karman, Northeren Ireland’s Mairead Maguire and Iran’s Shirin Ebadi. Terming the violence against Rohingyas as ‘genocide’, these emitionally surcharged ‘noble laureates urged Suu Kyi to ‘wake up’ or ‘face prosecution’.
“There is no other definition, it is genocide, genocide against innocent people,” Karman said. “Millions of people [have] been displaced from their cities, women [have] been raped, all the women, we met like 100 women, all of them [have] been raped.”
She said they were overwhelmed as they talked to the children.
“Most of the children we met ... fled to Bangladesh without their families. Their fathers, their mothers [have] been killed, been murdered,” Karman said.
The noble laureate from northern Ireland Maguire said that they were also looking for legal options like taking the Myanmar government to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to ensure justice to these Rohingyas.
Blasting her own country, Iran’s Ebadi said that the West Asian countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE have not done anything for the Rohingya.
Some 7,00,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since late August, when Myanmar’s military retaliated following attacks on security posts by a Rohingya insurgent group.
In November, Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement to gradually repatriate Rohingya in “safety, security and dignity,” but the process has been delayed.
Bangladesh has said it will not repatriate any Rohingya against their will, but has urged the international community to continue to pressure Myanmar to create conditions for a sustainable repatriation.