Nobel Laureates speak for Rohingyas
THE letter of 23 eminent global citizens including 13 Nobel Laureates to members of the UN Security Council (SC) urging quick actions to stop the massacre of Rohingyas by Myanmar government essentially shows how the conscience of the global community is bleeding with the bloodshed of these helpless people. The world body has so far given a kind of acquiescence to Myanmar army's move to eliminate the poor minority. We believe that the letter to the UN body will not only highlight the urgent need for intervention, its suggestion to send the UN Secretary General on a visit to Myanmar soon and make safety arrangement of the people also seems to be equally urgent.
By equating the Myanmar army's action with genocides in recent past in Rwanda, Darfur, Bosnia and Kosovo, they sounded skeptical saying the world can't sit in silence without doing anything about to save the endangered Muslim minority in Myanmar. We believe they have put the alert at right time. We are afraid such inaction will create another stateless people like the Palestinians. The world just can't afford it.
The signatories such as Nobel Laureate in Peace Prof Muhammad Yunus, José Ramos-Horta, Máiread Maguire, Betty Williams, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Oscar Arias, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi and others also include two Nobel Laureates in medicine such as Sir Richard J Roberts and Elizabeth Blackburn.
Former Italian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Romano Prodi and Emma Bonino, Huffington Post Founder and Editor Arianna Huffington; business leaders and philanthropists Sir Richard Branson and Jochen Zeitz; business magnet Paul Polman; Philanthropist Mo Ibrahim; film director Richard Curtis; Civil rights activist Kerry Kennedy have also signed the letter.
So far it is the biggest move from the highest level of global intelligentsia to take the plight of the Rohingyas to the global community and particularly with SC members who have the special mandate to keep world peace. It must be noted that Prof Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh is one witnessing the Rohingyas' plight from across the border. Bangladesh is taking the brunt of the displaced people who number over 50,000 far to have escaped to the country's southeast region in recent time with a past spill over of around half a million.
The letter has noted the situation as "a human tragedy amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity." There is no way out but what the Nobel Laureates suggestions say for the UN body to persuade the Myanmar government to lift all ban on access to humanitarian aid and emergency assistance to the area. Their demands for access for journalists and human rights monitors and setting up an independent internationalINQUIRY
to establish the truth also make sense at a time when the helpless people have been left totally abandoned. They are being killed, their entire villages torched and women raped.
The Nobel Laureates have voiced frustration in their letter about Myanmar democracy leaders and state councilor Aung San Suu Kyi for doing nothing to save the people. They have indeed shared dismays that people all over the world now behold. Their demand for restoration of full and equal citizenship rights for Rohingyas, snapped in 1982 equally bears significance. They are living in Myanmar over theGENERATIONS and their rights can't be ignored.
Source Link: http://thedailynewnation.com/news/119079/nobel-laureates-speak-for-rohingyas.html/
Source: The New Nation, Bangladesh
Updated Date: 12th March, 2017