Friday 29 May 2015 - 11:31 Makkah mean time-11-8-1436
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Myanmar, (IINA) - Amid increasing global concern about the future of Rohingya Muslim minority, the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama has urged fellow Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the main opposition leader in Myanmar, to do more to help the persecuted Muslim minority Rohingya, as thousands fled Burma to escape discrimination by the country's Buddhist majority, according to media reports.
Despite thousands of Rohingya fleeing on harrowing boat journeys to Southeast Asia to escape a wave of deadly attacks and discriminatory treatment by the country's Buddhist majority, Suu Kyi has yet to speak out against their plight.
The Tibetan leader said on Thursday she must voice her opposition to the persecution, adding that he had already appealed twice to her in person since 2012, when deadly sectarian violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state pitted the Rohingya against local Buddhists, to do more on their behalf.
"It's very sad. In the Burmese (Myanmar) case I hope Suu Kyi, as a Nobel laureate, can do something," he told The Australian newspaper in an interview in advance of a visit to Australia next week.
"I met her two times, first in London and then the Czech Republic. I mentioned about this problem and she told me she found some difficulties, that things were not simple but very complicated. But in spite of that I feel she can do something," he added.
Analysts have attributed her silence to fears about alienating voters in the lead-up to elections set for November.
In the past few weeks, about 3,100 Rohingya refugees fled Burma and Bangladeshi to land in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand where they fell in the custody of respective governments.
According to an estimate by International Organization for Migration (IOM), about 8,000 boatpeople are still adrift in Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, where they are running dangerously low on food and water.
In recent years, especially since 2012, Rohingya’s have been facing an increased level of pressure in many terms.
Though thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled for their live on boat journeys to Southeast Asia to escape persecution, opposition leader Suu Kyi is yet to comment.
The Tibetan leader, the world's most famous refugee, added from his exile in the Indian Himalayas that it was not enough to ask how to help the Rohingya. "This is not sufficient. There is something wrong with humanity's way of thinking. Ultimately we are lacking concern for others' lives, others' well-being," he said.
Described by the UN as one of the world's most persecuted minorities, Rohingya Muslims are facing a catalogue of discrimination in their homeland.
They have been denied citizenship rights since an amendment to the citizenship laws in 1982 and are treated as illegal immigrants in their own home.
Rights groups have accused the Burmese security forces of killing, raping and arresting Rohingya’s following the sectarian violence last year.
Between 2012 and 2013, Buddhist mob attacks have left hundreds of Rohingya Muslims killed and evacuated more than 140,000 from their homes.
The violence has displaced nearly 29,000 people, more than 97 percent of whom are Rohingya Muslims, according to the United Nations.
Many now live in camps, adding to 75,000 mostly Rohingya displaced in June 2012, after a previous explosion of sectarian violence.
SM/IINA
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