World's Silence On Myanmar Violence Against Rohingyas 'A Portrait Of Shame': Presidential Aide
03 September 2017The international
community has the responsibility to come up with a long-term solution to the
Rohingya crisis in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine, presidential spokesman
Ibrahim Kalın said on Friday.
"Turkey will continue to maintain its constructive and determined attitude for
a solution," Kalın said in a Twitter post.
He called "the world's silence" in the face of the persecution of Rohingya
Muslims by security forces of the southeast Asian country "a portrait of
shame."
Turkey is continuing its "intensive efforts and initiatives at every level to
end the humanitarian tragedy" in Rakhine, according to the president's aide.
He noted that Turkish humanitarian aid agencies, including the Turkish Red
Crescent, Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), and Turkish
Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), are involved in these efforts.
Turkish authorities are also in contact with authorities in Myanmar and
Bangladesh -- where thousands of Rohingya have fled -- to supply humanitarian
aid to the Rohingya people, Kalın stressed.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has also been very vocal about the humanitarian
crisis in Rakhine, conducting phone diplomacy with many world leaders to call
for a solution to the violence. On Friday, he accused Myanmar of committing
"genocide" against Rohingya Muslims in a speech he gave in Istanbul for the
occasion of Eid al-Adha.
Erdoğan said he would bring up the issue at the next U.N. General Assembly in
New York later this month, adding that he had already talked to Guterres as
well as a dozen other Muslim leaders.
Violence erupted in Myanmar's Rakhine state on Aug. 25 when the country's
security forces launched an operation against the Rohingya Muslim community.
It triggered a fresh influx of refugees towards neighboring Bangladesh, though
the country sealed off its border for the refugees.
The region has seen simmering tension between its Buddhist and Muslim
populations since communal violence broke out in 2012.
2017 has been the bloodiest chapter yet in a bitter five-year crisis that has
torn apart Rakhine state along ethnic and religious lines, displaced the
region's Rohingya community in huge numbers and heaped international
condemnation on Myanmar's army and the government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Around 400 people -- most of them Rohingya Muslims -- have died in the
violence, according to the army chief's office Friday, while the U.N. says
38,000 have sought refuge across the border in Bangladesh.
A further 20,000 Rohingya have massed along the Bangladeshi frontier, barred
from entering the South Asian country, while scores of desperate people have
drowned attempting to cross the Naf, a border river, in makeshift boats.
Reports of massacres and the systematic torching of villages by security
forces have further amplified tensions, raising fears that violence in Rakhine
is spinning out of control.
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EsinIslam.Com
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