Malala Calls on Myanmar to ‘Halt Persecution’ of Rohingya
Taliban calls on Muslims to rise up against country’s rulers
Published: 18:55 June 8, 2015
LONDON: Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousufzai on Monday urged Myanmar leaders to take “immediate action” to prevent the persecution of the country’s Rohingya Muslims, most of whom are considered by the government to be illegal immigrants.
The 17-year-old, who was shot by militants in her native Pakistan for campaigning for girls’ rights, said that Rohingya deserved “equal rights and opportunities” and called for them to be integrated into the country.
“I call on the leaders of Myanmar and the world to take immediate action to halt the inhuman persecution of Burma’s [Myanmar] Muslim minority Rohingya people,” said Malala.
“The Rohingya deserve citizenship in the country where they were born and have lived for generations,” added the teenager, who won the Nobel prize last year for her activism.
“Today and every day, I stand with the Rohingya, and I encourage people everywhere to do so.”
Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, and places a raft of restrictions on them, such as family size, movements and access to jobs.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani Taliban on Monday urged Muslims in Myanmar to rise up and fight the country’s rulers, saying the Taliban’s resources and training facilities were available to help them “take up the sword”.
Ehsanullah Ehsan, spokesman for the hardline Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement, said they “shared the grief” of Myanmar’s beleaguered Rohingya Muslim minority.