Restore citizenship and ethnic rights of Rohingy

RESTORE CITIZENSHIP AND ETHNIC RIGHTS OF ROHINGYA
It is encouraging that the new civilianized government of U Thein Sein is showing signs of change in Burma, until now, making some mild reforms while promising more.  British Foreign Secretary William Hague paid a two-day official visit to Burma on 5 January 2012. From 30 November 2011, the US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had also completed a two-day historic trip to Burma.

During their separate visits, the two foreign ministers met with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the ethnic leaders, including the representatives of the Rohingya, and urged U Thein Sein government to continue the democratic reform process and called for the release all political prisoners, holding of free and fair by-elections and the implementation of steps to end the on-going fighting in the ethnic regions. These gestures may be taken as a ray of hope for the people of Burma towards their democratic aspiration.

The ethnic Rohingyas are overwhelmed with gratitude for the serious concern of the two leaders on the situation of human rights in Burma. Particularly they are flooded with relief when the British Foreign Secretary William Hague expressed his strong concern saying, “minorities like the Rohingya in many cases lack basic civil and political rights.” We appreciate that Mr. Hague could rightly assess the gravity of the Rohingya situation in Burma.

The Rohingya people have a long history in Arakan, Burma. Being an integral part of the Burma citizenry, they had exercised the right of franchise in all public elections held in Burma during the later colonial period (1935-1948), democratic period (1948-1962), Ne Win’s BSPP period (1974-1988), SLORC’s 1990 and SPDC’s 2010 elections, including its constitutional referendum held in 2008. Accordingly they have had voted their representatives to all levels of political institutions, including the parliament.  Yet, they are ridiculously denied citizenship and are thus rendered stateless in their own homeland. Due to large-scale persecution against them, an estimated 1.5 million Rohingya are living in Diasporas in various countries of the world.

Mr. Tomas Ojea Quintana, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Burma stated, “Despite being in this region for generations, this population is stateless. This population is not recognized by the Government as one of he ethnic groups of the Union of Myanmar and is subject to discrimination…. However the Government allowed them to participate in the referendum on the adoption of the new Constitution…. What is more significant than the possibility to vote for the Constitution of a Nation to show that one belongs to the Nation? If this population was considered apt to give its views on the adoption of the Constitution, then it should be granted all other privileges, including the citizenship, which recognized ethnic groups, citizens of Mynamar do enjoy in the Union.”

We urge upon the U Thein Sein government to treat the Rohingya people humanly, to stop forthwith all human rights violations against Rohingya and other peoples, and to grant, without delay, the civil and political rights of the Rohingya, including their citizenship and ethnic rights in Burma. To these issues we invite the attention of the international community, UN, OIC, EU, ASEAN, U.S., U.K., neighboring countries, NGOs, human rights and humanitarian organizations with a request to exercise their good offices.