Moros Seek Help For Rohingyas

By EDD K. USMAN

MANILA, Philippines — The dire situation of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar (Burma) have caught the attention of their Moro brethren in the Philippines, who seek resolution to their suffering.

Moro leaders have also called on Burmese democracy icon Ang San Suu Kyi to strive for an inclusive democracy, justice, and  harmony in her country, to include the Rohingya, said to be "the world's most forgotten people."

Maulana A. Balangi, ambassador at-large of the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), issued a statement yesterday, calling attention to the Rohingya people's massacre, rapes, and other oppression by Myanmar's extremist Buddhist groups.



He said for the past weeks the Rohingya, who live in Myanmar's Arakan Valley, "have been under siege by local (Buddhist) Rhakine community."

Balangi cited reports, which are also on the internet, even on Facebook, about the massacre of "650 Rohingyas as of June 28" this year, "1,200 others are missing, and 90,000 more have been displaced."

Speaking as IHRC envoy to the ASEAN, he asked the Myanmar government to act the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas, allow the international community access to the Arakan Valley, to bring the mass killings to the International Criminal Court (ICC), and ensure equal protection for the ethnic Burmese Muslims.

The Myanmar government does not recognize the Rohingyas, about 800,000, as citizens, nor Bangladesh where some 200,000 have escaped the Buddhist persecution, with involvement of state security forces.