Despite being thousands of miles away, the Director of the Gambia-based Agency for the Promotion of Global Peace and Religious Tolerance (AGPGRT) believes the world must not sit back and watch Myanmar’s Rohingya risk extinction in the only country they call home. Sheikh Sheriff Mameena Hydara’s message – a response to the recent “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohinyga population in the Southeast Asian country – is published below.
Agency for the Promotion of Global Peace and Religious Tolerance (AGPGRT), a development-oriented charity organisation that promotes interfaith dialogue, religious tolerance and universal peace, has joined voices of reason to condemn targeted mass killings, arson attacks and torture of the Rohingya in Myanmar. These inhumane acts — for whatever reasons by security forces of a government whose leadership swore to protect all it’s citizens — must be condemned outright. It’s wrong for the Rohingya, majority of who are Muslims, to be targeted for their ethnicity or religious affiliation. Rohingya people had lived in Myanmar since the British colonialists amalgamated the province with India. They have since lived in Rhakine state and continuously denied citizenship, education, employment and public amenities. The world powers must not allow anyone to become as stateless, displaced and persecuted as the Rohingya people who have been forced to leave Myanmar in hundreds of thousands. AGPGRT sees no reason why minority Rohingya Muslims cannot live side by side with majority Budhists. We therefore call on the world powers and organisations to pressure Myanmar government to not only protect the lives and properties of Rohingya but also guarantee their religious, cultural or economic rights. It will be our collective failure to see the Rohinyga extermination without taking action because protection of human life is an obligation on all humans, irrespective of their race, political or religious affiliation.
Ends
Thank you Sheikh Hydara for your outstanding support and call for protection of Rohingyas. Every civilized people and country must denounce human rights violations going on that country. Gambia government must show solidarity and support to Rohingyas. When The Gambia was in deep human rights violations, people of goodwill and decency stood by us to salvage our country from 22 years of military dictatorship. We must return the same goodwill , love and support to Rohingyas people. As you have rightly indicated, the international community particularly the world powers must do everything possible to stop barbaric and cruel human rights violations based on Intolerance and ignorance . It is fundamental human rights to have religious freedom and this must be respected.
The Rohyngia crisis, and the seemingly unconcerned attitudes of the “International Community”, in light of the severity of the brutality of the Myanmar Forces and given the ethnic dimensions of the conflict, yet again, confirms our charges of hypocritical foreign policies of the Western Powers around the world.
We remember how quickly the R2P was invoked when the Libyan crisis erupted and the swift intervention of NATO to disrupt and erode the military power of Gaddafi to facilitate his overthrow and eventual murder. Gaddafi, however, was not killing and burning the villages/homes of his opponents. He was not planting mines to stop more rebels pouring into Libya, but the idea that he was ready to commit genocide was sold to the world, by a global media that shaped public opinion around most parts of the world.
There is ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, recognised by even the United Nations, but none of the powers have invoked the R2P yet, and even more worrying, is the fact that you will hardly notice it on your TV screens and other main stream media outlets in the West.
Why? Because the Myanmar Regime, as brutal, racist and undemocratic as it may be, is an ally of the West in that part of the world and therefore, quite safe.
Bax , I totally agree that international community especially world powers must do something in this case . Their lack of concern is indeed troubling and total failure just like they failed Rwandan people in 1990s genocide . In the case of Libya, they acted swiftly and boldly , I commended them for an excellent job . Gaddafi was a monster just like Jammeh was and your favorite dictator Chavez . Your love affairs with Dictators is quite interesting. I do not understand why you still want Gaddafi in power .
You call Comrade Chavez a “dictator”! Who is feeding you garbage, Max?