ROHINGYA HOPE TO BE FREE FROM GHETTO
By Aung Aung
Rohingya in Aung Mingalar Ghetto of Sittwe are expecting for
a solution to be free from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)
emergency meeting held in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 19 January, 2017.
Last Friday, on 13 January 2017, the UN reporter Yanghee Lee
visited Aung Mingalar of Sittwe, the Rakhine Capital where she met Rohingya who
have been in the ghetto-like situation since 2012.
Muzaffar, father of two sons said, “Before 2012, 80 percent
Rohingya in Aung Mingalar could do their own business, and work for their
livelihood; many of them belonged to their own shops in Myo Ma Gyi Market of
Sittwe, the Capital of Rakhine.
After 2012 violence, they have been blocked in Aung Mingalar
as if they are in the cage without food”. Nur Begum, 28 years old said, “We
hope there might be a decision to solve our problem from OIC meeting, we hope
we will be free from this ghetto very soon”.
A secondary school teacher, U Kyaw Naing who has lived IDP
camp, told me that the OIC, UN, and other INGOs had been contributing to save
Rohingya in Arakan but Myanmar’s State’s policy planned to eradicate all
Rohingya. He also said “Restoration of our rights should be first priority.
We are denied citizenship and rights by Myanmar government.
Without citizenship, all foreign contributions will be in vain. For the
sustainable solution, UN and OIC should play an active role to stop genocidal
operations against us.
More than 140,000 Rohingya have been in the concentration
camps and nearly one million Rohingya live in ghetto-like situation since 2012.
“The best assistance for us is restoration of Rights” a Rohingya Human Rights Activist, Maung Shwe (Sittwe University) has been mentioned in a public meeting last night. “We are struggling not to be alive but to live with dignity in our ancestral land” he more added.
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