Educated Rohingya Muslims living in Europe
are standing by their long-suffering brethren – aptly labeled by the United
Nations as the world's most persecuted community - as they wage a grim battle
for survival in Myanmar and neighboring Bangladesh which is sheltering over a
million Rohingyas driven out virtually at gun-point.
The diaspora's support is critical for
molding international public opinion as two nuclear-armed powers who dominate
the region - China and India – are backing the Myanmar government, turning a
blind eye to the genocide and rape of Rohingya Muslims sanctioned by the
military junta in the Buddhist-majority nation which has led to their exodus.
Beijing's and New Delhi's absolute backing is
emboldening the generals to brazenly deny citizenship to Rohingyas and block
their return from Bangladesh to their ancestral home in Rakhine state, despite
the United States and European Union taking up cudgels on behalf of beleaguered
refugees counting their days in Cox's Bazar camps.
In this bleak scenario, many Rohingyas who
fled Myanmar or camps in Bangladesh to start life afresh from a scratch either
in Western countries or Malaysia, are doing everything they can for their
compatriots in distress.
Highlighting rights violations The United
Kingdom-based British Rohingya Community Charity and Burmese Rohingya
Organisation, Denmark-based European Rohingya Council, Germany-based Free
Rohingya Coalition and Rohingya Women Development Network in Malaysia (which
has one of the largest overseas Rohingya communities), are highlighting human
rights violations and campaigning for a permanent solution instead of just
repatriation.
Ambia Perveen; Vice-Chairperson of the
European Rohingya Council and a successful doctor now living in Schleswig,
Germany, left Myanmar when she was barely five years old. Racism and
discrimination forced her parents to carve out a new life abroad. Now she is
bravely standing up for those left behind.
Perveen, 40, told The Telegraph newspaper
that she is lobbying with the European Council to take 'a clear and unequivocal
stand' and officially recognize the atrocities on Rohingyas as genocide.
She is also urging the European Union 'to
slap a trade embargo and freeze all EU projects in Myanmar until the Aung San
Suu Kyi government accepts Rohingyas as citizens'.
'We want to empower our youth so that the next
generation is not lost in transition camps,' she adds.
Nizam Uddin Mohammad lives in Bradford,
United Kingdom, where he arrived in 2008 from a refugee camp in Bangladesh. The
36 year old drives a taxi and works part-time for National Health Service. But
importantly, he heads the British Rohingya Community Charity.
'Nothing matters more to me than advocacy of
my suffering brothers and sisters thousands of miles away. After me, I hope my
children too will fight to free the Rohingya people', says Mohammad.
Campaign for self-sufficiency Sharifah
Shakirah is the founder of the Rohingya Women Development Network in Kuala
Lumpur, capital of Malaysia, where an estimated 75,000 Rohingyas have escaped
to from Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Shakirah, 25, is empowering Rohingya women
through education so that they can stand on their own feet. Her campaign to
make women self-sufficient is angering Rohingya men but she knows that her
community cannot win the battle the battle against racism and discrimination
without the participation of women.
The common refrain of all these activists is
that they are morally bound to come to the aid of their distressed community as
they had the good fortune of fleeing Myanmar and establishing themselves
overseas.
Source: (MENAFN - SomTribune) by S. N. M.
Abdi