Manama
A Kuwaiti lawmaker has asked Muslim and Arab countries to take stringent action to help Muslims targeted in Myanmar, insisting that Kuwait should assume a pioneering role in the drive.
“We urge all Islamic and Arab countries to adopt a strong position to put an end to the killing of Muslims in Myanmar,” MP Mubarak Al Alwan said. “If there is no strong stance against this tragedy afflicting Muslims in Myanmar, we are sure that there will be a repeat in other Asian countries against Muslim minorities,” he said in a statement.
Al Alwan said that the international community has been ominously quiet about the events in Myanmar.
“Muslims are being specifically targeted and oppressed. Al Muslim countries must move promptly and without hesitation to help them and put an end to the killing of innocent civilians, children and women. The world is watching in silence. ”The lawmaker said that Kuwait should move decisively to put an end to the “systematic murders and rapes targeting the Muslim community”.
“We demand that Kuwait launch an international drive for a Security Council resolution that condemns the barbaric acts against Muslims in Myanmar and establishes humanitarian assistance to help the victims. We also call for expelling the Myanmar envoy in Kuwait and for severing diplomatic relations with the Fascist regime,” he said.
Kuwaitis should be empowered to set up committees that will collect donations and essential items to help the victims, he said.
“It is a real tragedy and we should move to halt and end this collective killing of Muslims,” he said.
Amnesty International, the human rights group, has accused both security forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists of carrying out attacks against Rohingyas.
The Rohingyas are regarded as foreigners by the ethnic majority. They are reportedly denied citizenship by the government because it considers them illegal settlers from neighbouring Bangladesh, the rights watchdog said.
The UN estimates that 800,000 Rohingyas live in Burma.
