Malala calls on Aung San Suu Kyi to condemn violence against Rohingya

The young Pakistani woman calls for an end to the violence and for the Muslim minority to be granted Myanmar citizenship. "If their home in not Myanmar, where they have lived for generations, then where is it?"

London (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize recipient, came down hard on fellow laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for her silence over the persecution of Myanmar's Rohingya.

"Over the last several years, I have repeatedly condemned this tragic and shameful treatment. I am still waiting for my fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to do the same," Yousafzai wrote. "The world is waiting and the Rohingya Muslims are waiting."

The Rohingya are a Muslim minority – just over a million people – originally from to Bangladesh. Buddhist majority Myanmar has denied them citizenship and defines them derogatorily as Bengalis.

The Rohingya complain of summary executions, arbitrary arrests, rapes, torched homes in a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

The Myanmar government has rejected the charges of genocide whilst denying access to the area to independent journalists and humanitarian workers.

Now Malala has called for an end to the violence urging Myanmar to grant citizenship to the Muslim minority.

"If their home in not Myanmar, where they have lived for generations, then where is it?” she said. “Rohingya people should be given citizenship in Myanmar, the country where they were born."

Speaking about the violence, she added, “Today we have seen pictures of small children killed by Myanmar's security forces. These children attacked no one, but still their homes were burned to the ground."

• myanmar
• burma
• bangladesh
• rohingya
• malala
• aung san suu kyi