Refugees tell junta to stop the persecution

Protest­ing against the ongo­ing mil­i­tary oppres­sion against eth­nic minori­ties back in their coun­try, over 200 Myan­mar refugees includ­ing women and chil­dren gath­ered today near the Myan­mar Embassy in Malaysia.

200 Myan­mar refugees protest near the Myan­mar Embassy in Malaysia. @freemalaysiatoday

Backed by sev­eral local civil soci­ety groups, they handed a let­ter of protest addressed to their pres­i­dent U Thein Sein to a rep­re­sen­ta­tive from the embassy.

Mainly from Kachin, Shan and Karen eth­nic groups, the refugees held ban­ners say­ing “Stop killing civil­ians”, “Stop war crimes” and “Stop all offen­sives against all eth­nic civil­ians”. A group of chil­dren held up ban­ners ask­ing “Why are you killing my par­ents?” They chanted: “We want peace! Stop the killing! Stop the civil war”.

The con­tent of the let­ter reads: “Dear Mr Pres­i­dent, We, the Burma eth­nic refugees in Malaysia together with the under­signed Malaysian civil soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions wish to express our strong con­dem­na­tion against the on-going arm con­flicts, assaults, sys­tem­atic per­se­cu­tion, tor­ture and intim­i­da­tion launched by the Burmese army against the eth­nic minority’s free­dom fight­ers, armed groups and civil­ians in sev­eral states.”

They urged their gov­ern­ment to:

 Stop mil­i­tary offen­sive and per­se­cu­tion against eth­nic minorities

 Sign a cease-fire agree­ment and hold polit­i­cal dia­logues in order to achieve a nation­wide cease-fire with all eth­nic minor­ity groups

 Release all polit­i­cal pris­on­ers across the coun­try unconditionally

 Entirely halt the Myit­sone dam project

Andika Ab Wahab, Suaram coor­di­na­tor, said that the only way to tackle the prob­lem of human rights abuses by the Burmese army is to push the Myan­mar gov­ern­ment to stop the mil­i­tary oppression.

The Myan­mar refugees in Malaysia want to go home to their coun­try. They are suf­fer­ing in Malaysia and their chil­dren can­not go to school accord­ing to Dominique Thet­saw. They are con­sid­ered ille­gal immi­grants and, as such, many have been mis­treated and rounded up into deten­tion cen­ters. Some have been traf­ficked never to be seen again. The fore­go­ing news is sourced from freemalaysiatoday.

Source : Between News