Dalai Lama addresses Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi with a Rohingya-appeal

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has sent an appeal to the ASEAN states, asking them to not only provide humanitarian aid for the Rohingya refugees from Burma (Myanmar), but also to demand more rights for the persecuted Muslim minority in their home country. The human rights organization welcomed the Dalai Lama’s appeal to the Burmese Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, asking her to advocate for a solution to the Rohingya conflict. "Without a political solution, there will be no end to the mass exodus of the Rohingya from Burma," said the STP’s Asia-consultant, Ulrich Delius, in Göttingen on Thursday. "The ASEAN summit on Friday should not be a mere fig leaf to feign commitment to human rights and anti-trafficking-measures. If the discussions are limited to the topic of humanitarian aid for the boat people, this ignores the fact that the Burmese government and parliament are permanently working on new measures to exclude and discriminate the Rohingya."

On Wednesday, the upper house of parliament in Myanmar thus adopted a controversial law to prevent marriages between members of different religious communities. The draft law was mitigated and the maximum penalty for violations was reduced from five years to two years in prison. "However, despite these minor concessions to the critics, the new law is scandalous – and it is a serious human rights violation," criticized Delius. "It violates the freedom of religion, women's rights as well as fundamental citizens’ rights. Further, it contributes to the exclusion of religious minorities, especially the Muslims." The new legal provisions are part of a comprehensive legislative package for the protection of "race and religion" that was proposed by the nationalist Buddhist organization Ma Ba Tha.

"ASEAN must not look away when Myanmar, its member state, denies its women and minorities their basic human rights," said Delius. "The problems in Southeast Asia will not be solved by ignoring them. This will only intensify the mass exodus of tens of thousands of people whose rights are being trampled on. If ASEAN fails to gain control over the causes of the refugee crisis, this will be sure proof that the community of states is incapable of solving acute political problems. Without external pressure by the neighboring countries, Burma's government will not back down and grant the Muslim Rohingya minority their civil rights."