MY head bows in shame when I look at the plight of the poor Rohingyas who are Muslims and number about 1.2m in all.
Having lived in Myanmar on the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar for centuries, they were stripped of their citizenship in 1982 and suddenly became alien with no rights.
Their only guilt is that they are Muslim.
Having nowhere to go, they continued to live huddled together in confinement camps in the most pitiable condition. They were severely persecuted and their dwellings set on fire and farmland forcibly taken from them.
The women were raped and newborns strangulated to keep the Rohingya population under control. Having been deprived of any work, they had no means of livelihood and faced dwindling supplies of food and water.
As torture and persecution increased in recent times and life became unbearable, some of them, including women and children ventured to migrate, falling easy prey to the human smugglers, aboard boats to Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.Unfortunately, they were not welcomed and their boats either floated on the high seas or driven back without food and water for days.
It is a pity that neither the UN nor any other international body has come to their rescue. It is even more surprising that Muslim countries have turned a blind eye to their suf ferings. The least they could have done was to put collective pressure on the Myanmar government to ensure their right to live in Myanmar without discrimination.
