Suu Kyi Calls for More Troops in Myanmar's Rakhine State

A 1982 law stripped citizenship from 800,000 Rohingya people.

Aung San Suu Kyi

(RANGOON, Burma Mizzima News) - Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and parliamentarians from ethnic minority parties are calling on the government to deploy more troops to restore peace and stability in Rakhine State, according to a report by Associated Press.

Together they issued a statement on Wednesday urging the Naypyitaw government to explain its policies on handling the sectarian violence in western Burma, and stressed that the concerns of both groups—Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims—should be addressed, the report said.

Suu Kyi has until now remained largely silent on the issue, emphasizing the necessity of restoring rule of law in the country.

The statement also said the government should be clear about how it intends to apply a 1982 law that deals with the rules of citizenship for the 800,000 members of the country’s Rohingya community.

The statement reportedly did not mention neighboring Bangladesh by name, but called on “both governments” to “take responsibility for border security and immigration matters,” Associated Press said.

Meanwhile, Reuters has reported that a boat carrying 110 Bangladeshis and Burmese Rohingyas fleeing to Malaysia has sunk in the Bay of Bengal.

Quoting a Bangladeshi border guard official, the report said that 51 people had been rescued been rescued by coastguard, fishing boats and the border force's sea patrols.

It was the second such accident in 10 days—a boat carrying about 130 Rohingyas sank off the Burmese coast on October 28 and only a handful of people were rescued, the officer was quoted as saying.

Source: Mizzima News