ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf Chairman Imran Khan shook the United Nations Chief on Wednesday, urging him to wake up to the reality of a humanitarian crisis that has sent Rohingya people fleeing genocide in Myanmar and looking for refuge in neighbouring countries.
Imran Khan, in an open letter written to Secretary General Ban ki-Moon, condemned the UN for giving a deaf ear to the screams and a blind eye to the plight of the people facing state-sponsored ethnic cleansing.
The plight of the persecuted Rohingya Muslims has drawn international attention following the boat people crisis that erupted last month, in which thousands of impoverished Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants struggled desperately to reach Southeast Asian countries.
Rohingya complain of systematic discrimination and mistreatment by Myanmar’s Buddhist-majority government, which refuses to even recognise them as citizens.
Many have been killed in sectarian clashes with Buddhists in recent years, and hardline Buddhist monks have promoted legislation seen as targeting them.
Most of Myanmar’s 1.3 million Rohingya have no citizenship and are considered by the government to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.