Yemnei Tawakkol Karman demanded resignation of Aung San Suu Kyi
Video by Abdul Aziz
Three Nobel Peace laureates have visited the Rohingya camp on Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar on Sunday. The three laureates are Shirin Ebadi from Iran, Tawakkol Karman from Yemen, and Mairead Maguire from the UK.
Upon visiting the Kutupalong camp, they spoke to five Rohingya women who underwent physical torture under the Myanmar army, and also asked about the welfare of the Rohingyas living in the camp.
After listening to the horrific accounts of brutal torture at the hands of the Myanmar military from the Rohingyas, in a tearful interview, Mairead Maguire said: “This is a slaughter of the innocence of the Rohingya people.”
Terming the brutality of the Myanmar military as a “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing”, Maguire demanded that the military be taken to the international court of justice. She appealed to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmar leader, to stop denying the Rohingya people their right to life.
On the other hand, Tawakkol Karman expressed her anger and shame at Aung San Suu Kyi’s tolerance of violence committed by the Myanmar security forces, and demanded her resignation if she could not stop these crimes.
“We, the Nobel laureates, call for these criminals to be persecuted in the international criminal court,” said Karman. “We don’t hope our sister laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to be one of them. But in the future, if she continues her silence, she will be one of them.”
Later, she also thanked the Bangladeshi people for their hospitality but appealed to the government of Bangladesh, the UN, and the international community to facilitate better basic survival services for water, health and education for the Rohingyas.
Around 700,000 Rohingyas have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh since August 25.
This article was first published on Dhaka Tribune