Link Myanmar Aid to Rohingya Rights, Demands Tutu
South Africa's Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu called Tuesday for international aid to Myanmar to be linked to the plight of the country's persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.
"2015 is a big year for Myanmar with both a referendum on its constitution and a general election," Tutu told an Oslo conference on the Rohingya.
"We have a responsibility to ensure that the plight of the Rohingya is not lost," he said in a pre-recorded message aired to participants.
"We have a responsibility to persuade our international and regional aid and grant-making institutions, including the European Union, to adopt a common position making funding the development of Myanmar conditional on the restoration of citizenship, nationality, and basic human rights to the Rohingya," he said.
The 1984 Nobel laureate is an anti-apartheid hero respected around the world as a moral authority.
Tens of thousands of Myanmar's 1.3 million Rohingya have fled the country in recent years, to escape sectarian violence as well as suffocating restrictions preventing travel and employment.
Each year thousands of Rohingya try to flee Myanmar by boat headed for other Southeast Asian countries, spurring a human trafficking trade in often dramatic conditions.
Source: Agence France Presse
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