 |
| Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono talks at a Reuters Newsmaker event in Singapore April 23, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Edgar Su |
April 23, 2013
Jason Szep and John O'Callaghan
The president of Indonesia,
the world's most populous Muslim country, said on Tuesday he would urge
Myanmar's leaders to address Buddhist-led violence against Muslims that
he said could cause problems for Muslims elsewhere in the region.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's visit to Myanmar
on Tuesday and Wednesday comes a month after at least 43 people, mostly
Muslims, were killed in four days of violence led by Buddhist mobs in
the central city of Meikhtila, 80 miles (130 km) north of the capital,
Naypyitaw. That sparked a wave of anti-Muslim violence
"If it's not addressed in the best way possible, its impact is not good
for Myanmar and even for Indonesians who are majority Muslims,"
Yudhoyono told a Thomson Reuters Newsmaker event, a forum held in
Singapore.
Calm has been restored in Meikhtila and other volatile central areas
after authorities imposed martial law and dispatched troops. A Reuters
examination showed it was well organised, abetted at times by police
turning a blind eye.
"I will encourage that Myanmar will address it wisely, appropriately and
prevent tension and violence. We in Indonesia are ready to support them
to reach those goals," he said.
Yudhoyono will meet with Myanmar President Thein Sein during the visit
and sign a memorandum of understanding on rice trade, an Indonesian
government official said.
His visit also follows deadly unrest last year against Muslim Rohingya,
an ethnic minority, in western Rakhine State which Human Rights Watch, a
New York-based rights watchdog, described in a report on Monday as
ethnic cleansing -- a charge rejected by the government.
"There are other challenges in Myanmar like communal tensions facing the ethnic Rohingya," Yudhoyono said.
Last year's violence in Rakhine State killed at least 110 people, mostly Rohingya Muslims, and left 120,000 homeless.
Rohingya activists claim their historical lineage in Rakhine dates back
centuries, but Myanmar's government regards the estimated 800,000 Muslim
Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them
citizenship. Bangladesh has refused to grant Rohingyas refugee status
since 1992.
The violence has sparked an exodus of thousands of Rohingya fleeing
Rakhine State by boat. Many have ended up in other Southeast Asian
countries including Indonesia, where Buddhist and Rohingya Muslims
clashed in an overcrowded immigration detention centre last month.
Yudhoyono said Indonesia has a long history of engaging with Myanmar's
leaders dating to military rule "to encourage them to continue their
process of democratisation so they didn't need to be hurt by embargoes".
The European Union on Monday lifted sanctions imposed in response to
human rights abuses during nearly five decades of military rule that
ended in March 2011. The country, also known as Burma, has since
embarked on a series of democratic reforms.
"World leaders now are visiting Myanmar because they see Myanmar has
changed," he said. "I will visit Myanmar today firstly to support and
promote the process of democratisation, of nation-building, of the rule
of law, human rights."
(Editing by Neil Fullick)
No comments:
Post a Comment