The United States on has expressed concern over reports that the Myanmar
(formerly Burma) government is planning to implement a population
control regulation that restricts ethnic Rohingya Muslims in the
country's west to having a maximum of two children.
The U.S. reaction came after Myanmar's Immigration Minister Khin Yi
publicly supported the controversial two-child limit on the Rohingya
Muslim minority group. Notably, Myanmar's opposition leader and Nobel
laureate Aung San Kyi and the United Nations have already denounced the
planned regulation as "discriminatory."
U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said at a news briefing on
Tuesday that Washington was "deeply concerned about reports that some
officials in Burma plan to enforce or have said they plan to enforce a
two-child limit for Rohingya Muslims."
"The United States, of course, opposes coercive and discriminatory birth
limitation policies, and we have pressed senior Burmese Government
officials to abolish this local order. We urge the Government of Burma
to eliminate all such policies without delay and we will continue to
express our concerns," she added.
Earlier, the U.N. had urged Myanmar "to remove such policies or
practices" after local authorities confirmed plans to impose the
two-child limit for Rohingya Muslims under a 2005 regulation late last
month.
Separately, Suu Kyi said the two-child regulation imposed on ethnic
Rohingya was illegal, adding: "It is not good to have such
discrimination. And it is not in line with human rights."
Meanwhile, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted that
implementation of the policy was consistent with the wider persecution
of the largely stateless Rohingya, violating international human rights
protections, and endangering women's physical and mental health.
"Implementation of this callous and cruel two-child policy against the
Rohingya is another example of the systematic and wide ranging
persecution of this group, who have recently been the target of an
ethnic cleansing campaign," said Brad Adams, Asia Director at HRW.
The rights watchdog noted that some 800,000 to one million Rohingyas in
Myanmar are particularly vulnerable to government abuse because most are
denied citizenship under the country's discriminatory 1982 citizenship
law.
Notably, the recent pro-democracy developments in Myanmar have been
overshadowed to an extent by the ongoing ethnic violence between
Buddhist and Rohingya Muslim communities. Continued violence had left
dozens dead and thousands displaced, mainly Rohingya Muslims.
Thousands of majority Buddhists, led by monks, had participated in
crimes against humanity during a campaign of ethnic cleansing against
Rohingyas and other Muslims in June and October 2012. To date, no one
has been held accountable for these crimes.
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