Women Nobel laureates asks Suu Kyi to quit
Three visiting women Nobel Peace Prize winners on wednesday asked Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi to quit her office if she failed to stop genocide, saying, otherwise she would be held responsible along with Burmese military commanders for Rohingya massacre.
"If she fails to do so (stop genocide), her choice is clear; resign or be held accountable, along with the army commanders for the crimes committed," one of the three Tawakkol Karman of Yemen told a joint press conference in Dhaka, reports BSS.
She said Suu Kyi "must stop turning a deaf ear to the persecution" of Rohingyas or risk being complicit in the crimes while all the three globally acclaimed rights activists were unanimous in calling the violence against Rohingyas "genocide."
Karman's two colleagues Northern Ireland's Mairead Maguire and Shirin Ebadi of Iran promised to work to bring those responsible to justice as they spoke in emotion choked voice at the news conference at Sonargaon Hotel here.
The trio met the press in Dhaka as they wrapped up their five-day Bangladesh visit which took them to the sprawling Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar to extensively interacted with the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals, and met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the officials concerned.
Ebadi blasted her native Iran along with other Middle Eastern Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, for not doing enough for the Rohingyas and urged all countries to show more interest in humanity instead of only concentrating on economic interest.
She stressed building global public opinion and sought an active role for the journalists so their voices for Rohingya people were heard well.
Maguire said they were looking for legal options to ensure justice saying "we plan to take Myanmar's government to the International Court of Justice" as she earlier said "this is clearly, clearly, clearly genocide that is going on by the Burmese government and military against the Rohingya people". They alleged that Suu Kyi was not telling the truth to the world and said unless she did so she should resign and revealed their plan to visit Myanmar to see what was going on there.
The Nobel laureates came to Bangladesh on Saturday and began a visit to the Rohingya camps in Kutupalang and Balukhali of Cox's Bazar to gauge the allegations of violence against Rohingya women and the overall refugee situation.
The Nobel Women's Initiative, a platform of six female peace laureates established in 2006, organized the visit in partnership with Naripokkho, a Bangladesh based women organization.
