Dear Editor,
The Rohinga crisis is in many ways, a re-play of the Hitlerian persecution of the Jews which began in the 1930’s and culminated in the murder of six million Jews and other nationalities.
The Rohingas, like the Jews of Germany, were a long-settled community who helped in the development of their country. The Burmese persecutors, like the Nazis, picked on religion as a basis for their persecutions. The Nazis deprived the Jews of their German nationality while the Burmese Government has always denied the Rohingas their Burmese nationality. Like the Jews, the Rohingas are being expelled from their homes and country and even maimed or killed.
The world stood by and allowed the Nazi persecutions until it was too late. Now, similarly, the world is doing nothing while the Rohingas are being driven out of their homes and abused.
Such evil always ends up by bringing suffering to all as World War II and its aftermath has shown. In Guyana, we suffered a great deal of privation during the war.
Britain and Sweden have at last raised their voices against the persecutions but at a time when half of the Rohinga population has been driven out of their homes, many of them brutalised and all their houses and villages burnt to the ground.
Guyana could take the initiative by doing some shuttle diplomacy with Caribbean Community partners and friendly Muslim states, with which we have contact through the Muslim Development Bank, to have them condemn the persecution and human rights violations. We could also mull getting a group together at the UN to move for sanctions. Guyana could once again bounce back into a place of prominence on the international stage as President Burnham had done in the Non-Aligned Movement and attacking Apartheid. Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge could seek the help and advice of Ambassadors Insanally and Jackson. But Guyana has to take the initiative now.
Yours sincerely,
Mithra Bhushan
