Myanmar not to include Rohingya issue in ASEAN confab

Myanmar has balked at including talks on the Rohingya Muslim community at the meeting of South-East Asian foreign ministers the country will host.

The meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will open in the city of Bagan on Thursday. Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw will also host the first ASEAN summit in early May.

"The Bengali issue is our internal affair and we will not discuss it in the ASEAN meetings even if member countries ask for it," said Ye Htut, a spokesman for Myanmar President Thein Sein. Myanmar's government officials refer to the Rohingya Muslims as "Bengalis."

Meanwhile, Ye Htut expressed the government's willingness to take advice on the issue from other countries, saying, "They may have experience in solving such problems peacefully, so we will accept the advice that suits our country."

Myanmar's government refuses to recognize Rohingya Muslims as citizens and labels them as "illegal" immigrants.

Rohingya Muslims have been denied citizenship since a new citizenship law was enacted in 1982.

Violence originally targeted Rohingya Muslims in western Myanmar, and then spread to other parts of the country, where Muslims who have been granted citizenship are also being attacked, according to the website Myanmarmuslims.org.

The Myanmar government has so far refused to extricate the stateless Rohingyas from their citizenship limbo, despite international pressure to give them a legal status.

Hundreds of Rohingyas are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in attacks by Buddhist extremists.

The extremists frequently attack Rohingyas and set fire to their homes in several villages in the western state of Rakhine.

MR/HSN

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/myanmar-not-to-include-rohingya-issue-in-asean-confab/