Iranian professors: Myanmar government is an accomplice in crimes agaisnt Muslims

Iranian professors in international laws said the government of Myanmar is an accomplice in crimes against Muslims and asked international community and NGOs to react.

In a meeting dubbed as 'Considering international and legal aspects of massacre of Muslims in Myanmar and international community responsibility', Alireza Dayhim, from Razavi University, said that a number of Muslims have been killed in Myanmar and, undoubtedly, a group has organized it, so the government of Myanmar is accused both in supporting the group as well as negligence in preventing the crimes.

He said that this incident is the same as an incident in former Yogslavia and the Myanmar government behavior has been discriminatory and provocative.

He added government behavior with Muslims as third grade citizens intensified hatred of Budhists against Muslims and this hatred was approved by the Myanmar government, so it should be said that it was a crime against humanity.

Bahram Mostaqimi, another expert from Tehran University, said the collective attack against Myanmar Hajj pilgrims showed it has been organized.

He added that perpetrators of such crimes must be punished and if the government is not able to do so, the international community should control the situation.

Mr. Tavakkol Habibzadeh, another professor from Imam Sadeq University, underlined responsibility of the government and said that when the Myanmar government does not allow Muslims to have secondry school education and makes them do forced labor and does not allow them to leave their areas and declares a number of areas as 'Non-Muslim area', it is discrimination and the government has actually taken part in the crime.

Referring to numerous international conventions such as nations rights convention and convention of 1949, he concluded that the government of Myanmar is violating human rights.

Alireza Dayhim compared the situation in Myanmar with the ones in Darfur, Sudan, and Libya and said the responsibility is not just for Human Right Commission, but the UN Security Council is responsible, too.

He added that silence of the UN Security Council indicated US support against human rights.

He said it is an ethnic cleasing in Myanmar and report of special rapporteur of the Human Right Commission signifies the issue.

Assad Ardalan, a law and international relations researcher, talked about role of international organizations in prevention of such crimes and said that Organization of Islamic Cooperation and ASEAN and such groups can take stances against human rights violation and force the Myanmar government to be countable before international community.

He also referred to role of media and continued it is necessary that media create an atmosphere to force Myanmar government to allow reporters and fact-finding groups to enter the area.

The meeting was held by Islamic Republic of Iran Islamic Human Rights Commission, which is a non-governmental organization.