The tragedy of the Rohingya Muslims is an account of the most persecuted minority in the world. The Rohingya are facing the most savage crimes of which humanity is ashamed, involving murder, arson and rape aimed at inflicting genocide on the hands of the Burmese army, security men and Buddhist extremists. Genocide aims at total or partial destruction of a national, ethnic or religious community. Genocide is a term rarely used. However, it was used in Bosnia and Herzegovina before. Now it is used in the issue of the Rohingya Muslims in view of the methodology, of the gravity and range of the action.

International reports have informed that the government of Myanmar has allowed the spread of hate rhetoric and failed in protecting the Muslim Rohingya minority against crimes described as savage and ethnic cleansing committed by the army in the States of Rakhine, Chin, and Kachin. The Government is considered a contributor to the perpetration of such awful crimes through its neglect, silence, disregard and obstruction of legal and humanitarian organizations to have access to these regions as well as suppression of the media so as not to convey facts to the entire world.

This slaughter resulted in the dispersion of more than two million of the Rohingya and killing of thousands of children, women, and men; the raping of women and children, torturing them; burning of houses and mosques; denying them the right of citizenship, preventing them from returning to their homes; confiscating their identity and possessions. All these actions have contributed to the destabilization of the general set-up and led to tense relations with neighboring states and creation of huge economic and social problems.

Through our visit as part of the PUIC delegation to Bangladesh we have observed the catastrophic conditions of the Rohingya refugees who continue to flee their country in huge numbers which keep rising.

These people keep walking through jungles and mountains for days. They come by boats through Bay of Bengal. They come to the refugee camps exhausted, hungry, and ill. They need protection and humanitarian assistance. They gave us horrifying accounts of what has happened to them, and they refuse to go back without international protection.

We have found them lying on the ground without cover. They are in dire need of all support and relief such as tents, cover, blankets, safe roads, planning of their site, building of latrines and wells. They need better water facilities and drainage of waste water. They need facilities for medical treatment and surgical operations. Over and above all this is to preserve their belief and identity which is the cause of all their suffering. Allah Almighty says: “And they ill- treated them for no other reason than that they believed in Allah, exalted in power, worthy of all praise”.

It is our obligation to call on the free world and governments of Muslim States, through their Parliaments to:

• Carry out action to immediately stop the continuous massacres.
• Repatriate the displaced people to their homes and to refrain from any political understanding to settle them in any other place.
• Rebuilding what has been destroyed and to give compensation to those who have lost properties.
• Provide protection for the Muslim Rohingya minority and deploy international observers.
• Prosecute perpetrators of these crimes before international tribunals as war criminals.
• Support international legal and relief organizations so as to perform their roles.

The ordeal of the Rohingya Muslims is really a disaster of the age. It is another proof of the connivance of the world forces of evil against anything Islamic. The disaster (Nekba) of Palestine and the suffering of the Palestinian refugees is not far from this. Fleeing their homes for weeks, thinking that returning will not take long, now they are spread in the regions of the world for more than seventy years.