Burma’s President Thein Sein has proposed opening schools to improve the
education of minority Rohingya Muslim children.
Thein Sein said education is an
important tool to help different communities live in harmony and respect human
rights, in an interview with the VOA Burmese Service published on Tuesday.
He said “Bengalis” – his term for
the Rohingya – have only religious schools and lack “proper education.”
Education for most Rohingyas stops at around age seven, say observers.
“So we will open schools for them
and give them modern education,” he said. “And once they become educated, they
will be more thoughtful and can decide what is right and what is wrong.”
Thein Sein reiterated Burma's
opposition to any foreign investigation of the recent deadly community violence
between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine natives in western Rakhine State where up
to 90 people have been killed and thousands of homes and businesses burned.
The Saudi-based Organization for
Islamic Cooperation has called for a credible investigation of the violence,
which it has described as a case of
prejudice against the Rohingya, who are denied citizenship in Burma.
President Thein Sein said the
government is giving assistance to the victims of the violene, both Muslim and
Buddhist, and has asked the government-appointed Burmese Human Rights
Commission to investigate the unrest. There is "no need" for a
foreign group to investigate the violence as an international issue, he said..
UN human rights envoy to Burma,
Tomas Ojea Quintana, last week called for the Burmese Parliament to investigate
the unrest in Rakhine State.
Mabrur Ahmed, the cofounder and
director of Restless Beings, a British-based rights group following the
Rohingya situation, told VOA he welcomed the Burmese president’s school pledge
but warned of segregation.
“I don’t think it’s productive
for a community where there’s going to be two ethnicities living side by side
and they have separate schools for each set of children. But at the same time, at
the moment, the Rohingya children are not receiving any education, or very
limited education up to age seven, so to have access to more education is
obviously a good thing,” he said.
Ahmed said without citizenship,
the Rohingya and other unrecognized ethnic minority groups are not able to own
land, get married or have children without state permission.
“Generally, the whole law needs
to be overlooked [reviewed] where everyone has equal rights and there isn’t
this separation of ‘pure breed’ Burmese and ethnic minority Burmese and
hereditary Burmese,” he said.
Ahmed told VOA that Burma’s
transition from a military-led to a semi-democratic civilian-led government is
a “good, positive” step, and the president’s interview is a further sign of
change.
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