The European Rohingya Council (ERC) participated at International Peace Forum Varberg, Sweden on 23rd October 2015.
The centennial three-days Peace Forum was held to pay tribute to the city of Varberg for its initiation and accommodation of 200 organizations for the General Peace Congress at the heights of World War I in 1915.
A member of the European Rohingya Council, Dr. Khubye took part in the landmark forum on behalf of ERC. He presented the forum with the historical presence of Rohingya in Myanmar (Burma), the presence of Rohingya in the country’s Parliament throughout the history and the participation of Rohingya in every general election.
Dr. Khubye highlighted the state-sponsored discrimination and persecution of Rohingya by the military juntas and their successive quasi-civilian government – the major ethnic cleansing operations such as the 1978 Naga Min Operation and the discriminatory 1982 Citizenship Law. He further highlighted the ongoing 2012 Genocide, the perpetrators and the miserable situations of Internally Displaced Rohingya in IDP camps across Arakan (Rakhine) State.
Moreover, he raised the issues of the disenfranchisement of Rohingya in the upcoming November election, the rise of Neo-Nazism endorsed by the government and extremist organizations, and the enactment of four Race and Religion Protection Laws, which especially target Rohingya and Myanmar Muslims in general.
He quoted what seven Nobel Peace Laureates agreed upon at Oslo Conference, Rohingya people suffer “a textbook case of Genocide in which an entire indigenous community is systematically wiped out by the Burmese Government.”
He concluded with discussion on what can be done as European governments, European civil societies and individuals to stop the ongoing Rohingya genocide.
During question and answer session, the visiting Nobel Peace Laureate, LeyMah Ghowee of Liberia reaffirmed that international community must take serious steps to stop the genocide against Rohingya.
As International Peace Forum came to an end, Varberg calls again for peace and sustainability that it called 100 years ago.
