A three-day conference (26-28 May 2015) to end Burma’s systematic persecution of Rohingya was held at the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Voksenåsen Conference Center and Literature House in Oslo, Norway.
A team of the European Rohingya Council (ERC); Khairul Amin (Chairman), Mohamed Ibrahim (General Secretary), Dr. Ambia Perveen, Dr. Khubaid , Zahedul Haque, Alisha Binti Hamid , Naing Win Zahid, Towheed Hasan, Waris Ahamed, Mohamed Naeem and Rehman Sharif from the six different secretariat groups of ERC participated conference events.
The Burmese Buddhist monks, Christian clergy, Rohingya activists from many different countries, Genocide experts, international diplomats, interfaith and human rights leaders also attended the conference. They explored ways to end Burma’s planned persecution of the Rohingya and to have communal harmony in Burma.
Dr. Ambia Perveen a Rohingya medical doctor and lobby member of the European Rohingya Council (ERC) has delivered a speech on Burma’s decades-long persecution of the Rohingya and Public Health Implications. She has appealed to international community to stand up for the Rohingya essential rights in Arakan and access emergency health care as mostly children and pregnant women are lack of primary medication.
Mr. Morten Høglund, a state secretary of Norwegian ministry of foreign affairs and Mr. Ola Elvestuen, a parliamentarian of Liberal party of Norway have attended the conference also.
Mr. Hølund said to the government that Norway has provided 10 million Norwegian Kroner just for the peace and reform process of Burma. They also donate aid to the IDPs camps of Rohingya refugees in Arakan state. Mr. Kjell Bondevik, a former prime minister of Norway pointed out the pre-planned attacks, discrimination and persecution on Rohingya while Burmese authority disregarded to provide them protection.
The ERC team has exchanged views with Tomas Ojea Quintana, a former UN Special Rapporteur in Burma. They have met also many international experts, scholars and discussed how to end the Rohingya crisis.
Seven Nobel Peace Prize winners; Desmond Tutu, a leader of South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s, Mairead Maguire from Northern Ireland, Jody Williams from the USA, Tawakkol Karman from Yeman, Shirin Ibadi from Iran, Leymah Gbowee from Liberia, and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel from Argentina have described the plight of Rohingya as nothing less than a genocide. They said through pre-recorded video clips that, “What Rohingya are facing is a textbook case of genocide in which an entire indigenous community is being systematically wiped out by the Burmese government.”
