Iranian Speaker Condemns Massacre of Myanmar Muslims

In a message on Wednesday, Larijani strongly condemned the persecution of Muslim people in Myanmar, and held the Myanmarese government accountable for the escalation of violence against Muslims.

The tragic images of massacre and forced displacement of tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslim in Myanmar and the systematic persecution of defenseless women and children spells a “new great humanitarian catastrophe” in the modern age, he deplored.

Larijani further slammed a muted response by the international organizations and the self-proclaimed advocates of human rights to the terrifying incidents, the violation of human rights, and the genocide of Muslims in Myanmar.

The speaker then called for the deployment of a UN-mandated fact-finding delegation to Myanmar, and urged the whole governments, parliaments, institutions, as well as the regional and international organizations –particularly the UN and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)- to take action to support the Rohingya Muslims.

Larijani finally noted that he would assign the chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission the job of forming a committee to take the necessary parliamentary measures to put an immediate halt to the anti-Muslim crimes in Myanmar.

The Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar have long faced severe discrimination and were the targets of violence in 2012 that killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people from their homes to camps for the internally displaced.

Nearly 150,000 Muslims have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh in less than two weeks, officials said.

In a rare letter to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern that the violence in Rakhine could spiral into a “humanitarian catastrophe”.

The Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN) said on Tuesday that the persecution is backed by the government, elements among the country's Buddhist monks and ultra-nationalist civilian groups.