MELBOURNE (SinghStation News) – The Melbourne Sikh Community joined the Muslim protestors today against Rohingya Genocide by Myanmar’s security forces.
The crowd of a few hundred people staged a passionate demonstration in central Melbourne on Thursday morning to highlight the “genocide” being committed against their people in Myanmar and call on the Australian government to do more to stop the humanitarian tragedy.
Chanting protesters who had symbolically smeared blood on their white shirts and faces. called on the federal government to intervene amid allegations of genocide in Myanmar against the ethnic minority group.
ACTU President Ged Kearney was one of the speakers who addressed the crowd.
Habib, a spokesperson from the Australian Burmese Rohingya Organisation, said that since 25 September 3000 Rohingyas, including women and children, have been killed, 56 villages have been burned down and 200,000 people displaced.
“We are here to protest the ongoing genocide in Burma,” he said.
“We want Australia to take a solid stance and push for affirmative action on Burma and the Burmese government,” he said.
The Australian government is being asked to pressure the Myanmar government into ending the persecutions or withdraw its foreign aid.
In 2013 the UN called the Rohingya one of the most persecuted minorities in the world with UN officials labelling their treatment as “ethnic cleansing”.
There are up to half a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh where they are also denied citizenship with the Bangladeshi government calling on Myanmar to repatriate them.
The Sikh community along with Australian Rohingya Community held placards with various slogans against Rohingya Genocide.