For five refugees from Myanmar who arrived in Winnipeg last month, recent elections that swept human rights hero Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party to power don't offer much hope.
"I don't think (it) will improve Rohingya lives," said Mohammed Tayab, who arrived Nov. 24 with four other Rohingya Muslims, including a couple and their baby.
Although they were born in Myanmar, Rohingya are not even considered second-class citizens, said Tayab. The Myanmar government claims Rohingya are illegal migrants from Bangladesh, despite hundreds of thousands of them having lived in the country's western Rakhine state for centuries. It has been accused by human rights groups of committing acts of genocide in its treatment of Rohingya.
Nobel laureate Suu Kyi has remained "silent" on the plight of the Rohingya even after her opposition party won recent elections in Myanmar, said Tayab, who doesn't expect anything to change in his lifetime.
Amnesty International says Myanmar's government in 1982 passed a law that denied citizenship to members of the persecuted ethnic and religious minority. The Rohingya's rights to a nationality, their freedom of movement and access to education and services were taken away, and the government allowed the arbitrary confiscation of their property. (Courtesy of Winnipeg Free Press)
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