Burma's Rohingya Muslims And Aung San Suu Kyi's Deadly Silence

"Politically, Aung San Suu Kyi has absolutely nothing to gain from opening her mouth on this, She is no longer a political dissident trying to stick to her principles. She's a politician and her eyes are fixed on the prize, which is the 2015 majority Buddhist vote."

Maung Zarni, a Burma expert and visiting fellow at the London School of Economics. 

You could be forgiven for thinking that the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi would assert her moral leadership as one of the world's most celebrated pro-democracy campaigners, yet she has remained deadly silent over the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Burma.

For more than twenty years, whether in jail or under house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi earned worldwide accolades for refusing to bend to the Burmese military dictatorship and for speaking up for all those in her country who suffered human rights abuses.

At a time where her moral leadership is required most, she has remained deadly silent on the persecution of Burma's Muslim Rohingya population. 

It's not that Ms Suu Kyi doesn't have a political office, after all she was appointed chair of a committee, dealing with the rule of law, peace and security within Burma; but perhaps she knows that her chances of any political success would vaporise if she spoke out.

Despite the Muslim Rohingya community being in Burma since the 8th century, they are denied citizenship, require permission to marry or have more than two children and must notify the authorities if they wish to travel outside their villages.

The United Nations describe them as being the world's most persecuted people.

Whilst everyday the BBC show more images of destruction in Syria, it too has remained strangely silent on Burma.

Perhaps that's why it prompted Anna Roberts, the executive director of Burma Campaign UK, to state:

"This is an incredibly serious situation and it continues to deteriorate at a very fast rate. There has not been anything like the international response that would be expected for a crisis on this scale."

For many Muslims who believe there is a "War Against Islam", this simply adds fuel to the fire, after all where are the strong words of condemnation from our own political establishment? 

Do we really need to intensively lobby our own politicians for human rights? 

Or is it implied that Buddhists in Burma deserve human rights and Muslims don't?

MPACUK urge all politicians, whether that's Aung San Suu Kyi or our own foreign secretary William Hague to take action on this matter and prove to us all that human rights are applied universally.