Rohingya Muslims welcome Angelina Jolie ‘s visit to Myanmar

Lahore: Rohingya Muslims have welcomed the visit of renowned Hollywood celebrity and U.N. Refugee Agency’s Special Envoy, Angelina Jolie, who arrived in Myanmar for four-day visit to understand the country’s situation, hoping that the visit would have positive impacts to end the ongoing humanitarian crises there.

In a welcoming statement issued jointly, the Director General of Arakan Rohingya Union, Dr. Wakar Uddin, and President of Global Rohingya Center, Shiekh Abdullah Maruf, have requested the human rights activist to also include the visit of Muslim area, Arakan (Rakhine), in her agenda.

They also termed the recent statement of Angelina Jolie very encouraging, in which she had showed interest to interact with the people belonging to different walks of life, to learn firsthand from them about their concerns and hopes for the future of Myanmar, related to upcoming national elections in November.

“At the critical time when the Green Card offer was completely rejected by the Rohingya Muslims, her visit is being considered as of vital importance,” they said in their statement. Mentioning the plights of IDPs Camps, and the Boat Crises, both Rohingya leaders were of the view that the Rohingya Muslims have been living in Arakan since many centuries, and the Green Card Scheme, having validity of 2 years, would resulted to expel them from Myanmar by declaring as “illegal migrants of Bangali Origin”.

The root cause of all problems and complexities, being faced by the Rohingya Muslims, is denial of the citizenship rights, they said, while appealing to Angelina Jolie to play her active role by asking the Myanmar Government to ensure that the Rohingya Muslims must have equal access to Burmese citizenship.