Rights activists slam President Obama visit to Myanmar

US President Barack Obama’s recent visit to Myanmar has come under strong criticism by human rights groups over the deadly violence against Rohingya Muslims in the southeast Asian country.

Obama visited Myanmar for a six-hour trip as part of his four-day tour of Southeast Asia region. He met with President Thein Sein and opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi.

President Obama has been under pressure over the trip as rights groups accuse Myanmar authorities of committing crimes against the minority Rohingya Muslims.

Several rights groups and organizations say Obama has embraced the Southeast Asian nation at a time when ethnic conflicts are unresolved and political prisoners remain behind bars.

The groups had also strongly condemned Myanmar’s recent amnesty for prisoners ahead of Obama visit. New York-based Human Rights Watch said it was not aware of the release of any of the scores of dissidents still in jail.

“It seems there is a new game in Burma, which is the political prisoners game,” said HRW deputy Asia director Phil Robertson, calling the release “cynical” and lacking in transparency.

Critics say Obama’s trip will be regarded as an endorsement of Myanmar’s government.

Lawmakers from Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) also said that the key objectives of Obama’s visit should be to improve human rights and democracy.

However, President Obama delivered a speech at Yangon University during which he denounced the recent ethnic violence in the western Rakhine State.

The UN and several other international organizations have considered the Rohingyas among the most persecuted minorities on earth.

Rohingya Muslims have faced torture, neglect and repression in the Buddhist-majority land, since it achieved independence in 1948.

Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in recent attacks by Buddhist extremists.

Buddhist extremists frequently attack Rohingyas and have set fire to their homes in several villages in the troubled region. Myanmar army forces allegedly provided the Buddhists with containers of petrol to set ablaze the houses of Muslim villagers and force them out of their houses.

Myanmar’s government has been accused of failing to protect the Muslim minority.

The government refuses to recognize Rohingyas as citizens and holds the opinion that the only solution to the crisis is to send the one-million-strong community to other countries willing to take them.

Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has also come under fire for her stance on the violence. The Nobel Peace laureate has refused to speak out against abuses committed by Myanmar’s military on Rohingyas.

Rohingyas are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued separate statements, calling for Myanmar to take action to protect the Rohingya Muslim population against extremist Buddhists.

The United States and the European Union have come under fire for their silence on the ongoing bloodshed.