Rohingya illegal Bangladeshi immigrants

U Tin Oo, the Vice-President of National League for Democracy (NLD) with RFA on 2 October calling the Muslim Rohingya illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, according to press release dated on 5 October, 2011.

Rohingya Bengali is not one of the ethnic groups of Myanmar at all - Ko Ko Gyi (A Prominent 88 Students Leader)

Ko Ko Gyi "Rohingya Bengali is not one of the ethnic groups of Myanmar at all"

Ko Ko Gyi: Unless inevitable, we tried to avoid some issues patiently. Now it is time that we announce our view on Rohingya clearly. Rohingya is not one of the ethnic groups of Myanmar at all. We see that the riot happening currently in Buthedaung and Maungdaw of Arakan State is because of the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh called “Rohingya” and mischievous provocation of some international communities. Therefore, such interfering efforts by some powerful nations on this issue (Rohingya issue), without fully understanding the ethnic groups and other situations of Burma, will be viewed as offending the sovereignty of our nation. Genetically, culturally and linguistically Rohingya is not absolutely related to any ethnicity in Myanmar. In terms of citizenship, I would state separately. As we share the borders with other countries, we have some Chinese and Indian descents. They have been living in our country for generations and citizenship has been granted to them. We do not discriminate based on any race for granting the citizenship even if he is a Bengali. They should be protected in the same way as citizens of Myanmar.But, if we were forcefully pressured to accept Rohigya as one of the ethnic groups (of Burma), we won’t tolerate that.