“Hati hati tayo sa Europe,” he says
(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday he was “willing to accept” Rohingyas in the country.
“Hati hati tayo sa Europe,” the President said in a speech before rice traders in Malacanang.
Duterte made the pronouncement after describing what the Rohingyas were experiencing in Myanmar as genocide even after he acknowledged Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi was his “friend.’
The Rohingyas–majority of whom are Muslim–are an ethnic group who have lived for years in the Buddhist-majority Southeast Asian country.
There have already been a number of crackdowns on the Rohingyas, who are not recognized by Myanmar, as early as the 1970s, but the crackdowns worsened in 2016, following the killing of nine policemen.
The Myanmar government blamed the crime on supposed fighters from an armed Rohingya group.
As a result, an intensified security crackdown ensued, prompting the persecuted Rohingya to flee to nearby areas including Malaysia, Bangladesh, and others.
Europe has condemned what the United Nations said could be a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” but has done little to stop it.
