By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

The recent report that dozens of Rohingya Muslims finally made it to an Indonesian island after being adrift at sea for over a hundred days and denied permission to land at Andaman islands by the Indian authorities, is not just an indication of the worsening plight of the world’s most persecuted people, but also of the absence of humanitarian values in those who wield political power in the region.
There are a host of questions in this regard.
Why is the UN so indifferent to the misery of the Rohingyas? Why the US and other western powers that control it do not allow the World Body to provide proper aid to these persecuted people.
What was the reason that this batch of refugees – 90 people including women and children – had to leave the vast refugee camp in Cox Bazaar, Bangladesh?
How come the other regional Muslim countries – Malaysia and Indonesia – have given a cold shoulder to the sufferings of their brethren-in-faith from Myanmar?
Is Islamophobia so deep for the current rulers in New Delhi that they are ready to grant citizenship to any non-Muslim entering India from the regional states, but adamant in expelling even those Rohingya Muslims who have legally sought refuge and are registered with the UN High Commission for Refugees?
True, the authorities in Andaman did provide food and essential supplies to survivors aboard the vessel and helped repair the damaged engine of the said vessel, but what prevented them from allowing these wretched people to land and take rest?
Bangladesh which has taken commendable measures in hosting almost a million Rohingya refugees could have at least allowed them re-entry when these people had been trapped at sea.
Why are the superrich Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which buy hundreds of billion dollars of weapons from the US and UK to massacre fellow Muslim Arabs in Yemen and are facilitating visits to the occupied Socotra Island in the Gulf of Aden for Zionist tourists (actually terrorists), not giving a few million dollars to ease the sufferings of the Rohingya refugees?
Now that these unfortunate people have set foot on the remote and reportedly uninhabited Idaman Island in Aceh, will Indonesia permit them to set camp and provide them the basic humanitarian aid?
These and other questions abound, especially in view of the remarks of the Director of the Arakan Project which monitors the Rohingya crisis, Chris Lewa, who said: “They are not 100% safe there yet (on Idaman Island). We hope they will not be pushed back (by the Indonesian authorities)!”
Yes, we earnestly hope the government of Indonesia will not just grant asylum to these displaced people, but as the most powerful Muslim country in the region would take up cudgels on their behalf to make Myanmar (the present coup leaders or any elected civilian government in future), cancel the discriminatory law of 1982 and rehabilitate the Rohingyas in their ancestral homeland of Rakhine state of Arakan.