Suu Kyi slams Myanmar’s two-child limit on Rohingya Muslims

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http://www.todayonline.com/world/asia/myanmars-suu-kyi-slams-2-child-limit-muslims

SLAM!

Aung San Suu Kyi, rights groups and Islamic leaders expressed dismay today (May 27) over plans by authorities in western Myanmar to revive a two-child limit on Muslim Rohingya families, a policy that does not apply to Buddhists and comes amid accusations of ethnic cleansing.

"If true, this is against the law," said Ms Suu Kyi, the opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

The policy applies to two Rakhine townships that border Bangladesh and have the highest Muslim populations in the state. The townships, Buthidaung and Maungdaw, are about 95 per cent Muslim.

The order makes Myanmar perhaps the only country in the world to level such a restriction against a particular religious group, and is likely to bring further criticism that Muslims are being discriminated against in the Buddhist-majority country.

Longstanding hatred toward the Rohingya erupted last year into mob violence in which Rakhine Buddhists armed with machetes razed thousands of Muslim homes, leaving hundreds of people dead and forcing 125,000 to flee, mostly Muslims.

The New York-based group Human Rights Watch has accused the government and security forces in Rakhine of fomenting an organized campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against the Rohingya.

Since the violence, the religious unrest has expanded into a campaign against Muslim communities in other areas, posing a serious challenge to President Thein Sein's reformist government