Myanmar Disaster Marks Death of Nobel Peace Prize: Iran Leader

TEHRAN: Supreme leader of Iran Tuesday said the disaster in Myanmar, which is blamed on the 'cruel' Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, marks the death of this international prize.

Speaking in ceremony, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei strongly blasted the silence and inaction of international bodies and self-proclaimed human rights advocates on the ongoing atrocities against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

He said the crisis in Myanmar is a political issue and should not be reduced to a religious conflict between Muslims and Buddhists, although he said religious prejudice may have been involved.

"This is a political issue because the party that has been carrying out the atrocities is Myanmar's government, at the top of which is a cruel woman who has won the Nobel Peace Prize. And with these incidents, the death of the Nobel Peace Prize has been spelled," he said.

Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung Sang Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has taken almost no action to end the deadly violence against the Rohingya in the country's western Rakhine State. Recently, she said widespread reports of brutal violence against the Muslims were fake news.

Ayatollah Khamenei further called for practical measures by Islamic governments to end the crisis in Myanmar, and said the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should convene to discuss the crisis, Press TV reported.

"Of course, practical measures don't mean military deployments. Rather, they (Islamic governments) have to increase their political, economic, and trade pressure on Myanmar's government and cry out against these crimes in international organizations," the Leader said.

The Leader said Iran has to be bold in making its stance known.

"The world today is the world of oppression, and the Islamic Republic has to maintain for itself the honour of speaking out against oppression anywhere in the world, whether in territories occupied by Zionists, or in Bahrain, or Yemen, or Myanmar," he said.

Myanmar's government has laid a siege to a western state where the Rohingya are concentrated. There, horrific violence has been taking place against the minority Muslims, according to reports and eyewitnesses.

Soldiers and extremist Buddhists have reportedly been killing or raping the Muslims and setting their homes on fire. The Myanmarese government says 400 people, mostly Muslims, have died in the latest bout of violence. The UN says the actual number likely tops 1,000.