San Suu Kyi: criticises family planning discrimination law against minority.
(May 29, 2013) In Myanmar, Opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has strongly criticized
the bill recently introduced in Rakhine State, which imposes a family planning program
for the Rohingya people. Accused in the past of failing to defend the Muslim minority,
for the first time the Nobel Laureate - on behalf of her party, the National League
for Democracy (NLD) - said that if confirmed, the imposed limit of two children is
"a flagrant violation of human rights." She added that she was opposed to the entry
into force of the controversial law, introduced at first by the previous military
junta and confirmed by the authorities of Rakhine "to contain sectarian violence."
The bill, which is part of a framework of measures targeted to reign in polygamy and
the growth of the minority, will cover the district of Maungdaw, in Rakhine State.,
which includes the towns of Maungdaw and Buthi-daung. Both are located along the
border with Bangladesh, in an area inhabited largely by members of the Rohingya Muslim
minority, the only ethnic group to which the "two children law" applies. Source:
Asianews