The Rohingya Information Centre in Kuala Lumpur today refuted a report in a local daily on Saturday which said that the Rohingya Muslims have been "fighting for an independent state in Burma since 1962".

The centre's secretary-general, Syedul Amin bin Syed Ahmad, said the Rohingyas were a peace-loving people who valued national integrity and unity.

"We are fighting for our human rights and not for an independent state," he said in clarifying the report.

In a press statement, he said Rohingya refugees stranded in Malaysia since 1988 were fleeing from massive human rights violations, persecution and other forms of oppression perpetrated by the repressive Burmese military Junta.

"The Rohingya Muslims cannot return to Myanmar for fear of being persecuted and tortured nor can they stay in Malaysia any longer," said Syedul Amin.

Temporary shelter

According to him, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees has a duty to help oppressed communities like the Rohingyas, even if they are not recognised as refugees under the UNHCR mandate.

He questioned UNHCR's handing over to the police the 28 Rohingya asylum seekers who invaded the agency's compound in Kuala Lumpur last Friday, labelling it as "inhumane".

"The agency could have exercised other options open to it," said Syedul Amin who also pleaded to the Malaysian government to grant Rohingyas in the country temporary shelter until conditions in their home state of Arakan in western Burma are safe for their return.

Last Friday, a group of Burmese men, women and children from the Rohingya community broke into the UNHCR compound in Kuala Lumpur and camped-out there in an attempt to seek legal asylum in a third country.

The 28 were handed over to the police the next day. They are currently held at the Semenyih detention camp in Selangor pending investigations by immigration authorities.