Fifteen Nobel laureates including Muhammad Yunus and eight other global leaders on Thursday wrote an open letter to the United Nations Security Council to immediately intervene to stop “persecution of Rohingyas in Myanmar”.
They noted that a human tragedy “amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity 
is unfolding in Myanmar”, according to a press release of Yunus Centre.
The global leaders insisted that it is time for the international community as a whole to speak out much more strongly.
They were also very critical of the inaction of Myanmarese leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
“Despite repeated appeals to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi we are frustrated that she has not taken any initiative to ensure full and equal citizenship rights of the Rohingyas. Daw Suu Kyi is the leader and is the one with the primary responsibility to lead, and lead with courage, humanity and compassion,” read the open letter.
The signatories included 13 Nobel peace laureates, two Nobel medicine laureates, a journalist, philanthropists and rights activists, said the Yunus Centre press release.
The Nobel peace laureates are Muhammad Yunus (2006), José Ramos-Horta (1996), Máiread Maguire (1976), Betty Williams (1976), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1984), Oscar Arias (1987), Jody Williams (1997), Shirin Ebadi (2003), Tawakkol Karman (2011), Leymah Gbowee (2011) and Malala Yousafzai (2014).
The two Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine are Sir Richard J Roberts (1993) and Elizabeth Blackburn (2009).
The other signatories are former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi, former Italian foreign minister Emma Bonino, founder and editor of The Huffington Post Arianna Huffington, business leader Paul Polman, SDG advocate and film director Richard Curtis, business leader and philanthropist Jochen Zeitz, business leader and philanthropist Sir Richard Branson, entrepreneur and philanthropist Mo Ibrahim, SDG advocate (Voice of Libyan Women) Alaa Murabit and human rights activist Kerry Kennedy.
