Pope Francis has voiced concern over the persecution of Rohingyas in Myanmar.He had, on several occasions, slammed the violence inflicted on this minority community. We appreciate the Pope's unequivocal remarks on the matter which is in contrast with the somewhat muted response of the international community, by and large, so far. 

According to UN refugee agency, more than 3,000 Rohingyas haveentered Bangladesh in the past three days following the fresh outbreak of conflict between militants and Myanmar troops in the Rakhine Stateanda few thousand are thronging the no man's land trying to cross the border. The Myanmar security forces have set their homes on fire, drove them away and even shot at them while they were fleeing towards the Bangladesh border.

The persecution of Rohingyas seems like a never ending issue, as they have been fleeing Myanmar to Bangladesh since early 1990s and around 400,000 of them now live in this country.

We hope that the international community would wake up and heedPope Francis's call and act immediately by mounting pressure on the Myanmar government so that such state-sponsored violence on the minority Rohingya community stops once and for all. Merely issuing routine statements will not help solve the problem. Persecution of Rohingyas, who are citizens of Myanmar,can't go on forever. The Annan Commission's recommendations should be taken cognisance of and the Rohingyas must have their legal rights as citizens of Myanmar, among other things, restored.