Suu Kyi condemns 'two-child policy' for Rohingya Muslims

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has condemned a decision by local officials in Rakhine state to enforce a "two-child policy" on Rohingya Muslims.

The ban has been in place since 1994, but officials recently began enforcing it in areas where they say the high birth rate is fuelling ethnic tension, reports BBC News.

The 1994 ban, that prevents Rohingya Muslims having more than two children, was allowed to lapse in recent years. But a commission set up to investigate the violence in Rakhine suggested the use of family planning education to address what it described as the rapid growth of the Muslim population.

On Saturday, authorities in Rakhine introduced the two-child policy in two townships, Maung Daw and Bu Thi Daung. It is not clear how it will be enforced.

Suu Kyi said she could not confirm whether the policy was being implemented, but if it was, it was illegal. She said it is not in line with human rights to have such discrimination.

Phil Robertson of the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) described the move as "outrageous and chilling".

HRW have accused the Burmese authorities of being party to ethnic cleansing during the violence in June and October last year, which left about 200 people dead and up to 140,000 displaced.

The Rohingyas are a stateless group of some 800,000 people who are not recognised as Burmese citizens. The United Nations describes them as a religious and linguistic minority from western Burma, and one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

However, due widespread belief that this community belongs in neighbouring Bangladesh, many Burmese officials refer to them as Bengalis.