A Muslim refugee from Myanmar urged the government Tuesday to grant political asylum to other members of his minority group, the Rohingya, who have fled the oppression of the ruling military junta.

"They are victims of systematic, persistent and widespread human rights violations," asserted Zaw Min Htut, who in 2002 became the first Rohingya to be granted refugee status by Japan.

Members of the ethnic minority from western Myanmar were rendered stateless by the 1982 Burma Citizenship Law.