Tokyo, Oct. 8 (Jiji Press)–A human rights activist supporting the Rohingya people, a persecuted Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar, called on Japan Tuesday to review the way it gives aid to the Southeast Asian country.

Japanese aid to Myanmar can sometimes lend a hand to ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, Wai Wai Nu, 32, herself a Rohingya, said at a news conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo.

Japan gave some 2.9 billion yen in aid to Myanmar from 2017 to 2019, according to UNICEF. Wai Wai said aid from Japan does not reach activists in Rakhine State in western Myanmar, where the Rohingya live.

Wai Wai was suddenly imprisoned at the age of 18 on the basis that her father was close to current Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi. She returned to university and founded a support group for women after seven years behind bars.

The return of the Rohingya after the mass exodus to Bangladesh has little headway because there are no guarantees that their civil rights are protected in Myanmar, Wai Wai said.