UNSC convokes emergency meeting on Rohingya Muslims

Yangon, Sept 12: The UN Security Council (UNSC) has declared that it will meet tomorrow to discuss the burning issue of Rohingya Muslims and the violence related to them in Myanmar.

The violence has caused the exodus of over 300,000 Rohingya Muslims from that country to neighbouring Bangladesh. However, Bangladesh has refused to accommodate them and expelled them from their country. Some 40,000 plus of them had entered India illegally.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein stated that the situation in the Rakhine state of Myanmar was an “example of manual ethnic cleansing”. The USA said that it was deeply disturbed by the attacks and violence on both sides including the assaults committed by Islamic militants on August 25.

The Al Hussein had accused Myanmar of “systematic attacks” on the Rohingya Muslims stating that correct situation could not be asserted as Myanmar had denied permission to human rights inspectors to visit the area, he added.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar has stated that the latest violence has caused more than 1,000 deaths, most of which are Rohingya. The United Nations Refugee Agency states that from August 25 at least 313,000 Rohingya arrived in Bangladesh from Rakhine, about a third of the total population of 1.1 million.

Because of the growing international concern for the crisis, Great Britain and Sweden have called for the urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council tomorrow. In order to ensure that any motion is blocked, the Myanmar government counts on China and Russia, both permanent members of the Council.