UNITED NATIONS - Muslim countries led by Saudi Arabia want the United Nations to denounce serious rights abuses in Myanmar and demand an end to the military campaign against the Rohingya, according to a draft resolution seen by AFP on Wednesday.
In one of the worst refugee crises in decades, more than 600,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled an army crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state since late August.
The draft resolution introduced this week to the General Assembly’s human rights committee said UN member-states were “highly alarmed” by the outbreak of violence and “further alarmed by the disproportionate use of force by the Myanmar forces” against the Rohingya.
The non-binding measure is expected to come up for a vote in the committee around November 14 and be discussed in the assembly a month later.
Drafted by the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the proposed resolution marks the return of Myanmar to the rights agenda at the United Nations after a one-year break.
Rohingya must return as
citizens: UN refugee chief
Myanmar must grant citizenship to the Rohingya to allow hundreds of thousands of people from the Muslim minority to return to Rakhine state from where they were driven by an army campaign, the UN refugee chief said Thursday.
“These people cannot remain stateless because this statelessness exposes them to discrimination and abuse, as has been the case in the past,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN high commission for refugees.
“For people to go back and for this return to be sustainable, you need to address the very complex issue of citizenship,” Grandi told reporters after addressing the Security Council. “No return will be sustainable ... if that issue is not unblocked.”
Tillerson to visit Myanmar
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will go to Myanmar next week, the State Department said, becoming the most senior US official to visit since the start of the Rohingya crisis.
Tillerson’s spokeswoman said he would visit Naypyidaw on November 15 for talks on the “humanitarian crisis in Rakhine State and US support for Burma’s democratic transition.”
The secretary’s visit will come after he accompanies President Donald Trump on a five-nation Asian tour that will include a stop in Beijing and at the US-ASEAN summit in Manila.
Myanmar’s Rakhine state was plunged into violence in August, when troops cracking down on a local insurgency embarked on the alleged slaughter and expulsion of the Rohingya minority.
Since then, more than 600,000 people have fled to neighboring Bangladesh, bringing with them accounts of rape, torture and arson by the military and pro-government militia.
United Nations officials say the crackdown is likely tantamount to ethnic cleansing and pressure has mounted on Myanmar to protect the Rohingya and allow people to return home.
The United States, while condemning the violence, has been careful to say it holds the military responsible, not Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government.
Tillerson has been pressing her to speak up, and for the powerful military to allow diplomatic observers and humanitarian workers to operate freely within northern Rakhine.
Myanmar has been transitioning from rule by military junta to elected civilian leadership since elections were held under a new constitution in 2010.
But the military still wields broad powers in security matters and crisis-hot regions, and as “state counsellor”, a role akin to a prime minister, Suu Kyi’s power is limited.
Observers say Suu Kyi chose not to criticize the army in fear of a backlash from powerful generals and their rich friends.
But there is little for the Nobel laureate to gain politically from supporting the Muslim Rohingya, who enjoy little sympathy among the broader Buddhist-majority population.