ISLAMABAD - Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan Wednesday wrote to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asking him to play his due role in ending the persecution and genocide of Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar and termed the world body’s silence on the issue shameful.
“It is a shameful testament to the failure of the UN to fulfil its basic principles of upholding human rights and protecting a people from genocide,” says the letter written to Ban.
The principle of Humanitarian Intervention was specifically added to the UN mandate in the face of the Rwandan genocide but the UN has once again failed to protect people from persecution and genocide: this time the Rohingyas of Myanmar, Khan reminded to the UN secretary general.
Quoting the figures, Khan said, “In the past three years, more than 120,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled abroad under desperate circumstances and conditions. Even today the Rohingyas have been abandoned on the high seas with no humanitarian assistance forthcoming.”
The PTI chief deplored that it had been heartbreaking to witness the silence of the UN and the international community on the persecution of the Rohingyas in Myanmar since the 1970s. The hypocrisy prevalent within the international community on human rights and humanitarian interventions has been acutely evident as the Rohingya crisis has unfolded.
“It is the duty of the UN, and yourself as its Secretary General, to ensure the safety of refugees and protection of people from persecution,” he said.
He urged Ban to move the UNSC to end the persecution and genocide of Rohingyas within Myanmar and to bring to an end their inhumane plight on the high seas.
“It is time for the UN to act decisively or forever lose its relevancy as a global body reflecting the will of the people with which the Preamble of the UN Charter begins,” the letter says.