MYANMAR'S 'ETHNIC CLEANSING' OF ROHINGYA CONTINUES, U.N. RIGHTS OFFICIAL SAYS
Myanmar is continuing its
"ethnic cleansing" of the Rohingya with a "campaign of terror
and forced starvation" in Rakhine state, a UN human rights envoy said on
Tuesday, six months after a military crackdown sparked a mass exodus of the
Muslim minority. More than six months after insurgent attacks sparked a
security response that has driven nearly 700,000 people into Bangladesh.
Andrew Gilmour, the
U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights, made the comment after a
four-day visit to the Cox’s Bazar district in neighboring Bangladesh, where he
met people who have fled from Myanmar recently.
“I don’t think we
can draw any other conclusion from what I have seen and heard in Cox’s Bazar,”
Gilmour said in a statement.
After Rohingya
insurgents attacked 30 police posts and an army base on Aug. 25, Myanmar
soldiers and police swept through villages in what the government says was a
legitimate operation to root out “terrorists”.
Rohingya who sought
shelter in Bangladesh have reported rape, killings and arson by security
forces. The United Nations and United States have concluded the campaign
amounted to ethnic cleansing.
Gilmour spoke to
refugees who recounted abductions by security forces and at least one apparent
death of a Rohingya man in custody in February, the statement said.
“It appears that
widespread and systematic violence against the Rohingya persists,” Gilmour
said.
“The nature of the
violence has changed from the frenzied blood-letting and mass rape of last year
to a lower intensity campaign of terror and forced starvation that seems to be
designed to drive the remaining Rohingya from their homes and into Bangladesh.”
Despite Myanmar
saying it was ready to accept back refugees under an pact signed with
Bangladesh in November, he added, “Safe, dignified and sustainable returns are,
of course, impossible under current conditions”.
Myanmar government
spokesman Zaw Htay said he had not seen the UN statement published on Tuesday,
but that Myanmar was not committing ethnic cleansing.
“We don’t drive out
the refugees,” he said.
‘ORDERED TO VACATE’
Separately, the UN
refugee agency, UNHCR, said it was concerned about people living just inside
Myanmar at its border with Bangladesh.
The office of the
United Nations High Comissioner for Refugees is monitoring developments after
several thousand people living in a makeshift camp “were reportedly ordered to
vacate the area by the Myanmar authorities”, the agency said.
Residents of what is
called “no-man’s land”, as it sits outside Myanmar’s border fence but on its
side of a creek that separates the two countries, say Myanmar officials have
warned them on loudspeakers that their presence on the border line is illegal.
“UNHCR underscores
that everyone has the right to seek asylum, just as they also have the right to
return home when they deem the time and circumstances right,” it said in a
statement late on Monday.
“People who have
fled violence in their country must be granted safety and protection and any
decision to return must be voluntary and based upon a free and informed
choice.”
Zaw Htay said Myanmar
had the right to move people from its territory and part of an agreed “buffer
zone” with Bangladesh. Authorities had received information that “terrorists”
linked to the August attacks on Myanmar’s security posts were sheltering there,
he added.
“According to
procedure security forces have to clear the area for security reasons,” he
said.
Zaw Htay said he
believed the people were staying on the border to “trap” Myanmar into
conducting a “clearance operation”, which he said media and the United Nations
would label as ethnic cleansing.
Bangladesh last week
protested to Myanmar’s ambassador in Dhaka after Myanmar security personnel,
estimated to number more than 200, gathered near the border.
“Troop movements so
close to them are making things even worse,” said Major Iqbal Ahmed of
Bangladesh’s border guard. “They are now even more reluctant to go back to
their homeland.”
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