UN team determined to solve Rohingya refugees’ dilemma

A UN Security Council team visiting Bangladesh promised Sunday to work hard to resolve a crisis involving hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled to the country to escape military-led violence in nearby Myanmar.

The diplomats, who visited the sprawling camps and border points where about 700,000 Rohingya have taken shelter, said their visit was an opportunity to see the situation first-hand.

Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, said he and his fellow team members would not look away from the crisis after their visit, though he warned there are no simple solutions.

“It’s very necessary to come and see everything at place here in Bangladesh and Myanmar,” he said at a news conference at the Kutupalong refugee camp in the coastal town of Cox’s Bazar. “But there is no magic solution, there is no magic stick to solve all these issues.”

The diplomats will now travel to Myanmar.

The recent spasm of violence in Myanmar began when Rohingya insurgents staged a series of attacks on August 25, 2017, on about 30 security outposts and other targets.

In a subsequent crackdown described by UN and US officials as “ethnic cleansing”, Myanmar security forces have been accused of rape, killing, torture and the burning of Rohingya homes.