China backs Myanmar on crackdown on Rohingya
UN secygen Guterres urges Naypyidaw to end violence
YANGON: China endorses Myanmar’s offensive against Rohingya Muslim insurgents, Myanmar state media said on Thursday, as the UN chief described the operation, forcing nearly 400,000 people to flee to Bangladesh, as “ethnic cleansing”.
The Myanmar military offensive in the state of Rakhine was triggered by a series of guerrilla attacks on August 25 on security posts and an army camp in which about a dozen people were killed.
“The stance of China regarding the terrorist attacks in Rakhine is clear, it is just an internal affair,” the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Thursday quoted China’s ambassador, Hong Liang, as telling top government officials.
“The counter-attacks of Myanmar security forces against extremist terrorists and the government’s undertakings to provide assistance to the people are strongly welcomed.”
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council on Wednesday urged Myanmar to end the violence, which he said was best described as ethnic cleansing.
“When one third of the Rohingya population had to flee the country, could you find a bet- ter word to describe it?” he told a news conference in New York.
The 15-member UN Security Council, which met behind closed doors on Wednesday, “expressed concern about reports of violence during the security operations and called for immediate steps to end the violence in Rakhine, de-escalate the situation, re-establish law and order, ensure the protection of civilians ... and resolve the refugee problem”.
Bangladesh says all the refugees will have to go home and has called for safe zones in Myanmar. Myanmar says safe zones are unacceptable.
There are also fears of a humanitarian crisis on the Myanmar side of the border. The government has accused some aid groups of helping the insurgents and has restricted access.
The aid group Médecins Sans Frontières said it had reports that its clinics there had been torched and it called for “unfettered access to people in desperate need”.