Higher platforms for Rohingya crisis

Reezal: It’s time for Malaysia to raise issue at international level through UN and OIC

MALAYSIA has shifted from Asean to bigger international platforms to find a speedier resolution to the Rohingya issue, said Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican.

He said Malaysia no longer harboured hope for Asean to reach a consensus on taking effective steps to handle the crisis in northern Rakhine State in Myanmar.

“This point was made in an exemption statement by the Foreign Minister on Sept 24 in response to the Asean chairman’s statement on the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine.

“Therefore, for the time being, Malaysia does not intend to suggest organising any special meeting on the crisis at the Asean level,” he said in reply to a question by Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (PKRPermatang Pauh).

More than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Rakhine since August to escape the Myanmar army’s campaign of retribution – described by the United Nations as “ethnic cleansing” – following militant attacks on security forces.

Reezal added it was time for Malaysia to continue raising concerns over the Rohingya issue at the international level through platforms like the UN and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

He noted that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had brought up the issue in his meetings with US President Donald Trump in Washington DC and British Prime Minister Theresa May in London last month.

“Najib’s efforts paid off when both nations agreed to focus on the issue at the UN.

“This has led to UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres issuing a statement condemning Myanmar’s military over its actions.

“The UN security council had also issued press statements last month raising concerns over the situation in Rakhine, and this was followed by the council’s open meeting – the first such meeting held in Myanmar since 2009,” said Reezal.

GENEVA: Nearly one million Rohingya refugees have fled violence in Myanmar, an “untenable situation” for its neighbour Bangladesh, the country’s United Nations envoy said, calling on Myanmar to let them return.

Some 600,000 people have crossed the border since Aug 25, when insurgent attacks on security posts were met by a ferocious counter-offensive by the Myanmar army in Rakhine state, which the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing.

“This is the biggest exodus from a single country since the Rwandan genocide in 1994,” Shameem Ahsan, Bangladesh’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, told a UN pledging conference yesterday.

“Despite claims to the contrary, violence in Rakhine state has not stopped. Thousands still enter on a daily basis.”

Bangladesh’s interior minister was in Yangon for talks to find a ”durable solution”.

But Myanmar continued to issue “propaganda projecting Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh”, Ahsan said, adding: “This blatant denial of the ethnic identity of Rohingya remains a stumbling bloc.”

Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be stateless, despite tracing their families’ presence in the country for generations.

The UN has appealed for US$434mil (RM1.8bil) to provide life-saving aid to 1.2 million people for six months.

“We need more money to keep pace with intensifying needs.

“This is not an isolated crisis, it is the latest round in a decades-long cycle of persecution, violence and displacement,” UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the talks.

“Children, women and men fleeing Myanmar are streaming into Bangladesh traumatised and destitute.

“We assess that we have pledges of around US$340mil (RM1.4bil),” Lowcock said before the mid-day break in the meeting.

€

New pledges included 30mil (RM150mil) announced by the European Union, US$15mil (RM63mil) by Kuwait, A$10mil (RM33mil) by Australia and £12mil (RM66mil) from Britain.

Lowcock also reiterated the UN call on Myanmar to allow “full humanitarian access across Rakhine” where aid agencies have been denied entry. — Reuters