Amnesty calls on UN council for strong resolution
YANGON: Amnesty International is calling for a “strong resolution” over Myanmar’s treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority, as the country enters the spotlight of a rare UN Human Rights Council special session.
Myanmar’s military denies accusations by the United Nations and United States that it has committed ethnic cleansing in northern Rakhine State.
An army-led crackdown has forced some 620,000 people to flee over the border into squalid camps in Bangladesh in recent months, leaving hundreds of villages burned to the ground.
Ahead of the council’s session in Geneva, Amnesty urged members to keep the pressure on and said authorities in Buddhistmajority Myanmar are committing crimes against humanity on a “daily basis”.
“The council must now step up and pass a strong resolution that sends a clear message to Myanmar’s government and military that their abhorrent treatment of the Rohingya must end immediately, and that perpetrators will not enjoy impunity,” said James Gomez, Amnesty’s regional director for South-East Asia and the Pacific.
Rights groups say people are still fleeing Myanmar, joining refugees who give consistent accounts of rape, murder and arson.
The army justified the crackdown as a proportionate response to deadly attacks by militants on border police on Aug 25.
The state-backed Global New Light of Myanmar yesterday claimed there had been a “gradual return to normalcy in the region”.
The rights council rarely holds special sessions, which can only be convened at the request of at least a third of its 47 member states, or 16 countries.