Pressure on Burma over plight of Rohingya

The Bangladeshi Prime Minister yesterday visited a struggling refugee camp that has absorbed some of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who fled recent violence in Burma — a crisis she said left her speechless.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina demanded that Burma, also known as Myanmar, “take steps to take their nationals back”, and assured temporary aid until that happened.

“We will not tolerate injustice,” she said at a rally at the Kutupalong refugee camp, near the border town of Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar district.

On Monday, she lambasted Buddhist-majority Burma for “atrocities” that she said had reached a level beyond description, telling lawmakers she had “no words to condemn Myanmar” and noting that Bangladesh had long been protesting about the persecution of Rohingya Muslims.

At least 313,000 Rohingya have flooded into Bangladesh since August 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts, prompting Burma’s military to retaliate with what it called “clearance operations” to root out the rebels.

The crisis has drawn sharp criticism from around the world. Germany has halted several aid projects with Burma and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, yesterday urged Muslim countries to “increase political, economic and commercial pressures” on Burma to stop the violence.

United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said Burma’s ethnic Rohingya minority was facing what “seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

UN rights investigators have been barred from entering Burma. — AP