Call for Myanmar sanctions
Uproar as ‘ethnic cleansing’ rages and 400 000 flee
PRESSURE grew on Myanmar yesterday as a rights group urged world leaders to impose sanctions on its military, which is accused of driving out more than 400 000 Rohingya Muslims in an orchestrated “ethnic cleansing” campaign.
The call from Human Rights Watch came as the UN General Assembly prepared to convene in New York, with the crisis in Myanmar one of the pressing topics.
The exodus of Rohingya refugees from mainly Buddhist Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh has sparked a humanitarian emergency. Aid groups are struggling to provide relief to a daily stream of new arrivals.
There are acute shortages of nearly all forms of aid, with many Rohingya huddling under tarps as their only protection from monsoon rains.
Myanmar hinted on Sunday it would not take back all who had fled across the border, accusing those refugees of having links to the Rohingya militants whose raids on police posts in August triggered the army backlash.
Any moves to block the refugees’ return will likely inflame Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik Hasina, who will urge the General Assembly to put more global pressure on Myanmar to take back all the Rohingya massing in shantytowns and camps near the border.
“The United Nations Security Council and concerned countries should impose targeted sanctions and an arms embargo on the Burmese military to end its ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims,” a Human Rights Watch statement said. — AFP