‘Shock’ at Myanmar rapes

AMBASSADORS: ROHINGYA REFUGEES TELL HARROWING TALES

We are not looking away from this crisis, we are not closing our eyes, diplomat promises.

Hundreds of Rohingya staged a demonstration yesterday as UN Security Council envoys visited refugee camps in Bangladesh where about 700 000 people who have fled Myanmar in the past year have sought sanctuary.

Some of the Muslim refugees broke down in tears as they told the ambassadors harrowing stories of murder and rape in Myanmar. The demonstrators waved placards demanding justice for atrocities against the refugees until they were dispersed by police.

Senior diplomats from the 15-member Security Council – including permanent members the US, Russia, China, Britain and France – are on a four-day visit to the camps. They will also meet civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar.

Myanmar has faced intense international pressure over the military clampdown against the Rohingyans launched last August that the United Nations has called “ethnic cleansing”.

The Security Council has called for the safe return of the Rohingyans and an end to the discrimination against them.

But deputy Russian ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy, whose country has supported Myanmar, warned that the council did not have a “magic stick” to resolve what is now one of the world’s worst refugee crises.

“We are not looking away from this crisis, we are not closing our eyes,” the Russian diplomat said.

Britain’s UN ambassador Karen Pierce said the Rohingyans “must be allowed to go home in conditions of safety”.

The council members were “shocked” by the accounts of rapes, murders and torture endured by the Rohingyans in Rakhine.

Myanmar has said the military operation in Rakhine was to root out extremists and has rejected nearly all allegations that its security forces committed atrocities.

Kuwait’s Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi said the visit was not about “naming and shaming” Myanmar, but that “the message will be very clear: the international community has great interest in resolving the situation”. –