SUU KYI TO SKIP UN ASSEMBLY
RIGHTS GROUP URGES UN SECURITY COUNCIL TO IMPOSE ARMS EMBARGO ON MYANMAR
Myanmar’s national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, facing outrage over violence that has forced about 400,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh, cancelled a trip to the upcoming UN General Assembly because of the crisis, her office said on Wednesday. The exodus of refugees, sparked by the security forces’ fierce response to a series of Rohingya militant attacks, is the most pressing problem Suu Kyi has faced since becoming leader last year.
Critics have called for her to be stripped of her Nobel peace prize for failing to do more to halt the strife which the UN rights agency said was a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.
Suu Kyi, in her first address to the UN General Assembly as leader in September last year, defended her government’s efforts to resolve the crisis over treatment of the Muslim minority.
This year, she cancelled her trip to New York because of the security threats posed by the insurgents and the need to restore stability, Zaw Htay, spokesman for Suu Kyi’s office, told a media briefing. “She is concentrating on establishing stability,” the spokesman said, adding that preventing any spread of communal violence was a priority and Suu Kyi would address the nation on reconciliation and peace next Tuesday.
International pressure has been growing on Buddhist-majority Myanmar to end the violence in the western state of Rakhine that began on August 25 when Rohingya militants attacked 30 police posts and an army camp. The raids triggered a sweeping military counter-offensive against the insurgents, whom the government labels terrorists. Refugees say the offensive is aimed at pushing Rohingya out of Myanmar.
Numerous Rohingya villages in the north of Rakhine state have been torched but authorities have denied that security forces or Buddhist civilians have been setting the fires. Instead, they blame the insurgents. In the latest violence reported by the government, the insurgents attacked and burned three police posts in the north of Rakhine on Tuesday. There were no reports of casualties. The Trump administration has called for protection of civilians, and Bangladesh says all the refugees will have to go home and has called for safe zones in Myanmar. Zaw Htay said safe zones were not acceptable. While the US and other Western powers — as well as the Muslim world — have criticised the military campaign, Beijing on Tuesday offered Myanmar support — saying the country was entitled to “safeguard” its stability China, which competes with the United States for influence in Asia, said on Tuesday it backed Myanmar’s efforts to safeguard “development and stability”.
Human Rights Watch’s Phil Robertson urged the Security Council to pass a “global arms embargo” on Myanmar’s military but said he expected China to to water down any moves.
The UN Security Council was to meet on Wednesday behind closed doors for the second time since the crisis erupted. British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said he hoped there would be a public statement agreed by the council.
Zaw Htay said the government had information about plots to launch attacks, although he did not elaborate, except to say security was being tightened in cities.
Those fears will be compounded by an Al Qaeda call to arms in support of the Rohingya.
“The savage treatment meted out to our Muslim brothers... shall not pass without punishment,” Al Qaeda said in a statement, the SITE monitoring group said.
Bangladesh was already home to about 400,000 Rohingya who fled earlier conflict and many of the new refugees, hungry and sick, are without shelter or clean water.
Bangladeshi officer Lieutenant Colonel Ariful Islam said numbers were falling off sharply in his area. — Reuters, AFP
George William Okoth-Obbo Assistant high commissioner for operations at the UN refugee agency We have an emergency within an emergency with conditions in existing camps... there were only 100,000 people then (two weeks ago). We are already four times that figure now. the funds need clearly is going to continue.