60 dead as Rohingya refugees shipwrecked
MORE than 60 people are either confirmed dead or presumed dead following the shipwreck of a boat carrying Rohingya Muslims fleeing from violence in Burma to Bangladesh, the UN migration agency said.
The figure came as the UN Security Council had its first open meeting on Burma for eight years amid clear divisions among its members.
Spokesman Joel Millman, of the International Organisation for Migration, told reporters in Geneva that 23 deaths have been confirmed after eight more bodies were found overnight following an initial count of 15. Many of the dead are children. Based on interviews that IOM has conducted with survivors, Mr Millman said: “We believe 40 are missing and presumed drowned” on the vessel, which was thought to have been carrying about 80 people.
He said he did not have information violence and a strong response.
A global coalition of 88 civil society and human rights organisations urged the Security Council to step up pressure on Burma’s authorities “by seriously considering options such as an arms embargo against the military and targeted financial sanctions against individuals responsible or crimes and serious abuses”.
China and Russia supported the Burmese government’s approach to tackling the crisis.
China’s deputy UN ambassador, Wu Haitao, whose country has close ties to Burma, urged the international community “to view the difficulties and challenges confronting the government of Burma through objective optics, exercise patience, and provide support and help”.
Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, warned “excessive pressure” on Burma’s government “could only aggravate the situation in the country and around it”.