UN: Massive need for help
“widespread and systematic” way.
Hassan also took issue with claims by Burma’s Government that the Rohingya themselves were setting ablaze their homes.
“The Government’s attempts to shift the blame to the Rohingya population are blatant lies,” she said. “Our investigation makes it crystal clear that its own security forces, along with vigilante mobs, are responsible for burning Rohingya homes.”
Burmese authorities have curtailed access for journalists and human rights experts to Rakhine in recent months, and Amnesty acknowledged that the breadth of the damage cannot be verified on site. It said the full extent of destruction “is likely to be much higher” than the evidence compiled because cloud cover sometimes blocked the satellite views.
The UN- backed, 47- country Human Rights Council in Geneva is expected to take up a discussion on Burma on Monday. The United Nations has appealed for massive help for nearly 400,000 Muslims from Burma who have fled to Bangladesh, with concern growing that the number could keep rising, unless Burma ends what critics denounce as “ethnic cleansing”.
“We urge the international community to step up humanitarian support and come up with help,” Mohammed Abdiker, director of operations and emergencies for the International Organisation for Migration, told a news conference in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. The need was “massive”, he added.
The violence in Rakhine and the exodus of refugees is the most pressing problem Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has faced since becoming national leader last year.
UN Secretary- General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council on Thursday urged Burma to end the violence, which he said was best described as ethnic cleansing.
The Government of Buddhistmajority Myanmar rejects such accusations, saying it is targeting “terrorists”.
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