By IANS, United Nations
October 14, 2017
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has asked the deadlocked Security Council to push the Myanmar government to allow the Rohingya refugees sheltered in Bangladesh to return home in safety and with dignity.
Speaking to
reporters after he had briefed the Security Council on Friday, Annan said that
the returning refugees should not be sent to camps in Myanmar, but to their
homes.
Annan had headed a
Commission on Rakhine State, the home to Rohingyas, to help Yangon find a
solution.
He said that he
wanted a Council resolution that “urges the government to really press ahead
and create conditions that would allow the refugees to return with dignity and
with a sense of security”.
France and Britain
are for strong action against the Myanmar government, but have not been able to
come up with even a resolution because of the opposition from China and Russia,
which have veto powers.
The current crisis
erupted late August when Annan submitted his report to the Myanmar government
and almost simultaneously a terrorist organisation, Arakan Rohingya Salvation
Army (ARSA), attacked several security posts.
The counter attacks
by the military on the Rohingyas sent waves of them fleeing to Bangladesh.
Annan said that the
attacks have stopped but there was still fear among the refugees making them
hesitant to return home.
His Commission had
recommended that Rohingyas, who are Muslims and had been denied citizenship,
should be made citizens, have their civic rights protected, and given freedom
of movement, and economic and educational opportunities.
“We have to tackle
the root causes and the report deals with that,” Annan said.
His plan was the
only one for solving the long-festering problem of Rohingya rights and there
was no “Plan B,” he added.
Annan also noted
that Myanmar was undergoing a transformation after more than 50 decades of
military rule adding to the complexity of the situation there.
“The international
community is now beginning to put pressure on the military,” he said.
France’s Permanent
Representative Francois Delattre, who now holds the rotating presidency of the
Security Council, earlier told reporters that what was happening in Myanmar was
“ethnic cleansing” that has created more than 520,000 refugees and has to be
denounced.
Britain has
responsibility in the Security Council for matters relating to Myanmar, and its
Permanent Representative Matthew Rycroft said that its members agreed that
military action against the Rohingya must end immediately and conditions
created for their return.
While the present
crisis began with the ARSA attacks, he said that the military’s response was
disproportionate.
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