Press TV
The United Nations has called on Myanmar authorities to
“ensure unfettered humanitarian access” in Rakhine state, where state-sponsored
violence has forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee to
neighboring Bangladesh.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres made the plea
during a speech to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.
“The Rohingya community desperately needs immediate,
life-saving assistance, long-term solutions and justice,” Guterres said.
The UN chief further noted that he had written an
official letter to the Security Council about the plight of the persecuted
Muslim minority group and the “ethnic cleansing” taking place in Rakhine.
Human Rights Watch said last week that it had analyzed
satellite imagery showing Myanmar had razed to the ground at least 55 Rohingya
villages in Rakhine over the past months.
Myanmar bulldozing Rohingya villages to
destroy its ‘crime scenes’
The New York-based rights group said the demolitions
could have erased evidence of atrocities perpetrated by Myanmar’s security
forces against the persecuted minority.
Myanmar’s military forces stand accused not just of
torching and destroying Muslim villages, but of carrying out massacres, rapes
and widespread looting.
Backed by the government, Myanmar's military and Buddhist
extremists launched a heavy-handed crackdown against the Muslim minority in
Rakhine in late 2016. That campaign intensified in August 2017.
The crackdown has forced nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims
to flee to Bangladesh, where they face repatriation.
Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an agreement in November
last year to repatriate all Rohingya Muslims who have crossed the border to
escape the brutal military crackdown.
The repatriation was set to start last month, but was
delayed by a lack of preparation, as well as protests staged by Rohingya
refugees against the plan to send them back to Myanmar while conditions were
not safe for their return.
The Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for generations but
are denied citizenship and are branded illegal immigrants from Bangladesh,
which likewise denies them citizenship.
The UN has described the 1.1-million-strong Muslim
community as the most persecuted minority in the world.