UNITED NATIONS (AP)
- The U.N. Security Council urged Myanmar's government on Monday to step up
efforts to create conditions that will allow Rohingya Muslims who fled a
violent crackdown to safely return to the country from neighboring Bangladesh.
The council stressed
in a statement following closed briefings that progress is also needed by
Myanmar on implementing agreements on relations with the U.N. refugee and
development agencies and with Bangladesh on returning Rohingya.
Rohingya face
official and social discrimination in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, which
denies most of them citizenship and basic rights because they are looked on as
immigrants from Bangladesh, even though the families of many settled in Myanmar
generations ago. Dire conditions led more than 200,000 to flee the country
between 2012 and 2015.
The latest crisis
began with attacks by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar security personnel last
August. The military responded with counterinsurgency sweeps and was accused of
widespread human rights violations, including rape, murder, torture and the
burning of Rohingya homes. Thousands are believed to have died and about
700,000 fled to Bangladesh. The U.N. and U.S. officials have called the
government's military campaign ethnic cleansing.
Security Council
members again stressed "the importance of undertaking transparent and
independent investigations in allegations of human rights abuses and
violations."
The new U.N. special
envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, said Myanmar's leaders want to
bring Rohingya back to Rakhine state, but there are not only divisions between
the government and Rohingya, but divisions between that Muslim minority and the
rest of Rakhine's mostly Buddhist population.
The council
"stressed the need to step up efforts, including through providing
assistance to the social and economic development, in order to create
conditions conducive to the safe, voluntary and dignified return of Rohingya
refugees and internally displaced persons to their homes in Rakhine
state."
Burgener, who
started the job two months ago, said she has traveled widely, met government
officials including State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi three times and has gotten
approval to open a small office in Myanmar's capital, Naypyitaw. She said she
plans to return to Myanmar in September.
Also
read: UN Security Council urges Myanmar to ease Rohingyas' safe return https://lnkd.in/gUr22rA
"I need
dialogue, and for that I need open doors," she said, including to discuss
"critical questions" and advises the government on "how they can
also change the attitude of the communities on the ground."
Several Security
Council members have called for the U.N.'s most powerful body to impose
sanctions to pressure the government on the Rohingya issue, but China, a close
ally of Myanmar and a veto-wielding council member is highly unlikely to ever
agree.
Burgener told
reporters, "I think Myanmar is not a country which is reacting quite on
pressure, but it's up to the Security Council."
Sweden's U.N.
ambassador, Olof Skoog, the current council president, stressed the importance
of council unity, though he said his country thinks progress has been "far
too slow."
"I think there
is recognition among Security Council members that there have been positive
steps taken lately. It's also fair to say that many of those steps are far from
sufficient," Skoog said. "As long as the council is unified in terms
of engagement, but also on putting pressure, I think we are making progress slowly."