Special Correspondent :
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday held a closed-door meeting on the military crackdown on Rohingyas in the Rakhine State of Myanmar.
Council members discussed the violence in Myanmar and called all the parties to maintain peace in the country’s trouble torn Rakhine State, the home to over one million Muslim Rohingyas, report agencies.
There was no formal statement from the 15-member council following the closed-door meeting but British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said there were calls from council members for de-escalation.
“We all condemned the violence, we all called on all the parties to de-escalate,” Rycroft told reporters.
The latest crackdown by the Myanmar security forces in the state has forced 18,500 Rohingya to flee across the border into Bangladesh.
Bangladesh coast guards found the bodies of 20 Rohingya people who drowned in the Naf river on Wednesday. They fled Myanmar escalating violence in Rakhine state that erupted after Rohingya rebels attacked 30 police stations last Friday, triggering a military response.
More than 100 people, mostly insurgents, have been killed and more than 27,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled.
Myanmar’s military has been carrying out sweeps for militants, with residents reporting that security forces were torching villages.
Britain requested the meeting on Myanmar, but diplomats said China was resisting stronger involvement by the UN council in addressing the crisis.
It remained unclear whether further action was planned, but the issue is expected to be discussed during the annual gathering of world leaders at the General Assembly in September.
Rycroft said the council still supports Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel prize laureate and democracy icon who now leads the government in Yangon.
“A lot of us are hugely supportive allies of hers who have followed her progress with admiration from afar,” he said.
“We look to her to set the right tone and to find the compromises and the de-escalation necessary in order to resolve the conflict for the good of all the people in Burma.”
Rycroft pointed to recommendations put forward by former UN chief Kofi Annan calling for an end to restrictions on citizenship and movement imposed on the Rohingyas as a way out of the violence.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday held a closed-door meeting on the military crackdown on Rohingyas in the Rakhine State of Myanmar.
Council members discussed the violence in Myanmar and called all the parties to maintain peace in the country’s trouble torn Rakhine State, the home to over one million Muslim Rohingyas, report agencies.
There was no formal statement from the 15-member council following the closed-door meeting but British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said there were calls from council members for de-escalation.
“We all condemned the violence, we all called on all the parties to de-escalate,” Rycroft told reporters.
The latest crackdown by the Myanmar security forces in the state has forced 18,500 Rohingya to flee across the border into Bangladesh.
Bangladesh coast guards found the bodies of 20 Rohingya people who drowned in the Naf river on Wednesday. They fled Myanmar escalating violence in Rakhine state that erupted after Rohingya rebels attacked 30 police stations last Friday, triggering a military response.
More than 100 people, mostly insurgents, have been killed and more than 27,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled.
Myanmar’s military has been carrying out sweeps for militants, with residents reporting that security forces were torching villages.
Britain requested the meeting on Myanmar, but diplomats said China was resisting stronger involvement by the UN council in addressing the crisis.
It remained unclear whether further action was planned, but the issue is expected to be discussed during the annual gathering of world leaders at the General Assembly in September.
Rycroft said the council still supports Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel prize laureate and democracy icon who now leads the government in Yangon.
“A lot of us are hugely supportive allies of hers who have followed her progress with admiration from afar,” he said.
“We look to her to set the right tone and to find the compromises and the de-escalation necessary in order to resolve the conflict for the good of all the people in Burma.”
Rycroft pointed to recommendations put forward by former UN chief Kofi Annan calling for an end to restrictions on citizenship and movement imposed on the Rohingyas as a way out of the violence.
