Special Correspondent :
The UN Security Council (UNSC) members will visit Myanmar and Bangladesh in the last week of this month to see the situation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled a military crackdown in Myanmar and now living in refugee camps here.
Diplomatic sources in Dhaka said a 15-member delegation of the UN Security Council will visit the trouble torn Rakhine State and Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh from April 26 to May 2.
Nearly 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh since late August last year after the army launched a brutal crackdown following a militant attack on border posts and an army base.
Survivors of the violence have given harrowing accounts of Myanmar security forces killing and raping while looting and burning Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine state.
The UN has called it a textbook example of ethnic cleansing, which the Myanmar military denies.
Access to Rakhine state for the UN observers, diplomats, aid workers and journalists has been denied since August.
“Myanmar has already given the UN Security Council permission to visit the country, including conflict-torn Rakhine state,
the region from which almost half a million Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh in recent months,” a diplomat in Dhaka told The New Nation on Friday.
He said Myanmar authorities let the permission to the UN delegation to visit the country recently after blocking its request for months.
“We appropriate the Security Council members move to undertake the visit. This will reaffirm their support to the hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced persons who are living in inhuman condition in the squalid camps in Cox’s Bazar with uncertain future.”
The diplomat said the visit of the Council members to the situation themselves would be useful to assess the gravity of the humanitarian crisis. The trip will help it to consider decisive action with regard to demanding accountability of the Myanmar authorities for their systemic persecution on Rohingyas. It will also pave the way to restoring peace and stability in Rakhine and safe, dignified and voluntary return of Rohingyas to Myanmar.
Bangladesh and Myanmar have already signed an agreement to send the Rohingyas back to the Rakhine state. But the repatriation is yet to take place.
When asked, the diplomat said, “Delegates from permanent member states of the Security Council would join the trip. We’re working out on the visit with UN officials in Bangladesh.
The UN office in Dhaka, however, has not made official announcement about the visit yet.
Members of the Security Council often undertake visits to conflict-prone areas of the world. A delegation of ambassadors from members of the Security Council recently visited Kabul.
The UN Security Council (UNSC) members will visit Myanmar and Bangladesh in the last week of this month to see the situation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled a military crackdown in Myanmar and now living in refugee camps here.
Diplomatic sources in Dhaka said a 15-member delegation of the UN Security Council will visit the trouble torn Rakhine State and Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh from April 26 to May 2.
Nearly 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh since late August last year after the army launched a brutal crackdown following a militant attack on border posts and an army base.
Survivors of the violence have given harrowing accounts of Myanmar security forces killing and raping while looting and burning Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine state.
The UN has called it a textbook example of ethnic cleansing, which the Myanmar military denies.
Access to Rakhine state for the UN observers, diplomats, aid workers and journalists has been denied since August.
“Myanmar has already given the UN Security Council permission to visit the country, including conflict-torn Rakhine state,
the region from which almost half a million Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh in recent months,” a diplomat in Dhaka told The New Nation on Friday.
He said Myanmar authorities let the permission to the UN delegation to visit the country recently after blocking its request for months.
“We appropriate the Security Council members move to undertake the visit. This will reaffirm their support to the hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced persons who are living in inhuman condition in the squalid camps in Cox’s Bazar with uncertain future.”
The diplomat said the visit of the Council members to the situation themselves would be useful to assess the gravity of the humanitarian crisis. The trip will help it to consider decisive action with regard to demanding accountability of the Myanmar authorities for their systemic persecution on Rohingyas. It will also pave the way to restoring peace and stability in Rakhine and safe, dignified and voluntary return of Rohingyas to Myanmar.
Bangladesh and Myanmar have already signed an agreement to send the Rohingyas back to the Rakhine state. But the repatriation is yet to take place.
When asked, the diplomat said, “Delegates from permanent member states of the Security Council would join the trip. We’re working out on the visit with UN officials in Bangladesh.
The UN office in Dhaka, however, has not made official announcement about the visit yet.
Members of the Security Council often undertake visits to conflict-prone areas of the world. A delegation of ambassadors from members of the Security Council recently visited Kabul.
