UN impartial experts investigating the situation in Myanmar have urged the international community that “much needs to be done” to protect the Rohingya population in Rakhine.
According to the report of Arab News, Tom Andrews, the UN special representative on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, warned that “if this is not done, there may be more incidents like the year 2017.”
Six years ago, thousands of people were killed during a military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, while more than a million eventually fled the country to neighboring countries.
Tom Andrews warned that the forces that carried out the “genocide” now control the entire country and “their priority is not to protect the human rights of Rohingya Muslims”.
Rohingya Muslims have faced violence and ethnic hatred for decades, but it took a turn for the worst when Myanmar’s army launched a brutal operation in Rakhine state in August 2017.
According to Amnesty International, this wave of violence resulted in serious crimes in violation of international law.
Myanmar’s army burned down entire villages during the operation, forcing 700,000 Rohingya people, including women and children, to flee to Bangladesh.
Around one million Rohingyas currently live in overcrowded refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.
Representative Tom Andrews, who recently returned from a fact-finding visit to the United Nations in New York to present a report on the situation in the South Asian country, told Arab News that more than 600,000 Rohingyas were still living in Rakhine state. Of which 130,000 are kept in temporary detention camps.