Britain has circulated a draft UN resolution that would condemn violence that has sent more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing from Myanmar to Bangladesh and would call on the Burmese government to immediately halt military operations in Rakhine State.
If adopted by the UN Security Council, the resolution would be the first in many years on Myanmar.
The draft, which was sent to members of the Security Council and obtained on Wednesday by reporters, also condemns the attacks by Rohingya rebels on Aug. 25 that sparked the violence.
However, its focus is on the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh, which has been praised for its humanitarian response.
The proposed resolution expresses grave concern at accounts that Myanmar security forces and vigilantes have used disproportionate force, systematic destruction of property and sexual violence against the Rohingya community in Rakhine.
The Rohingya face official and social discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
The government does not recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic group, instead insisting they are Bengali migrants from Bangladesh living illegally in the country, and it has denied them citizenship.
The latest violence began with a series of attacks on Aug. 25 by Rohingya insurgents.
Burmese security forces responded with a scorched-earth campaign against Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine that the UN and human rights groups have criticized as disproportionate and a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
The draft resolution calls on the Burmese government to address the root causes of the crisis by respecting human rights, “without discrimination and regardless of ethnicity or religious affiliation, including by allowing freedom of movement, equal access to basic services and equal access to full citizenship for individuals belonging to the Rohingya community.”
The UN’s independent investigator on human rights in Myanmar, Lee Yang-hee, on Wednesday afternoon told the UN General Assembly’s human rights committee that while Myanmar’s military controls national security and law and order, “there is much that can be done by the civilian government,” which is led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
This should start with “public messaging that embraces the entire makeup of the Myanmar population,” Lee said.
The government should use its majority in parliament to strike down laws that discriminate “to show that all groups in Myanmar have equal rights,” she said.
The draft resolution welcomes Myanmar’s “public commitment that it will accept the return of all displaced people and refugees” and calls on its government to work with Bangladesh and the UN to “expedite” the voluntary and safe return of all refugees to their homes in Myanmar.
However, Lee said she is concerned that “only a fraction” of the refugees in Bangladesh will be allowed back.
“The Rohingya population in Cox’s Bazar — who have had their food supply blocked and been starving, been shot at while fleeing, walked for weeks to reach safety, lost family members on the way to refuge and are now living in plastic sheets — should not be made to meet with stringent requirements if they so wish to return to Myanmar,” she said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese