Guterres urges UNSC to end ‘horrendous sufferings’ of Rohingyas

M Humayun Kabir: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the Security Council to work with Myanmar to end “horrendous sufferings” of Rohingyas.
Despite the efforts made by the United Nations over the past year to help create safeguards for all communities in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, it is clear that conditions are still not suitable for the safe, voluntary, and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees to their home, he said on Tuesday, reports The Daily Star.
Antonio Guterres said effective international cooperation will be “critical to ensuring that accountability mechanisms are credible, transparent, impartial, independent and comply with Myanmar’s obligations under international law.”
The UN chief was briefing the Security Council on the situation in Myanmar, where 12 months ago a military operation in northern Rakhine state sparked an exodus of desperate Rohingya refugees that quickly became one of the world’s worst humanitarian and human rights crises.
Guterres’ remarks also follow the release of an independent UN investigation into human rights abuses carried out against the mainly Muslim Rohingya and which called for the country’s military leaders to be investigated and prosecuted for genocide and war crimes.
Cate Blanchett, the Academy Award winning actor and Goodwill Ambassador for the Office of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), and Tegegnework Gettu, Associate Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) also addressed the briefing, which was chaired by Lord Ahmad, Minister of State for the Commonwealth and the UN for the United Kingdom, which currently holds the presidency of the Security Council.
According to the UN Over 700,000 Rohingyas fled Myanmar to ramshackle refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district after being forced from their homes by a military operation which UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein compared, at the time, to ethnic cleansing.
Recounting his experience of visiting the camps this past July, Guterres said he had heard stories of horrendous persecution and sufferings.
Despite the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by the Myanmar authorities and UN agencies in June, Guterres said the country’s leaders have not made the investment in reconstruction, reconciliation and respect for human rights necessary for all communities to live improved and resilient lives in Rakhine State.
The UNDP, UNHCR and other UN agencies have been implementing the MoU, and working in Rakhine to put a wide-ranging development and humanitarian assistance initiative in place with support from major donors.