An international human rights group called on the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on Myanmar’s crackdown on Rohingya Muslims.
According to the UN and rights groups, over the past two weeks, military operations have forced 164,000 Rohingya villagers to flee across the border to neighbouring Bangladesh from Rakhine state.
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that it has interviewed 50 Rohingya refugees recently arrived in Bangladesh who described killings, shelling and arson in their villages, which have all the hallmarks of a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
“Rohingya refugees have harrowing accounts of fleeing Burmese army attacks and watching their villages be destroyed,” Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at HRW, said. “Lawful operations against armed groups do not involve burning the local population out of their homes.”
The group said its initial findings of the situation in the Maungdaw area of Rakhine were indicative of an ethnic cleansing campaign. It called on the UN Security Council to hold a public emergency meeting and warn Myanmar’s government that it would face severe sanctions unless the campaign against the Rohingya is halted.
“The United Nations and concerned governments need to press Burma right now to end these horrific abuses against the Rohingya as a first step toward restoring Rohingya to their homes,” Ganguly said.
