UN human rights envoy Yanghee Lee yesterday visiting Rohingya refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh, where thousands have taken shelter after fleeing a military crackdown in Myanmar.
Almost 73,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since the military unleashed a four-month campaign of violence against the stateless Muslim minority that the United Nations says may amount to crimes against humanity.
The refugees, most of whom are now living in squalid camps in the Cox’s Bazar district which borders Myanmar’s Rakhine state, have brought harrowing accounts of systematic rape, killings and torture at the hands of the military.
Lee, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the issue, was in the coastal district yesterday after holding talks with government ministers in Dhaka about the crisis.
There was no immediate comment from the UN, but the Bangladesh foreign ministry said Dhaka had expressed concern over the presence of the Rohingya in the country.
“She (Lee) is now visiting the camps to talk to the refugees,” Bangladesh foreign ministry spokeswoman Khaleda Begum said.
Myanmar says its army has now halted its operations in Rakhine, which were aimed at finding militants who attacked police border posts.
On Monday, Bangladesh’s foreign minister called on the international community to address Myanmar’s treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority, tens of thousands of whom have fled in recent months to Bangladesh from its mainly Buddhist neighbour.
Speaking at a meeting with Yanghee Lee, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, A H Mahmood Ali said a peaceful resolution must be found, a foreign ministry statement said.
Ali also described efforts by Dhaka to engage with Myanmar bilaterally by establishing border liaison offices and talks on security cooperation, the
statement said.
The foreign minister said the influx of Rohingya was having an adverse impact on the local population and undermining security.
In a separate meeting, Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende, in Dhaka on a two-day visit, urged the international community to put more pressure on Myanmar to stop maltreatment of the
Rohingya.
“The Buddhist majority country has to treat minorities with dignity and inclusiveness,” Brende said.
Rohingya have faced discrimination in Myanmar for generations. They are not classified as a distinct group under Myanmar’s citizenship laws and are regarded instead as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, entitled only to limited rights.
The authorities in Dhaka meanwhile say they are Myanmar nationals and must
ultimately go back.
The UN human rights office said in a report this month that Myanmar’s security forces had committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned their villages.
UN officials working with refugees in Bangladesh have said the death toll from the security sweep could be more than 1,000.
Myanmar has denied almost all allegations of human rights abuses and says a lawful counterinsurgency campaign has been underway since the October attacks on the security posts.
The violence has dismayed and outraged some of Myanmar’s neighbours, with mostly Muslim Malaysia being particularly
vociferous in its criticism.
About 1.1mn Rohingya live in northwestern Myanmar.
Bangladesh is seeking funds for a plan to relocate refugees from Myanmar to an isolated and undeveloped island in the Bay of Bengal called Thengar Char.
The plan was criticised by humanitarian workers when it was first proposed in 2015, not least because Thengar Char
often floods in the monsoon.
Following her visit to Bangladesh, Special Rapporteur Lee will share her findings in a report to the UN Human Rights Council which will be available online on March 13, the foreign ministry statement said.
BANGLADESH
