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UN chief calls for ‘unfettered humanitarian access’ in Myanmar's Rakhine hit by crackdown

Monday, 26 February 2018 3:03 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 26 February 2018 6:18 PM ]

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres addresses the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on February 26, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

The United Nations has called on Myanmar authorities to “ensure unfettered humanitarian access” in Rakhine state, where state-sponsored violence has forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres made the plea during a speech to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.

“The Rohingya community desperately needs immediate, life-saving assistance, long-term solutions and justice,” Guterres said.

The UN chief further noted that he had written an official letter to the Security Council about the plight of the persecuted Muslim minority group and the “ethnic cleansing” taking place in Rakhine.

Human Rights Watch said last week that it had analyzed satellite imagery showing Myanmar had razed to the ground at least 55 Rohingya villages in Rakhine over the past months.

PressTV-Myanmar bulldozes at least 55 Rohingya villages: Groups

New satellite imagery shows that the government of Myanmar is bulldozing Rohingya Muslim villages in the west of the country to destroy evidence of violence committed by the military, rights groups say.

The New York-based rights group said the demolitions could have erased evidence of atrocities perpetrated by Myanmar’s security forces against the persecuted minority.

Myanmar’s military forces stand accused not just of torching and destroying Muslim villages, but of carrying out massacres, rapes and widespread looting.

Backed by the government, Myanmar's military and Buddhist extremists launched a heavy-handed crackdown against the Muslim minority in Rakhine in late 2016. That campaign intensified in August 2017.

The crackdown has forced nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh, where they face repatriation.

Rohingya Muslim refugees wait for food at Thankhali refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Ukhia district, on January 12, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an agreement in November last year to repatriate all Rohingya Muslims who have crossed the border to escape the brutal military crackdown.

The repatriation was set to start last month, but was delayed by a lack of preparation, as well as protests staged by Rohingya refugees against the plan to send them back to Myanmar while conditions were not safe for their return.

The Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for generations but are denied citizenship and are branded illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, which likewise denies them citizenship.

The UN has described the 1.1-million-strong Muslim community as the most persecuted minority in the world.

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