UN condemns Myanmar for human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims

The United Nations General Assembly has approved a resolution condemning human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar.

The 193-member world body voted 134-9 with 28 abstentions in favour of the resolution, which called on the country’s government to take urgent measures to combat incitement of hatred against the Rohingya.

More than 740,000 Rohingya have fled across the border to Bangladesh since a brutal crackdown began in 2017.

During the military campaign, the security forces have been accused of committing mass rapes and killings, as well as burning down thousands of homes.

The UN resolution expressed alarm at the continuing influx of Rohingya to Bangladesh “in the aftermath of atrocities committed by the security and armed forces of Myanmar”.

It also expressed alarm at an independent international fact-finding mission’s findings “of gross human rights violations and abuses suffered by Rohingya Muslims and other minorities” by the security forces, which the mission said “undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law”.

The resolution, which is not legally binding, called for an immediate cessation of fighting and hostilities.

It reiterated “deep distress at reports that unarmed individuals in Rakhine state have been and continue to be subjected to the excessive use of forces and violations of international human rights law, international humanitarian law by the military and security and armed forces”.

And it called for Myanmar’s forces to protect all people, and for urgent steps to ensure justice for all rights violations

The resolution also urged the government “to expedite efforts to eliminate statelessness and the systematic and institutionalised discrimination” against the Rohingya and other minorities, to dismantle camps for Rohingyas and others displaced in Rakhine, and “to create the conditions necessary for the safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable return of all refugees, including Rohingya Muslim refugees.”

It noted the Rohingya have twice refused to return to Myanmar from Bangladesh because of the absence of these conditions.

Myanmar’s UN ambassador, Hau Do Suan called the resolution “another classic example of double-standards [and] selective and discriminatory application of human rights norms” designed “to exert unwanted political pressure on Myanmar”.

He said the resolution did not attempt to find a solution to the complex situation in Rakhine state and refused to recognise government efforts to address the challenges.

The resolution, the ambassador said, “will sow seeds of distrust and will create further polarisation of different communities in the region”.

It comes after Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, defended the country’s military during an appearance at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The Nobel peace prize laureate denied allegations the army had executed civilians and said the situation in Rakhine state was “complicated and not easy to fathom”.

She conceded disproportionate force may have been used and civilians killed, but said the acts did not constitute genocide.

Additional reporting by Associated Press