Arakan News Agency
Myanmar Prime Minister Aung San Suu Kyi’s office announced last Wednesday that it would not attend a UN General Assembly session due to the Muslim Rohingya crisis.
Suu Kyi is outraged by ethnic violence in her country, which forced some 400,000 Rohingya minorities to flee to Bangladesh.
The mass exodus, which began in the wake of a fierce security crackdown by security forces in Myanmar after a series of attacks by resistance from the Rohingya, is the biggest crisis that Suu Kyi has faced since taking over leadership of Myanmar last year.
In her first address to the UN General Assembly after taking office in September last year, Suu Kyi defended her government’s efforts to resolve the crisis of dealing with its Muslim minority.
This year, her office said it would not attend because of the security threats posed by the rebels and its efforts to restore security and peace.
But human rights organizations have condemned the UN Security Council not holding a public meeting. Diplomats said China and Russia would most likely object to such a move and would protect Myanmar if any pressure was exerted by the council to take action in an effort to end the crisis.
There are no signs of a decline in mass immigration to Bangladesh, with the number of Rohingya refugees has reached to 400,000, according to the latest UN estimates,
Many refugees suffer hunger and disease while living in the open without clean water in the middle of the rainy season.
The United Nations said 200,000 children needed urgent humanitarian support.
