Arakan News Agency
The UN Security Council said Thursday that the Myanmar government had informed the council that this month was “not the right time” for the visit by a delegation from the council to its territory for a closer look at the Rohingya refugee crisis.
Kuwait’s UN ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi, whose country holds the monthly UN Security Council presidency, said the Myanmar authorities were not opposed to the visit itself, which could take place in March or April.
“All they have is that they think it is not the right time to visit,” he said, adding that those who would take over the presidency in March or April could organize such a visit.
The monthly presidency of the Security Council is transferred in March to the Netherlands and then to Peru in April.
In August, the Myanmar army launched a massive military operation against the Muslim minority of Rohingya in northern Arakan province.
The military operation and the atrocities that accompanied it led to the flight of more than 655,000 Rohingyas to neighboring Bangladesh where they recounted the killings, rapes and burning of houses. The Council has repeatedly asked for the return of the Rohingya to their villages.
The Kuwaiti ambassador said that the Myanmar authorities are trying to organize a visit to diplomats in the country and stressed that “the tension is very high in the current state of Arakan.”
The Myanmar authorities have always denied atrocities, but the United Nations has said the violence amounts to “ethnic cleansing” and may amount to “genocide”
