Arakan News Agency
Adama Dieng, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the Prevention of Genocide, called for urgent action to prevent tragedies similar to those in Rwanda in 1994, in particular the right of Rohingya in Myanmar.
Last month, Adama Dieng said that crimes amounting to genocide were committed against the Rohingya minority, And that these crimes “bore the hallmarks of the Government of Myanmar”.
The Secretary-General’s adviser said it was not possible to allow people to be killed because of their background and religion, expressing the hope that the UN Security Council would put more pressure on the authorities in Myanmar and affirm that impunity was no longer allowed.
Dieng‘s remarks coincide with warnings by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that the country’s Cox-Bazar region could be hit by landslides and floods, threatening tens of thousands of Rohingyas in camps in the region.
Drowning of refugees
Five Rohingya refugees were killed on Friday while sailing off the coast of Indonesia, and a fishing boat rescued five others. Days earlier, Malaysia intercepted a boat off Langkawi island carrying 56 Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar.
Tens of thousands of Rohingya fled Myanmar by sea after violence broke out in the northern state of Arakan in 2012, peaking in 2015 when about 25,000 fled across the Andaman Sea to Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, many of them sunk in unsafe boats.
Last year, the United Nations and other human rights groups reported that some 700,000 Rohingyas had fled Arakan to Bangladesh after attacks by Muslim minority militants in August 2017 led to a campaign by the Myanmar army that the United Nations and Western countries saw as reaching the limit of ethnic cleansing.
Myanmar, which has a Buddhist majority, rejects the accusation and says its forces are carrying out a legitimate campaign against “terrorists” who have attacked government forces. MSF says it has killed at least 9,000 Rohingyas as a result of the Myanmar military campaign.
