The United Nations has warned of the repercussions of the Myanmar authorities making demographic changes in the Rakhine region (Arakan-West), to prevent the return of the displaced Rohingya Muslims, and renewed its condemnation of all violations of the rights of minorities in the Asian country.
This came in a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in a special session, entitled “Human Rights of Rohingya Muslims and Other Minorities in Myanmar”.
The resolution was submitted by 37 countries, including the United States of America, Britain and France, in addition to the 57 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (57 countries).
Since August 25, 2017, the Myanmar army and Buddhist militias have launched a military campaign and brutal massacres against the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine, which resulted in the killing of thousands of Rohingya and the asylum of nearly one million of them to Bangladesh, according to the United Nations.
In the resolution, the United Nations General Assembly renewed its condemnation of “all violations and abuses of human rights, including against the Rohingya Muslims and other minorities.”
It expressed “grave concern over reports that defenseless people in Rakhine have been subjected to excessive use of force and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by the military and security forces.”
Among these violations, it mentioned “extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, killings, systematic rape and other forms of sexual violence, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and government seizure of Rohingya Muslim lands and destruction of their homes.”
The Myanmar government considers the Rohingya to be “irregular immigrants” from Bangladesh, while the United Nations classifies them as “the most persecuted minority in the world”.
