Arakan News Agency
Human Rights Watch said that the Security Council and the countries concerned should impose specific sanctions and arms embargo on the Myanmar army to end its ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims. Since 25th August 2017, Myanmar military forces have burned, killed, looted and destroyed hundreds of villages and forced nearly half a million Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.
To the world leaders gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, made the crisis in Myanmar a priority, condemned the continuing atrocities and impeded the access of humanitarian assistance to those in greatest need. The Security Council should implement a travel ban and freeze assets of those responsible for serious violations quickly and impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Myanmar, including a ban on military cooperation and financial transactions with major military-owned companies.
“The Myanmar security forces are ethnically cleansing against Rohingya and ignoring the condemnation of world leaders,” said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. It is time to impose stricter measures that Myanmar generals can not ignore. “
The Security Council should also request Myanmar to allow humanitarian agencies access to those in need, to allow a United Nations fact-finding mission to investigate violations there and to ensure the safe and voluntary return of displaced persons.
As a first step, the Security Council should hold an open meeting to discuss the Council’s responses. The Council should invite UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to speak about the crisis in Arakan State in western Myanmar, which the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has described as ” Textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. The Council should discuss ways in which those responsible for such serious violations of justice, to the International Criminal Court so they can be brought to justice.
The Governments concerned should not wait for the Security Council to take action to address the human rights crisis and the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. To impose a travel ban, freeze the assets of security officials involved in serious violations, expand the existing arms embargo to cover all sales, cooperation and military assistance, and impose a ban on financial transactions with major Myanmar-owned companies.
The United States Government should place the Myanmar Army High Command, in particular the Army Commander, General Min Aung Hlaing, on the Black list, which prohibit their access to US financial institutions, restrict their travel to the United States and freeze their assets there. The European Union and its member States should expand or impose similar economic sanctions and travel sanctions and expand the current arms embargo imposed by the European Union on Myanmar to include all forms of military assistance. Other relevant governments, such as Japan, Norway, South Korea, Canada and Australia, should take similar measures.
“Myanmar’s top military commanders are likely to respond to the calls of the international community if they suffer economic consequences, which would really hurt those responsible for ethnic cleansing,” Sifton said.
