Arakan News Agency
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled violence in Myanmar to face misery in Bangladesh. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of a “horrible” tragedy if Myanmar’s leader Suu Kyi fails to act soon.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Myanmar’s de facto leader and Nobel Peace laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, has one “last chance” to end the violence in the west of the country that has caused a refugee crisis along the Myanmar-Bangladeshi border.
“I would expect that the leader of the country would be able to contain it, and would be able to reverse the situation,” Guterres said in an interview with the BBC.
“She has a chance, she has a last chance, in my opinion, to do so.”
He warned that “the tragedy will be absolutely horrible,” if Suu Kyi and the influential Myanmar military do not solve the crisis soon.
The number of the Muslim Rohinyga refugees in Bangladesh has topped 410,000, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Thousands more arrive every day, the UN said on Sunday.
Suu Kyi cancelled a planned trip to the UN in New York on Wednesday. Her spokesman, Zaw Htay, cited “Arakan terrorist attacks” for the decision and added that Suu Kyi will instead speak about the situation in Arakan for the first time on September 19.
‘Textbook ethnic cleansing’
The Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim group situated mostly in Myanmar’s western Arakan state, have been fleeing violence in their native country that began August 25 when Rohingya insurgents attacked Myanmar security forces in the north of the state. The Myanmar government immediately started “clearance operations” against the insurgents that refugees fleeing the region say has indiscriminately targeted the whole Rohingya population.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein described Myanmar’s operation against the minority group on Monday as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
