Myanmar & Bangladesh: Solving Rohingya Crisis Key to Ending Violence | UN Security Council Briefing

Описание: Assistant-Secretary-General Khaled Khiari today (4 Apr) told the Security Council that the expansion of armed conflict throughout Bangladesh, “has deprived communities of basic needs and access to essential services, and a devastating impact on human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Khiari said, “amid reports of indiscriminate aerial bombardments by the Myanmar Armed Forces and artillery shelling by various parties, the civilian toll keeps rising.”

In Rakhine State, the Assistant-Secretary-General said, “fighting between the military and the Arakan Army has reached an unprecedented level of violence, compounding pre-existing vulnerabilities in Myanmar’s poorest region.”

He said the Arakan Army “has reportedly gained territorial control over most of central Rakhine and seeks to expand to northern Rakhine where many Rohingya remain.”

Khiari stressed that “addressing the root causes of the Rohingya crisis will be essential to establish a sustainable pathway out of the current crisis.” Failure to do so and continued impunity, he said, “will only keep fuelling Myanmar’s vicious cycle of violence.”

He noted that the Rohingya population, caught in the middle of the conflict, “face grave protection concerns and elevated intercommunal tensions” and “continue to experience significant restrictions on their freedom of movement, denial of citizenship, and remain disproportionately vulnerable to abduction or forced recruitment.”

Khiari also voiced the Secretary-General’s concern about the military’s intention to move ahead with elections amid intensifying conflict and human rights violations across the country.