United Nations
\nFormer UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged Myanmar to make sure the half-million Rohingya Muslim refugees who have fled in the last<\/p>\n
two months can go home, and not go to camps.<\/p>\n
Myanmar\u2019s government needs to \u201ccreate conditions that will allow the refugees to return with dignity and with a sense of security\u201d and help them<\/p>\n
rebuild in violence-wracked Rakhine state, said Annan, who recently headed a commission on the crisis there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should not be returned to camps,\u201d he said after addressing an informal, private Security Council meeting on the issue. \u201cThey need<\/p>\n
assistance to get their homes back.\u201d Myanmar\u2019s UN mission didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment on yesterday\u2019s session. The country\u2019s<\/p>\n
leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said Thursday that she had created a committee to oversee all international and local assistance in Rakhine and<\/p>\n
that the impoverished state needs development.<\/p>\n
Roughly 1 million Rohingya make up a long-persecuted minority in the Southeast Asian country. The Buddhist majority regards them as having<\/p>\n
migrated illegally from Bangladesh, although many Rohingya families have lived in Myanmar for generations.<\/p>\n
They were stripped of their citizenship in 1982.<\/p>\n
After earlier waves of Rohingya flight, about 1,20,000 live in camps outside Rakhine\u2019s capital, Sittwe.<\/p>\n
In an unprecedented exodus, more than 5,00,000 Rohingya have fled from Rakhine to neighboring Bangladesh since August 25, when security<\/p>\n
forces clamped down after the latest in a series of attacks on police posts by a Rohingya militant group.<\/p>\n
Many houses were burned in the crackdown, and Rohingya refugees have described rape, looting and abuse.<\/p>\n
The UN and some countries have called the events \u201cethnic cleansing,\u201d which Myanmar\u2019s government denies. It has blamed the crisis on<\/p>\n
terrorism.<\/p>\n
The August attacks came a day after the Annan-led commission released its report, which called for economic development and social justice<\/p>\n
to counter the deadly violence.<\/p>\n
The Security Council has repeatedly discussed Myanmar recently, but views have been divided among the veto-wielding members.<\/p>\n
At a meeting late last month, Britain, France and the US demanded an end to what they called ethnic cleansing, while China\u2019s ambassador<\/p>\n
called for patience. Russia\u2019s envoy warned that \u201cexcessive pressure\u201d could only worsen the problems.<\/p>\n
Yesterday\u2019s meeting was \u201cparticularly useful and helpful to build consensus\u201d on two goals: supporting the recommendations of Annan\u2019s<\/p>\n
commission and denouncing \u201cthe totally inacceptable status quo,\u201d French Ambassador Francois Delattre said. He co-chaired the session with<\/p>\n
British envoy Matthew Rycroft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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