WORLD leaders have rallied by taking a strong stance against the atrocities committed against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority group.
Coming on the heels of the issue being raised by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak during his recent meeting with Donald Trump, the United States (US) president has called on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to take “strong and swift action” to end violence against the Rohingya.
French President Emmanuel Macron labelled it “genocide” in his condemnation of continued atrocities in Myanmar, while British Prime Minister Theresa May and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani also joined in the chorus of criticism to put UNSC under increasing pressure to step in and address the genocide against the Rohingya.
Najib had in December last year led a protest in Kuala Lumpur against what he called a “genocide” of Myanmar’s Rohingya. He urged Asian neighbours and the world to step up the pressure to stop the violence.
Kuala Lumpur, he then said, would send a strong message to Aung San Suu Kyi’s government that “enough is enough”.
Speaking at a Security Council meeting in New York on peacekeeping reform, US Vice-President Mike Pence declared the crisis a threat to the world.
Pence accused the Myanmar military of responding to militant attacks on government outposts “with terrible savagery, burning villages, driving the Rohingya from their homes”.
“Unless this violence is stopped, which justice demands, it will only get worse. And, it will sow the seeds of hatred and chaos that may well consume the region for generations to come and threaten the peace of us all,” Pence said.
“President Trump and I also call on the Security Council of the United Nations to take strong and swift action to bring this crisis to an end and bring hope and help to the Rohingya people in their hour of need,” he told the 15-member council.
Pence’s remarks were the strongest US government response yet to the violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State that began on Aug 25 and forced 420,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, fleeing a military offensive the UN had branded ethnic cleansing.
The UNSC was expected to consider adopting a formal statement if the situation did not improve.
A UNSC resolution would need nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, the US, Britain and France.
UNSC had met twice behind closed doors since the Rohingya crisis began and last week issued an informal statement to the press condemning the situation and urging Myanmar authorities to end the violence.
Macron said in an interview with the French TV channel TMC that the world must condemn this act of “ethnic purification.”
“We must condemn the ethnic purification, which is underway, and act.
“Asking for the violence to end, asking for humanitarian access...progressively enables an escalation” under UN auspices.
“When the UN issues a condemnation there are consequences which can provide a framework for intervention under the UN,” Macron said.
In her speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, May urged the Myanmar authorities to end the violence and allow full humanitarian aid access.
She had announced that the UK would suspend the training of Myanmar military amid concerns about the treatment of the Rohingya.
She told the UNGA that her government would suspend the training as well as stop defence engagements until military action against civilians in Rakhine State stopped.
“We are very concerned about what is happening to the Rohingya people...the military action against them must stop.
“We have seen too many vulnerable people having to flee for their lives. Aung San Suu Kyi and the Myanmar government need to make it very clear that the military action should stop.”
Reuters reported that Rouhani told a news conference in New York on Wednesday that “the government should be pressured to end this ethnic cleansing”.