There must be accountability for gross violations, abuses committed in Rakhine state: UN chief

UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Antonio Guterres has said that the Rohingya people are one of the most discriminated against people in the world, emphasising that there must be accountability for the gross violations and abuses committed in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

According to the UN estimates, nearly 700,000 minority Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state since August 25 last year when the army launched a military crackdown.

“Addressing the systematic discrimination against the Rohingya in Myanmar is essential to ensure they have legal recognition, freedom of movement and equal access to education, health services, employment and other rights,” Guterres told PTI in an exclusive interview ahead of his three-day visit to India that begins Monday.

“There can be no peace and reconciliation without ensuring that all people in Myanmar regardless of their ethnicity or religion can have equal enjoyment of their rights,” Guterres said.

Responding to a question on the worsening Rohingya crisis, Guterres said he had visited Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh in July this year and had met with refugees and heard “heartbreaking” stories of massive violence of killings, of rape, of torture, of house or villages burnt. As High Commissioner for Refugees, Guterres had twice visited Northern Rakhine state.

Almost a million Rohingya refugees live in Cox’s Bazar under tarpaulins, on steep, sandy slopes 25,000 of whom are said to be at the highest risk of landslides.

“I have no doubt that the Rohingya people are one of the most, if not the most, discriminated against people in the world, lacking any recognition of their most basic rights, starting with the recognition of their right to citizenship by their own country Myanmar,” he said