Bangladesh’s leader accuses Myanmar of Rohingya ‘genocide’
Speaking at the United Nations, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged an ‘early, peaceful solution’ to the crisis
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday accused Myanmar of failing to honour a verbal commitment to take back Rohingya Muslims who have fled a crackdown she described as tantamount to genocide.
Hasina’s remarks at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations came as the UN Human Rights Council agreed to set up a team to collect evidence of alleged crimes that one day could be used to prosecute suspected perpetrators.
UN-backed investigators have already said the reported atrocities could be genocide and war crimes. Myanmar, which barred the investigators from the country, has rejected that reporting as “replete with unverified information”.
“We are appalled by what we have seen in UN reports about atrocities against the Rohingya who have now taken shelter in Bangladesh, which are tantamount to genocide and crimes against humanity,” Hasina told the General Assembly.
She appealed for more international support for the 1.1 million Rohingya refugees now sheltering in Bangladesh, and urged an “early, peaceful solution” to the crisis. Most have arrived since August 2017 when attacks by Rohingya militants on Myanmar security forces triggered a massive retaliation that prompted a cross-border exodus of civilians.
“Despite their verbal commitment to take back the Rohingya, in reality the Myanmar authorities are yet to accept them back,” Hasina said.
International pressure is mounting on Myanmar, which is to address the General Assembly on Friday. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Thursday hosted a ministerial-level meeting on the sidelines of the assembly to address the plight of the Rohingya, following another hosted by Britain earlier in the week. Both were conducted behind closed doors.
Also, a US government investigation released on Monday concluded that the Myanmar military targeted Rohingya civilians indiscriminately, often with “extreme brutality”, in a coordinated campaign to drive the minority Muslims out of the country.
The report provided statistical analysis. It said most of those interviewed had witnessed a killing – half had witnessed sexual violence – and the military was identified as the perpetrator in 84 per cent of the killings or injuries they witnessed.
Human rights groups criticised the Trump administration for not describing the crackdown as “genocide”. The US has characterised the gross abuses as “ethnic cleansing”, which is not a criminal definition.
Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan told reporters on Thursday that the investigation, based on interviews with more than 1,000 Rohingya refugees, was intended as a forensic description and not to make legal judgments.
But he said the US is working towards accountability for those responsible, and on “characterising it as a crime against humanity or a genocide”.
