NEW YORK, Sept 19, 2017 (BSS) – Major western powers has mounted pressure on Myanmar to stop atrocities on Rohingyas as Britain hosted overnight a ministerial meeting joined by Bangladesh foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali on UN general assembly sidelines.
Briefing newsmen on the outcome of the meeting late yesterday Bangladesh’s foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque said the major countries asked Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi to push for an end to military violence against Rohingya Muslims.
Haque said the Myanmar leader’s adviser Thaung Tun, who represented Naypyidaw at the meeting, initially tried to deny the accusation of atrocities terming as “fabricated” the reports, information and pictures on Rohingyas plight.
“But the representatives of the participating countries told the Myanmar security advisor that they better know the reality on the ground,” the Bangladesh Naypyidaw foreign secretary said.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson hosted the meeting as plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, which they described as ethnic cleansing, drew intense global attention at the UN General Assembly.
Ali represented Bangladesh at the meeting joined by his counterparts and senior officials of the United States, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, China, Denmark and Turkey while Myanmar sent Suu Kyi’s security adviser to join it.
The Myanmar leader skipped the UNGA on the face of mounting global criticism for her country’s treatment of minority Rohingya Muslims.
The military crackdown last month in the western Rakhine region of Myanmar drove more than 410,000 Rohingyas out to neighboring Bangladesh to evade the carnage what the United Nations has branded as ethnic cleansing.
Haque said the ministers who took part in the meeting appreciated Bangladesh for giving shelter and other humanitarian supports to Myanmar nationals crossing the border and asked Myanmar to take immediate steps to resolve the issue.
Johnson described the ongoing violence against Rohingyas as a “stain” on Myanmar’s reputation and “it’s vital that Aung San Suu Kyi and her civilian government must stop the abuses”.
In a statement issued after the meeting Johnson said that while Myanmar “made encouraging progress towards democracy in the last few years, the situation in Rakhine, the terrible human rights abuses and violence are a stain on the country’s reputation.”
“It is vital that Aung San Suu Kyi and the civilian government make clear these abuses must stop,” he said.