UN blasts Myanmar's human rights abuses of Rohingya

UNITED NATIONS

The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution that strongly condemns Myanmar for violating the human rights of Muslim Rohingya.

The resolution, passed 134-9 on Friday, calls on Myanmar’s government to take urgent measures to prevent human rights violations including torture, rape and arbitrary arrests of minorities in the region, especially Rohingya Muslims.

General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, but they reflect its views on Myanmar's human rights abuses.

Separately, last week the International Criminal Court Prosecution office in The Hague announced that a preliminary investigation which started last year of crimes against humanity committed by Myanmar was completed ahead of a fuller probe.

Persecuted people

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017, pushing the number of persecuted people in Bangladesh above 1.2 million.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

More than 34,000 Rohingya were also thrown into fires, while over 114,000 others were beaten, said the OIDA report, titled "Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience".

Some 18,000 Rohingya women and girls were raped by Myanmar’s army and police and over 115,000 Rohingya homes were burned down and 113,000 others vandalized, it added.

*Writing by Davut Demircan