Rohingya Muslim refugees recount ordeals to UN envoys visiting border camps

A team of UN Security Council envoys has visited Rohingya Muslim refugees at their camps in the no man’s land between Bangladesh and Myanmar, listening to the horrifying experiences they have been through at the hands of the Myanmar military.

The UN Security Council team arrived in Bangladesh on Friday for the first time to hear the sufferings of some 700,000 Muslim refugees, who have escaped a campaign of violence, rape and arson by Myanmar’s military, which began some nine months ago.

Several women and girls recounted their ordeals to UN British ambassador, Karen Pierce, and pleaded for the world body’s help.

Pierce, who is among the 15-member delegation, explained a “combination of enormous distress and sympathy for what those poor women and those poor children have been through and are still going through.”

“It’s enormous horror that other human beings could put them through that and I think it shows us the scale of the challenge as we try as the Security Council to find some way through, that enables these poor people to go home,” she added.

“The sad thing is there’s nothing we can do right today that will make their distress any less,” Pierce said.

The refugees also presented a list of demands to the Security Council, including rehabilitation of their own land and homes in Myanmar. They called on the UN body to stop Myanmar from building camps for internally displaced people in Rakhine.

They said the camps will function simply as prisons for any returning Rohingya refugees.

The Muslim community has lived in Myanmar for generations but its members are denied citizenship and branded illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, which likewise denies them citizenship.

The 1.1-million Muslim community is described by the UN as the most persecuted minority in the world.

UN officials and aid groups have also voiced concern about the condition of refugees at the camps as the coming monsoon season is expected to worsen the humanitarian situation there.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees are currently living in temporary shelters in the no man’s land strip between the two countries.

Deputy US Ambassador to the United Nations, Kelley Currie, explained what he has witnessed at the camps as “quite overwhelming.”

“Obviously the scale of this camp is unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” she said. “It is going to be a disaster when the rains come.”

PressTV-HRW urges UN to adopt resolution on Myanmar

HRW urges the UN Security Council to issue a resolution to refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court over the Rohingya crisis.

Deputy permanent representative of the Netherlands to the UN, Lise Gregoire-van Haare, also described the Rohingya Muslim refugees as “heavily traumatized women, men and children,” who should be returned to their homes.

“Myanmar must cooperate so Rohingya can return in a safe, dignified and sustainable way,” she said.

The Security Council delegation will meet with Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday in Dhaka. They will later meet with Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior members of the government and military in a visit to the country.

The Security Council team will also pay a visit to Rakhine State on Tuesday. The UN, which has long been denied access to Rakhine, already described the violence against the Rohingya as “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide.”

The Myanmar government, however, wants a “new relationship” with the UN, according to aides to Suu Kyi.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner is under pressure by the international community for failing to use her position to prevent crimes against the Rohingya.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk