13 Nobel laureates, 10 noted personalities seek UN intervention into Rohingya crisis
13 Nobel laureates, 10 noted personalities seek UN intervention into Rohingya crisis
Twenty three eminent personalities including 13 Nobel laureates in an open letter to the United Nations Security Council sought its interference to prevent ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity against Rohingyas in Rakhain state of Myanmar.
The letter was signed by Nobel laureates Muhammad Yunus, José Ramos-Horta, Máiread Maguire, Betty Williams, Desmond Tutu, Oscar Arias, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Tawakkol Karman, Leymah Gbowee, Malala Yousafzai, Richard J Roberts, and Elizabeth Blackburn, former Italian foreign minister Emma Bonino, former Italian foreign minister, The Huffington Post founder and editor Arianna Huffington, business leaders Richard Branson, Paul Polman and Jochen Zeitz,, entrepreneur Mo Ibrahim, SDG advocate and film director Richard Curtis, Libyan activist Alaa Murabit, rights activist Kerry Kennedy, and former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi.
The letter was sent to Bangladeshi media outlets by the Yunus Centre.
In the letter they said over the past two months, a military offensive by the Myanmar army in Rakhine State has led to the killing of hundreds of Rohingya people. Over 30,000 people have been displaced. Houses have been burned, women raped, many civilians arbitrarily arrested, and children killed. Crucially, access for humanitarian aid organisations has been almost completely denied, creating an appalling humanitarian crisis in an area already extremely poor. Thousands have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, only to be sent back. Some international experts have warned of the potential for genocide. It has all the hallmarks of recent past tragedies - Rwanda, Darfur, Bosnia, Kosovo.
‘Despite repeated appeals to Aung San Suu Kyi we are frustrated that she has not taken any initiative to ensure full and equal citizenship rights of the Rohingyas. Suu Kyi is the leader and is the one with the primary responsibility to lead, and lead with courage, humanity and compassion,’ the letter said.
‘We urge the United Nations to do everything possible to encourage the government of Myanmar to lift all restrictions on humanitarian aid, so that people receive emergency assistance. Access for journalists and human rights monitors should also be permitted, and an independent, international
INQUIRY to establish the truth about the current situation should be established,’ the letter read.
‘Furthermore, we urge the members of UN Security Council to put this crisis on Security Council’s agenda as a matter of urgency, and to call upon the Secretary-General to visit Myanmar in the coming weeks as a priority. If the current Secretary-General is able to do so, we would urge him to go; if not, we encourage the new Secretary-General to make it one of his first tasks after he takes office in January.
‘It is time for the international community as a whole to speak out much more strongly. After Rwanda, world leaders said ‘never again’. If we fail to take action, people may starve to death if they are not killed with bullets, and we may end up being the passive observers of crimes against humanity which will lead us once again to wring our hands belatedly and say “never again” all over again.’
Source Link: http://www.newagebd.net/article/5874/articlelist/323/Cartoon
Source: New Age
Updated Date: 26th January, 2017