{"id":114484,"date":"2018-07-16T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=114484"},"modified":"2018-07-16T10:17:35","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T09:17:35","slug":"rohingya-cannot-become-forgotten-victims-says-un-chief-urging-world-to-step-up-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/07\/rohingya-cannot-become-forgotten-victims-says-un-chief-urging-world-to-step-up-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Rohingya Cannot Become \u2018Forgotten Victims,\u2019 Says UN Chief Urging World to Step Up Support"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Painting a grim picture of villages being burned to the ground and other \u201cbone-chilling\u201d accounts he heard from Rohingya refugees\u00a0who fled violence in Myanmar, the UN chief has called on the world to answer their calls for help with real action. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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11 Jul 2018 – <\/em>\u201cSmall children butchered in front of their parents. Girls and women gang-raped while family members were tortured and killed,\u201d United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres<\/a> said Tuesday in a Washington Post<\/em> opinion piece, adding: \u201cNothing could have prepared me for the bone-chilling accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The continuing plight of nearly one million Rohingya refugees driven from their homes in Myanmar was the focus of Mr. Guterres\u2019 trip along with Jim Yong Kim, the President of the World Bank Group, during a visit last week<\/a> to Bangladesh \u2013 the country where they have found safe-haven.<\/p>\n

Since late August 2017, widespread and systematic violence against Myanmar\u2019s mainly-Muslim minority Rohingya, has forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in Rakhine state for Bangladesh\u2019s Cox\u2019s Bazar area, just across the border.<\/p>\n

Prior to that, well over 200,000 Rohingya refugees were sheltering in vast, makeshift camps in Bangladesh as a result of earlier displacements.<\/p>\n

In his Washington Post<\/em> opinion piece, the UN chief recalled one Muslim man he met who broke down in tears, describing how his eldest son was shot dead in front of him.<\/p>\n

The man\u2019s mother was brutally murdered and his house was torched to ashes. He then took refuge in a mosque but was discovered by soldiers who abused him and burned the Koran.<\/p>\n

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Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres (center) meets with Rohingya refugees in Cox\u2019s Bazaar, Bangladesh.
UNFPA Bangladesh\/Allison Joyce<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThese victims of what has been rightly called\u00a0ethnic cleansing\u00a0are suffering an anguish that can only stir a visitor\u2019s heartbreak and anger,\u201d continued Mr. Guterres.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir horrific experiences defy comprehension, yet they are the reality for nearly one million\u00a0Rohingya refugees<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rohingya have suffered a pattern of persecution \u2014 lacking even the most basic human rights, starting with citizenship \u2014 in their native Myanmar.<\/p>\n

The Secretary-General explained that systematic human rights\u00a0abuses\u00a0by Myanmar\u2019s security forces over the past year were \u201cdesigned to instill terror in the Rohingya population, leaving them with a dreadful choice: stay on in fear of death or leave everything simply to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Bangladesh<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0resources are stretched to the limits, wealthier countries are closing their doors to outsiders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government and people of Bangladesh have opened their borders and hearts to the Rohingya,\u201d Mr. Guterres said, adding that such compassion and generosity \u201cshow the best of humanity and has saved many thousands of lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A Rohingya boy walks up steps in a rain-damaged section of the Chakmarkul refugee settlement.
UNHCR\/Caroline Gluck<\/p><\/div>\n

A global response needed<\/strong><\/p>\n

A\u00a0Global Compact on Refugees<\/a>\u00a0is being finalized by UN Member States, seeking to ensure that, among other things, front-line countries, like Bangladesh, are not alone in responding fleeing waves of humanity.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the UN and humanitarian agencies are working flat-out alongside the refugees themselves and host communities to improve conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut far more resources are desperately needed to avert disaster and to give fuller expression to the principle that a refugee crisis calls for a global sharing of responsibility,\u201d stressed the UN chief, pointing that only 26 per cent of an $1 billion international\u00a0humanitarian appeal<\/a>\u00a0has been\u00a0funded.<\/p>\n

This shortfall means that malnutrition prevails in the camp, access to water and sanitation is iffy, refugee children are missing basic education and inadequate measures are left to alleviate the monsoon risk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMakeshift homes hastily built by the refugees on arrival are now threatened by mudslides, requiring urgent action to find alternative sites and build stronger shelters,\u201d he detailed.<\/p>\n

Mr. Guterres spoke of his visit to Bangladesh, saying \u201cthe Rohingya people need genuine assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crisis will not be solved overnight, yet the situation cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely.<\/p>\n

Unless the root causes of the violence in Rakhine state are addressed comprehensively, hatred will continue to fuel conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Rohingya people cannot become forgotten victims. We must answer their clear appeals for help with action,\u201d concluded the UN chief.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 news.un.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Painting a grim picture of villages being burned to the ground and other \u201cbone-chilling\u201d accounts he heard from Rohingya refugees who fled violence in Myanmar, the UN chief has called on the world to answer their calls for help with real action. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":114485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[677],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-updates-on-myanmar-rohingya-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}