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8255th Security Council Meeting: Briefing on Mission to Bangladesh and Myanmar
Recounting the haunting stories of Rohingya refugees they met during a recent mission to Bangladesh and Myanmar, Security Council members today described mass rapes, attacks on children and the razing of entire villages, stressing that the visit had “awakened their collective conscience” into robust and concerted action.
The representative of Kuwait — one of the mission’s three co-chairs, along with the representatives of Peru and the United Kingdom — said Council members had arrived in Cox’s Bazaar on 28 April. There, some 670,000 members of the Rohingya community had joined 300,000 already displaced in Bangladesh. In Kutupalong — now the world’s largest refugee camp with some 600,000 inhabitants — the Council met with families and heard first-hand about the horrors they had suffered. Noting, in his national capacity, that the sheer scale of destruction in Rakhine State revealed targeted acts of violence, he added that the sounds of children still calling for parents they had lost had affected him deeply. “Their sobs and their cries will stay with me.”
The United Kingdom’s representative, also reporting on the mission, described a field visit to Rakhine State including a flight over burned out and devastated areas. The Council had met with victims of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacks and Rohingya communities who had had their homes rebuilt. Commenting on the scale of the devastating conditions, she pointed out that the two existing reception centres could accommodate at best 300 refugees per day at a time when 900,000 refugees needed assistance. In addition, little progress had been made on pressing political issues — including settling the citizenship status of Rohingya community members — and citizens had reported attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army forces.
The representative of Peru summarized the Council’s 30 April meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s Government leader, in Naypyitaw, saying she had expressed eagerness to see the Rohingya refugees return home but cited delays in the process. Among other things, she had acknowledged the need to revise certain citizenship laws, as well as to create an atmosphere of trust among communities. In a subsequent meeting, the Chief of Myanmar’s Defence Services had described attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army group, emphasizing that the Defence Forces had abided by all its international obligations.
Taking the floor following those briefings, Council members described the mission as disturbing, a “vivid and stark revelation” and having left an “indelible mark”. Kazakhstan’s representative said that standing at the front line of the world’s largest refugee crisis had presented members with a reality that shocked and awakened their conscience, “prompting us to act more robustly and collectively”. He joined other speakers in stressing that no safe, voluntary and dignified return of refugees and internally displaced persons to Myanmar’s Rakhine State could take place — and no lasting solution would be found — without addressing the root causes of the crisis. Those included the issues of citizenship for the Rohingya people, restoration of their rights, poverty alleviation and development, access to education, employment and freedom of movement.
France’s representative, meanwhile, said the international community must significantly increase humanitarian funding and take measures to prepare the refugees from the coming monsoon rain season. Words and pledges from the Myanmar Government were not enough, she stressed, calling on it to commit to tackling the root causes of the crisis. “The Rohingya are victims of ethnic cleansing — there is no other way to describe it,” she said, urging the Government to cooperate with the United Nations fact‑finding mission, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to ensure humanitarian access and facilitate the conditions needed for the safe, voluntary and dignified return of refugees.
The representative of Bangladesh reiterated his Government’s expectations: Continued action to ensure the safe return of the Rohingya community members; adoption of a Council resolution building on its 2017 presidential statement; prevailing on Myanmar to implement recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State; and ensuring accountability and justice. Among other things, he called for stronger repatriation efforts by the Myanmar Government, noting that the vista of more than 400 burned villages hardly evoked confidence about the prospect of return to Rakhine State. For its part, Bangladesh was helping to prepare for the monsoon season by relocating affected populations and working towards providing safe shelter.
Myanmar’s representative, on the other hand, said Bangladesh was making excuses to stall the repatriation process while also distorting facts and vilifying Myanmar. Reiterating his Government’s commitment to investigating and acting on all criminal allegations that were supported by evidence, he said the current crisis was a result of attacks by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army terrorists on border guard posts in northern Rakhine. Those, along with brutal killings and atrocities committed against innocent Hindu, Rakhine Buddhist and other minority tribes, had been ignored by the Western media. Expressing concern that Bangladesh was unwittingly allowing extremism to rear its ugly head in the region, he warned that the discriminatory and one-sided narratives would only lead to further polarization and escalation.
Also speaking were the representatives of China, United States, Sweden, Equatorial Guinea, Russian Federation, Netherlands and Poland.
The meeting began at 3:08 p.m. and ended at 5 p.m.
