A Rohingya advocacy group on Tuesday called on UN chief and his senior aide to resign over the global body’s “systemic failure” in addressing genocide against the Rohingya under their leadership.
Secretary General, his aides should be held accountable for failure to address Myanmar’s persecution of ethnic minority, says Rohingya group.
In a statement, Free Rohingya Coalition (FRC) criticized UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and former UN Resident Coordinator in Myanmar Renata Lok-Dessallien for failing to safeguard thousands of Rohingya in Myanmar, reported Anadolu Agency.
The 36-page official report titled “A brief and independent inquiry into the involvement of the United Nations in Myanmar from 2010 to 2018” and prepared by former Guatemalan Foreign Minister and UN diplomat Gert Rosenthal acknowledges the UN’s “systemic failures”.
About the controversial role of Lok-Dessallien while working in Myanmar, the statement said: “[She] reportedly suppressed an internal report of the alarming failings of the UN in Myanmar in taking the egregious rights violations amounting to crimes against humanity, specifically against the persecuted Rohingya ethnic minority.”
After such a gross violation of the norms and rules of an international organization like the UN, Lok-Dessallien was not held responsible due to lack of proper role of the UN chief, the statement asserted.
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 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.
