This picture taken on September 8, 2020 shows a group of Rohingya men sleeping on a pile of donated clothes at a transit camp after nearly 300 Rohingya migrants came ashore on the beach in Lhokseumawe on the northern coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island. Photo by Rahmat Mirza / AFP/ TO GO WITH Indonesia-Myanmar-Bangladesh-Rohingya-migration,FOCUS by Sarina and Peter Brieger
UNITED NATIONS — Eight Security Council members called Friday for the Muslim Rohingya minority, victims in 2017 of what the UN calls a “genocide,” to participate in Myanmar’s upcoming elections.
The statement, published after a closed-door video conference, is signed by Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Tunisia, Britain and the United States.
“We recognize the efforts made by Myanmar’s government in the country’s democratization,” the signatories emphasize.
“The elections on November 8 are an important milestone in Myanmar’s transition, which the international community has supported with funding and technical expertise,” they added.
The signatories underlines underlined their commitment to ensuring individuals from all communities, including Rohingya, were able to participate “safely, fully, and equally in credible and inclusive elections.”
They expressed concern about continuing clashes in Myanmar’s Rakhine and Chin States, calling for an “immediate cessation of hostilities.”
Since 2017, some 740,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar’s military abuses and taken refuge in neighboring Bangladesh, where they are crammed into huge camps.
The crisis has led Burma to be accused of “genocide” before the International Court of Justice, the UN’s highest judicial body.
The statement from the eight countries urges Myanmar “to accelerate its efforts to address the long-term causes of the crisis in Rakhine and create conditions conducive to the safe, voluntary, sustainable, and dignified return of refugees.”
And it stresses the importance of holding accountable those responsible for the violence.