DHAKA: US President Donald Trump wants the United Nations Security Council to take “strong and swift action” to end violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, reports Reuters.
Trump has declared the crisis a threat to the world, said US Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday (September 20).
Speaking at a Security Council meeting on peacekeeping reform, Pence accused the Myanmar military of responding to militant attacks on government outposts “with terrible savagery, burning villages, driving the Rohingya from their homes.”
“Unless this violence is stopped, which justice demands, it will only get worse. And it will sow seeds of hatred and chaos that may well consume the region for generations to come and threaten the peace of us all,” Pence said.
Pence’s remarks were the strongest US government response yet to the violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state that began on August 25 and forced 422,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, fleeing a military offensive the United Nations has branded ethnic cleansing.
Even so, the chances of forceful action by the world body appear scant.
Diplomats say the Security Council could consider adopting a formal statement if the situation does not improve, but China and Russia are unlikely to agree to stronger action that would require the adoption of a resolution they could veto.
A UN Security Council resolution would need nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, Britain and France.
Myanmar said earlier this month it was negotiating with veto powers China and Russia to ensure their protection.
China, which has close economic and diplomatic ties with Myanmar and is a competitor to the United States for influence in the strategically important country, has called for understanding of the government’s efforts to protect stability.
US officials, for their part, have said that any return to sanctions imposed when Myanmar was under military rule is unlikely.
Pence repeated a US call for the Myanmar military to end the violence and support diplomatic efforts for a long-term solution for the Rohingya, who are denied citizenship in a country where many Buddhists regard them as illegal immigrants.
BDST: 0933 HRS, SEP 21, 2017
SI
