Alwaght- Human Rights Watch (HRW) has demanded harsh international sanctions against the Myanmar military over its brutal ethnic cleansing campaign against the country’s Rohingya Muslims.
In a statement released on Monday, the New-York based rights body slammed Myanmar’s army generals for turning a deaf ear to international condemnations of their bloody crackdown against the Rohingya minority in Rakhine State, saying the time has come for the world community to target the Myanmarese military with such harsh sanctions that it could not ignore.
"The United Nations Security Council and concerned countries should impose targeted sanctions and an arms embargo on the Burmese (Myanmarese) military to end its ethnic cleansing campaign,” it said.
The group urged concerned governments to “impose travel bans and asset freezes on security officials implicated in serious abuses; expand existing arms embargoes to include all military sales, assistance, and cooperation; and place a ban on financial transactions with key Burmese military-owned enterprises".
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohammed Shahriar Alam said on Monday that despite several attempts, they have not received any favorable response from Myanmar government to discuss the Rohingya Muslims refugee issue.
Speaking on the sidelines of an event in Kolkata, Alam said, “Our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the attack on Myanmar security forces in Rakhine. We don’t support such attacks. Next week there will be UN General Assembly meet and our PM will raise the Rohingya crisis with world leaders. So far we have received any satisfactory response from Myanmar".
The latest escalation of violence against the persecuted Muslim community began on August 25, when security forces started facing a well-orchestrated military-led campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Over 6,000 Muslims have been killed in the new wave of violence while another 410,000 have fled to neighboring Bangladesh, according to the latest UN figures.
Myanmar’s de facto leader, Suu Kyi, has failed to properly address the atrocities against the Rohignya.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who is under harsh criticism by the international community, has said she would be absent from the United Nations General Assembly meeting this week.
