The Permanent Representative (PR) of Bangladesh to the United Nations (UN) Ambassador Masud Bin Momen has highlighted the UN's systematic failure to prevent atrocities in Rakhine state of Myanmar.
He referred to the recent report "Independent Inquiry into the Involvement of the UN in Myanmar from 2010 to 2018" by Gert Rosenthal, the former Guatemalan Foreign Affairs Minister, reports UNB.
"There is no denying what has happened to the Rohingyas. Although with the available resources and technology, lack of early warning is rarely a problem, UN mechanisms in Myanmar did not provide early warning," Momen said, on Saturday.
Quoting from Rosenthal's report, he said the UN’s collective membership, represented by the Security Council, bears part of that responsibility, by not providing enough support to the Secretariat when such backing was—and continues to be—essential.
"If there is one single action that might have altered the course of events in Myanmar it would have been the timely and impartial presence, in Rakhine State, of some type of United Nations observers,” Momen said.
“It would have offered a measure of confidence, to the oppressed minorities, that their basic human rights would be respected, and that the root causes that led to their forced emigration would be addressed by the national authorities," he added.
"We must not fail the Rohingya population,” he said.
“The solution to this problem lies—first and foremost—with the Myanmar authorities, and they will have to resolve it by creating the conditions conducive for the Rohingya population to return home in safety," he added.
