By AFP<\/p>\n
NEW YORK \u2014 Former UN chief Kofi Annan urged the Security Council on Friday to push for the return to Myanmar of more than half a million Rohingya who have been driven out of northern Rakhine State in an army campaign.<\/p>\n
Annan, who led an advisory commission to the Myanmar government, said world powers must work with the country’s military and civilian leaders to end the refugee crisis.<\/p>\n
The Security Council is weighing action, possibly a resolution laying out demands, but diplomats have said China, a supporter of Myanmar’s former ruling junta, and Russia are opposed to such a measure.<\/p>\n
“I hope the resolution that comes out urges the government to really press ahead and create conditions that would allow the refugees to return with dignity and with a sense of security,” Annan told reporters after a closed-door meeting with the council.<\/p>\n
“They should not be returned to camps. They should help rebuild,” he said.<\/p>\n
More than 500,000 people, nearly all Rohingya, have since late August crossed into Bangladesh, fleeing military operations in Rakhine State that the United Nations has denounced as ethnic cleansing.<\/p>\n
Myanmar authorities have denied the ethnic cleansing allegations and say they are rooting out Rohingya militants following attacks on police posts in late August.<\/p>\n
The issue of the return of the Rohingya is shaping up as a major hurdle.<\/p>\n
A recent report by the UN human rights office accused Myanmar of seeking to permanently expel the Rohingya by planting land mines at the border with Bangladesh.<\/p>\n
“The international community is now beginning to put pressure on the military,” Annan said, adding that “military-to-military talks” were aimed at pressing Myanmar to rein in its operations.<\/p>\n
He called on the council to agree with Myanmar on a “roadmap” and warned that without action “we are going to have a long-term festering problem” in the region that “can be very serious, down the line.”<\/p>\n
In late August, Annan presented the final report of the advisory commission on Rakhine State that he chaired at the request of State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.<\/p>\n
The report called for granting citizenship and other rights to the Rohingya, who are stateless and have long faced discrimination in Myanmar.<\/p>\n
The UN’s top political affairs chief, Jeffrey Feltman, travelled to Myanmar on Friday for talks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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