United Nations: The UN General Assembly has approved a resolution condemning human rights abuses against the Muslim Rohingya community and other minorities in Myanmar, it was reported Saturday.
The UN resolution was passed on Friday by a total of 134 countries in the 193-member world body, with nine votes against and 28 abstaining, the BBC reported.
It expressed alarm at the continuing influx of Rohingya to Bangladesh over the past four decades “in the aftermath of atrocities committed by the security and armed forces of Myanmar”.
The resolution also highlighted the findings of an independent international mission “of gross human rights violations and abuses suffered by Rohingya Muslims and other minorities” by Myanmar’s security forces, which it described as “the gravest crimes under international law”.
Reacting to the resolution, the UN ambassador for Myanmar, Hau Do Suan, called it “another classic example of double-standards (and) selective and discriminatory application of human rights norms”.
He said it was designed to exert “unwanted political pressure” on Myanmar and did not attempt to find a solution to “the complex situation in Rakhine state”.
Friday’s development comes after Myanmar State Councillor and de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi rejected allegations of genocide at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ), the BBC reported.
The Gambia brought the Rohingya case to the ICJ on behalf of dozens of other Muslim countries. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar since the military operations began.
As of September 30, there were 915,000 Rohingya refugees in camps in Bangladesh. Almost 80 per cent arrived between August and December 2017. In March, Bangladesh said it would accept no more.