40pc Rohingya people flee into Bangladesh: UN
Global body in depurate need for funding
DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT
About 40 per cent of the entire Rohingya population in Rakhine state has now fled into Bangladsh to escape the atrocities orchestrated by the Myanmar security forces, the United Nations has said. The global body also said that it is in depurate need for funding and support to provide assistance to these Rohingyas.
Our humanitarian colleagues tell us that the number of Rohingya refugees who have crossed the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh since 25 August has now reached 389,000, Stphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary general told a daily briefing on Thursday at the UN headquarters in New York.
In the last 24 hours alone, 10,000 people reportedly crossed into Bangladesh.
Combined with those who fled during the last round of violence in Rakhine State last October, it is estimated that some 40 per cent of the total Rohingya population living in Rakhine State have now fled into Bangladesh, he said.
It is estimated that 60 per cent of Rohingya refugees arriving in Bangladesh are children. The sheer number of refugees has overwhelmed pre-existing refugee camps, with new arrivals seeking shelter anywhere they can find space, he added.
To a question regarding the press conference of the UN secretary-general and UN Security Councils statement, the spokesperson said, I think its clearly a step forward to have the Council express its positions, deep concern, at the situation. There needs to be a focus, obviously, as he said, on the halt of the, of military and security operations.
Underlying issues need to be dealt with in Rakhine State, and what we urgently, urgently need is an international mobilisation of support for the tens of thousands of, of very vulnerable people who we have seen streaming into Bangladesh,
often already arriving in very poor condition, he said.
The UNs humanitarian machine is mobilizing, but we are obviously in desperate need of funding and support, he added.
Asked what should be the US role in the whole situation, Dujarric said, Its not for me to, for us to designate a role for any Member State. I think whats important, on this issue as others, is to have unity of the Council and unity of purpose in protecting these very vulnerable people.
Asked whether it would be too late for the global body to act comprehensively before the Myanmar military would have pretty much cleared out the Rohingyas from northern Rakhine, he said, Listen, its not for me to judge what the Security Council what may or may not, may not happen. I think were, there is no way to look at the situation, whether whats going on in Rakhine State, whats going on in the area around Coxs Bazar, and not think that this is a matter of urgency.
The secretary-general was clear in his call to, to the authorities at Myanmar, which he has made publicly, which he has made privately, and to the need for the international community to mobilise immediately to help the refugees, the men and the women and the children.
