Rohingya crisis
Myanmar halts UN visit to Rakhine
UNSC Due to meet
AGENCIES
The United Nations says a planned visit to Myanmars Rakhine state, which has seen a mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims, has been cancelled by the authorities, report agencies.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council was scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss the violence in Myanmar and hear a briefing from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the Rohingya crisis.
The visit of the diplomats would have been the first by UN officials to the area since violence broke out on 25 August.
UN aid personnel were forced to leave Rakhine when the military began a crackdown on Rohingya militants behind attacks on security personnel.
A UN spokesperson in Yangon told the BBC no reason was given for the move.
The UN has been pushing to visit Rakhine to investigate the flight of more than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh in a month.
Rohingya who have crossed the border accuse Myanmars military, backed by Buddhist mobs, of trying to drive them out with a brutal campaign of beatings, killings and village burnings. Images and reports from journalists confirm many villages have been razed.
But the military say they are only targeting militants. Earlier this week, they said bodies of 45 Hindus killed by Rohingya militants had been found in a mass grave.
Assessing the situation on the ground in Rakhine is difficult because access is tightly controlled. But humanitarian groups say that in addition to those who have fled to Bangladesh, say many people are displaced within Rakhine and hundreds of thousands lack food, shelter and medical care.
The Rohingya, a mostly Muslim minority, are denied citizenship by Myanmar, which says they are illegal immigrants. Rakhine Buddhists are the majority in the state and deadly communal violence has erupted several times in the past.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday, before the cancellation, that chiefs of UN agencies were due to take part in the trip, which he hoped would be a first step towards much freer and wider access to the area.
Meanwhile to end the violence, Britain, France, the United States and four other countries requested the UN Security Council meeting after more than 430,000 people, mostly Rohingya Muslims, fled an army campaign in Myanmar in recent weeks and crossed into Bangladesh.
The United Nations has described the military operation as ethnic cleansing and French President Emmanuel Macron last week went further, calling it genocide.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has denounced the plight of the Rohingya, accused Myanmar of waging a Buddhist terror against the Muslim minority and also denounced the genocide.
The military operation was sparked by attacks carried out by Rohingya militants on police posts on August 25.
The meeting was also requested by Egypt, Kazakhstan, Senegal and Sweden, which are non-permanent council members.
The Security Council earlier this month called for immediate steps to end the violence, following a closed-door meeting.
The 1.1-million strong Rohingya have suffered years of discrimination in Myanmar, where they are denied citizenship even though many have longstanding roots in the country.
In early September, Guterres took the rare step of sending a letter to the council to express concern about the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding, raising fears that it could have implications for peace and security beyond Myanmars borders.
Rights groups are pushing the council to threaten sanctions against Myanmars government and urging countries to review military cooperation.
Myanmars de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has disappointed human rights groups who had campaigned for her freedom during the Nobel Peace Prize winners 15 years under house arrest by a military junta.
Suu Kyi failed to quell outrage over the plight of the Rohingya when she delivered a nationwide address last week in which she appealed for patience.
