The United Nations motto is simple: “It’s your world.”
But does the UN really believe those words?
In what can only be seen as an brazen denial of human rights, sources from within the UN have confirmed that the head of the UN in Myanmar has actively prevented human rights advocates from entering Rohingya-inhabited areas.
If this is not a clear violation of the principles of the UN, it is hard to say what is.
The world is opening its eyes to the fact that the Rohingya are one of the most persecuted people in the world. And with more than enough evidence to suggest that they have been systemically tortured, beaten, raped, murdered, and forcefully evacuated, it is an unacceptable truth from an organisation that is meant to uphold basic human rights and fight for the weakest amongst us.
The Myanmar government has, nevertheless, repeatedly refused various non-government organisations from entering the country, organisations whose sole purpose is to provide aid to the hopeless Rohingya.
It is a shame to learn that UN representatives within the nation have acted so reprehensibly, by refusing to come to the aid of those facing ethnic cleansing.
Not only has the international community, which includes the UN, flouted its responsibility for too long, it has directly contributed to the Rohingya’s suffering by turning a blind eye to this genocide.
The UN must now get to the bottom of how a country chief was allowed to give such instructions, and how the Myanmar bureau fell into the local government’s pocket.
Until then, we should do all we can to provide aid to the suffering Rohingya.
While Bangladesh has taken the lead in doing the right thing in a humanitarian crisis, we still await the UN to do the right thing.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
