UN condemns Myanmar over human rights abuses against Rohingyas

The United Nations General Assembly has approved a resolution condemning human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar.

The resolution also called on Myanmar to take urgent measures to combat the incitement of hatred against the Rohingyas and other minorities, reports BBC.

The resolution passed by a total of 134 countries in the 193-member world body on Friday, with nine votes against and 28 abstaining.

Over 700,000 Rohingyas were driven out by a Myanmar military-led campaign launched on Aug 25 in 2017 with “genocidal intent” in the northern Rakhine State.

With them, Bangladesh is now home to over 1.1 million Rohingyas who are considered as stateless after Myanmar cancelled their citizenship following a constitutional amendment in 1982.

However, Myanmar insisted that the country was tackling an extremist threat.

Earlier this month, the country's leader Aung San Suu Kyi rejected allegations of genocide at the UN International Court of Justice.

The UN resolution also expressed alarm at the continuing influx of Rohingyas to Bangladesh over the past four decades "in the aftermath of atrocities committed by the security and armed forces of Myanmar".

It 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 the mission described as "the gravest crimes under international law."

The UN ambassador for Myanmar, Hau Do Suan, called the resolution "another classic example of double-standards 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."