ARNO urges US and UN to step up pressure on Myanmar

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

ARNO urges US and UN to step up pressure on Myanmar

Representatives for the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) have completed a two-week advocacy tour to the United States and the United Nations, to galvanise international action to end the Rohingya genocide and ensure a sustainable, voluntary and protected return home for more than a million Rohingya refugees forced from Myanmar.

ARNO chairman Nurul Islam joined by Dr. Hla Myint, chair of the ARNO Foreign Relations Committee, who is also President of the Rohingya Intellectual Community Australia, and Philip Ruddock, Australia’s former Attorney General and Human Rights Envoy, advocated on the margins of UN General Assembly week to urge the international community to step up pressure on Myanmar’s military and civilian government, which are failing to make the necessary headway to implement UN resolutions and recommendations of the international community and world leaders, including the recommendations of the Annan Commission report. Speaking after the visit, Mr. Islam welcomed the support shown by the international community, and advocated greater urgency to ensure credible progress on the ground:

“We came to the United States and the United Nations with a clear message: In the face of genocide, there is no time to wait. Much more must be done to support the Rohingya’s calls for justice, dignity and a safe, voluntary and protected return home. Conditions on the ground are worsening—both inside Myanmar and in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar. Victims are increasingly impatient to see perpetrators of genocide and war criminals held to account. At the same time, Myanmar continues to waste time with sham reforms, and shows zero will to create the conditions needed to solve this crisis”.

“The international community’s patience is wearing thin. There is growing pressure to deliver on our demands for justice, and isolate Myanmar’s allies for their shameful disregard for international law. We Rohingya will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that the international community follows through on its commitments to ensure all Rohingya can return to their original places in Rakhine State in peace, dignity, with protection and full citizenship. We therefore call on the Security Council to act decisively to refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.”

While in Washington DC, the delegation met with the US Commission for International Religious Freedom, members of Congress, the State Department and the Office of the Vice President. At the UN, the delegation met with representatives of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, the EU Delegation and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide. Throughout their meetings, the ARNO delegation called on the international community to:

• Support credible accountability efforts to ensure victims see justice served, including support for an Independent International Impartial Mechanism (IIIM) for Myanmar and urging the Security Council to refer the situation to the ICC;
• Strengthen targeted sanctions against the Myanmar military and link trade preferences to conditions on human rights;
• Support efforts to ensure a protected return to a protected homeland, including by establishing an international stabilisation force to protect the Rohingya inside Myanmar, in order to facilitate a peaceful repatriation process and stem future violence;
• Vocally support Rohingya’s rights to be recognised as an ethnic minority in Myanmar as well as the restoration of full citizenship;
• Recognize the crimes perpetrated against the Rohingya as genocide and crimes against humanity, as indicated by the UN Fact-Finding Mission for Myanmar