Myanmar rejects unanimous UN resolution on Rohingyas and minorities

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The military government of Myanmar has rejected the unanimous resolution adopted by the Third Committee of the 76th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on 17th November.

In an official statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) of Myanmar on Saturday, the military government called the resolution politically motivated. It said that the resolution was based on unreliable sources and information. It accused that the resolution does not reflect the efforts made by the Myanmar government to bring stability and rule of law for its people. The statement said that the resolution ignores the ‘indiscriminate violence committed by terrorist groups like CRPH, NUG and PDF’.

Blaming the Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army (ARSA) for precipitating the crisis in Rakhine province of Myanmar in 2017, the statement faults the past UN resolutions for ignoring the reality on the ground, historical background of the region and root cause of the issue. It said that many displaced persons are unable to return to Myanmar as extremists are active in the camps in the Bangladesh side.

It expressed the willingness to receive the verified displaced persons and grant ‘appropriate citizenship status to those who met the criteria set out in the 1982 Myanmar citizenship law’. Rejecting the term ‘Rohingya’, the military government statement said that it is used ‘to claim wider ethnicity and territorial status’.

Earlier, the third Committee of UNGA had unanimously adopted a resolution sponsored by the EU and OIC calling for structural reforms to address the root cause of discrimination against the minorities in the country. A total of 107 countries co-sponsored the resolution which is the highest since 2017.

The resolution called on Myanmar to lift restrictions to the access of UN human rights representatives all over the country including in the conflict areas.