New York: Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, head of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine state, expressed the hope that the Security Council will be able to pass a resolution on the dignified and voluntary return for the Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to their villages and towns in Myanmar.
Speaking to reporters here on Friday after a closed-door meeting with the Security Council on the Rohingya crisis, Annan said the “good discussion” during the meeting, which included non-Council members from Myanmar and Bangladesh as well as representatives of civil society, had focused mainly on the report produced by the Advisory Commission which was welcomed by the United Nations in August.
“It was clear that everyone agrees on what needs to be done in the short-term: stopping the violence; getting humanitarian aid to those in need, and helping with the dignified and voluntary return for those [refugees] in Bangladesh,” the former UN chief explained.
Annan went on to say that key question of citizenship and verification was “a real problem for the Muslim community”. He pointed out that State Counsellor Aung San Suu Ky had accepted the recommendations in his report and had agreed to set up an implementation committee.
Asked about the tenor of the discussions in the Council, he said: “I would hope that the resolution that comes out urges the government to really press ahead and create conditions that will allow the refugees to return in dignity and with a sense of security.”
“We worked on this report [for a year and] my work is done. There is no ‘plan B.’ We have to tackle the root causes, and the report deals with that and [if there is serious implementation] could ensure that we won’t have repetition of the violence and attacks,” Annan said when asked about the next step.
AB/IINA
