Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has said the violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar, carried out by the military and extremist Buddhist militias, is barbaric and clearly ethnic cleansing. Crowe has called on Ireland and the international community to do more to stop this ethnic cleansing, and to offer practical help and humanitarian assistance to Rohingya refugees.<\/p>\n
Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United Nations has stated that the mass killings, gang rapes and burning of villages by the armed forces of Myanmar likely amount to crimes against humanity and constitutes an attempted ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the Rohingya have been brutally repressed in Myanmar for decades all humanitarian organisations in the area agree that the current wave of violence is the worst they have seen so far. The violence has forced more than 270,000 Rohingya refugees into neighbouring Bangladesh in the past two weeks and many believe this latest violence could constitute a final campaign to rid Myanmar of the Rohingya. There have also been accusations that the Myanmar armed forces have been laying landmines along the Bangladesh border to prevent those fleeing from ever returning.<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly the Noble Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Khi, who is the State Councillor and de-facto leader of the Myanmar Government, has failed to condemn this brutal violence and ethnic cleansing. In fact she has attempted to\u00a0 justify it in statements by saying it is an army operation against \u2018terrorists\u2019 and blaming the same\u00a0 \u2018terrorists\u2019 for \u2018a huge iceberg of misinformation\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Myanmar Government must stop this violence and the campaign of ethnic cleansing. It also needs to immediately allow UN agencies that have been barred from providing humanitarian aid in the region, to be allowed access to those in need.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe international community must do more to pressure Myanmar\u2019s Government and hold them to account. I will be raising this issue with Minister Coveney and also urging him to ensure that Ireland provides increased support to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has said the violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar, carried out by the military and extremist Buddhist militias, is barbaric and clearly ethnic cleansing. Crowe has called on Ireland and the international community to do more to stop this ethnic cleansing, and to offer practical help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[348,50,347,349,109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-burma","category-human-rights","category-myanmar","category-rohingya","category-un"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3237,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3236\/revisions\/3237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}