Iran UN Envoy Condemns Violence against Myanmar Muslims
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations Gholam Ali Khoshroo strongly condemned the ongoing violence against Muslims in Myanmar, slamming the plight of Rohingya as an example of victimization of innocent people by extremism and intolerance.
Addressing a High-Level UN Forum on the Culture of Peace, held on Thursday, Khoshroo condemned the ongoing violence against Muslim people of Myanmar and called for an immediate halt to those crimes.
Amid such terrifying events in Myanmar, thousands of Muslims have been killed and hundreds of thousands of others have been force to leave their homes, he deplored.
Describing the culture of peace as the essence of the UN Charter, Khoshroo bemoaned the fact that unilateralism and force in the international relations have resulted in instability, insecurity and spread of terrorism and extremism in the world.
The Middle East region has unfortunately turned into an exhibition of lethal weapons, the envoy deplored, saying such circumstances would only pave the way for the spread of extremism and make violence as the only means of interaction.
Referring to the dire situation in Palestine and Yemen as examples of failure of concerted action for world peace, the Iranian diplomat said the international community should not abandon the peace efforts despite those failures.
His comments came against a backdrop of massacre and mass expulsion of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
The Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar have long faced severe discrimination and were the targets of violence in 2012 that killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people from their homes to camps for the internally displaced.
Nearly 150,000 Muslims have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh in less than two weeks, officials said.
In a rare letter to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern that the violence in Rakhine could spiral into a “humanitarian catastrophe”.
The Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN) said on Tuesday that the persecution is backed by the government, elements among the country's Buddhist monks and ultra-nationalist civilian groups.
